Snowstar — Attraction in Milan

I went to Snowstar on President's Day 2016. Let me start off by saying that I have only skied 4 times in my life, and all of those times was at Chestnut Mountain. From where I live, Snowstar is only 20 minutes closer to me than Chestnut. When we got to Snowstar we had to wait an hour in line to get our ski's because (unlike Chestnut) they have you fill out the paperwork for your ski's at the same location where they bring you them. This method and a good amount of people meant we sat in line for a hour. After getting my ski's I went outside and thought, "Okay, little small but lets give it a try". All of the slopes at Snowstar are very short compared to Chestnut and they do not have very good slopes for advanced users. When I got at the bottom I would have to wait several minutes because they did not have all of the ski lifts running, even though the website says they are. On the way up I managed to talk to someone who was a friend of the owner of Snowstar and he said they have some management issues. I guess one of the issues on the day I went was a lot of the people who were supposed to show up to run the other ski lifts, simply didn't. The guy also said they are hesitant to fire anyone (WHY?...) The condition of the snow was okay although there were some icy patches down by the ski lifts that you had to be careful of. If you are planning on eating there, or spending more time skiing then riding a lift, I highly suggest going on slow days. My brother and I could have stayed until 10PM that day but we left early simply out of utter disappointment. If you are traveling a little distance to go skiing, I would highly recommend spending a little more money and time to go to Chestnut Mountain instead.

(Side Note: I do not recommend Snowstar for beginning skiers as well because they do not have very good beginner slopes and the SKI POLES DO NOT HAVE STRAPS so if you fall and let go of them, you have to chase them...

We went snow tubing with our 5 and 6 year old for my kiddos birthday. First off I called multiple times to try and reserve our spot/make sure there would be snow. Coming from 2 hours away and a birthday gift on the line, I wanted to have my ducks in a row. Every single time I called I was told someone would call me back. It was always the same person that answered the phone. She was always too busy to help me and always told me she would need to call me back. I never did get a call back. After 4 attempts, I gave up on making the advance reservation and decided to roll the dice (I could not make a reservation online due to purchasing the tickets in advance, otherwise I would have done so). I ended up just calling to ask if there was snow on the hill the day before instead of asking for help with the reservation (where we live we didn't have any snow left on the ground so I wanted to make sure it would be open). Then we get there on Saturday and it was so busy that we were only able to go down the hill 4 times in the two hours we were allowed. Why in the world do you require reservations if you don't limit the number of people on the hill? The kids running the hill had no idea how to keep things moving. There would be solid 2-4 minutes that would go by without a single tube moving down the hill. My kids were so bored and frustrated with the line that they didn't even want to stay after the 3rd time down. I am frustrated that we wasted a birthday experience for my daughter on this. Only saving grace was that the facility was clean and hill was in decent shape given the weather we have had. Hopefully this information helps someone plan their trip and gives the facility the feedback they need to make improvements...

The people working at snowstar are EXTREMELY rude and condescending. I am a college student at University of Iowa and I was so excited to ski out at snowstar I bought a season pass as early as I could in May. Unfortunately in the snow storm at the start of the year my car was totaled and I no longer had transportation out to Illinois to ski. I thought it would be worth calling and inquiring about a possible refund or a pass deferment to next year because I am a student with no income, a totaled car, and am out $300+ on a pass I will not be able to use. When the lady answered the phone she was immediately rude to me about even asking but finally agreed to ask the owner and said he would give me a call. The owner did give me a call and said he would talk to his partners and get back to me. Weeks went by with no response so I called again to inquire. The same lady who I initially talked to again was unprofessional continued to cut me off and not let me even ask my question. She finally told me she would have the owner call me. Again after a week I was not contacted so I called and left a voicemail requesting the call from the owner like I was promised. The reception lady was the one to call me back and told me to "STOP CALLING WE AREN'T GONNA REFUND YOU". This was the first time I was told a refund wasn't an option and I was shocked at the blatant rudeness and disrespect to paying customers. When I politely said "could I possibly offer some feedback on your customer service?" she quite literally said no and hung up on me. I will not be recommending anyone to ski here or waste money on a pass when this is clearly a business who does not care about...