NorthStar California Sucks | VailEpicFail
The good, the bad and the ugly about NorthStar California ski resort and Vail Resorts
Capacity control is a joke. Terrible logistics. 1 hour traffic jam, 3 hours waiting for rental gear, 40 min wait for lift and you’re stuck on it for another hour cause some random issues. Count how much you get for your $200 ticket
Eric P (via Google reviews)
Decided to hitch a ride from the free parking lot after waiting for an hour for shuttle and still no sign of “next shuttle “. Pretty bad when it takes 2 hours to finally touch down on a run after parking. To top it off the shuttle back to free parking was another 2 hour wait, in below freezing temps! Even with Epic pass we won’t be returning to Northstar we will also discourage our friends from going. Northstar get your S*%# together, it’s unacceptable.
Adventure Create Thrive (via Google reviews)
Bringing back modern day segregation. If you go skiing/snowboarding here they will not serve you food without a vaccination card. This is wrong. What is the point of your vaccine if you don’t believe it protects you. These are peoples personal health choices and should not be punished for them. When you ask for a Vax card the customer is not asking you to provide proof that you do not have Aids or any other diseases. It is private information and should remain so. I hope you lose business for your choice to separate people for personal health decisions
DirtSickle1 (via Google reviews)
Waited for about an hour in freezing temperatures to get picked up by the bus to go to the parking lot. 7-8 buses running and kept picking up small groups of people while our bus stop had 70+ people waiting and freezing. Employees were rude and did nothing to aid us (young children and even older people were waiting for so long freezing)
addison (via Google reviews)
Heard many good things about the resort but disappointed at the corporate’s ticketing/refund policy. Half-day tickets are not offered, and refunds are only available if within the 1st hour once on the lifts.
We hit a pretty strong winter storm and were not being informed enough by the resort to make a decision because the resort remains open. After paying for very EXPENSIVE ticket during Christmas, we were informed by staff that the mountain is closed for the day due to safety reason and extreme weather, after only less than 2 hours of total time spent at the resort. When asking about partial refund or credit, nothing was offered and staff told us that “this situation happens frequently at the resort”, which is nonsense because they would have not opened for the day given the early signs of weather condition and if they really care about customer safety.
We spent 10 hours driving to the resort, not to mention the lodging cost and the high ticket price. “Do it at your own risk” shouldn’t be the excuse for providing bad customer experience, especially not for a resort like Northstar.
Overall very disappointed at our first time experience, and it feels like they care more about making money than providing customers with good experience.
Miranda Tao (via Google reviews)
300+ people in the red lot shuttle line in the morning. Getting to the slope took almost 2 hours and getting back to the parking lot was another nightmare! They should’ve done better shuttle operations. Will never come back.
Jay Jung (via Google reviews)
Horrible parking situation, took us HOURS just to leave. It seemed like the shuttles stopped running! The lines on the slopes were ridiculous. Zephyr in particular didn’t even seem to move. For how much they charge ($180 day pass), they should invest more in their logistical operations. Slopes are decent, but much better options in the Tahoe area. Not coming back anytime soon!
Carter Grimes (via Google reviews)
We have been coming to north Star for many years and have been season pass holders for years as well. The resort has gone downhill over the past 3 years and they no longer appropriately value their customers. Try calling customer service and stay on hold for 1 hour with no option to mute the voice message that sounds every 30 seconds. Simple consideration for their customers that hold for long wait times. They pack the mountain, charge full price, and don’t open up the backside. We don’t mind paying the high prices if the experience that they provide matches the prices. Will be getting passes to Palisades (formerly Squaw Valley) next year.
Justin Gill (via Google review)
NorthStar village 2022: Great new Year party. But no masks, no social distancing whatsoever. How many new COVID patients are among them?
The ultimate greed of Vail and Northstar will help these people to spread COVID: “sell tickets, sell more tickets! Who cares if they got infected and sick tomorrow. No refunds! We need your money, more money!“
From the editor: FYI COVID-19.CA.gov and CDC California.
Vail is the greedy empire. With the constant profits that they post there is zero exceptions for anyone. Their business practices is straight up shady. You see news of parking fees posted after most people purchased their 2019/20 season passes, the guy with terminal cancer can’t get a refund exception and many other similar stories. My daughter broken her arm on her 1st day 1st run. I went to the season pass members service asking if an exception can be made for a credit for next year understanding I didn’t buy insurance. This will also ensure my family continue to be season pass holders next year. It’s a straight up “no, management won’t allow it. “
The crowds are bad, wait times listed x 2 is what you really should expect the real wait time for. Single riders are always filling in the last spot so if you are beginner still trying get off the lift standing you are out of luck. Going down greens is like a ninja obstacle course dodging people left and right. We waited 30 min for lifts in 3 hours we did 2 runs during holidays.
The 1 star is purely for management and their corporate policies and nothing to do with the staff there. The staff that took care of my daughter were all great. It wasn’t hard to wave down a ski patrol to get help. 5 were on scene to help with the situation so I am very grateful for the staff.
5 stars for the beautiful resort and the staff
1 star for the evil empire corporate practices (parking $, insurance cost, no refund policy, cs practices, and crowds)
Unless you can go regularly non holiday and weekends, be prepared to deal with the insane wait times.
Cynthia S. (via Yelp)
From the editor: it is evident to us, that their greed prevents them from ruining vacation and stealing money from an essential worker, a doctor who is fighting COVID in the hospital, saves peoples lives.
NorthStar California Sucks | VailEpicFail 