One star because I can't give less. I recently went to Boreal/Woodward for a day of snowboarding with my daughter. I had not been to Boreal for years but always had good experiences. I am not sure for how long but they have made a switch to online sales which is great but in this case, I found it not as efficient as one would think. Unfortunately, I did not realize this until we arrived. At first when we drove in we were directed to take a side road to purchase tickets before entering the main parking lot. We abided along with several other visitors who were parked or wandering the road looking for a signal to make the purchase. I had some success in getting to the website but the signal in this area was pretty poor to complete the necessary steps to make a purchase. After being unsuccessful for 10 minutes, I asked the traffic director if I could go in to hopefully make an in-person purchase in the park thinking they would have a standard walk-up and purchase option.

When I entered the main building, I stood in a line that appeared to be where you would make the purchase for rental items and lift tickets. After waiting in line for 15-20 minutes, I got to the counter to find out all sales were online. It would have been nice to see some signage directing customers to this valuable information before wasting time in line.

I then went ahead to make the purchase online. I had asked the person at the counter if they had wifi available and was told that there were some spots upstairs that I might have luck with. It turns out they might have wifi but this was not made clear but the clerk I spoke to. This is where a kiosk or a few kiosks might have helped make the process of purchasing a ticket easier. After finally finding a stable connection, I was able to make the purchase. The process did require a lot of information. I understand that some information is needed for rentals but it seemed excessive for a lift ticket. Once I completed the purchase I had to return to the same line and wait to be directed to the next step. I was told to pick up the cards from a machine near the desk. Again having more signage could have saved time. I thought things were rolling from this point until the card dispenser only provided half of my order. I spoke to the attendant behind the counter who was unable to provide the pass and directed me to customer service. When I walked over to customer service, I was faced with another long line. It was very frustrating and so inefficient. I was not the only one as I could overhear other guests were just as frustrated with the process. Customer service was able to fix the problem but the clerk did share that this was an ongoing problem that they were dealing with. This had added insult to injury. If you are dealing with a machine that is incorrectly working maybe it could have been looked into to avoid an ongoing issue. After this, I felt back on track headed to get my daughter her rental equipment. By the time I got there, they did not have her correct size shoe so we went with a little bigger. With all sales final and such a process for the purchase perhaps their purchasing system could notify guests if items were or were not going to be before purchase. We ended up getting through the rental line fairly quickly and the people behind the counter seemed helpful. Don’t get me wrong, purchasing online or via the internet is a great way to streamline and get what you need faster however, the park is not set up appropriately with wifi, depnable self service kiosks, signage to guide customers through the process, or possible protocols to keep the process quick and efficient so customers can get in and out to play quickly. We spent almost 2 hours to get set up. My advice is to buy online before you go and be prepared to wait.