• 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.

Reservations: two philosophies

newboots

Angel Diva
OMG when I see the toilet height in so many lodges I have remarked to myself that there's NO way a woman designed these. This is the first time I have read anyone articulate what has been in my head.

It was my first year skiing, too, so learning to manage all the clothing without getting any of it on the floor (or worse) was even harder.
But I wish to reiterate: I love Berkshire East!
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
From another thread
Epic FAQ has been updated with more information on the reservation regime. (Sorry for not linking ... lazy). Three items stood out. (1) After initial reservation of priority days, you cannot change them until after 11/17 (reservations start 11/6). (2) You cannot make reservation for multiple resorts for the same day, and you cannot cancel reservation on the day of the reservation, but you can make a same-day reservation for a resort. For example, if I have no reservation anywhere for Wednesday, and come Wednesday I want to go to Liberty, I can make a same day reservation if any is available. But if I already have a Wednesday reservation for Liberty, and on Wednesday I want to go to Roundtop instead, I can’t reschedule the reservation from Liberty to Roundtop. (3) If you cancel or no show too many times, Epic can suspend your ability to reserve for a time.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
@Peaheartsmama : you were asking questions on another thread about Killington parking reservations. Like Priority 7-Day Epic reservations, people can't make unlimited parking reservations at the Powdr resorts that are using that approach to limit the number of people showing up on a given day. People who score a day ticket also have to make a parking reservation, but there will be far fewer day tickets available than usual. No window ticket purchases, just online sales in advance.

The Parking Reservation FAQ looks pretty detailed. The same system will be used at other Powdr resorts out west (Copper, Snowbird, Mt. Bachelor, etc.).

https://www.killington.com/plan-your-trip/getting-here/parking-reservations

https://www.killington.com/plan-your-trip/getting-here/parking-reservations#faq

HOW MANY DAYS CAN I RESERVE?
You can make two types of parking reservations: advanced days and weekly reservations. You can book up to seven advance days throughout the season at Killington. Once the season begins, you will also be able to book an unlimited amount of days in the rolling 7-calendar day window. Once one of the seven advance reservation days falls within the rolling 7-calendar day window, an additional reservation in the future past the rolling 7-calendar day window is allowed as long as you never hold more than seven advance reservation days at any one time. Our goal is to allow pass holders to ski and ride on the days they wish. Check back often for additional inventory.

HOW TO CANCEL & MANAGE YOUR RESERVATIONS
If your plans have changed, we understand. To ensure everyone has access to ski and ride this season, guests must cancel their parking reservations if plans change and you are unable to visit. You can do this through your email confirmation or the  ParkWhiz App. Downloading and using the ParkWhiz app is recommended for frequent visitors such as season passholders to make managing reservations easier. 

If you aren’t feeling well or need to adjust plans for any reason, you can cancel up until 9:00 a.m. on your day of arrival. If you do not cancel by 9:00 a.m. and you are a no show, or you abuse the system, it could result in loss of days booked or future privilege to book advance dates. You can view our full Terms & Conditions here. 
 

Peaheartsmama

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Thanks for teeing this up! Yes I just read through those reservations FAQs as well. I only have 5 days anyway so I think I’ll go ahead and try to book something and then decide when closer to the dates
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
As Killington gets ready to open Parking Reservations at 10am ET on Nov. 5, a tutorial video has been added to the website. It's about 6 min and well done. One aspect that becomes much clearer is that a parking reservation can be made from the Kton website or using the ParkWhiz app. ParkWhiz is not just for ski resorts so the first step is to choose Kton as the parking location.

Another clarification is that Advanced reservations automatically become Week Of reservations when that window opens up. So if you have reserved 2 days in a given week, plus 5 other days scattered in the rest of the season, once the window opens then you can choose 2 more Advanced days instead of waiting until you actually go to Kton that upcoming week.

Somewhere in the FAQ it's made quite clear that cancelling a parking reservation you know you aren't going to use is pretty important. A cancellation immediately allows someone else to get a parking reservation, even the day of. Given that parking is tracked via the QR code needed to park, if there is a pattern of not showing up then there may be consequences. For instance future reservations might be cancelled and/or the ability to make Advance reservations might removed for that person.

