Ski Resort Response to COVID-19

[Jcb890]

For EPIC, does anyone know if you can roll over your credit to 21/22 rather than 20/21? Of course, it's impossible to get ahold of anyone at Epic. I've tried multiple times over the past couple of months with zero responses. Awesome customer service, really. What a shitshow.

 

[kbroderick]

Funny how they can pin point a specific event that resulted in all those cases. My wife and I have been to Southern California by plane twice and are going again this weekend. Been to Utah, Wyoming and Arizona. We ate at restaurants while on travel. We also frequent restaurants at least 5 times per week in an attempt to support that industry. CDC said that restaurant goers resulted in a 15% increase in cases but how do they know it was the restaurants?...

We have documentation of at least one major restaurant spread event early in the pandemic (I think it was Japan, dinner seating, and they tracked a double-digit number of infections to one person who happened to be sitting at a good spot for spread per air flow in the restaurant).

It's very likely, albeit not certain, that masks reduce spread and can thus mitigate risk. It's also pretty damn challenging to eat while wearing one.

Between those two factors (amongst others), indoor dining is clearly a higher-risk activity. Those risks—like most—can be mitigated, but I suspect that many people who are willing to accept that elevated risk level (or who don't believe the risk is as high as the scientists who study such things claim) are also willing to accept (or ignore) elevated risk levels in other activities. Thus, you have a strong correlation between "going out to eat" and "increased Covid-19 infection rates".

I haven't seen a good breakout of restaurant vs bar visitors, in that regard, either, which I think would be relevant (I can see reasonable mitigations being doable in a restaurant setting, but bars are different creatures and, frankly, enjoying hanging out in one doesn't seem to be compatible with appropriate risk mitigations).

 

[MEtoVTSkier]

What about the people that aren't driving to the mountain?

Such as?

 

[urungus]

My wife and I have been to Southern California by plane twice and are going again this weekend. Been to Utah, Wyoming and Arizona. We ate at restaurants while on travel. We also frequent restaurants at least 5 times per week in an attempt to support that industry. CDC said that restaurant goers resulted in a 15% increase in cases but how do they know it was the restaurants?

 

[machski]

Interesting that are going to attempt to manage indoor services within the 50 person per room state rules. Seems like there will be significant lines just for folks to enter the lodges.

Will be interesting to see how involved the state gets with the enforcement of that 50 person limit. I'm guessing it will be heavy handed after the Millinocket wedding fiasco. One 65 person wedding now traced to 170+ Covid cases and 7 deaths.

Sent from my motorola one action using AlpineZone mobile app

Yes on the wedding thing, but that is a bit different as I understand social distancing and mask wearing did not occur in any fashion at the wedding party. You also don't drop in for 20 or 30 minutes at a wedding party, you likely stay all night at it increasing the exposure time. Lodge capacity will be limited by tables and chairs available i am sure and will be monitored, they are talking about a 30 minute limit for folks. Fall festival weekend over Columbus (is indigenous peoples day now, not sure on the PC) day weekend is supposed to demo SR's plan and layout for the Foggy Google, which to my understanding is being expanded to the entire upper floor space of South Ridge (well, not the admin/exec office wing). Before they had the arcade area as open base lodge seating space but no longer this year.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using AlpineZone mobile app

 

[dblskifanatic]

View attachment 27038

My mother is 90 in a nursing home and Coronavirus likes that too - she got it and was asymptomatic. I wounder how many cases are like that we will never know!

 

[dblskifanatic]

At Alterra owned properties, that is correct on Passholders not needing reservations. At resorts that are affiliated on Ikon and not Alterra owned, reservations may be required including parking (seems all Powdr resorts will require parking reservations, just saw Bachelor joined that party) or reservations to ski (all the western Boyne's will require this along with Taos. Loon and Windham in the East will too) for Ikon passholders. Bachelor said something like they may increase the number of blackout days for Ikon Base Pass guests. Without a reservation to ski, not sure how they could do that as it would change the actual terms of the pass.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using AlpineZone mobile app

Ikon pass holders at A Basin will require reservations, Copper, Eldora require parking reservations.

