The ALTERRA SUCKS Thread

[Smellytele]

Definitely. I don't know who invented it, but the first I recall seeing it was at Disney in Orlando about 25 years ago.

Disney at first didn't charge for it. You just had to basically reserve your time window on a ride. Think you could only have 1 or 2 reserved at a time. You had to go to the ride, reserve your time then once your time window opened you could reserve another time on another ride. I did it the 1st time I went with my kids in 2007 and it worked out great but the next time I brought them in 2011 the place was dead and wait times were nonexistent so only did a few reservations. Then after that they changed it up and you had to pay and they had some sort of app.

 

[Smellytele]

Almost no one uses the fast tracks at killington, i can count on one hand the amount of people who I saw using it all of last season. I'm surprised they haven't ditched it yet. But my view might be skewed since I avoid the popular lifts when it's busy

It costs nothing to offer it for the ski areas and makes them a few bucks. Now if you had a private bar like sugarbush then it may not.

 

[letitsnow1]

It costs nothing to offer it for the ski areas and makes them a few bucks. Now if you had a private bar like sugarbush then it may not.

I get your point but they put in separate rdif gates just for fast tracks, that cost something

 

[Smellytele]

I get your point but they put in separate rdif gates just for fast tracks, that cost something

Once the rfid gates are in the cost is basically complete. they already have them at this point so cancelling the program will lower the rate of return on them.

 

[drjeff]

Almost no one uses the fast tracks at killington, i can count on one hand the amount of people who I saw using it all of last season. I'm surprised they haven't ditched it yet. But my view might be skewed since I avoid the popular lifts when it's busy

Agree. Lots of (mostly) negative publicity when K rolled this out a few seasons ago. The reality is little to no impacted on the K skiing/riding experience since so few use it.

Its like the folks who join say a country club and only play a handful of rounds of golf a year. A "win" for the economic bottom line of the club, but no real negative effect for everyone else.

The reality it seems is that the price points that the ski industry is setting these "pay to play" options at (for now atleast) is that its such a small percentage of folks who choose to purchase them, that its not a big deal on the other say 99% of folks at the mtn that day.

Now using the theme park model mentioned in this thread, having been to both Disney World and Universal Orlando last month, the volume of Express/Fast Passes they're selling daily, definitely effects things, and now is nearing a point where with what my wife and I experienced on some rides, the time "saved" in the Fast/Express lines often wasn't more than a few minutes over the regular lines, but the cost was quite a bit higher.

 

[x10003q]

Definitely. I don't know who invented it, but the first I recall seeing it was at Disney in Orlando about 25 years ago.

In 1965 the owners of Great Gorge Ski Area in NJ sold bonds where you could skip the interest and get free skiing and preferred lift lines. I remember being a little kid and dreaming of being a bond holder as we stood in line for 40 minutes on a weekend day.

"The facts relevant to the application for class certification are generally undisputed. Sometime around 1965, defendant Great Gorge sold 5% debenture bonds at $1000 each to 330 New Jersey residents. The bonds had a due date of July 1, 1980, but interest was payable each year commencing July 1, 1966. They contained a clause subordinating bond principal and interest payments to any present or future senior indebtedness or secured obligations of Great Gorge. They further contained provisions limiting interest payable to the amount of net earnings of the company in the prior year. As an alternative to receiving interest, bondholders could elect to receive free skiing and preferred lift lines at the local skiing facility until October 1970 or until the bond was redeemed, whichever later occurred."

"At about the same time, defendant sold 5% debenture bonds at $1500 each to 500 New Jersey residents. These bonds had a due date of July 1, 1983, with interest payable annually commencing July 1, 1969, and every September 1 thereafter. These bonds contained the same provisions as the $1000 bonds."

https://law.justia.com/cases/new-jersey/appellate-division-published/1988/224-n-j-super-619-0.html

 

[AdironRider]

I'm not going to lie, I bought the line cutting privileges' at Disney this past spring and it was great. Four year old melting down, yeah I'm going to skip that 90 minute log flume line.

I've shifted to small academic owned mountains with Indy supplement mainly because I hate lift lines, but with age and means I would seriously contemplate buying a fast tracks or equivalent because waiting in line is for the birds. All the better if they aren't devaluing the product by overselling it.

 

[4aprice]

Question. Out of theoretically a 180 day (a guess at what a big resort operates for skiing) season how many days would these programs be of use. I would say maybe 10 or less. I would never pay for them

@x10003q is correct with the Vernon Valley/Great George program. I would say that one was worse because all you had back in those days were the fixed grip doubles (any one remember the cabin chair ). I thought those lines were worse than most any line you see today.

 

[AdironRider]

I would think at Killington or Sugarbush, its the majority of ski season weekends from Christmas through mid-March plus random powder days and holidays. 25 days maybe? For a guy like me stuck in the thick of kids school and activity schedules it starts looking appealing.

That said, who is actually skiing that much with that much competition for their time? Probably not a lot.

 

[Zand]

I think the biggest difference between amusement parks and skiing, as far as skip the line passes goes, is the accessibility to the good stuff. If you're at an amusement park on a busy day, chances are the lines for anything good will be well over an hour. If you're at a ski area on a busy day, the primary lifts will have long lines but most places have secondary chairs to get you to the good stuff that you don't need to wait in line for. A place like Stowe with only base-to-summit chairs and no upper mountain chairs would probably benefit the most from one of these passes. But most areas it's easy enough to get by just using the secondary chairs.

 

[letitsnow1]

At killington the fast tracks is only another line in the quee,you still have to wait in the main line like everyone else. it doesn't let you cut right to next chair the same way ski school cuts the line. Alot of the lifts don't even have a fast tracks line. Early season on Northridge has some of the longest lines of the season and there's no fast track line. It's lame and mostly useless