Mount St. Louis Moonstone — Attraction in Oro-Medonte

I week to Moonstone earlier this month and had a wonderful time with my buds! I gave this place 5 stars for the beginner level experience as we did not experience the lifts that take you to their higher intensity hills.

What we purchased: Beginner lessons pass with rentals Snowboarding rentals Group size was 3

Here are my pro's and cons:

Pro's: We rented out equipment and paid to have lessons with an instructor. Booking online was easy, and we arrived in the afternoon. Line ups for both pass and rentals were long, but went faster than you would think. When obtaining our passes it was a "card" (not those tags you attach to yourself) where you would tap to enter a moving belt (on the bunny hill) and the greener lift. getting our rentals was super easy and the staff that helped us were very polite. YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED to leave your boots in inside (even tho you might see peoples boots there). Highly recommend to get there early so you can get a parking space closer so you don't have to trek back to your car to put your suff in there.

After getting our rentals we went straight to where the lessons would be held and waited for our instructor. IF YOU BUY THE LESSONS PASS make sure you get DANNY! He was super patient, very insightful, showed us where we were wrong, and corrected us when we messed up. Being an observant group, we watched other instructors and were very pleased we got matched with Danny as he really committed to showing us how to start and where to build up from that.

We went on the bunny hill and sundance, used the lift and my group fell the first time. Staff immediately stopped the lift when we fell (which is to be expected for safety). We used what we learned from our lesson session to make it down our first big hill and it was great!

We bought food which is located up the stairs when you enter from the back. Portion size was good when getting the burger and fries, and my buds really enjoyed the veggie pizza. seating was not available for obvious reasons so we walked back to our car and made seats out of the snow banks.

Cons: When entering the rentals the first dude was either grumpy or not having a good day. not a great start to our day but we brushed that off.

One of our pass cards said it was expired when we were given it during our lessons so our friend just used one of hours until we went back to get it fixed. little technical issue, and we waited for a bit to get a new one.

Some staff are helpful and others just don't care. We asked where the washrooms were and some dude literally said "if you can see a clock tower thats where it is" and brushed us off. It was our first time there and we weren't facing the clock tower so we were confused as to where to walk to as there was no direction given but just that statement. We found another staff member and they pointed towards where the clock tower and even gave us a description of where it is near when inside which is the lockers (lockers are not in use for the season).

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Things to consider when coming here, that the cafeteria is closed due to the on-going pandemic so don't be surprised that you can't sit inside and be all grumpy. There is out door sitting but it is limited because it is only so big (no heaters). if you also pack some lawn chairs in your car, that would be very helpful and give you a place to sit near your car. There is a fire pit near the beaver tail kart to warm yourselves up. Parking gets crazy at peak time. At night time the lights are very helpful! And when you are done, be sure to bring extra socks or slippers as your feet will be tired from wearing boots.

Overall, this is a review for a beginner experience pass and it was really good! The hills were perfect for a first time! and instructors were great! We hope to be back, and be better to hit those black diamonds! At night time they put some cool coloured lights on that end, and we would love to experience that! Till next time, and next review once we try out the rest...

As a loyal customer of MSLM and an experienced skiier, I have strong opinions about the current user experience.

The good: reliable YouTube webcams, sufficient parking, RFID, large terrain and time offerings for night skiing, increased food options, support for park culture and competition. Quality snowmaking and grooming, of course.

However, word has gotten out about this monopoly on snowmaking in SWO across private and public operations. As a result of this public snow monopoly and the increasing lack of public competition surrounding the GTA ("poo mountain", anyone?), the density of inexperienced skiiers and snowboarders lacking basic ettiquite at MSLM has reached dangerous levels that adversely impact customer experience.

I am a three-time Gold Podium Pass holder who cannot afford private buy-in, like many diehard Southwestern Ontario skiiers. Mid-March, I sit in front of my computer for three to four hours (due to the continuously inadequate online queue system) to pay the 13% year-over-year price increase for the Podium Pass. The on-hill experience is not keeping pace.

For example: the 8-person lift launch was a mixed bag because the ettiquite is not there to utilize its full capacity: even in peak times, rarely will 8 people load due to lack of room for snowboard equipment, wide variation in user skill, and difficulties unloading without incident in the current confirguation. I was literally brought to my knees by an adjacent rider on this particular lift because the offload area isn't steep enough, and the other person immediately turned their board sideways to keep their balance since they had no speed upon standing up. Hopefully that offload area is redesigned for 24/25.

Moving forward, I hope to see MSLM continue to invest in their customer experience, including: website/purchasing, communication about changes to services via email and social media, and critically, educational media on snowsport ettiquite for those new to the sport.

Many users like myself are frustrated with the current culture of MSLM, which heavily caters to beginners to the point of passively condeing out-of-control skiing or snowboarding, and those blocking the lift line entrances and stopping or stalling within the lines themselves. It's an unintended side-effect of quality snowmaking and capacity increases, but I hope MSLM can consider their role and responsibility in changing these aspects for the...

I used to be a frequent skiers to MLS prior to Covid 19. However, after experiencing a nightmare incident with their management team recently, I decided not coming back to this place anymore.

Not only because of the incident, but also because of soaring prices of lift tickets , mean management team and poor customer services. Nowadays, especially after Covid 19, everything has been incredibly increased , except the services. Staff are either 17 years old, not well trained for safety and customer care, or rude grandma aged women. Obviously the owner of the “mls family “ is money driven, what they care is cost saving, more profits. They set up a bunch of waivers so that they can stay away being responsible for the safety of the skiers. Basically, they are pretty much saying to you at the time when you buy the tickets: we are not liable for any happened onsite, no matter whose responsibility. We are not accepting any suggestions to improve the quality of the services, if you complain, we will kick you off the place immediately. No matter your opinion is about a safety concern, or helping them to be a better place as a ski resort. You are on a private property, where the owner has the say, not you as a customer.

The incident I experienced was around the green hills. Staff at the entrance to the lift never managed the line up, when they were 2 or 3 separate school groups flooded there, which caused a longer wait time. Students took the lift either as a group of 2, or 3, or single, for a 4 seating lift. It is a day that ends at 4pm, the staff doesn’t care how many runs you would like to make within a short period of time; what they value most is how much they earn. Basically they were there just to kill time, with no attention to your safety and enjoyment of the hills.

When I talked to the management team about it, I was told that: there’s no need to manage the line ups , especially for a beginner area, it’s quite common that 2 people take a lift with 4 seats, even for a peak time. It is a privately operated/owned business, we don’t need you to tell me what we need to do. If you are not happy about our management, you leave all by yourself, and I won’t compensate you. If you keep complaining, we will report police .

What a...