Would give this place zero stars if I could. Zero management skills for the awful parking situation and shuttle transportation. No one directing anything and this resort is honestly best described as a complete clusterf***. Absolutely no useful signage and the employees themselves act like they don’t even want to be here. NEVER coming back here again. WHY DO PEOPLE LIKE THIS PLACE?!!?!? Why would you pay so much money to park so far away, wait over an hour for a shuttle to take you up, and then wait another hour for a lift line? WHY?????? Not to mention the broken traffic light on 267 to turn into the resort – yes, have the left turn for 267 north green all the time and have the right turn for 267 south red all the time and wonder why your commute time goes up 30min instantly when you turn off 80.
Cheryl C. (via Yelp)
Vail Resorts’ Katz to get $2,789,900 salary
The estimated Net Worth of Robert A Katz is at least $180 Million dollars as of 13 December 2021. Mr. Katz owns over 233,354 units of Vail Resorts stock worth over $122,253,371 and over the last 18 years he sold MTN stock worth over $54,843,650. In addition, he makes $2,789,900 as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at Vail Resorts.
https://wallmine.com/people/44708/robert-a-katz
“What a joke”
I went here today to snowboard and got to the parking lot at 915 waited for the “shuttle” for 45 minutes finally got to lifts, waited in line 30 mins for first lift then 40 at second. Is this Disneyland? How much money do you need northstar to fix your mountain. Got off mountain at 4, then waited for the “shuttle” again to get to my truck for an hr and half. Now sitting in traffic. NEVER Again, you can have it people. Worst mountain I’ve ever been to. Have some quality control you money hungry piece of crap mountain. Oh ya to top it off I used a buddy pass. Ticket was $135 lol all the years of hearing how cool northstar was. What a joke
CHubb R. (via Yelp)
“Poor management and assumption that customers will tolerate poor service and value”
Backside not open after a ton of snow. Not enough shuttle drivers to get people from the remote lot to the village. 1/5 ticket booths open and slow apathetic service from the few that were there. Crazy expensive lift tickets. Disappointing. C19 is not a valid excuse – pay more! Paying employees 2x still pencils out when your ticket price and crowds are high. Just poor management and assumption that customers will tolerate poor service and value.
Scott C. (via Yelp)
“At this rate, Northstar is seriously headed downhill”
I’ve been coming here every year for 12 years, and this season is the first time I’ve been disappointed with my experience.
This resort used to be pretty awesome: good food on the mountain, quick enough lines, and great grooming, snowmaking and mountain maintenance. This season though, they don’t seem to have nearly enough employees. This is manifesting as everything being more delayed and taking longer. The staff are more overwhelmed and less friendly, and there’s no longer any emphasis on providing a good experience for the 80% of the day when you’re not skiing down a slope. Furthermore, the mountain maintenance is not what it used to be: there are hardly any groomed runs even on non-powder days.
The supplementary chairlifts are not open, resulting in huge lines at the ones that are. I would recommend taking your money elsewhere, perhaps to Palisades or another nearby mountain that seems to care more about it’s skiers and riders, enough to pay competitive wages to have enough employees. At this rate, Northstar is seriously headed downhill. And not in a good way.
Keeton M. (via Yelp)
I’m so done with this place – going back to Squaw (Palisades)
I’ve been a season pass holder for 10 years. The past 5 years I’ve seen a significant decline year after year. But after skiing this past holiday week, I am convinced I will not be renewing my season pass. First of all, the parking situation is a nightmare. Unless you want to pay $40 you are required to park in a satellite lot and take a shuttle bus to the resort. The shuttle bus line is longer than most rides at Disneyland during a Summer weekend. We waited for over an hour to get on the shuttle bus. Once you depart the shuttle bus, you then walk another 200 yards in your ski boots, carrying skis… to get in the gondola lift line. After you get off the gondola you then walk to one of 4 chair lifts to take you up the mountain. From the time you park to your first run down a trail will easily take 2 hours. That’s not an exaggeration. I get it, it’s the holidays, there are a lot of people – but 2 hours? That’s unacceptable. There isn’t enough staff to properly manage the lift and lift lines and therefore lifts are constantly stopping. What once use to be a friendly family oriented ski resort has now become a short staffed money gauging enterprise that is only concerned about their bottom line. I’m so done with this place – going back to Squaw (Palisades)
Darren H. (via Yelp)
“A one star review is generous”
I’ve been skiing Northstar for 6 or so years now and my wife and I used to absolutely love it – so much so that we bought a condo here 4 years ago thinking it would be the perfect venue for family fun. We have been season pass holders for years as well. Sadly, we have experienced a pretty significant decline over the past 4-5 years or so. At first it was “paper cuts” — and then we thought it was “Covid”. But now — having skied several other resorts — it’s clear that there is management problem.
