Tag: EPIC pass

“15 years ago I was here.. it was the best”

15 years ago I was here.. it was the best. 15 years later, really bad food, old garage sale style condo’s, really poor snow, yet full price lift tickets $118.00. long walks to the lifts just to wait in longer lines to get on the mountain. it cost me $6,000.00 for 3 people to ski 5 days. I went to Europe and skied for much less. I really think Mammoth sucks, but compared to this place.. At least they had snow.

alan goldberg via Onthesnow

Vail resorts & specifically Northstar are horrible! We came up to ski for the day. We are family of 4 & have a 14 year old disabled son & a 17 year old snowboarder. The plan was that I would ski with the 17 year old & my husband would hang back with our disabled son. When we arrived to the resort my special needs son would not let me out of his site. My husband & I decided to switch places. He was going to ski with our older son & I was going to hang back. So as my husband was getting on the gondola they confiscated the past because his picture did not match. We had no idea that the passes were non-transferable. We figured we had two skiers and two passes. It is written in the smallest possible letters on the back of the card which why would you even think to look there? When we explained our situation to the resort they were not only rude but had zero compassion for our situation. We were treated awfully!!! I will stick with the small non corporate ski resorts where they tend to treat people with respect & don’t belittle them, especially during a difficult situation.

Carmen Petti via Onthesnow

Let me start with the parking lot first. Arrived at the parking lot at 9:39 am. Then, wait for the Shuttle bus for 1 hour and 40 minutes. Finally got to the first lift and waited 25 minutes. The second lift waited for 35 minutes. The third lift (comstock) waited for 1 hour 20 minutes. Finally got to the top of the Mountain at 1:45 pm. Waiting and waiting and waiting..

Ray Fang via Onthesnow

I can not express this enough. Do not go to Northstar. From someone you has lived in the Tahoe Area full time for the last 22 years I can, with absolute confidence, tell you that there are better experiences to have in this wonderful place. Very unhelpful staff. I arrived 08:45 on Jan. 14th 2020 to find that Northstar had decided to start charging to park this year. I drove up to a very empty parking lot and was stopped by a extremely under-prepared Northstar employee. All I had brought with me that morning was a debit card and Northstar could not accommodate me. I was forced to turn around and drive the 2 miles back down the hill to park and wait for a shuttle (Not environmentally friendly). Lazy? Poor organization? or they just don’t care? I’m not sure. I wanted to let Northstar know how they were treating guest of their resort. I called the customer service number and was informed that the process to do just that was to submit a formal complaint online and that a Manager would respond in a few days. I wish I could have had that conversation. I feel that platforms like Yelp are more like just trash talking behind someones back but they ignored me and so here I am. Patronizing Staff. After calling to find out how to express my disappointment with Northstar’s decision to start charging for parking. I mentioned to the woman that I was speaking to that I had to be at work that day at 12:30. by the time I parked, waited for the shuttle, had to walk from the furthest point they could possibly find to drop those who have had to up to this point make the longest trek, waited once again, I was only then finally able to take just one run before having to reverse the process and get to work. Her only response “HA, HA, well have a great day!”

Sam Skrocke via Onthesnow

Corporate greed at it’s height

I have been a customer of Vail for 15+ years.
We have spent close to a hundred K over that time as a customer getting Epic passes every season for our whole family, using their ski schools etc.
I lost my job and per to the refund policy I am allowed to get this seasons passes refunded.

But they have a 30 day loophole that prevents you from getting the refund.
The insurance company sends you to Epic. Epic says they have no control and send you back to the insurance company.

An absolutely DISGUSTING way to treat long term valuable customers and spread ill will about their company. They should be ashamed of themselves.

Sep 2024 • Family, Luke H – via TripAdvisor

The lack of empathy and understanding for individuals dealing with significant injuries is deeply disheartening.

During our last skiing trip to Whistler in January, my wife suffered an ACL injury, and I underwent shoulder reconstruction surgery in June of this year. As a result, I did not regularly check my email account that was used for holiday booking, I was auto-charged for the EPIC Pass for next year.

Given these circumstances, it is impossible for us to ski for the foreseeable future. Despite reaching out to the company 4-5 times over the past few months to explain our situation and requesting the cancellation of my EPIC Pass and a refund, the company’s response has been disappointing. The lack of empathy and understanding for individuals dealing with significant injuries is deeply disheartening.

