Springhill Winter Park — Attraction in Rural Municipality of Springfield

I recently took my daughter here to learn how to ski. I learned here back in the 90's. This was my first time here in over 15 years. We walked in the first door we saw, and ended up at the rentals area. After standing there a while and seeing how things worked, we realized we were in the wrong place to pay for rentals. We went to the next section where there was a long line to the cashier. We waited 10 minutes in this line to be told at the window that we need to fill out rental agreement forms first. The lady pointed to the tiny shelf with no signage containing a pen and forms. Fill out the forms, get back into the line. Submitted the form at the counter, the lady flipped over the form and said you didn't sign the back, like she was upset that it happens so much, well why not have signage and or remarks on the form that it's double sided? On to the rentals area to get our gear. 3 young employees behind the desk. Again no signage as to where to line up. People cutting the line all over the place. The employees were helpful and friendly, but total chaos, and it was busy so you had to get in their face to get help. We were dressed for cold weather, so I was sweating waiting to get an employee's attention, as well as to put the ski boots and gear on. We were told that they do not offer poles anymore like they used to, which I found bizarre and wrote it off to cost cutting. If I had known this I would have brought our own poles. We finally got out the door to the hill probably 30 minutes later. I thought this is where the struggles would end. But no. We did not book lessons before hand, so I thought I would just take my daughter to the bunny hill where I learned on my own years ago. Well no, I was told the bunny hill was closed. It appeared that they were using the bunny hill for a skills park and for snowboarders. I approached a young employee on the hill to ask where people are supposed to learn without going straight downhill on hard crunchy snow. She pointed up to the laneway between the chair lift and the chalet and said try up there. This area is a highway with experienced people zooming by. You would think that this place would embrace being a great place to learn, but in fact they are not. The chairlift operator was allowing single and doubles on the 4 wide chair lift causing long lines waiting to get up the hill. This is confounded by the fact that it takes 30 seconds to get down the hill. A fellow that was skiing with his family took it upon himself to stand at the front of the line and tell people "groups of 3 or 4" the lift operator was too sheepish to enforce the rules. They decided to close a section of the steeper hill to turn the snowmaking equipment on, with fans blowing ice pellets in my face on the way down the hill, caking my goggles with ice. When we had enough of our experience, we went to return the rental equipment. You have to give a credit card number on the form, so you can't just drop the equipment and leave. You have to once again, deal with the rental counter with no signage as to where to line up and we got cut again in what we thought the line should be. There was also only 1 employee working the counter when we returned our gear. This was another debacle and took 15 minutes for the employee to find our file and check everything off so we wouldn't be charged. I felt bad for these employees, they were trying, but they avoided eye contact with anyone that they weren't currently dealing with, and were clearly feeling bad that nobody knows what's going on. To wrap up, paying $200 for what turned into a very small amount of fun and a fair amount of hassle, I would not recommend going to this place if you don't have your own gear or you have a beginner with you. Springhill, please address these issues. It will only be good for everyone. This facility has...

Visited with my family over winter holidays. I recommend you print and complete your waiver before attending to speed things along.

First impressions; there are signs posted, but it feels chaotic and unclear what to do on entry. We had booked lessons and rentals for two kids. We arrived about 45 minutes early. This was adequate and not too much to give the kids enough time to get organized.

There first entrance takes you to the rental area. There is a spot to put your boots after you get your rental gear. As far as I could tell there were no lockers (?) but the parking lot is close.

Customer service is to the left, deeper into the building. This is where you get your lift tickets. I paid with a card - I think they take visa/mastercard/debit.

Lesson check-in is further in beyond customer service. If you reserved online like we did, this is where to start, before queuing up for rentals, if you booked online. We bought semi-private lessons, which included the kids’ lift tickets. After checking in, they stamp your waiver, which you give to the rental area. They also give you any lift tickets needed for the lessons.

The second entrance takes you to the restaurant and washrooms. There are a few picnic tables on the deck that you can eat at with outside food.

The instructor the kids has was ok, but not great. The hour wasn’t nearly enough for the kids to get comfortable, and they don’t love listening to their parents…

Overall as a seasoned snowboarder, I had a lot of fun. This valley is pretty good for Winterpeg. The snow is like ice - it’s hard and crunchy. If you can learn in this, you’ll manage anywhere. The quad chair lift is good. They have two row ropes which I hated as a skier but were awesome as a rider. They were particularly quick and required a fair amount of skill/balance to use.

I had fun and...

I will start off with a positive which merits the 1 star - the hill is fine for what terrain Winnipeg has to offer.

The outdated paper rental forms could easily be replaced by an excel spreadsheet. The line ups for everything are ridiculously long after 10:30 (especially on weekends). With how packed this place is at times, I am sure it surpasses the capacity limit. When you arrive, if it is your first time you have no idea where to go as little is clearly marked (or its so full you cant see). I've seen lots of new people completely lost, and most of them have to ask others for help as staff are generally not friendly and not available.

Literally everything is disorganzed here.

With the amount of time you spend with these crazy long line ups and inefficiencies, you can just drive to Falcon and save time.

I suggest management seeks out a strong business development manager, or contracts a business development company as the functionality here is from the early 1980's. With the staff being a younger group, who is clearly not used to doing everything by paper youd think theyd adapt - and create better systems which would enable their staff. This is not a staffing issue clearly, but a management issue.

Lastly, clean up the parking lot. All the machinery to fix it up is liteally feet away. Parking is a mad dash free for all, with ruts and giant holes (be sure to bring your truck or SUV) limiting how you navigate the lot. If it snows, dont expect the lot to be cleared.

By the looks of the other low star reviews, I'll likely get a snarky response as well. So before that happens, please save your time and dont bother responding. Spend your time on improvements please and save your words as this is...