The mountain is grossly under staffed. They are running a fraction of the number of busses that they once did causing incredibly long wait times. Additionally, the busses are running at standing room only capacity (in the middle of a pandemic). There are scarce food options (on the mountain OR in the village). There are close to no stores open in the village. No entertainment options. Every. Single. Lift. Has at least 20-30 minute wait times (regardless of what the useless app says). The mountain is clearly letting in far more skiers/boarders than they can handle. And they don’t seem to care at all about how this effects their patrons’ experience.
Skiing here has just become a miserable experience. And, yes, I understand that there is a pandemic. A workforce shortage. And the mountain was hammered with snow over the last two weeks. All of those facts are true for Palisades as well. Which is running just about flawlessly.
I sincerely hope management starts to take action to improve conditions. In talking with several of the wonderful staff (on the mountain and the drivers), they are just as fed up with what is going on here as “we” are.
A one star review is generous.
Colby L. (via Yelp)
“This was such a bummer.”
This was such a bummer. They canceled operations today, and I get that they had to do that because of weather. But I purchased my lift ticket and bike rentals days in advance, so they had my contact information and email address… Wouldn’t it be incredibly easy – and really appropriate – to send a quick email informing that operations were closed today?
It would take them no time at all to have done this. (It can and should be as simple as an automated email!) Instead, I drove an hour and a half each way, only to find out when I arrived that they had long ago made the decision to close, and just never bothered to inform everyone they took advance payments from.
It’s 2021. This would’ve been so easy to implement. This was really, really bad and left a bad taste in my mouth. Again, it’s not the closing that’s such a bummer – it’s the total neglecting to do the right thing and let all the prepaid customers know not to bother driving up.
If either the rental office or the lift ticket office had done this, this all could’ve been solved in advance, but neither business bothered. Skipping out on the absolute basics like this and forgetting about the customers has really turned me sour on Northstar altogether.
Eric B. (via Yelp)
“The service staff were absolutely horrible. Spend your money elsewhere.”
Off season gondola ride is about 5 minute long and only takes you half way to the top. Poor customer service as well.
Michael E. (via Yelp)
Overpriced lift tickets, zero customer service
Mountain safety department penalizes you for going too fast , overpriced food, paid parking.
Spend your money somewhere else and get a higher quality product and better customer service.
Eric D. (via Yelp)
Just attended a wedding that was supposed to be at the top of the gondola. Due to the weather it got moved at the last minute to an old meeting room in the old section of the resort. The service staff were absolutely horrible. To make it worse, the food was terrible. The food was served family style and needless to say it was bad. One of the dishes was risotto and it was crunchy. The other items were equally bad. Definitely will never come back here.
L I. (via Yelp)
Northstar pisses off a retired 86yo veteran
I am a retired veteran, 86 years young. Northstar used to be a ski area that cared. They still care, but now it is just for your money. As an avid skier that used to ski the mountain, lived here for 23 years, and has personally experienced the changes brought about by Vail Corporation, I have learned that it all comes down to “that’s just too bad” for you – the skier at this resort.
When I bought my pass, I specifically informed them I wanted to buy insurance because of my age and because of the terrible virus that consumed the world. I was fearful at the time that there was a strong possibility that I would not be able to ski this year. I was promptly told, “don’t worry, we offer this free,” with the implication that they, the great Vail Corporation, were in control and they would take care of me. Once you give them your money, they are in control. Of your money.
Well the short of it all, I couldn’t ski this year because of the mentioned circumstances and medical problems inherent with my age. I called the corporate level and asked for a refund. They informed me that they did not control this, I had to call a third party. Upon calling the third party, I couldn’t understand what they were talking about. Another mistake I made: I told the truth. They, along with the reputable Vail Corporation, couldn’t care less. Well, so long Vail! Time to get back to that other resort, Squaw, that I presume has integrity. I think I will find out if Squaw still cares.
Julius T. (via Yelp)
NorthStar California Sucks | VailEpicFail 