New England Wachusett Mountain - Abruptly ends season pass sales.

[Mark1975]

A few days ago, I get a call from a friend who has been buying family season passes at Wachusett Mountain MA for over 10 years. His story was actually unbelievable, so I went on their website while on the phone with him just to see for myself. Wow, was he ever right.

He was planning to buy season passes when they came back from their two week summer beach vacation. He checked before he left and all passes were available. At some point while he was away, Wachusett shut off all pass sales for the season with no email notice. Mind you, not just eliminating any early purchase discount, but eliminating all season pass sales. In mid- August.

He finally got through to someone at customer service and was told they decided to shut down sales "due to current Massachusetts Covid restrictions." Except Massachusetts eliminated all Covid restrictions statewide on May 29th. Massachusetts does not even have a statewide indoor mask policy at this time.

He was then told he could reserve 3.5 hour long Ski Session tickets for $68 per person per session. So in other words fork over $68 per person for 3.5 hours of slope time! On top of that, you can only buy 1 session per day, so no way to ski for the entire day or night operating hours. If you need to reschedule any session for any reason, there is an additional $18 fee per person. So now you are paying $86 for 3.5 hours of skiing on a mountain that has 925 feet of skiable vertical and only 3 trails that have the full vertical.

He said it was not even worth the drive to Wachusett from his house just to be allowed on slope for 3.5 hours. Needless to say, he is looking at other mountains for a place for his family to ski this winter.

Wow. The greed of this industry never ceases to amaze me.

 

[Uncle-A]

A few days ago, I get a call from a friend who has been buying family season passes at Wachusett Mountain MA for over 10 years. His story was actually unbelievable, so I went on their website while on the phone with him just to see for myself. Wow, was he ever right.

He was planning to buy season passes when they came back from their two week summer beach vacation. He checked before he left and all passes were available. At some point while he was away, Wachusett shut off all pass sales for the season with no email notice. Mind you, not just eliminating any early purchase discount, but eliminating all season pass sales. In mid- August.

He finally got through to someone at customer service and was told they decided to shut down sales "due to current Massachusetts Covid restrictions." Except Massachusetts eliminated all Covid restrictions statewide on May 29th. Massachusetts does not even have a statewide indoor mask policy at this time.

He was then told he could reserve 3.5 hour long Ski Session tickets for $68 per person per session. So in other words fork over $68 per person for 3.5 hours of slope time! On top of that, you can only buy 1 session per day, so no way to ski for the entire day or night operating hours. If you need to reschedule any session for any reason, there is an additional $18 fee per person. So now you are paying $86 for 3.5 hours of skiing on a mountain that has 925 feet of skiable vertical and only 3 trails that have the full vertical.

He said it was not even worth the drive to Wachusett from his house just to be allowed on slope for 3.5 hours. Needless to say, he is looking at other mountains for a place for his family to ski this winter.

Wow. The greed of this industry never ceases to amaze me.

They are basically selling you a half day pass for $68.00 that would make a whole day pass $136.00. The mountain is nothing to brag about let alone worth $136.00 for all day. The locals must be furious.

 

[Mark1975]

They are basically selling you a half day pass for $68.00 that would make a whole day pass $136.00. The mountain is nothing to brag about let alone worth $136.00 for all day. The locals must be furious.

Wachusett is open from 8 am to 10 pm weekends and 9 am to 10 pm M-F. That is four 3.5 hour sessions. So it would cost you $272 per day to be able to ski at any point during operational hours

I think most of the locals are fed up with the place with NH being 30 minutes away and Vermont less than 1 hour away. Wachusett pretty much caters to the Boston crowd, who are dumb enough to think what Wachusett charges is a bargain.

 

[Uncle-A]

Wachusett is open from 8 am to 10 pm weekends and 9 am to 10 pm M-F. That is four 3.5 hour sessions. So it would cost you $272 per day to be able to ski at any point during operational hours

I think most of the locals are fed up with the place with NH being 30 minutes away and Vermont less than 1 hour away. Wachusett pretty much caters to the Boston crowd, who are dumb enough to think what Wachusett charges is a bargain.

You are probably right but it's not a bargain anymore.

 

[scott43]

Well..charge what the market will bear really...

 

[Mark1975]

You are probably right but it's not a bargain anymore.

But remember, all the Boston folks think they are way more "wicked smaaart" than the rest of the country, so if they think it is a bargain and are willing to fork over the cash, then it must be a bargain.

 

[scott43]

 

[Mark1975]

Well..charge what the market will bear really...

You are right on this. I just can't believe people would fall for this. Think about this: You need to spend X amount of time driving to the place, find parking, take a shuttle to the lodge, get your equipment on, wait in lift lines, and when all is said and done you must leave when the session is done. If you decide to go in to warm up, have a coffee, get something to eat, it directly cuts in to your on slope time. I think the whole idea is crazy and would make the entire time there a stress pressure cooker. Really no time to enjoy anything. Ride the lift up, race back to the lift, wait in line, ride up, race down. Repeat until your 3.5 hours is up. No Thank You. I don't blame my friend for looking at other places to ski.

 

[coskigirl]

Looking at their FB page, it's clear that they planned to limit quantities and release more as they know more about possible capacity restrictions. While there may not currently be restrictions, given the Delta variant (and others we don't know about yet) I would not be surprised if that changes. The mountain may also have been advised by the state government that the government is considering restrictions so they put a hold on passes until they know more.