Steamboat:

Reservations are not required for Ikon, Ikon Base, Ikon Session 4-Day, Steamboat season, Steamboat Merchant, 7 Heavenly Daze, Weekday Hall Pass, Early & Late season 3-Day Passes and Snowy Range pass holders at Steamboat, at this time. Guests who pre-book packages through Steamboat Central Reservations, or approved travel partners, prior to November 2 will have access for the dates of their pre-booked package. Our Worry-Free vacation policy provides flexibility for booking your winter vacation. To limit on-mountain capacity specifically during holiday and peak periods, we currently are not offering, and will be tightly regulating, stand-alone lift tickets and other products. Advanced purchase packages and season pass products are the only way to access the mountain at this time. For pass holders and pre-booked packages, additional line management (ie specific queue times) may be necessary during holiday and peak periods. If this is the case, guests will receive further instructions closer, or during, the season.

 

[Zermatt]

Revelstoke says reservations not needed and all pre-bought tickets (like Ikon or Collective Pass) will be treated like season passes.

But they noted that if you need to purchase tickets, do so in advance.

 

[Edd]

Revelstoke says reservations not needed and all pre-bought tickets (like Ikon or Collective Pass) will be treated like season passes.

But they noted that if you need to purchase tickets, do so in advance.

Makes sense. Massive place with not that many skier visits, I’d think.

 

[Glade Monkey]

For EPIC, does anyone know if you can roll over your credit to 21/22 rather than 20/21? Of course, it's impossible to get ahold of anyone at Epic. I've tried multiple times over the past couple of months with zero responses. Awesome customer service, really. What a shitshow.

[FONT=&quot]Q: [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Am I able to rollover my credit to the 2021/22 season? [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]A: If you purchased a 2020/21 Pass and become eligible for a refund of your 2020/21 Pass under Epic Coverage, you may be eligible to rollover all or a portion of your 2019/20 Pass Holder Credit towards the purchase of a 2021/22 pass of equal or greater value. Terms and conditions apply. Please see [/FONT]Epic Coverage Terms and Conditions[FONT=&quot] for more information.
[/FONT]
Tomorrow is the last day to use the credit, so you'd better try again. I just went into their queue and there were 7.635 people ahead of me and an estimated 12 minute wait time.

 

[Jcb890]

[FONT="]Q: [/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#333333][FONT="]Am I able to rollover my credit to the 2021/22 season? [/FONT]
[FONT="]A: If you purchased a 2020/21 Pass and become eligible for a refund of your 2020/21 Pass under Epic Coverage, you may be eligible to rollover all or a portion of your 2019/20 Pass Holder Credit towards the purchase of a 2021/22 pass of equal or greater value. Terms and conditions apply. Please see [/FONT][/COLOR][URL="https://www.epicpass.com/info/epic-coverage-terms-and-conditions.aspx"]Epic Coverage Terms and Conditions[/URL][FONT="] for more information.
[/FONT]
Tomorrow is the last day to use the credit, so you'd better try again. I just went into their queue and there were 7.635 people ahead of me and an estimated 12 minute wait time.

Yeah, it looks like I'd need to buy a pass (or 2) for this season using the credit, then come Dec. 8 or 18, whatever that date is, get my refund/credit for 21/22. I don't think I want to basically give EPIC a 2-year free loan.

Also, I believe the 12 minute wait time is a joke. On TGR people are saying there was 6,000 or 8,000 ahead of them and they had been waiting an hour or 2 already. Never mind the fact that any type of wait and line to BUY A SEASON PASS ONLINE is a f'ing joke. What the hell kind of operation is Vail running here that they can't handle that type of web traffic? Pretty pathetic.

 

[thebigo]

Also, I believe the 12 minute wait time is a joke. On TGR people are saying there was 6,000 or 8,000 ahead of them and they had been waiting an hour or 2 already. Never mind the fact that any type of wait and line to BUY A SEASON PASS ONLINE is a f'ing joke. What the hell kind of operation is Vail running here that they can't handle that type of web traffic? Pretty pathetic.

Vail customer service is abhorrent, quite possibly the worst I have ever dealt with in any industry. I dont know how the muellers were but vail is a major downgrade on the customer service sixe when compared with peaks. Used to be you have a pass question, call your local mountain and talk to someone you know. Now, the first challenge is waiting the better part of an hour, hope you dont get hung up on, then hope the answer contains a morsel of truth. I have gotten three different answers on <5 pass availability, all in conflict with the faq on their website.

