The Whole SKI3 Frequent Skier Card Thing

[Harvey]

From the notes of the meeting from the North Creek Business Alliance on 12/17/20:

"Ashley O’Connor reported that ORDA decided to pause all ticket and season pass sales until January 4. Ashley cited staffing and safety reasons for the decision plus the desire to maintain a positive guest experience despite COVID restrictions. Ashley encouraged anyone with questions to call her at 518-812-4444.

Lodging providers expressed concern and said they were very worried and very disappointed by the decision. They were especially concerned that not all guests with reservations have booked tickets at Gore and would now cancel reservations. They also said the lack of sales would impact future lodging bookings. Joanne Conley from Warren County Tourism said she would reach out to ROOST/Jim McKenna to see how the Lake Placid community is responding to the ticket sale moratorium."

 

[The UNHOLY]

They paused ticket sales a week after Whiteface released their kids programs. How did the kids programs go through in this climate ?

 

[JonC]

Whiteface operational COVID updates say for FSC holders to check their email this week for important information. Nothing yet, will be interesting to see what they say....

Priority on newly available holiday and weekend dates would get me to stop complaining, but a little forethought on that would have been nice.

 

[snowalrus]

I have a pass, but I debated for a long time on the FSC, because I wasn't sure if I could break even in cost on the pass. I ended up buying the pass only because it seemed to me that ORDA wasn't considering FSC holders as a priority over day ticket purchases. When I spoke to Belleayre sales in November they told me that FSC holders could only hold 2 days at a time, and reload a new one once you had used one day. They suggested that if you wanted to reserve more than 2 to plan ahead for a trip or something and were worried about not getting a ticket, that you should buy them as a full price day ticket to ensure access. I don't know if that 2 day limit ended up changing, but in my mind that seemed like FSC holders could be at a sizeable disadvantage at getting spots depending on interest vs. limited capacities, in comparison to people relying on day ticket purchases only.

I feel bad for all the FSC holders and I hope ORDA figures out a solution that rectifies the situation somehow. The planning or messaging of this situation looks poor to say the least.

 

[TomCat]

The Fridays before the holiday weekends are also blocked as of now.
ORDA needs to think about the customer. For many, driving four hours to use the “free day” and not be able to ski a second day is just not worth it. Many more customers bought the card to use it on a few weekends.
They should use the tee time approach suggested for lunch table reservations during peak times. Reservations for pass holders would also help. I have a non holiday pass but am not planning to ski on weekends until February. Someone should be able to use my slot.
gondola lines were 10 minutes this week. Can’t imagine what it would be on a weekend.
Tom

 

[Tjf1967]

Little birdie told me things are shutting down in the 2nd of January for a while.

 

[JTG]

Shit.

 

[snowalrus]

Saw this mentioned on social media, so I checked Gore's website:
"We have added exclusive lift ticket inventory for Frequent Skier Card Holders. These tickets will be available throughout the season including weekends and holidays but limited by what capacity will allow. We will continually evaluate the availability of dates as we go through the season, so please check back if the dates you desire are not available today. We know you want to visit, and that’s what we want too!"

 

[Face4Me]

Little birdie told me things are shutting down in the 2nd of January for a while.

This wouldn't really surprise me ...

It would REALLY suck for all of the businesses and employees who count on these mountains for their livelihoods. This would be truly devastating for those people.

At this point, I hope ORDA (and the state) would recognize that, and will do whatever it takes to continue operations. I don't really care too much for myself ... I had kind of already written this season off, and have had very low expectations.

 

[Campgottagopee]

Little birdie told me things are shutting down in the 2nd of January for a while.

Not surprised at all