Snow Creek Ski Area — Attraction in Leavenworth

Sent this email 2 weeks ago with no response:

Dear Customer Service,

I'm sad to say that we were extremely disappointed with our first visit to Snow Creek. My husband and children had never been skiing before and because of their negative experience at your resort, they may not want to do it again. The lines were incredibly long, there was no one assisting the patrons where to go, and some of the staff was extremely rude.

Several others, not in our party, were confused about the lines, as were we. The employees stationed at equipment checkout did not know how to choose proper skies for children.

I do realize there were some circumstances beyond your control, but not having an operational lift to the green slope was inexcusable. Seriously, for first time skiers, that is intolerable to say the least.

I'm almost certain I won't be the only complaint you receive from skiers who attended opening weekend. We arrived at 10am for 11:30am ski lessons and were LATE! I expected a wait, I've been skiing 4 times, but OVER an hour and a half just to get to lessons? Then we had to wait in line every time we wanted to get on the ONLY 2 lifts available for beginning skiers. Yes, there should be a line or it obviously won't result in revenue, but to pay $400 for a family of 4 and only get to ski down less than 10 times? That includes the bunny slope!! That is unacceptable.

We discovered that you allowed the reservations from Friday to attend on Saturday which exceeded the reduced capacity during a pandemic! Did you offer vouchers to those who live in the Kansas City area so that the out of town reservations could be served first? If you didn’t then you should have! No to mention, all the paperwork was ridiculous, why don’t you request those shoe size, height and weight with the equipment rental reservation online before paying??? Not to mention the helmet waiver. It was a surprise to me with I was hit with an addition fee for my 2 kids for helmets. That should have been included in the original reservation. Having everything in the system prior to arrival would have greatly sped up the check-in process. Posting signs for different lines would have been extremely beneficial as well.

I would really like to give a good review because it's nice having a ski resort only 4 hours away. However, it's going to depend on your willingness to provide a higher level of customer service than what we were greeted with last Saturday, to alleviate our negative experience. I felt terrible for the employees who had to endure the frustrated customers, including ourselves, although I tried my best to be patient and courteous under the circumstances.

Thank you for your time and consideration of the information I have provided. Please let me know if you can offer a solution to our unfortunate first time experience at your establishment.

I look forward to receiving...

I’ve been going to snow creek for over a decade due to it being the only available place to ride a lift within a 4 hour drive. If there were LITERALLY anywhere else, I would choose it over Snowcreek.

First I will start by saying the staff is very nice. I do not include them in this post. To them I give 5 stars.

My 0 Star goes to corporate engine that runs Snowcreek and here is why.

#1 You can’t get ahold of ANYONE from Snowcreek or Vale Resorts(Snowcreek owners). It’s like they make it a point to avoid helping their customers. They do not care if you were mistreated or need help.

#2 The price is simply not worth the experience. Vail Resorts(Snowcreek owner) has made it clear that they are the only available ski/snowboard park in this area. Exploitation is the name of the game. Vail does not care about customer treatment at Snowcreek.

#3 In peak Covid times they offer no discounts for first responders/healthcare workers. I think there is one week where first responders get a discount but that’s it. Guess what Snowcreek, they work their tails off. One week is a pretty small window for a healthcare professional in these hard times. Need I remind you that you are only in business right now because healthcare workers are fighting the good fight each and every day for us? I guess on the bright side you do offer a military discount for ONE single ticket.

#4 You have cut your times to nothing(also why it’s not worth the price). Just today you were charging people FULL PRICE to enjoy your slopes from 2-4. REALLY?

At the end of the day I will probably still go use the slopes at Snowcreek because I love to snowboard and at the end of the day you ARE the only place to do so with the convenience of a lift. But I will tell you and every single person I meet that I can’t stand you and I hate myself a little more each and every time I go for allowing you to take advantage of my passion.

I sincerely hope Covid forces Snowcreek into new ownership. I pray for it.

Hope this review helps. It came from years of being screwed. Finally had to speak out.

Here are some fun facts about Vail Resorts for reference to how money hungry they are.

The company is worth 12.32 Billion with 37 mountain resorts nation wide.

Below I’ve posted a graph of some of their earnings...

Not worth the time spent waiting in lines or the money spent. Icy slopes, additional shipping fees for lift tickets that never came in the mail, long lines, only 1 ski lift running, extremely crowded despite "Covid limited capacity"*

*I have been to Snow Creek multiple times before and loved the experience, but my last trip to the resort completely ruined it for me. We ordered two tickets 9 days in advance of the reserved date to make sure we snagged a spot due to "Covid limited capacity" - which it's important to note none of the workers knew this alleged limited capacity - and payed extra in shipping as it was supposed to come in the mail. The first reservation was not confirmed (but shipping fees were charged?) to which we had to repeat the process again with another round of shipping fees for two passes we never got in the mail. They also don't offer rentals online, so despite buying our lift tickets in advance, we had to wait in a 30 minute line to get rentals and the passes that were never mailed. No one was available to help us start grabbing our rental boots, and we then had to wait in another 30 minute line to get fitted for our snowboards. The clearly functioning lockers were "out of service" so the only options were to put your items in open cubbies stuffed with strangers items or walk all the way around the complex (due to a one-way Covid path in the building) to put your things in your car.

There were double the amount of people there as compared to the previous year we were there - despite supposed Covid restrictions. Only one lift was running. Not good for beginners who don't like to go to the top, but don't wait to waist their time on the rope that drags you 20 feet up the hill. The line for the lift took another 30 minutes. By the time we got to riding we had waited 2 hours for 2 minutes of riding. The slopes were straight ice, no grip, beginners filled up the "mountain" sliding down the icy slope.

We left after two runs - a total of 4 minutes of actually riding throughout a 3 hour experience. We had plans to go back next week and will not be returning. Rather drive 10 hours and go to Colorado...