The Plunge Snow Tubing Park — Attraction in Stuarts Draft

This review is specifically for parents of younger kids. My son is 7, and well over the 42'' minimum height. We went tubing with my cousin and his daughter, who is 45'' tall (also over the minimum height). We had a truly horrible, distressing experience.

The tubes are large. We got in line and sat on the tubes, and the kids couldn't get their butts off the bottom of the tube, which is just a thin plastic sheet on the ground. There is the person at the top of each row helping everyone, and I asked the guy at the top of our row how my son should sit in the tube. He said "his butt should be off the ground" and I pointed out how I couldn't make that happen - his body was too small. Either his feet were in the tube, or his butt was on the ground. I asked again what to do, and he just said "his butt should be off the ground". And then suddenly we were flying down the hill. I had tied our tubes together and was sitting backwards so that I could watch my sun enjoy the tubing. Instead, I sat there helpless as we flew down the mountain while my son screamed in agony from his bottom slamming into the many bumps in the ice. You can't see it from the top but the bumps are around 3'' round ball shapes in the ice, I guess from bits of snow that have hardened - it's not a powdery or smooth surface. I have almost never heard my son scream like that, it was just an absolutely horrible, horrible experience. Both he and my cousin's daughter screamed in pain and distress for a few minutes after we reached the bottom. My son said it felt like the ice was cutting him open. His body also slammed into the ice when we went on one part that creates a jump.

I felt terrible because my son was scared to try the tubing, but I reassured him and promised him that the people running it were safety conscious and would take care of us. Later, we spoke with a manager and she showed us how the kids could go on the tube like a "starfish" - essentially spread out completely flat over the top of the tube. I am honestly worried that if we had tried that, the kids would have flown off the top of the tube, and we would have had an even worse situation. The tubes go very fast. Also that would have required the kids to have a lot of muscle control and the ability to hold themselves flat while also holding onto the handles on the side of the tube to not fall off. I just don't think that's realistic.

There was one other small child tubing during our time slot, who also only went down once and then didn't go again. I think this is a good activity but is NOT FOR SMALL CHILDREN. The age limit should be at least 10 years old and much taller than 42''. My son is at least 48'' and he was still much too small. I hope this review helps another family avoid the...

You don’t get full 75 mins. They close 10 mins early so you are only getting about 65 mins or so. It was a weekday and it was still crowded. You will be lucky to get 4 runs. After every run it takes few mins to get back and then wait in line for 15 mins or more. Few of the lanes were closed because they didn’t have enough staff to man the lanes. Weekday prices were reasonable but I can’t imagine paying weekend prices for amount of time you get. We were lucky that it snowed a day before so all lanes had soft and fluffy snow which made the experience more enjoyable. The bottom of the tube is thin layer so if your butt is not off the ground you will have painful ride. I would not recommend little kids to try this unless they can keep their butt off the bottom. Bring goggles because you might have their snow making machine spitting small pieces of ice...

We had a nice day at Wintergreen. It was 64 degrees and the snow was melting, but they did a nice job trying to keep the 2 snow tube lanes open. It was muddy and warm. I wouldn't go again on such a warm winter day. It was mostly mud, but we still had fun. The tubing was not worth the price. We got to slide down 5 times in the hour and half time. It probably would have been more times if all lanes were open though. It took about 10-14 minutes to wait in line and 5-8 minutes to go up the ramp, and 28 seconds to go down the snow tube lane. We were tired after leaving though. The ski ramps were slushy not snowy. The website said they "had a good base down, and the snow wasn't going to melt." However, I saw a ton of muddy spots peeking through the snow. Overall we had a good day. Better to go when it's cold though if going for ...