The latest ORDA Screwup

Here is the deal and I challenge anyone to prove me wrong:
ORDA has become an arm of Cuomo and and a bunch of politicians who have no idea about what skiing involves,  skiers care about or what anything people who love  sports care about!
They think that we want fancy restaurants and flashy things.  Managers are rewarded for staying under budget and there is no attention paid to things like skier visits, Trail conditions, satisfaction, etc.  
These clueless idiots don't even know how to properly groom a trail or make even basic snow.  
I don't normally go to Gore on weekends (I'm blessed that way), but I have to ask....Who is the moron that thought that setting up a ticket booth that blocks everyone from accessing the deck when there is a line is a good idea? I had to work my way around a bunch of weekend warriors that could barely hang on to their skies to get into the lousy lodge!
These idiots can't even handle the most basic of things!
I have spent 33 days at Gore so far this year and I have heard more complaints than ever in my 11 years skiing there!  Gore is a GREAT mountain and management, POOR management is making it shit!  I have skied Royal Mountain, a little, LITTLE mountain twice this year and they have blown Gore away!  Oak Mountain has nothing on Gore and yet how they are and how they treat people blows Gore away.
Now please note, this has nothing to do about the staff.  The lifties and all are great!  They do a fantastic job and have to deal with all the BS.  Cheers to all of them!!!

Who do you blame?

Politicians and A$$holes who don't ski and have no idea about our needs.

Obama!!

Is the $7 bag check for the day?  Someone stated for overnight......which is it?  K has a bag check and will gladly give them a buck tip for fetching it (its free!) but if B is charging $7 for the day while skiing, that's BS...please clarify

Here’s a screw up observation, that fits with everyone’s general complaints about CuORDA putting in fancy restaurants.  

The new Cloudspin at WF.  They put in too many tables, they are configured all wrong, and they don’t have enough staff.

Seriously, the tables are mostly long eight tops.  We aren’t talking base lodge cafeteria seating here.  I was a table of one on Saturday and they had to seat me at an eight top.  Crazy.  Then, they have so many of these tables packed in back to back to back that you can’t get intoto the seats, especially the tables with the benches so packed in you have to crawl the length of them to try and sardine your way to a sitting position.  Of course, the way they packed in the tables in, good luck finding a waitperson to take your order, as there isn’t enough staff.  This weekend I had to literally wave down and/or chase a server after having been seated for more than ten minutes without so much as eye contact and a nod to at least let me know they knew I was there.

Common sense would say take out a few tables to provide adequate room for guests to sit, and then maybe fewer tables would actually allow servers to actually service the customers. I’d rather wait to be seated and when I’m finally seated actually be served......than to be shown a table I can shoehorn my way into, only to be completely ignored by the overburdened wait staff.

Centerplate should know better, no?

The $7 bag check is for the day, not overnight. And the bag check is at guest services so people that use it would be waiting in line to drop it off and anytime they wanted to access it during the day.

I realize many mountains have paid parking but the gripe is that Belleayre’s upper lot isn’t set up for it. Belleayre’s upper lot is like a “hallway” and closing off the first 1/4 of it and making everyone walk through that area is what’s annoying. Whiteface’s paid lot is off to the side and people can still get a good spot by the main or bear den lodge if they arrive early. If Belleayre wanted to do paid parking it should be setup somewhere in the lower area (where they’re trying to drive their visitors anyway).

Hoser wrote

Is the $7 bag check for the day?  Someone stated for overnight......which is it?

Sorry, I assumed it was overnight, which ORDA has had elsewhere.  

Listen, we’ve all been in a ski lodge, and you see the bags anywhere and everywhere.  Unless it’s like taking away free parking spaces to create premium parking zones, and they’ve taken away all space to stash your bag for nothing, anyone who is willing to pay $7 to stow their bag deserves to be separated from their money!  I do like the option of a locker or paid storage if I have something valuable to keep safe, on rare occasion.

I'm not familiar with WF paid parking.  You do have to work your way through Gore's as I recall.

When Mike intro'd paid parking at Gore he told me that it came from HQ and they were giving points for "new revenue sources." So that $50,000 in parking fees was worth more than selling an addition $50 in burgers.

Personally I could care if Gore ends up on a megapass, but I agree they are going to have to figure that out.

JTG4EVA, sorry I should have clarified.

