SnowWorld — Attraction in Zoetermeer

SnowWorld is a popular destination for many snowlovers. In the Netherlands there are no mountains to practice skiing on when you feel like practicing your skill between big trips, and therefore this indoor hall is quite perfect for it.

When me and my two friends arrived, it didn't look very crowded, but unfortunately we lost quite some time when waiting for the rented equipment. Not all desks were manned, which wasn't as much the problem as that the people behind the desks don't help out a lot except for grabbing the stuff requested. We were unfortunate that the couple in front of us obviously had never skied before and they took a lot of time figuring out which shoe- and clothes-size they needed.

We spent a fun day at SnowWorld, my one friend had an awesome class with a very patient teacher who didn't mind at all that she had to explain everything twice (Dutch for most of the class, and again in English for my friend). Her first experience with snow and snowboarding was extremely good thanks to SnowWorld. She spent her day on Piste 1 and a bit on Piste 2, where she manoeuvred herself between the other classes. It was quite crowded on 1, and I found it a bit surprising to see that other skiers and snowboarders were even allowed to use that slope considering the already vast amount of people on it. People who have very little to no experience on a slope and who can't manoeuvre out of the way quickly of even with ease.

As my other friend and me have quite a bit of experience with skiing, we quickly moved to Piste 3. I know that an indoor hall will never have the same snow-quality as the mountains, however, I was surprised by the quality at SnowWorld as it is a dry and fine powder making sure that manoeuvering through it is quite easy. I highly enjoyed that, but it was also the reason behind the big issue: the actual amount of snow that is located in the hall. The middle part of Piste 3 is almost entirely void of snow, with big sleets of ice showing from time to time. It's hard to keep your footing on and while I didn't see anyone fall personally, it kind of took away the joy of going down a smooth slope. The reason for the big patches of ice - which I hate to have under my skies when I'm in the mountains just as much as I disliked it in the hall - is the fact that the slope is used by skiers and snowboarders alike. I saw quite a lot of boarders obviously wanting to show their skill, and by doing so they scraped a lot of the snow towards the sides of the slope where moguls were showing and where the ride was quite bumpy and sometimes even difficult. Those same snowboarders own Piste 2, where the jumps are located. The code of conduct I know all too well from skiing in France and Austria does NOT exist in SnowWorld. Cutting you off, on the slope and while waiting in line for the lifts, is very common behaviour even in crowded areas like Piste 1 where inexperienced boarders and skiers take their classes. Spraying snow in people's faces by making very sharp turns is something funny that needs to be repeated when succeeded. I get that going down the slope pumps you full of that joyous adrenaline-ish feeling, but some behaviour borders on rude and even a tad dangerous probably because the halls are quite full.

We most likely will return to SnowWorld at some point, but then we might plan it in the middle of a workday as it will be less crowded. We...

I was here on Sunday. It was impossible to ride due to a VERY poor quality of snow. Moguls surrounded by ice and barely few snowflakes in first 30% of the “red” slope. Okay, I wasted 55 euros and left.

Came again today. Arrived at 17:30. Had one hour of perfect riding. And there they were. A lesson with some kids at 18:30 destroyed a freshly groomed snow in 30 minutes. They marked third pard of the slope with colourful sticks and left no place for the rest. Kids were doing some serious training, so I literally observed it happening in front of my eyes: moguls creation was finished. The state of snow deteriorated to sunday’s level: moguls surrounded by ice.

On top of it there were 2 more lessons, with 20+ students in total, where pupils occupied the whole piste. Moving in zig zags with minimal gaps. Instructors were in fact encouraging them to occupy the whole width of the goddamn RED piste. They’d better learn them to look where they ride, by the way, as 2 of those pupils almost crashed in me coming from the top, meaning they could have seen me should they have their eyes open.

@Snowworld! If there is such a full schedule of lessons, close the piste and do not sell tickets for the rest!!!

Close the piste, do the lessons, groom the snow after them and open it again. Everyone happy. Why on earth I’m wasting money second day in one week to only watch how 2 out of 3 slopes are entirely occupied by some lessons leaving no free place for...

The place is always very busy and there's no code of conduct. Queues are often very long, and you spend the majority of the time queueing. The guys patrolling the slopes stop people only when they assume a behaviour than is well beyond the limit (seen this only once), people are allowed to dangerously run next to the skilift, jumping next to people, jump the queue, cut your way off. This is never seen anywhere on real mountains.

Beside this, due to the amount of people the quality of the slope gets quickly very bad, full of bumps and ice. Only very trained skier (unfortunately always a small percentage) can manage that, and too often there are groups of people on the ground in the middle of the slope, which is very dangerous. The result is that very often skiing trying to avoid people and bumps is tiring.

Group lessons normally fill the slope. This is very bad: it is already tiring to find a group lesson when you are on a ski resort with tens of km of slopes, can you imagine having for one hour a group of people on a hundred meter long slope stopping in the middle, snaking slowly, queueing... ?

In conclusion, considering the price of the ski pass you would expect more care for the infrastructure and for the safety of the people in general for the fun of the people, which seems largely...