AvalancheXpress — Attraction in Springettsbury Township

We took a family outing to AvalancheXpress a couple weeks ago on a Saturday morning. We have come here in the past and had a great time, but it seems like this place has gone downhill fast (no pun intended).

Let's start with the ticketing process. Our kids had received AvalancheXpress gift cards for Christmas. Although they want you to reserve a spot online, the website does not accept their gift cards. If you want to ensure there's a balance on the gift card, don't try to use the website listed on the back of the card - you'll just get an error page. They also had no way to use the promotional tickets my kids had earned through their school reading program on the website. All this being the case, we had to just show up and hope for the best. When you finish up at the ticket counter, you're timed entry will round down to the previous hour, so don't take too long.

Once you accomplish the task of purchasing your entry tickets, the first thing you'll notice is a large combined mound of inflated tubes, deflated tubes, mud-covered tubes, tubes filled with solid blocks of ice, etc. There is no signage to tell you whether you should grab a tube before entering the line and no one directing you what to do. Once you figure out where to actually enter the line (no signage for that either) you'll find yourself in a mix of people with and without tubes because no one knows what to do. While you wait, you can occupy yourself by observing the wide variety of trash all over the place - golf balls, deflated tubes, literal garbage, broken fence posts. Being this is marketed as a "resort", it looks a little more like a garbage dump.

The lines were super slow moving - the employees didn't seem like they had been fully trained or really knew what was going on. They have a walking path if you want to skip the lift, however they told us we would still need to wait in the line, so what's the point? Eventually one of the metal gates fell over and people were skipping the line in favor of walking anyway, which was also frustrating since we were told we couldn't do this. So I guess as long as you don't ask, it's all good?

When all was said and done, we were able to actually go down the hill about 4-5 times in our two hour block of time. Between the painful ticket purchasing experience, long lines, lack of direction, and trash everywhere, it's pretty hard to justify this for a family outing at $40 a ticket. This place could be great, but they need...

We arrived at Avalanche Xpress with a car full of kids ready to go. We filled out waiver online and purchased our tickets online as well in hopes of being able to get to the hill quicker. We were wrong. When we arrived, half of the hill was not even prepared and they only had 2 lanes open. We looked over at the lift entrance and it was packed full. People looked like sardines in the corral waiting to go down the hill. Regardless there were no social distancing protocols in place at all.

When we saw this, we quickly went inside and promptly asked for a refund. As we were discussing with the girl behind the counter, Gabby came over and said "I'm the person you need to speak to". I explained our concerns about the conditions during this global pandemic and she said they don't typically offer refunds but would work on it. I brought up the fact that we just drove 45 miles to get here and are about to get and the car and leave. She tried to tell me she was sorry and I said I just want my refund so we can leave because this is not what we signed up for. Gabby said she will work on my refund as soon as I was nice to her. I was very nice throughout this entire transaction. I was just being brutally honest with what we saw and I don't think they wanted to hear it.

While she was processing the refund, I informed them that common sense would tell you with the demand that you currently have would stipulate opening more lanes. Some gentlemen butted into our conversation and said they can't make snow when it's 40 degrees. If that's the case how is Round top producing snow? Maybe they need to do some recon there.

While all this was going on, we found out that we can't get our refund until 24 hours later. Because there system won't do it. That did not make me very happy. But fear not. Gabby will call me first thing tomorrow morning when it is processed.

So yeah we won't be back. Despite all of the management tricks and listening techniques to make me happy. I will leave you with a couple images. Hopefully ABC27 or FOX 43 get wind of this and start asking questions....

Great experience. We got the overnight family package over Christmas break which was the best value for us by far. The hotel room was nice, clean, and quiet even with all of the kids running around. They have free so-so coffee and hot water in the lobby, but they didn't always have the cups stocked ever after we asked them to restock. The hotel was really close to the tubing trails and ice rink, so there isn't much walking needed to come inside to warm up. There was also plenty of parking in the rear lot. The tubing trails are slow in the morning after they make snow, but super fast as the day goes on. Be prepared to slam into the air bags if you get a fast run. Weekday lines are short in the AM, longer mid afternoon, and short late at night. For tubing, there are a few things to know. The pro shop for ticketing is 1st floor through the pub if coming from inside the hotel walkway. Signage isn't great. Location is to the rear (west) side of the ice rink if coming from the parking lot (fyi, for the ice rink, the locker room is also where you get your skates). For tubing, you can take the pull line or walk up the hill, but either way you have to stand in the queue line which isn't obvious because signage was poor, so people would sometimes cut through the tube drop area to skip the line and walk up the hill thinking that the queue line was only for pull line people. The kids running the slopes were really friendly. The guys at the top were having a blast pushing people off for spin rides or side by side racing with friends. The guests were mostly friendly. Kids are so excited that they are jumping around and knocking their tubes into you. Adults did the same thing. I had one guy hurl a tube right at me for some unknown reason. Strange, but not a major issue. Just don't expect the bottom of the slopes to be a gentle area. For ice skating, everyone we saw out there sucked, including me. It's not a place for pros, so don't expect to have clear and open sailing if you are a really good skater. They also have scheduled hockey games, so you could watch a game if the timing of your...