 

[Philpug]

He was planning to buy season passes when they came back from their two week summer beach vacation. He checked before he left and all passes were available. At some point while he was away, Wachusett shut off all pass sales for the season with no email notice. Mind you, not just eliminating any early purchase discount, but eliminating all season pass sales.

Is your friend's name Scotty?

And honestly, it is not greed. If it WAS greed, they would be selling as many passes as they could. It sounds like your friend shouldn't have waited. I would bet dollars to donuts there there were notifications from the mountain that there was going to be a limit of pass sales and that it could end at any time.

 

[Steve]

Wow, got a bug up your you know what don't you? Wachusett sold session tickets last year too. Season passes are a great deal, you just have to buy them early. Late to the game and blame the mountain? Until last year they had day and night passes only. Last year due to COVID and the need to limit people on the hill they instituted the session passes. Nothing new this year. They sold out many of the passes months ago, that's also not new. Your saying that "all passes were available" isn't accurate. The Steel passes sold out in a few days months ago and others did too.

You snooze you lose. They announced months ago that they had sold out on some passes, and would probably sell out on others too.

And yes, there are restrictions in Massachusetts, not state wide currently, but who knows what's coming.

 

[Mark1975]

Looking at their FB page, it's clear that they planned to limit quantities and release more as they know more about possible capacity restrictions. While there may not currently be restrictions, given the Delta variant (and others we don't know about yet) I would not be surprised if that changes. The mountain may also have been advised by the state government that the government is considering restrictions so they put a hold on passes until they know more.

Perhaps. But that would be true for all ski areas. I personally don't know any who have cut off pass sales in August, then started this restrictive and crazy expensive 3.5 hour session ticket idea. My experience with Wachusett is if you want to know the truth, just follow the money (which always leads to the owners bank accounts).

 

[Steve]

Unlike other ski areas that are in it only for the guests, not trying to make money.

I've found the Crowleys to be pretty transparent actually. And honest.

 

[Philpug]

Mod Note: Note the title of the thread has been changed to correctly portray the issue at hand.

 

[Mark1975]

Wow, got a bug up your you know what don't you? Wachusett sold session tickets last year too. Season passes are a great deal, you just have to buy them early. Late to the game and blame the mountain? Until last year they had day and night passes only. Last year due to COVID and the need to limit people on the hill they instituted the session passes. Nothing new this year. They sold out many of the passes months ago, that's also not new. Your saying that "all passes were available" isn't accurate. The Steel passes sold out in a few days months ago and others did too.

My problem with Wachusett last year was the crowds on weekday mornings. You snooze you lose. They announced months ago that they had sold out on some passes, and would probably sell out on others too.

And yes, there are restrictions in Massachusetts, not state wide currently, but who knows what's coming.

I am not trying to buy passes there. My friend was. His point was they never gave out a firm end date. If you look at Epic, they clearly state the pre-season discount ends at midnight today. Last year, they also gave a date (if I recall correctly, was in November) where pass sales were final. My friend is not mad at them limiting passes, but in no way communicating a date. He is however really fuming about the only option was to buy over priced restrictive session tickets. There appears no option to buy multi-day discounted tickets good for the entire day (8am to 4pm).

Edit: Anyway, doesn't matter to my friend. He just emailed me stating he picked up the Epic Northeast Value passes for his entire family.

 

[Steve]

It was not an abrupt end to pass sales though. They sold out.

 

[bbbradley]

Perhaps. But that would be true for all ski areas. I personally don't know any who have cut off pass sales in August, then started this restrictive and crazy expensive 3.5 hour session ticket idea. My experience with Wachusett is if you want to know the truth, just follow the money (which always leads to the owners bank accounts).

They did the exact same thing last season. Passes sold out and session based lift access.

Wachusett isn't ideal, but the next step up is a much longer drive.

 

[Steve]

Epic doesn't sell out. Smaller areas do, it's how they limit traffic.

Buying full day passes was not an option last year either.

Your friend just was misinformed and you're fuming over his ignorance.

 

[coskigirl]

Perhaps. But that would be true for all ski areas. I personally don't know any who have cut off pass sales in August, then started this restrictive and crazy expensive 3.5 hour session ticket idea. My experience with Wachusett is if you want to know the truth, just follow the money (which always leads to the owners bank accounts).

Even if the government advised all ski areas in the state that they are considered restrictions, every business has different risk tolerances and mitigation strategies and may react differently to the possibilities.

 

[Mark1975]

Wow, got a bug up your you know what don't you? Wachusett sold session tickets last year too. Season passes are a great deal, you just have to buy them early. Late to the game and blame the mountain? Until last year they had day and night passes only. Last year due to COVID and the need to limit people on the hill they instituted the session passes. Nothing new this year. They sold out many of the passes months ago, that's also not new. Your saying that "all passes were available" isn't accurate. The Steel passes sold out in a few days months ago and others did too.

You snooze you lose. They announced months ago that they had sold out on some passes, and would probably sell out on others too.

And yes, there are restrictions in Massachusetts, not state wide currently, but who knows what's coming.

Just looked at the Berkshire East site. No restrictions on season pass sales. You just lose a discount the longer you wait to buy. Plus they give the exact dates when the discount goes down. Seems fair to me. You know exactly when to buy before the discount is reduced.