Mount Peter Ski Area — Attraction in Town of Warwick

Yesterday was the 1st time I took my 2 boys skiing. HORRIBLE experience. It was a 2 hour wait just to get rentals and a lift ticket. Granted it was a holiday (MLK Day) so it is expected that lines would have been longer than normal, but staff was not prepared for the turnout. I arrived at 11:30 and got my rentals just in time to catch the last beginners class at 2pm - and we were still 10 min late for that. Once the class began, we quickly found out that my oldest son's ski did not fit his shoe. I told the instructor that he was having trouble getting his boot to fit his ski and her response was "I know, you have to take it back to rentals". I was livid! I then informed her of my 2+ hour wait and stated that I was not going back to exchange my son's ski. I politely asked that she get someone. She said she couldn't. So I asked to speak to a manager. She pointed me in the direction of where I could POSSIBLY find him. I then asked her if she could call him over for me - she sent someone to get him and he came and fixed the skis. We missed half the class while waiting. Once the class was over, the 3 of us proceed to go to the lift area to begin skiing. However, now my youngest son's skis would not stay on his boot. It came off at least 4 times while shuffling a mere 15 feet. Each time I asked one of the employees to help get it back on and I told each of them that his skis kept coming off. They'd put it back on and send us on our merry way only for it to come off again within the next 3 feet of shuffling. At 4:30, I went to return the skis and the gentlemen handling the rentals asked how it was. I told him it wasn't so great because my son couldn't get his ski to stay on and he sat in the corner all day frustrated. He then said that this happens sometimes and the next time I should bring it back to exchange them. WHAT!!! I had never been skiing before so I thought it was just my son who couldn't get the hang of it. Not one of the employees that stopped to help us get it back on told us that we should take it back to change it. Side not, skiing isn't the cheapest of activities to do with your kids. Money wasted! Of all the unfortunate events of this day, the worst part of it had to be our encounter at the crepe booth. Since my youngest son was not skiing I went over to him and asked if he wanted to eat. We got on line. I'm next in line and the lady says she only has enough for 1 or 2 more crepes to the family in front of me. So my son said he would just get a hot chocolate then. For all intense and purposes, I am going to leave race out of this, but let's just say we were the only black family there. So the guy BEHIND me hears the crepe lady's (her name is Nicki) announcement and says he'll just have a hot chocolate. I get to the counter now and I ask Nicki if she has any more crepes and she says she has enough for 1 even though I really wanted 2. I gave my crepe order and asked for 2 hot chocolates. The other crepe lady, Becky, comes with 1 hot chocolate while Nicki is making my crepe and hands it to the gentleman BEHIND me. I politely said "Miss I'm standing right here and I just ordered 2 hot chocolates". She says yea but he has a baby (his "baby" had to be at least 5 by the way). In any case I kept calm and just waited for her to make the 2 hot chocolates for my 2 boys ages 8 and 10. She comes back with 1 hot chocolate and I reminded her that I wanted 2. She then says she doesn't have anymore. WHAT!!! Why would you give the gentleman BEHIND me the hot chocolate then??? I told her off as nicely as possible since there were kids around. Back to the crepe lady Nicki - she hands me the 1 crepe and then started to make another one so I placed my 2nd crepe order. Then she says no this is for the guy BEHIND you. But why Nicki? He is BEHIND me and I would like 2 crepes. Is it not first come first serve? Again I politely told her off, and then asked for her name. She then said "I don't care I'll give you my name, we're an independent vendor". Cool and I walked away. I won't be going back to...

This place was so awful I don't even know where to begin.

Let's start with basic amenities and conveniences. I'll forewarn everyone in advance: MAKE SURE YOU PEOPLE USE A BATHROOM BEFORE ARRIVING.

The "bathrooms" here (ie: Port-A-Pottys) are simply disgraceful. I'm not kidding or exaggerating when I say this, but inside of the Port-A-Potty I stepped into, there was feces on the floor and even spread on parts of the wall. I saw (and smelled) what seemed to be urine pooled underneath the toilet, and oddly enough, "wet" toilet paper on deck, which I guess they expect their guests would be comfortable using. It was absolutely appaling. In hindsight, I probably should've taken some video or snapped a couple of pictures, but I think the shock of how repulsive it all was simply got the better of me. I couldn't get out of there fast enough.

Next, there was the staff, which, on this day, ranged from "slightly helpful" to "I don't really want to be here today and here's my disgusting attitude to prove it!" I asked a couple of basic questions about their snow tubing rules, and some of the responses I received were delivered with very snobbish, condescending tones, almost as if they were annoyed or bothered that I was talking to them.