Screen Shot 2020-11-05 at 8.58.27 AM.png
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
While Powdr is using parking reservations at multiple resorts based on the same software, there are differences between locations. For instance, Mt. Bachelor parking will be separate for Alpine and Nordic skiers. Normally there is no distinction made in the big parking lot that serves both the main lodge and the Nordic center. Another difference is that a parking reservation is required at Killington even if driving in to drop someone off, while it's not needed at Bachelor. The two places are quite different in the set up of parking lots. Bachelor is near Bend, OR and the nearest lodging is 20 min away in Bend or Sun River. Killington is a full-service resort in Vermont with lots of resort lodging and independent lodging options within walking or shuttle distance.

Parking reservations opens on Nov. 5 for Killington and Nov. 9 for Bachelor. In general, parking reservations can be made starting Nov. 9 for the Powdr locations out west.

https://www.mtbachelor.com/plan-your-trip/getting-here/parking-reservations

https://www.killington.com/plan-your-trip/getting-here/parking-reservations
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Although Snowbird is clearly using the same parking software as Powdr resorts (same family ownership), the Snowbird website looks a little different. Meaning the text description aren't identical to what is on the websites for Killington, Bachelor, Copper, etc. There is more emphasis on the fact that parking reservations are free. Also clearer that when the systems opens on Nov. 9, the number of spaces available won't be every possible space for the entire season. The plan is that more spaces will be added every Monday at noon MST. They are clearly using early season as a test period.

For Snowbird, no parking reservation is needed for drop-off or pick up only. People with lodging at Snowbird don't need reservations.

A limited number of Preferred Parking passes were offered only to those who had one in 2019-20. Those people will get a hangtag and won't need a reservation.

Screen Shot 2020-11-05 at 9.57.16 AM.jpg
 

yogiskier

Angel Diva
Re urination devices: I have this one, which I think was the first one out. It works fine; I used it hiking a few weeks ago. I actually practiced before I left home, though, since it'd been a long time since I used it and I didn't want to wet my shoes. :rolleyes:

I happened across this thread while looking for something else - BUT - can I go off on tangent re: urinary devices?? Can I ask how discreet and legal is it to just pee next to your car?? I ask because I have recently purchased a pStyle and plan to use it for Thanksgiving car travel to avoid public restrooms, but the closer we get to the actual trip, the less confident I'm feeling about it!
 

TNtoTaos

Angel Diva
...Can I ask how discreet and legal is it to just pee next to your car?? I ask because I have recently purchased a pStyle and plan to use it for Thanksgiving car travel to avoid public restrooms, but the closer we get to the actual trip, the less confident I'm feeling about it!
The way I look at it is that just because we're using a device to direct the urine stream doesn't prevent us from directing it into a suitable container that can be emptied later. In fact, by doing that it makes it possible to actually pee inside the car, if necessary. :wink:
PS. Technically, it is illegal to pee next to your car.
 

yogiskier

Angel Diva
The way I look at it is that just because we're using a device to direct the urine stream doesn't prevent us from directing it into a suitable container that can be emptied later. In fact, by doing that it makes it possible to actually pee inside the car, if necessary. :wink:
PS. Technically, it is illegal to pee next to your car.

Oh, gotcha - I don't think it had quite sunk in that people were peeing into a container...despite the obvious references to suitable plastic containers :thumbsup:
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Too soon to know how the Alterra resorts that don't require any reservations for Ikon holders. However, so far the experience of making an Ikon reservation for Partner resorts has been painless as far as I can tell. Took me just a few minutes to make multi-day reservations for two different resorts the evening of Nov. 9. That was the first day the Ikon reservation system was open.

Most of the Ikon Partners are requiring Ikon reservations. Powdr resorts are using a third-party parking reservation system (ParkWhiz). Boyne is only using Ikon reservations for Big Sky.

