Tag: wait

“Not worth the lift ticket prices”

Rude personnel, extremely strict rules… inconsistent feedback from people working here regarding the resort rules.

Not worth the lift ticket prices and f**k vail resorts altogether

This place is an absolute nightmare! Do not come here unless you want to wait in line for a shuttle for over an hour minimum and wait to park your car for an hour as well. Just parking your car will make you wanna leave it’s so chaotic. Have fun looking at the backside when you arrive, there’s fresh powder everywhere, however they won’t open it and force feed everyone into lines once you hit the front side. It’s honestly the worst resort I’ve ever been to. Just a giant trap to take your money away from you. Oh and when it’s time to leave be prepared to wait in another hour line to get back to your car and then another hour to leave. Avoid at all costs

2 hours to download from village to parking lot. 100+ people line built up from 3:30 to 4 waiting on first bus. Supply trucks were dangerously pulling in and out through the queue of people. Cutting left and right with no direction. Total mess.

No lights in the pitch black parking lot at 6 pm to top it off. This resort needs a total overhaul on customer service and parking functionality. Frankly unacceptable from an upper level management perspective. They have the $$ to do it right.

Don’t come here unless you stay on site. 4x Epic Pass holder. Heavenly and Kirkwood are visitor friendly.

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”.

Source: Google reviews

“They tweet the mountain is 100% open.. BS”

36″ fresh snow and they tweet the mountain is 100% open. On arrival, nothing could be further from the truth. One gondola open to access the mountain and a two hour wait. Only two lifts open at mid.mountain. Meanwhile, exasperated punters filling the Vail Resorts coffers buying food and drink in the village while they wait. Cynical BS by Northstar/Vail. Cash cow in the short term, but these people will not return & they will tell others. Terrible experience.

OP via Google reviews

“Come to this resort if you would prefer to sit in your car rather than skiing”

Come to this resort if you would prefer to sit in your car rather than skiing. If you come on a Saturday-Sunday at least, that is all you will do. 2+ hour bumper to bumper traffic delay over 8 miles backed up from the resort on 1/21 (all entirely resort traffic) – they sell WAY more lift tickets and passes than people they can fit on the mountain or their infrastructure will allow. This was with an original departure time that should have had us to the parking lot over a half hour before opening. And good luck getting any customer service for all your wasted efforts and money – if they already have your money via Epic Pass or prepaid lift ticket, they couldn’t care less what experience you have from there. Many Tahoe resorts suffer capacity issues, but nowhere to the extremes of Northstar. If you do get in (we gave up today at least after 4 hours of trying) the skiing itself is average at best – better snow and better runs elsewhere.

Tyler Knox via Google reviews

Vail Resorts Stamping Out on Those Leaving Their Equipment to Reserve Place in Line at Heavenly Mountain, CA

The reader who shared the picture says that “…people are placing their ski or snowboard equipment up in the front of the lift line in the morning, then go hang out in their warm cars until about ten minutes before loading the lift.”

Source: https://snowbrains.com

“Why get a pass if you still have to stand in the long lines at the resort with everyone else”

Similar to others, the passes never come. Impossible to get any help. Prices change on whims. You have to call to stop the auto-renew and that can be a huge hassle. The customer service is far from stellar. If you love to ski/board at their resorts and know exactly what you want it may work for you, but if you are doing it for the first time or wanting to try it out, spend the time to make sure you know what you want/need and see if it’s worth it. They are little to no help and they seem not to care much about your experience.

Michael B via BBB.org

Do not expect to get your ski pass in the mail, ever. I ordered mine 15 business days ago and it still has not shipped. I spent an hour on the phone with customer service, and they said they did not know why it had not shipped and could not say when it would. Kept referencing that it should have arrived in ** business days and that there may have been shipping vendor delays

Rachel R via BBB.org

I order passes previous years but this year is crazy. Ordered passes 16 Nov and 5 Jan still nothing. ** * and they just tell you we will mail them. Can’t say when or anything. I ordered 2 months in advance so I don’t have to stand in lines but looks like I will be. I emailed them several times and no reply. Logged on line nothing. No one can tell you anything just we will mail them. Might be last time using them. The customer services call center is completely incompetent. confirmed the names and shipping address multiple times with the agent and STILL Nothing almost 2 months later. I agree Why get a pass if you still have to stand in the long lines at the resort with everyone else?

Richard H via BBB.org

If you happen to get your passes when you order them, then you will be happy. If there is a problem in getting your passes (paid in full of course), then the true agony begins. We ordered passes in October and 10 weeks later we still do not have them. I spoke with support services twice, sent multiple emails to **** resorts and had a live chat. One of our two passes was sent to the wrong address twice and the other one was never sent. The support services call center is completely incompetent. I could not reach anyone who was fluent in English. I confirmed the names and shipping address multiple times with the agent and STILL the wrong number of passes were sent to the wrong address. Why get a pass if you still have to stand in the long lines at the resort with everyone else? No compensation for this major inconvenience was ever offered.

Lynne M via BBB.org

The online ordering process is terrible. After you provide all the information including credit card information you get an error message telling you to call the 800 number… You call and have to wait a long time to be assisted over a terrible call quality line. I could barely understand half what the guy was saying.Over the phone I was told to create an account online (which I tried unsuccessfully). They completed my order over the phone but I could only get the passes mailed to me if I created an account online and sent pictures of the whole family.I tried to create an account after the attendant instructed me to do so and got an error again… It said I already had one and should reset my password. The link to reset was never received. Then after some time my wife (different email address) got an email with the link. She tried to reset the password but got an error and instructions to call the 800 number (again…). Summary: terrible customer service and I’ll need to wait in line at the resort to retrieve my passes on site…

Fernando C via BBB.org

Source: BBB.org

“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

“Horrible experience with Epic Pass”

Horrible experience with Epic Pass that ruined our vacation plan and we left Tahoe without any skiing.
The pass office refused to give me the pass we bought online because it was suspended for an accident last year (I was badly hit by someone from behind and I had zero fault in that accident). There was no warning when I payed for the pass or in my account page. They kicked me back and forth around ~5 different offices. From 9am to 1pm I made 20+ phone calls on the mountain and walked to different offices in my ski boots. On my way leaving the resort around 1 pm, they called to tell me the suspension was finally resolved and asked me to wait for another hour and try again at the pass office.
They suspended my pass for no good reason and without any warning. All the offices have no clear idea who is in charge of the suspension, and are very impatient to help on an issue outside their duty, even when they know a customer is desperately waiting to get onto the mountain.
Two days later I received my pass in my mail that’s sent out the day we bought it online, days before the hassle on the mountain. So if it’s OK for them to send me the pass by mail, why on earth can they refuse giving it to me at the resort??

Chenyun Wu

“Wasted 3 hours waiting in line to get our pass”

Wasted 3 hours waiting in line to get our pass that we ordered online ahead of time, closes at 4 so by the time we got to the slops the whole day was gone. DONT go

Carolyn Davidson

“Be willing to wait on just about everything”

Be willing to wait on just about everything from lifts to rentals if needed. If you plan on stopping by the day of without reservations in advance, you can expect 3 plus hour wait for gear rentals. Average wait time for main lifts is around 10-30 min. Also have a photo of or your actual vaccination card on hand to be able to enjoy any food from northstar themselves.
Biggest issue, if you plan on using the free parking lots expect an hour wait at times just to get to and from the ski area. Just didn’t have a good time but maybe you will.

Matthew Jeff