Well, here's one more question for the offending staffers at Mount Peter: Why would you folks choose to take a job dealing with the public (on a daily basis, no less) if you're not a people person, or at the very least, can't even "fake it?" People want to be treated kindly at places like this. They want to be "catered to." They want to be around overly-friendly and approachable employees. Trust me when I say this, the "bossy, rude, and arrogant approach" is a surefire way to kill your business, regardless of how great your product or service is... which brings me to my next point, the snow tubing itself.

Let me start this part by saying the actual tubes they give you are, in a word, horrible. They're constructed in a way where the weight from your rear-end acts as an unavoidable braking mechanism, so sitting completely inside of your tube winds up becoming a counterintuitive endeavor. Instead, you have to strategically position your backside on the front-edge of the tube and then lay the rest of your body in a supine position if you have any hopes at all of making it from the top of the hill down to the bottom.

Even using this approach, I still only wound up getting halfway down.... on 5 different occasions. Surveying the situation, I quickly realized I was not the only one experiencing this problem. It seemed like a lot of people were getting stuck. One of the employees tried to explain to me that the snow was "excessively wet," and "grippy traction" was more prevelant than usual. Okay, if that was the case, why did you take my money without giving me some kind of warning in advance? If somebody from Mount Peter said to me "Hey, I know you're here to do some snow tubing, but given today's conditions, there's a good chance you'll only wind up making it about halfway down the hill," I wouldn't have committed to a ticket.

In any event, our session was initially booked from 11AM to 1PM, but the overall experience was so unenjoyable we wound up leaving at 11:45. We drove over 2 hours to get there and then another 2 hours back home, not to mention stopping for gas and getting bombed with expensove tolls along the way. Talk about a complete waste of time, energy and money.

In closing, I want to remind everyone that there are far better options out there for similar sctivities. Camel Back and Greek Peak initially spring to mind. Do yourselves a favor and strongly consider those places first before making the same mistake we did. Personally, I wouldn't return to Mount Peter even if it was 100% free, it...

Some of the staff were nice and attentive (Elias in the ski rental area was super nice- came over to us and offered help). Others not as much. Don't remember the name of our ski instructor - he tried to be nice for sure but he didn't explain the beginner techniques in a way that made my 9 y/o daughter feel confident for her 1st time skiing. Also he kept letting stragglers join the lesson which you might think is nice but not really b/c it just made the lesson drag on and on. Could've been a 20-30 min lesson instead was like an hr. The bunny slope was ridiculously small and ridiculously crowded. After 2 runs and a declaration that yes, indeed, my daughter was finally enjoying her 1st ski experience, we thought we'd try the beginner slope - but it was WAY bigger than the bunny slope. Top that with no instruction how to get off the chairlift and an epic fall by mother and daughter as we got off and you have a 9 year old crying and crying at the top of the hill. Ok, the guy at the top of the lift did help us up and was friendly. I tried to keep my spirits up. I've always been a bit unsteady getting off the chairlift and it's been many years since I last went skiing. Anyway, I convinced her to try again and she went zooming, forgot her pizza and- natch- fell. We must have been in that spot near the top of the hill for like 45 min - no joke- while she cried and cried and said she couldn't get up etc etc. Look, I know other kids may take to skiing more quickly. Maybe she was tired after having a sleepover two nights before our ski day. Still, when I saw the SAME instructor pass by 2x and offer NO help at all (ok- he was giving a private lesson I think but he could have stopped to check briefly) it just made me feel abandoned and dissappointed. I would think they would have some staff or a patrol just to ski down the different slopes and check all was ok. How did they know my daughter was just being a grump? Maybe she broke her ankle and couldn't move? A staff member could have stopped for 2 minutes and checked if all was ok. Maybe given a word of encouragement- it might have made a difference. I even took out my phone and called the office - of course no answer. I left an answer on the answering machine lol. Then I let her walk down the mountain and I had a great time skiing for about 6 non consecutive minutes - I would ski a little like a minute then stop, wait for her to catch up to me, ski another minute, wait etc til we got to the bottom. Super fun :/ Maybe others had a better experience idk. They had a bunch of ski school classes that looked like they got much more direction and much more supervision. They also have instruction for little kids called Pete's Pals and that looked cute too. But a regular learn to ski session...well I've described that. So I would say if you want to bring a beginner a) try to get there early on a busy Sunday (like 10 am- we didn't arrive til about 11:20) b) have a little energy boost of a snack after getting the equipment and heading to the lesson c) go on the bunny slope lots of times even if it's small and crowded until you are quite sure your little one is ready for the step up d) choose a different ski resort. My only consolation is it cost me only $27 for her plus $15 for her helmet because I signed her up for the iskyny learn to ski program for NY state which lets 3rd and 4th graders learn to ski for free - $27 is a processing fee. Rental, lift ticket and instruction was included. Iskyny is a great deal even if we only use it...