 

[chuckstah]

Vail customer service is abhorrent, quite possibly the worst I have ever dealt with in any industry. I dont know how the muellers were but vail is a major downgrade on the customer service sixe when compared with peaks. Used to be you have a pass question, call your local mountain and talk to someone you know. Now, the first challenge is waiting the better part of an hour, hope you dont get hung up on, then hope the answer contains a morsel of truth. I have gotten three different answers on <5 pass availability, all in conflict with the faq on their website.

All facts. Tried many times to downgrade my pass and use the voucher. Hung up on every time. Until Monday. Finally got through after only being hung up on once. The worst customer service ever for sure, but once someone actually answered the phone it was quick and easy. Midweek NE purchased. I'm going to use a priority day for wildcats opening day for sure!!

Sent from my moto e5 cruise using AlpineZone mobile app

 

[drjeff]

One can argue on their own merits that my family "gave" Vail our $$ earlier than we needed to, however, renewing our Epic's about a month ago, was a very simple. easy, and efficient process. Quite happy with the customer service experience we had both in person (for my wife and my daughter at Mount Snow in mid August) and on the phone for my son and I about a month ago.

When you have roughly a million EPIC passholders (based on the data out there) and wait until close to the deadline, not very surprising that the call volume and wait times are as significant as they are now.

I do get the the entire COVID-19 situation is going to create uncertainty, but it's not like the passionate skiers/riders that us members of AZ are aren't going to get on the hill this coming season, and in some way, shape, or form, its pretty much a given that Vail will figure out a way to make some snow and spin some lifts this winter, even if it's different than what we're used to.

 

[Jcb890]

I completely forgot about the VT quarantine thing... that basically eliminates us from using the EPIC Pass anyways as day-trippers from MA.

One can argue on their own merits that my family "gave" Vail our $$ earlier than we needed to, however, renewing our Epic's about a month ago, was a very simple. easy, and efficient process. Quite happy with the customer service experience we had both in person (for my wife and my daughter at Mount Snow in mid August) and on the phone for my son and I about a month ago.

When you have roughly a million EPIC passholders (based on the data out there) and wait until close to the deadline, not very surprising that the call volume and wait times are as significant as they are now.

I do get the the entire COVID-19 situation is going to create uncertainty, but it's not like the passionate skiers/riders that us members of AZ are aren't going to get on the hill this coming season, and in some way, shape, or form, its pretty much a given that Vail will figure out a way to make some snow and spin some lifts this winter, even if it's different than what we're used to.

You are not completely wrong, but Vail/EPIC customer service has been abhorrent dating back to last season when COVID was cancelling the season. People have been sending emails for months with no response or calling multiple times with very long wait times, etc. Though I do agree the season pass purchase process was much simpler a few months ago.

 

[Smellytele]

I completely forgot about the VT quarantine thing... that basically eliminates us from using the EPIC Pass anyways as day-trippers from MA.

NH has 4 EPIC ski areas within driving distant of most of MA.


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone

 

[Jcb890]

NH has 4 EPIC ski areas within driving distant of most of MA.


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone

I like Wildcat, but it is almost 4 hours from where I am located. Never tried Sunapee, it's about same driving distance as Mt. Snow, but looks smaller.

That said, unfortunately the 14-day/7-day quarantine is the least of our issues with ski resorts this season. I am more concerned for my wife's safety with her being high-risk. I don't see any realistic way to travel to a resort for a day - changing, booting up in the car, etc. is fine. But, with a 2-year-old also, there's nowhere for him to be inside and stay warm with one of us and with her being high-risk, can't use public restrooms at the lodge... I just don't see how it would work... unless you have a house nearby or rent.
But, then if you rent and the season is cancelled, you're SOL and stuck renting a place still in VT/NH.
And lastly, I have zero faith in the actual resorts and operations to enforce social distancing while having a smooth operation of getting people on lifts safely.

Sorry for the tangent, most of that doesn't have to do with the 7 or 14 day quarantines. :smash:

 

[skef]

You are not completely wrong, but Vail/EPIC customer service has been abhorrent dating back to last season when COVID was cancelling the season. People have been sending emails for months with no response or calling multiple times with very long wait times, etc. Though I do agree the season pass purchase process was much simpler a few months ago.

Stowe is directing people to fill out an exception form today if you can't get things straightened out before the deadline.

 

[dlague]

Stowe is directing people to fill out an exception form today if you can't get things straightened out before the deadline.

Vail sent an email out to that effect as well!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[kingslug]

This 14 day quarantine..is voluntary..No one is actually checking anything..it would be impossible to do.