Tag: overcrowded

“Vail can’t hire competent managers to run the resorts”

Vail can’t hire competent managers to run the resorts and don’t care enough about front line employees. Profits over people all day everyday.

Joe Zimmerman via Facebook

Vail has to be one of the worst run companies I’ve ever seen. They pay their employees far less than competitors, and then blame anyone but themselves when they don’t have enough workers to operate the mountains that all of us paid thousands of dollars for passes on. They don’t care, they already have everyone’s money. I know Stevens Pass in Washington, at some point only 1 of the chairlifts was being operated by the lifts department, the rest were being run by other departments like rentals and ski school, simply because they couldn’t find enough suckers to work for their pitiful wages. I’ve heard from instructor friends that they went from 6 people per instructor, to an unlimited number of people per instructor, and my friend had 17 kids in her class. I can walk from my condo to the gondola in Vail, and next year I plan on driving to Copper Mountain and getting an Ikon pass instead. Vail Mountain is great, but the company that runs it can’t go bankrupt soon enough. Maybe then someone else will step in and actually run things the way they used to be.

Tommy Newnes via Facebook

I’m trying to find a way to make a official post to bring attention to what Vail Resorts is doing. OBVIOUSLY the WORST lines, services in many years. SO, since Vail is going to keep taking everyone’s money and NOT HAVE ENOUGH employees there is a solution. Our Government has a program which allows immigrants to come into the United States of America. It is a Visa called H2-A which allows U.S. Employers to bring in as many as they want. The H2-A visa is based on mainly ONE FACT. That is that there are NOT ENOUGH citizens of the United States to do the SEASONAL WORK which QUALIFIES the Employer as well as the immigrants. This Visa program I mainly designed for farmers and landscape companies during the season. What do you think?? I personally think that I myself would rather stay in a WARMER CLIMATE. If you like what I said please post it out there. And please check out the Government program H2-A Visa. It is VERY CLEAR. GOOD LUCK. and by the way SHAME ON VAIL ASSOCIATES for trying to be the WALMARTS of the SKI INDUSTRY. They are ruining it for EVERYONE

Peter Wolff via Facebook.com

Worst ski experience ever. If you like waiting in long lines for lifts and dining come on down. 30 minute lift lines and they continue to sell ski passes at the base. Lots of snow but 30% of mountain open making congestion all the worse. After buying 5 epic passes per year for 10+ years I am done. Ikon or mountain collective here we come.

Leonard Feiner via Facebook.com

“It has been a nice place before but now getting much degraded”

It has been a nice place before but now getting much degraded. Terrible traffic during weekends and holidays. Very poor resort management and untrained staff. Ski storage was free before but now charging fees. School check in used to be on the top but changed to village, which caused a lot of confusion and inconvenience.

Yusuo Hu

Overcrowded. Snowboarders have no respect for skiers, skiers have no respect for snowboarders. Best case scenario there is a massive turf war and winner takes all.

B McCaffrey

the staffs are very rude.

Pamela Lizarraga

Poor grooming, hard to get to lifts, overall mismanaged

Having been a season pass holder for nearly 20 years I have seen the changes. Great mountain but since Vail took over and the aftermath of the pandemic there are troubles everywhere. Five feet of new snow for December 2022 and they cannot groom the mountain. Did you are an intermediate or beginner you will be on the same runs everyday. If you are here only for a day, well not so bad. Why can’t they groom one new run a day? Pretty easy, but they do the same ones just about everyday. And why does it take days to open the backside. It’s crazy. Either Vail resorts want to save money with limited staffing ie. less operations or they just cannot hire enough people. They should let their customers know what’s going on.

Rick Hirshberg via OnTheSnow.com

“Waiting and waiting and waiting”

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.com

“The resort seems to be mismanaged”

The resort seems to be mismanaged. Visited December 17-22. Unbelievable lift lines (20 minutes throughout the day). Plenty of snow, but only a few runs open. Backside closed. New app for shuttle buses doesn’t work, and again, very long (20-30 mins) wait for transportation around the resort. Many stores in the Village are shuttered. This is our long-time home resort and it’s depressing to see what Vail is doing to it!

Kathleen Forni via OnTheSnow.com

Source: OnTheSnow.com

“Worst resort I’ve been to”

Worst resort I’ve been to (and I have been to a good number Europe and North America)

Arrived at 830 to parking lot (furthest one as uppers were already full ) and didn’t actually ski until 1045. Line to park. Line to bus. Bus had line of traffic to reach resort. Long walk to gondola. Long line for gondola. Line for next lift (and lift after) as zephyr was spinning but closed … fortunately being on epic .. meant didn’t need wait lift ticket line also and drop what ever ridiculous sum of money for day pass only to stand around waiting. I don’t believe I’ve ever waited so much except at Disney as young kid. Every ski area I’ve been to: arriving at 830 means downhill action by 915 at latest.

In short: terrible logistics and designed resort. Not going to pay to stand around. And even when skiing : I’ve had more fun at east coast 1000 ft verticals ski areas.

