Not the slopeside experience I was looking for.
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 2/25/11
I was much happier with the $80 motel down the road. Not worth the extra price. I'm a single mom and I took my son on his first snowboarding adventure. I wanted to stay at a slopeside hotel for the ease and convenience of it and was willing to pay the extra price. The hotel is not at the base lodge. You can't check in until 4, so on arrival day, you still have to drive to the hotel at the end of the day on the slopes. There was no one at the door to help with my bags when we arrived. I'm willing to pay for this service, but I don't want to have to chase him down. Finally got the bellman/valet to get my bags to the room and he was nice. The one who helped us on the way out had a horrible attitude. The place was overrun with teenagers and not a parent to be seen. I really didn't want to see teenagers making out in the hot tub. I really really didn't want to wake up to girls squealing about what happened after the hot tub at 1:00 am. The free breakfast buffet was outstanding, but I couldn't get a cup of coffee. Just put out an urn, if you don't have enough staff to fill the cups. I was by myself and felt completely ignored.
Let's talk about the joy of skiing right to the lift. We did that. I checked the trail map the day before and saw all blue squares and black diamonds. I asked a woman at the ticket desk if I can take my beginner snowboarder son on those slopes. She assured me they were gentle easy slopes and she would take a child on them. So we headed to the top of Bear Peak at 8:25, so we could board our way down to the Attitash base lodge for the 9:00 lesson. The slopes were very steep. We were both scared. My boy did his very very best, but by the time he got to the bottom he was shaken up and exhausted. I was cursing the hotel and the ticket counter all the way down. Of course, at the bottom, he fell, hurt his arm, and we spent half an hour at first aid. He was ok, but I wanted it checked out, and we missed the first hour of the lesson.
Check out was at 11am, so now, at 9, I just discharge my son to the lesson, and I'm supposed to go back and check out? I wasn't having it, and I complained, they did give me a late check out at no extra charge, which was nice.
Oh, I forgot about dinner. Dinner was nice, and I was told kids eat free. I got the bill for both our meals. What about kids eating free? Oh, it's only off the kids menu. Well, they didn't give me a kids menu. Would I order a $10 quesadilla instead of free chicken nuggets? No. They took it off the bill, but I'm sorry, I would have preferred to avoid the uncomfortable process of having to complain about the bill.
All in all, it's not super convenient. It's not at the base of the family friendly mountain where all the activity is. It's not a luxury hotel. It's where parents feel comfortable ignoring their children. The wait staff is inefficient. Basically, they don't have it together.
They really should point out that the lift service at the hotel is only for advanced terrain. That's a major crime of omission.