Instead, they informed me that they will proceed with charging my credit card next month for the passes for me, my wife, and my children, citing the fine print in the contract.

Knowing that my wife and I are injured, the company’s lack of compassion and understanding of the stress we are going through is both immoral and unethical. We will never ski at any of the Vail Resort-operated locations again in the future.

T.L. (SoMa, San Francisco, CA) via Yelp reviews

Vail: fix your dumb payment system. Just for a change.

Another year – another moronic error produced by Vail’s Epic payment system. Perfectly valid card which I am using nationwide and worldwide. And yet another stupid payment error by Vail. This company simple cannot help itself. Vail sucks even in small details.

Screenshot

“waiting, waiting, waiting..”

This place is a great place to ski if you like waiting in line…..
waiting for parking (can take forever from 267 in the morning)
waiting for shuttle from parking lot to the village
waiting in line for tickets (except if you have season pass)
waiting in line for gondola to get up to the base (crazy packed in the morning)
waiting in line for lifts (No fast passes here)
waiting in line at the top of the lifts just to get going and once you are starting down the runs you have to deal with a lot of people on the runs, I mean it’s always crowded
I used to have season passes every year for a long time but now it’s just crazy crowded and with their new increased prices $240 per lift ticket and new pay to park reservation system I would rather go elsewhere like Kirkwood where my time is spent on the mountain instead of waiting in line after line after line. NorthStar is all about the money now judging from all the other reviewers who also say the same thing

Dr. N. San Francisco, CA via Yelp

A Racket to put simply. Bought two days, our passes did not work both days. Waited in line several hours. Employees were extremely rude and none of them even tried to speak English. Insane for the price! This place has went downhill so fast

Nolan S. Lebanon, TN via Yelp

I hate Northstar I took my first lesson there and I had such a humiliating experience I truly boycott this resort. Not worth even one star

Anna E. B. Linden, CA via Yelp

Heavenly: “Idiots running the show”

Ok I’ve been here before and it’s exceptional. Today we found that the iconic gondola was shut down. For how long? Nobody knows. It’s there infinite wisdom the Heavenly Valley intellectual juggernaut’s decided to cram everyone onto the California lodge lift. At the same time the two other lodges are closed and leaving the innate idiots that run this place to keep everyone jammed into the California lodge. This created a logjam and over 4 hour wait to get off the mountain by unfortunate patrons. Got a heart attack, broken leg or massive bled well we will get you down after we let our own employees down first. This is a perfect example of people in positions they should not be in. Having an alternative plan, alerting the public or Just using common. Sense. Perhaps these are the same fools discharged from the state department that led our glorious evacuation from Afghanistan? Either way I’m sure the trail lawyers awaited at the bottom with their salivary glands in full effect

Jim M via TripAdvisor

Visited Tahoe for the holidays and unfortunately there wasn’t much snow. You would expect reduced rates under such poor skiing conditions but instead the prices at Heavenly were outrageous. $200 for 1/2 day lift ticket, $800 for a private lesson… Fortunately I found other mountains with similar conditions and great views at much lower prices.

David B via TripAdvisor

Absolutely poor customer service. Ski resort announced opening on 17 Nov, only to delay it opening to after our trip. No refunds, poor communication. We also only found out upon arrival to Tahoe with no email notification.

Stay01608001420 via TripAdvisor

I wanted to like the experience of Heavenly, but the skiing was way too crowded especially during the weekends. It’s never fun to be at risk of bumping to a skier and have to wait until going down an entire run. On the plus side, the snow wasn’t bad and the scenery of seeing Lake Tahoe was beautiful.

Noah W via TripAdvisor

Heavenly is a corporate resort that regards skiers as profit centers while their real customers are Wall Street analysts. For spring skiing they have reduced lifts and grooming to a bare minimum. Sky lift is the one that reaches the highest altitude so it has mid year weekend lines. The trouble is this means 2 non heavy slush runs max vs 6-10 runs in winter. Grooming has been cut to almost nothing. I observed far more corduroy at Diamond Peak and Mt Rose. This made my decision on renewal for me as Northstar parking and crowds make that resort a no go. I would have renewed if spring skiing was even an average experience. By the way thanks for eliminating the ski carts at NS which has one of The most onerous walks in NA. We figure the green eye shades saved 20-25 cents per Skier visit on that one.

