Blue Hills Ski Area — Attraction in Canton

Like others, we too had a really disappointing experience with the Blue Hills Ski program for children, this winter. I waited to write this review a few weeks to see if anything improves: nothing improved. Let's start with the beginning:

Booking lessons on the website is a complete nightmare. Dates when lessons are posted are not listed anywhere. They asked me to check every day!!! Every day! I have a job and kids, and food to make, and clothes to wash, etch. We don't have time to check every day to see when lessons are posted. Period.

Booking lessons in person at the resort: Do not bother. I repeat. Don't even try. I asked twice, on separate days, and was told to do it on my own at home because they can't see what's available properly on their screens/ can't help me.

Registration: Very disorganized. They somehow didn't have our kid on the list twice (out of 3 lessons). They had to get proof of payment from my phone to find her in their system because first and last name didn't work. I saw their screens: the system is from a very, very long time ago. We were told that her gear will be ready for her "next week". We came next week and no, her gear was not ready. Nor was it the week after that. So we had to arrive 30 mins early every time we went for lessons because you could bet they didn't have her gear ready and we had to fill in paperwork again, show we were registered for class again, etc, etc.

Who is managing this place?!?! Are they aware of how poorly this place works?

The space itself is chaotic: mountain of skies scattered everywhere. Lots of children and parents waiting in line to get their gear (because of above lack of organization). It is really a sad and frustrating situation.

Customer service? Completely missing. I called tonight to ask how I book sessions using the vouchers I just paid for? I was told to call in an hour as the person on the phone didn't know.

The time suck, and the cost of this place are way too high for what they offer. Really, I am ready to teach these kids how to ski on my own, as that would be way more efficient and cost effective.

Please, whoever is managing this, get someone who can do the job right!!!

p.s. Bring your own food. The only thing I let myself have from the lodge was bottled water. The place looks unsanitary, and the food doesn't look like food that...

I waited until our third ski lesson before leaving a review because I’m kind and generous soul who wanted to give this place some time. I especially didn’t want to rush to judgment because there hasn’t been much snow this season and I’m sure that makes things tough on the facilities crew and the instructors. I will also say, that, in my limited interactions with them, and based on what my child has told me, the instructors seem friendly and attentive.

All that being said, I want you to picture how efficient a Chick-fil-A or a Wegmans is run, and then picture the exact opposite. Rental boots and skis are strewn everywhere, in no particular order. In two out of three weeks, they just didn’t have any boots set aside for my daughter, and today they just picked a pair labeled for Charlotte C off of a rack and handed them to her. In related news, my daughter’s name is not Charlotte so I apologize to Charlotte and her parents for when they also find a lack of boots. This is the kind of place where there are four people working behind a counter serving one customer. Finding your child’s name on the list, in alphabetical order, also presents a significant challenge.

As for the lessons themselves, my child, and I joked that these are her “snow standing lessons”. The kids bunch up and wait 10 minutes to go up a magic carpet, and then proceeded down what appears to be 10° decline. This is where enthusiasm for skiing goes to die.

Again, I truly understand that there is a challenge with the weather this year. I also know how hard it is teaching kids. My child is not exactly Lindsey Vonn so I am totally empathetic to that. It’s just that you can’t have this decrepit of a facility, be this poorly managed and this overcrowded. Outside of the teachers, we haven’t had a positive interaction with one human being starting from the sign-up process. That’s not a bad day or bad luck, that’s bad management. I hope others have a better experience or find a better place to go. We’ve had fantastic experiences...

Usually, I would say $50 for a one-day ski pass and $49 for a ski/boot/helmet package on a holiday would be a really good deal for skiing, especially when the location is only a 20-minute drive from downtown Boston. However, for my experience at Blue Hills today, this felt extremely overpriced.

I brought my sister, who is a beginner, here because I remember the trails being super non-intimidating. (I came here over 10 years ago to learn to ski!) It is a good place to build confidence before graduating to bigger mountains. To my disappointment, literally only 2 of the 3 magic carpets and the hardest black run were open, none of the greens or blues in between. The worst part was that the staff did not clarify this when we were buying our tickets. I even asked before I paid, and the only response I received was: "I'm not sure, they've been grooming the slopes." Given it snowed two days ago and we had come on a major holiday, I would have expected Blue Hills to be more on top of their snowmaking. But alas this meant that my sister, who is a budding green skier, was stuck in an overly crowded magic carpet area the whole day, while I went down the black slope 20+ times.

Also, Blue Hills is starting to look extremely dated and in need of reinvestment (shocking given they overcharge us!). The only chairlift is creaky with footrests partially broken off. Their payment processors fail to accept tap/contactless half the time. The lodge has extremely limited dining options of classic american junk food. The website needs a redesign. Also, keep your valuables in your car because there aren't any lockers.

I regret not doing the slightly longer drive to wachusetts instead. It’s about $20 more expensive but has over quadruple the number of open trails and provides a much more...