First time and last visit. And after reading lots of other reviews: seems many others feel the same. Assuming the good reviews are from beginning skiers or paid resort fanboys/moms

Chimpsey Powers via Google reviews

“I’m confused by this place”

I’m confused by this place. Everything is so nice at surface but the bed literally fell apart at bed time and it was too late to get help. Concierge tried to replace us but not able to. Didn’t wanna bother manager at midnight. Were told we’d be taken care of after the fact. Still waiting. Someone knocked two different times in the morning despite us getting late check out. I also think the pool/hot tub closes too early. They could stay open at least until 10 but it’s 9. Pool table is sadly over worn. Didn’t get a chance to play ping pong before it closed. One of the hot tubs was closed when we got to it but front desk didn’t tell us in advance. Kind of a mixed bag.

Danika Sonsa via Google reviews

“Totally wasted my time for no reason”

My condo didn’t have a working stove, oven, microwave, garbage disposal, or dishwasher. I have been trying to contact the manager for a week and they are avoiding me and offer zero compensation. These condos are a huge rip off and they are totally inflexible about check ins. They make you wait for an email at exactly 4pm and front desk does nothing. I had my 6 month old and 2 year old and just had to sit in the parking lot for an hour while my room was clearly ready. Totally wasted my time for no reason.

Nicholas Young via Google reviews

“It is suppose to be quality and is not”

What to say… it is suppose to be quality and is not. it is very expensive (i’m used to it so that is not the point) . The chalet itself is beautiful and same for the landscape. Service is horrible! The don’t know how to handle it keep forgetting and making mistakes. Food is just average. Wine list is …we are out of this and our of tnat. Don’t try to go in the pool is to small and over crowded…and they really don’t care…the anser is seat there and queue… the lake club is an highlight…besides the absurd daily rate and stupid closing hour at 4 pm…best sunset time. So…sorry man this is a joke place wont see me ever again.

Alvise Fontana Z via Google reviews

“Bait and switch”

This is my first ever review, i believe. I made a reservation with American Express to stay at Northstar California Resort. I needed to make a change / extend my time of our stay to our reservation and so I called the resort directly, they couldn’t make the change, I had to do it with American Express, which is fine. But in this conversation they stated “do you know we do not have air conditioning”? This is something that American Express and Northstar failed to mention in their advertising of the room/property. Seems a bit Bait and switch…so i get to find this out when I arrive with my 85 year old mother and my husband who has major allergies, I contact American Express to cancel, which they stated it was a no cancellation policy for this resort. Which was fine until they omitted very important information about their resort and the room. American Express called the resort on my behalf and spoke to the Manager, which stated to them they should “Open a Window”. And will not refund my money.

I will write a review everywhere I can and write a letter to everyone in their management I can, And NO i have never written a negative review. This a true and accurate review .

Amber D via Google reviews

“Thank you for ruining our trip”

Paid over 2k for a weekend time with 2 kids and got kicked out of every single place to sled. Apparently people with kids are not welcome there. Thank you for ruining our trip and breaking hearts of my 2 kids.

Rumaysa Noman via Google reviews

Source: Google reviews

“Overcrowded and unsafe”

Jan 2022

Used to be a fantastic place to ski (it has a lot of fantastic WIDE cruiser trails) before Vail took over. Now, it is:
– Very Overpriced
– Unbelievably time-consuming just to get to the first ski-lift (unless you are staying at a ski-in/ski-out place, which will cost lots of $$)
– Most importantly, UNSAFE (i got hit HARD by a super reckless snowboarder on a Green run when i was skiing with my 6 year old niece who was learning how to ski, near the bottom of the mountain. I reported it, but Vail & Northstar only care about how many tickets they can sell, it doesn’t matter that the mountain is dangerously overcrowded and that some people only care about going as fast as they can, even on super-crowded beginner runs)
I’m done with Vail.

Source: tripadvisor.com

“Way too crowded. Not safe“

Jan 2022

Way too crowded the past couple weekends to the point of almost being unsafe… not enjoyable.

Experts ruin it for the beginners and zoom around causing accidents. Along with untamed children running around everywhere. Absolute zoo. Poor food to boot.

Source: tripadvisor.com

“Avoid This Disastrous, Overhyped Property”

Small, outdated rooms. It’s like a Motel 6 with fake pine paneling. Dirty, Dingy and Depressing. Avoid

Source: tripadvisor.com

“Prepare to part with your wallet. Ski resorts are greedy”

A lift ticket is already over $130 for a SENIOR or a TEEN, and then they gouge you with $25/day parking unless you want to wait for a shuttle from the hinterlands. A “cup of soup” sized bowl of vegetarian chili is $16!! And a locker is $15 to rent. We are already paying premium to ski, and it feels like consumer rape with the resort charging these exorbitant fees.

Source: tripadvisor.com

“Getting to a ski lift, not to mention the top of the mountain, is really, really, really huge pain”… “..don’t be surprised if it takes 30-45 minutes..”

As others have mentioned, getting to a ski lift, not to mention the top of the mountain, is really, really, *really* huge pain. If you don’t have a plan for how to minimize the amount of time it takes to get up the mountain, don’t be surprised if it takes 30-45 minutes to do this on a *non*-holiday day, and at least twice as long during peak times like President’s Day weekend.

Source: tripadvisor.com