Willy K via TripAdvisor

I am a season pass holder with the Tahoe Local Pass. The experience here is truly disappointing. I went on a low traffic day (Monday) and the the experience really sucked. The only thing decent was the grooming. Vail resorts is run strictly by Wall Street guys and pointy pencil bean counters interested only in the bottom line. To this end they sent all of their low paid J1 visa employees packing on 3/31/23 and now they are running with a skeleton crew of locals. At least two key lifts are closed and the lines (Sky and Dipper) on a Monday were crazy at 10-15 minutes per ride. Vail resorts are the kings of no-customer service. As a long time pass holder, Vail resorts may have crossed the line for me NOT to renew my pass for the 23-24 season.

Michael A via TripAdvisor

“Outrageously scandalous”

The winter lift ticket on Sat Dec 23 was sold $256 for having not even half of the slopes open. Outrageously scandalous.

Roger Deballe via Google Reviews

Lift kept stopping every 2 minutes. $200+ for a day lift ticket is outrageous and having to pay for parking also is lame

neglsha n via Google Reviews

Slopes were not well groomed. Too much powder and difficult to ski. Many lifts were not open for the $269 price. Also, this is the first place that did not provide a veteran discount. They said they give military discount for season passes but not daily passes.

Richard L via TripAdvisor

Horrible conditions right now due to lack of snow. Very few runs and even fewer lifts open. Even if you bought an Epic pass, do not throw good money after bad by wasting $$S on lodging and parking. Better off flying to a resort with snow. Will update if conditions improve.

Kevin G. via Yelp

A Racket to put simply. Bought two days, our passes did not work both days. Waited in line several hours. Employees were extremely rude and none of them even tried to speak English. Insane for the price! This place has went downhill so fast

Nolan S. via Yelp

Really subpar experience today with low snow levels, tons of moguls even on blues (blacks are impossible), and shrubbery peeking out everywhere. Trails need to be groomed or at least they could try with some snow machines to make more snow. The resort was extremely crowded and the rentals took almost 2 hours. The rental system of having groups serviced by one personnel makes no sense and groups of 3 or more end up taking extremely long. The gondola experience for new visitors to the resort who have skis is extremely stressful and staff do not care to help. We barely made it into the gondola and it seems unnecessary to be stressed before you even hit the slopes. I had higher expectations for a Tahoe resort after living in LA for many years going to Big Bear. I will be going to other resorts in the future.

Jenny M. via Yelp

Way too crowded to be enjoyable. Too many people going way too fast on greens/blues with no one enforcing slow zones.

E M. via Yelp

Very disappointed in the group lessons. I booked 6 full day group lessons for ages 7-14. Cost about $400 each. Check in was at 8:45. After an hour and half later, and standing in two different lines (we were not even renting gear) the kids were checked in. The instructor was rude and short with the kids. There was a total of 11 in the group with one instructor. When they came back, all said they never wanted to do it again and it was miserable. My 8 year old was crying. They barely skied and mainly stood around. Flat out, was not an enjoyable experience. The instructor was just plain rude.

Shay O. via Yelp

Year after year they raise prices and provide less and less.

Am A. via Yelp

“I will no longer renew our EpicPass”

My entire family has the EpicPass and we’ve stayed at Catamount several times. I really really wanted to like Northstar but my experience this week has sourced on me even before the 2023/2024 ski season started, and therefore I will no longer renew our EpicPass this year. Instead, I’m going to get the entire family on Ikon Pass next time.

Here’s the story. Northstar had originally planned to open on Nov 17th so I booked lodging for the family starting on Nov 20th. But because of the warm weather this year, they cancelled the opening date. It would seem that they should be able to make plenty of snow by the end of the week (good 10 day forecast), so I asked them to move my reservation to Nov 23rd. But then the service lady told me 1) I can only move the date once and 2) there’s no way they will open up in the next coming few weeks, and I better book something much later in the year.

That caused a lot grief for me because all of my free vacation dates for 2023/2024 are completely packed. I spent a whole day trying to cancel my other vacation plans (with heavy financial penalties) just so I could re-use my Northstar lodging credits. Then guess what? A few days later, I got the news: Northstar is opening up on Nov 23. Great. Just great.

When you keep flip-flopping on your customers, giving them wrong information, and ripping them off with this ridiculous no refund policy– don’t expect them to come back ever again.

Kevin C. via Yelp

WSJ: The 100 Best Ski Resorts in the U.S. and Canada

Source: r/skiing

The rest of the list is at WSJ website