 Weekends and Holidays: If the cubbies are filled in the Overlook (which fill up quickly on a midweek day), then you have to either put it in one of the paid lockers they have downstairs (very few of) or pay the checked bag fee. In the Discovery lodge, which lacks cubbies, you will be paying either the locker fee (again very few of them) or the check bag fee.

So, under tables, in corners, on windowsills is all off limits?  That would suck, assuming they physically remove your bag if not in cubby.  Thanks for clarifying.

Did we forget WF did this forced removal and all the signs a few years back?  Now to be fair, a) they didn't charge or have a bag keep area and b) the shelves b/t the main rooms in the main lodge really work good.  It did clean up the issue of bags all over the place.

Recap - WF did it right.  

Pro tip: If they're too busy to serve you, they're too busy to move your bags out from under the tables.

Yes the point of the bag check is to keep bags from under tables so they’re not in the way of people trying to use them. Apparently it’s a big problem in the discovery lodge.

My ambassador friend had said they planned on removing all the bags from the discovery on Sunday of prez weekend. Not sure if that actually happened or not.

There are many places where they could have added hooks to help with this problem. They didn’t.

My daughter and I left our bags on the floor at Belleayre yesterday. Lots of others did, too. I hope there isn't a rule that you can't. And if there is such a rule, I really hope they don't start enforcing it. There's a lot not to like about the new management, but that could be the dealbreaker for me.

By the way, here are my biggest complaints about recent changes:

1. The paid parking lot at the upper lodge. It's a pain not being able to drop off kids and gear right by the lodge.

2. The disappearance of bumps. Whether Belleayre is a beginner/intermediate mountain is debatable, but their intermediate moguls were perfect for kids to develop bump skills. And they made Belleayre's nearly identical trails more interesting.

3. NYSEF coaches (and the kids in their programs) skiing way too fast past the upper lodge. I know it's a pain to get to the terrain park, but they have to suck it up, slow down by the "SLOW" signs, and propel themselves over to the park under their own power. It's a daily menace, and a friend of mine was mowed down earlier this season by a coach and broke his wrist.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Plattekill somehow offers a season's pass (maybe non-holiday) that makes financial sense for my family, but it looks like it will unfortunately be Belleayre for us again next year.

moguljunkie wrote

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Plattekill somehow offers a season's pass (maybe non-holiday) that makes financial sense for my family, but it looks like it will unfortunately be Belleayre for us again next year.

What would it take?, just out of curiosity.

I really can't see Plattekill offering anything even remotely close enough to consider. Two full season passes for kids plus non-holiday pass for me would be $749 for me at Belleayre. I'd be surprised if I could put together three passes at Plattekill for less than $1000 (for a three-day-a-week mountain).

I've noted before how Plattekill's pass prices are much higher than other part-time mountains.

Last year, unlimited passes for myself and kids at Pico (open five days a week) at their early bird rates would have been $800. And at Magic (open four days a week), not sure about their early bird rates  but regular rates for two passes for kids and a non-holiday pass for me are currently $817.

But whatever Laszlo is doing seems to work for him.

moguljunkie I encourage you to send your feedback to belleayre on the feedback link on their website. Lots of people have been complaining on Facebook and riding the lifts but not sure if people are using official channels. I have written letters and had a face to face with Bruce.

I should clarify a bit more on paid parking to go along with what moguljunkie said. With the “hallway” setup at belleayre, they don’t allow anyone to drive up to the drop off point to unload gear and such. The new drop off point is where preferred parking starts so even if a family drops their stuff off then gets a spot they still have a long walk with gear. It has to be this way otherwise they wouldn’t be able to keep people from sneaking in the paid spots. At other mountains with paid parking, non payers can still drive up close to the lodge and unload their stuff then find a spot and walk up to their gear. I personally don’t care too much about the extra walk but has to be very annoying for a family.

Good point. Belle has no circle for temporary parking at mid.  The Gore setup is pretty good in that way.

I looked on the site and couldn't find the pricing. I do know it is more than Belle or Magic.

My guess is you are right, that Laz has looked at this every way. Maybe he figures the revenue he would lose from the families he has is more than what he would gain.

If he doesn't have a non-holiday, maybe it's because the place is never crowded, and he wants as many people there as he can get, for the F&B revenue.  Heck holidays are a big chunk of his season.

MJ when I've seen you at P, are you buying a single day tic online or...?