enjoralas

I think total was about $234 out of pocket counting the service fees of about $2 on each $50 gift card.

Hope you get them before they close. It IS April after all.

Just snagged my pass paid for entirely with half price gift cards. Score. Parked at the top and they were only selling tickets out of rental, so we skied down to the valley to buy because of the gift card situation, plus my dad is redeeming a few vouchers for gift cards and I knew the rental peeps would probably struggle with that. The counter girl down here is too, he is waiting on a supervisor. Skied down Burma to get here, seems like a cross between sugar and mashed potatoes. A little mist in the air, occasional sprinkle. I think it's gonna deteriorate fast. Hoping to demo some wider skis

The $519 price might never be available. In one of their Facebook posts they said this price was 40% off for their 40th anniversary, and after it sells out passes will be 20% off. If this is 40% off that makes full price $749, and the next step $599. So maybe they will offset some of the discount by charging other Early Birders $80 more than last year

I can't log into my account either. It can't even find my account using the lost password deal. I'll be up the mountain about 9am and will renew then. I knew I had to buy in person (or on phone) because they mentioned on Facebook gift cards not working online right now.

This deal is reduced to $15 for a pair of tickets. It does a few days to a week to get vouchers in the mail for this one.

Won't they be open until at least the 18th now that our parking lot tomfoolery has been scheduled for that day? Aren't they contractually obligated to stay open through the date of the PASR drunken meatfest? I thought that was negotiated as part of the incentive package that led to PASR's endorsement of them as the one hill to rule them all.

I actually like the policy more than I dislike it. At Montage yesterday it was hard to find a spot to sit for 5 minutes just to de-boot and put my Street shoes back on when we were done at 2pm. Don't know how much was outside food, but lots of stuff spread out and taking up whole tables. I think the reason Disney is so accommodating with the outside food policy is for a reason that might actually bite Blue in the ass at some point in the future — they can't feed everybody. They just can't keep up with it, especially at traditional meal times. They know that by allowing people who want to bring their own lunch to do so they are removing those people from the food service lines and creating a more positive experience for those willing and able to drop the coin on the food they have for sale. I know if I were to walk into a counter service joint in Magic Kingdom and realize it's going to be a 40 minute wait for food, I'm outta there. I'll buy my kid a corn dog from the midway cart with the shortest line and eat after I leave the park. Did the same thing at Blue last month. Brought the whole family up for the Winterfest fireworks. Watched em and sent the kids down the ice slide a few times and the 3yo decided he wanted a pretzel. We hadn't had dinner, so went in to the lodge. I went up for his pretzel and figured might as well buy dinner. I was going to get a burger meal, a chicken fingers meal, some other sammich, his pretzel and a couple drinks. I looked over and there were literally 15+ people waiting for food, on the side with receipts in hand. Quickly decided to just grab the pretzel, a coke, a brownie for me and a whooping pie for the wife. Things that didn't need to be cooked. Ate it then bugged out to McDs. I know that was a tangent, was before this rule, and was a special event, but I just wonder if by forcing people into buying their food it might become commonplace.

Damn, I missed the Point Phillips trip.

No, didn't make it out yesterday. Pops had work from 8-12, we had planned to go to Camel after since they were having a free demo day, but bagged it and I just got caught up on yard work. Headed out to Montage in a bit, have two tickets that I bought in December that we have to use so figured we'd give it a look today.

Apparently today they had skipo's at the doors preventing people from bringing anything in at all.

Yeah, as I said that's always been my annoyance with it as well. I would think that hills would at least reserve most of the tables, especially the ones close to the food service areas, for active paying food customers. Since I never bring food (or if I did it would be BBQ'd out in the lot with you heathens) it doesn't really affect me either. Although as an indoor boot-up guy I'm gonna be annoyed when they won't even let me bring my half drank Red Bull in with me while I boot up. I guess I'm surprised that with all the catering they do to the race teams they would enact a policy that is so unfriendly toward them. Looks like mostly race moms bitching so far. I was just throwing it out there that if you're the type that likes to sit back and watch the world burn, there's likely to be a whole lotta that over on Blue's Facebook page for awhile, lol

Most don't, a few do. My favorite park, Knoebels, does and even provides covered picnic pavilions you can use if they are not reserved for company groups. Believe it or not, the big boy on the block, Walt Disney World, allows outside food and drinks as long as there is no glass.

Blue is about to take an absolute beating in the court of public opinion over the no outside food policy they unveiled today. It's already happening over on their Facebook page. Be interesting to see if they try to ride it out or get rid of the policy. I get it, personally as someone who usually ponies up for food at a mountain if I stay long enough, it's really annoying when it's tough to find a table because they're all filled with groups taking twice the space they need with their 3-cooler packed smorgasbord. Or worse, the tables with bags and coolers on them and no one even around. But banning all outside food seems foolish and short sighted. Are there any other mountains that do so? I've only been to Blue, Camelback, Bear Creek, and JF and BB, and I don't recall seeing any signs and pretty sure I saw outside food in the lodge at all of them.

Don't know about the kids and school but Wednesday the 22nd is Buckman's demo day.

I think I might post a question on that status about the buddy pass. I want to make sure that if I renew my pass on Wednesday it doesn't override this year's pass and I lose the buddy pass I haven't used yet. It shouldn't, but you never know how their system is set up

Man, that's a hot price. I think I still have that much in gift cards even.

Sundays in January are the best time to take a never ever. $50 for the lesson, beginner lift and rental. In my first timer group from 3 years ago only about 1/2 of us were ready to try the school triple chair by the end of the lesson. The three lesson pack they had on sale pre-season for $179 was a great deal too.

Carrentalsavers.com is a great site that aggregates discounts and coupon codes. The SmartBook feature is usually pretty good at finding the best discount that's available to anyone. You can sometimes do better with discounts that aren't available to everyone like Costco, BJs etc, but it's usually pretty good. I don't know what your dates are, but I assumed renting at HDN and plugged the 10th to the 18th in noon to noon and got $497 at Budget for an Intermediate SUV, Ford Escape or similar. Although I guess that's only 8 days, so it would be a little higher.

Was at Camelback last Saturday and it was hella busy that day too. We mostly lapped Pocono Raceway and Rhododdendren Glen so mostly skied onto the raceway triple, but for the few runs we took to the top we hit the bottom quad. Even with a full queue it really wasn't more than 5-7 minutes. They had a liftie there matching groups of 4, which was nice.

I think it's in or attached to the arena, IIRC

Keep an eye on the "sweet deals" thread here, I'll try to post when they are selling gift cards at half price. Get yourself logged onto that website and have your payment information logged in there, and be ready to go at 9am when they go on sale. You can get that season pass for just a bit over half price if you are dedicated to it.

Don't forget to keep an eye out for hidden snowflakes on the slopes! Trade in for swag in the upper lodge

This all sounds like some pretty ridiculous, voodoo science crap. I suppose next you'll all be telling me that not being a fat slob at 5'9" and 275 pounds would help too? lol

That's right around when I started contributing, couple years into my career. Maybe 2009.