• Women skiers, this is the place for you -- an online community without the male-orientation you'll find in conventional ski magazines and internet ski forums. At TheSkiDiva.com, you can connect with other women to talk about skiing in a way that you can relate to, about things that you find of interest. Be sure to join our community to participate (women only, please!). Registration is fast and simple. Just be sure to add [email protected] to your address book so your registration activation emails won't be routed as spam. And please give careful consideration to your user name -- it will not be changed once your registration is confirmed.

Daycare at Sugarbush?

braveskimom

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Any Sugarbush experts out there?

A friend just asked me about the Sugarbush Day Care Center for a toddler and an infant. If anyone has experience with it, or tips and suggestions, please post!

Thanks!
 

Jersey Fresh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
This isnt going to help much, but I was a sugar bear (at least thats what it was called in the 80's) as a kid. My parent stuck us in the daycare program while they skied.

It was almost 30 yrs ago, but I have nothing but fond memories :smile:
 

braveskimom

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
This isnt going to help much, but I was a sugar bear (at least thats what it was called in the 80's) as a kid. My parent stuck us in the daycare program while they skied.

It was almost 30 yrs ago, but I have nothing but fond memories :smile:
Thanks!
 

Mom of Redheads

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
It's probably too late to tell you anything useful here, but I used the infant and/or toddler rooms at Sugarbush for all 3 of my kids. In fact, the daycare was one of the things that kept us going back. It was at least 9 years ago that we last went, so take this with a grain of salt. Also, they've had a lot of construction, so I don't know if the location of the daycare is different.

The infant room was staffed by Marta (I think) who was maybe Austrian or something and she was great. Large room, quiet, plenty of cribs, swings and toys... We used to go with just before or just afte Pressidents weekend and it was very quiet midweek.

There were two toddler rooms... And I am much less familiar with them. The two year olds did go out and play in the snow... And I think they may have gotten to learn how to put on skis or ridden sleds, so they got some outdoor time as I recall and some snow familiarity. The older toddler room allowed for lessons... But it was a mix of daycare with lessons as opposed to ski school. As far as I am concerned, the difference is that ski school has not much to do during the non-lesson times and daycare has toys and so on but you can get your kids on skis if you want. I think the older kids take a bus over to the base area (bus driver gives cookies) for s short lesson. But the kids can choose to skip if they're tired or cranky or it's too cold or they need a nap... Or you can do a lesson in the morning but not afternoon and so on...

Anyway, as I said, this was many years ago and they may not be in the same location, but assuming nothing has changed drastically, the Sugarbush daycare program was a huge factor in our decision making at the time...

Hope this helps a bit... For context, we probably used the daycare most years from say, 2002-2007, I'm thinking...
 

maggie198

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I used the daycare and ski school many years ago for my girls. It was very good. My older daughter, then 6, had an awesome time going out for her first skiing experience. My younger daughter, just a toddler, was watched and cuddled, and soothed by an older, grandmotherly type woman. I was very pleased with their care of my children.
 

braveskimom

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Thanks Maggie198, MomofRedHeads and JerseyFresh for answering! I passed on all of your comments and just got this back from Courtney.

"We actually just finished up a vacation at Sugarbush and cannot rave enough about the Sugarbear daycare program. The staff is excellent. We stopped by unscheduled right at the end of the day just to acquaint our toddler and the director gave us a full blown tour. She made us completely comfortable with the center and staff.

Then the next day when we dropped off both our kids, she remembered the toy my toddler had wanted to play with the day before and made her right at home so there was no issue.

We were equally pleased with the infant room. They catered to our baby's schedule and when we picked her up, she was all smiles.

We had the kids in the center for 2 whole days and even hired one of the teachers for the evening to babysit at our condo. Cannot say enough about that experience either. She took right to our kids and the evidence of the fun was very apparent when we came home.

We will absolutely return if not only for this experience again."
 

Mom of Redheads

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Whew! I feel validated LOL...

Seriously, I would have felt like an idiot if your friend had a terrible experience. But it's hard to believe the service would have changed drastically for the worse at a quality resort... So I'm not remotely surprised she had such good things to say.l

I agree with your friend; the daycare experience was no small factor in our going back for so many years. Well, and the skiing too of course. It's not so much that the daycare would be the first factor in going back but more that it made the entire experience so much more pleasurable and we never felt worried about our kids. We called in mid-day and they were happy to give us the skinny on how their day was going!

We've done daycare or ski school ( or sometimes had to request an accommodation for our daughter where we needed something extra) at a number of places, and our experience at Sugarbush was at the top of the list. And tell your friend (if she comes back to Vermont) that Stratton's daycare was a close second... And their ski school was pretty darn good as well.

I'm glad your friend was happy... There are good recommendations and then there are raves! Sugarbush daycare (I'm less familiar with their ski school so specifically daycare here) is a rave. And so is Stratton's. And if you ever need to know, so is the Adaptive program at Smuggler's!

:dancing::dancing::dancing:
 

braveskimom

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Whew! I feel validated LOL...

Seriously, I would have felt like an idiot if your friend had a terrible experience. But it's hard to believe the service would have changed drastically for the worse at a quality resort... So I'm not remotely surprised she had such good things to say.l

I agree with your friend; the daycare experience was no small factor in our going back for so many years. Well, and the skiing too of course. It's not so much that the daycare would be the first factor in going back but more that it made the entire experience so much more pleasurable and we never felt worried about our kids. We called in mid-day and they were happy to give us the skinny on how their day was going!

We've done daycare or ski school ( or sometimes had to request an accommodation for our daughter where we needed something extra) at a number of places, and our experience at Sugarbush was at the top of the list. And tell your friend (if she comes back to Vermont) that Stratton's daycare was a close second... And their ski school was pretty darn good as well.

I'm glad your friend was happy... There are good recommendations and then there are raves! Sugarbush daycare (I'm less familiar with their ski school so specifically daycare here) is a rave. And so is Stratton's. And if you ever need to know, so is the Adaptive program at Smuggler's!

:dancing::dancing::dancing:
Thanks again!
 

maggie198

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
@Mom of Redheads, it was so many years ago that I used the daycare, that I felt the same way! Would I be an idiot, or obsolete with my endorsement? But the prevailing attitude at the time was so caring, nurturing, and just low-key home-like, that I didn't feel like they would change that. I think it comes from the attitude of the Vermont people who live and work in the area, which is very genuine.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
26,233
Messages
497,559
Members
8,503
Latest member
MermaidKelly
Top