Alta is going to limit parking on a first-come, first-served basis and isn't using the Ikon reservation system. Snowbird is using parking reservations. Alta opens on Nov. 21 and Snowbird is waiting until Nov. 30. So won't really know how the different approaches are working until close to Christmas.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
As more resorts from the major multi-resort companies open or get close to their opening date, becoming clear that there are actually four different approaches by the companies on Epic or Ikon. What seems to be a common approach is only opening for passholders during at least the first part of early season when there are only a few lifts running and pretty limited terrain. Also delaying opening days to allow for more snowmaking and natural snowstorms to have less of a WROD situation. As ticket calendars open up for Dec-Feb, it's possible to see patterns for pricing for day/night tickets and availability during holiday periods in Dec and Jan.

* Vail Resorts with Epic lift access reservations for all locations
* Alterra with Ikon, no Ikon lift access reservations
* Powdr, Ikon Partners, parking reservations
* Boyne Resorts, Ikon Partners, Ikon lift access reservations

Alterra, Powdr, and Boyne have slightly different approaches depending on region and the unique situation for a given ski area/resort.

Powdr seems to have made a company-wide decision to not open later than usual, mostly after Thanksgiving. In particular for locations that typically are among the first to open in their respective regions, such as Killington and Mt. Bachelor. The decision was announced for Bachelor in mid-September. Also looks like Powdr locations are opening for season passholders for a short period during early season, before making any day tickets available.

Sept. 16, KTVZ in Oregon
Mt. Bachelor shoots for Dec. 7 opening of ‘Back to Basics’ COVID-19-affected season
https://ktvz.com/news/coronavirus/2...g-of-back-to-basics-covid-19-affected-season/

Boyne paid close attention to the number of Boyne-only passes sold starting back in the summer. Boyne put pass sales on pause more than once since the spring for destination resorts like Big Sky and Sunday River. Clearly wanted to avoid any reservation requirement except for Ikon lift access. Ikon holders are limited in the number of days in any case. However, Boyne seems to want to have day tickets available for typically busy days as well as keep Ikon holders happy.
 
Last edited:

marzNC

Angel Diva
Powdr seems to have made a company-wide decision to not open later than usual, mostly after Thanksgiving. In particular for locations that typically are among the first to open in their respective regions, such as Killington and Mt. Bachelor. The decision was announced for Bachelor in mid-September. Also looks like Powdr locations are opening for season passholders for a short period during early season, before making any day tickets available.
What I meant was "to not open until later than usual" but lost an important word.

While a few lucky resorts were able to open a few days earlier than announced due to early season snowstorms, there have been two reasons for later Opening Days for 2020-21. The usual issue of not having enough cold temps for good snowmaking in late October or during November has been a problem in the northeast, mid-Atlantic, and southeast for sure. Combined with the need to have more terrain open from Day 1 in order to allow people to spread out on the slopes, in those regions the opening dates have been pushed back by weeks instead of days in some cases.

A third reason that came up more recently is even more directly related to the pandemic. A few states imposed Stay At Home orders or "freezes" that meant opening dates were on hold in late November.
 

TNtoTaos

Angel Diva

marzNC

Angel Diva
Bridger Bowl will have a reservation system. They happened to already be planning to implement RFID for lift access for 2020-21. So the reservation system will be tied into the Bridger Bowl RFID cards that season passholders and day ticket purchases will need to have. Being a non-profit means it's no surprise that a re-usable card will cost $5 for everyone. Going to be a lot of adjustments for some locals if they have never used RFID before.

 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Found other ski areas out west that are going to use the capacity of their parking lot as the cap for a given period on a given day. Meaning that once there are no more spots in the lot, have to wait until someone leaves. No reservation system, just first-come, first-served. Alta is providing more info so that people don't drive up the road only to find no spaces available. Oregon is the other state with a few places using the same approach. Timberline will close the road to uphill traffic for people who want to park.
 

TNtoTaos

Angel Diva
Found other ski areas out west that are going to use the capacity of their parking lot as the cap for a given period on a given day. Meaning that once there are no more spots in the lot, have to wait until someone leaves. No reservation system, just first-come, first-served. Alta is providing more info so that people don't drive up the road only to find no spaces available. Oregon is the other state with a few places using the same approach. Timberline will close the road to uphill traffic for people who want to park.
Interesting approach.
 

Latest posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
26,274
Messages
498,794
Members
8,563
Latest member
LaurieAnna
Top