I'm seriously considering getting the Mountain Collective pass for next season. With all the extra bennies they're offering now (an extra day at your favorite resort, two days at Valle Nevado, lodging discounts, etc.), it's hard to say no. I figured I could get three trips out west and make a road trip out of all of them:
Trip 1: Aspen, Jackson Hole, Alta/Snowbird (that's a big road trip!)
Trip 2: Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows, Mammoth
Trip 3: Whistler (probably drive in from Seattle since I have friends there)
What's sending me over the edge towards buying is the two extra days at Valle Nevado. Has anyone skied there? I've read the reviews and they say not to expect out West style terrain. Could I be happy with two days there and possibly buying a day pass at one of their neighboring ski areas (El Colorado or La Parva)? Should I stay slopeside or stay in Santiago? When would be the best time to go? Should I spend an extra day or two exploring Santiago (or somewhere else)?
I once drove from Mammoth to Reno on 395 in a snowstorm and will never try that again. There are 3 8000 ft. Passes. Each had whiteout visibility with chain up required in 15 deg and 50 mph wind, no chain jockeys, do it yourself. The jockeys are all on the busy roads like I-80 between Sacramento and Tahoe. That's where the money is. Chains had to come off on dry roads in the low points between passes, otherwise you'd rip them to pieces. I'm told there's a longer safer road to the east in the NV desert, but I've never taken it.
I have read, don't recall where, that if Las Lenas were in N America no ski bum would dream of living anywhere else.
The thing about that pass is you have to spend money to save money. One visit to one place for about four days will make it break even (thanks to the current 3rd bonus day offer), but getting beyond that to really make hay with the MCP at a second resort requires a big road trip or second airline trip. How much does a plane ticket to Chile cost? Enough for two or three trips to the Rockies? But if you're accustomed to doing two major fly-ski trips each winter it might be the way to go and it sure features a tremendous line up of mountains. I guess the strongest attraction to me would be a flight into SLC and ski Alta/Bird, then circle up to JH, over to Aspen (or Squaw), and back to SLC, but that's a lot of ground to cover and would really require two weeks of vacation time to do sensibly. I suppose I am overlooking the 50% off feature is you just stayed at one mtn, but then the cumulative benefit (cost of MCP plus ~$50 add'l per extra day) for a one week vacation is not so significant and could possibly be matched by a number of other strategies and locations.
Believe JohnL has experience with that product, maybe he will chime in.
I bought it this year, as I had a 4 day trip at Mammoth, had a planned (but later canceled due to snow conditions) trip to Squaw/AM, and my annual pilgrimmage (only 3 days this year :( ) to Alta/Snowbird. It certainly paid for itself. If I do 4 days at Mammoth without MC, that's roughly ~350 depending on when you buy/when you're going/etc. If I do it with MC, it's 450 for four days. So at that point you're paying more. But add one more trip on to that and it should pay for itself. I went to Alta/Bird, let's say 2 days at Alta, $148 for that without MC, instead I got those both free (and they give you the combined pass which really has a value of $90-100). I believe at that point it starts paying for itself, roughly around 6 days it seems. This is really rough math, but I basically looked at what the cheapest way I could do my trips was, and the MC pass ended up coming out as the best deal, even if I bought tickets way ahead of time and used any possible discounts on lift tickets. Or, for SLC, used the SuperPass.
The 50% off after your two days is what really saves you so much money. if I do 7 days at Alta/Bird, I'm saving hundreds of dollars. Of course, it only makes sense if you're going where this thing works, so you really should do the cost benefit analysis for your unique situation. But for the # of trips you are doing, I gotta believe it would save you tons.
To the OP. If you buy a Mountain Collective Pass (MCP), you are not required to ski each area. Just making sure you realize that. ;) I wouldn't do all the driving you are talking about...
Unless I was 90 percent certain of skiing more than one of the MCP areas, I wouldn't buy it. You are paying money up front for something that you are not 100 percent guaranteed to use (no refunds.) I'll end up slightly losing money on it this year because I had to cancel one planned trip due to work schedule.
The biggest mistake people make when determining whether buying a MCP makes sense is to compare with the single-day walk up rates. Instead, you should compare to the price for multi-day lift tickets (4 out of 6 days, etc.) or other discount sources (Liftopia, Salt Lake City ski shops, etc.) You have to do some research.
Big caveat on the savings for Alta/Snowbird. The good news is that the pass gets you a combined Alta/Bird pass. The bad news is that you really don't need it (both areas are big enough to ski alone for the day. Possible exception for those staying in Alta wanting to ski Snowbird for a day without driving/taking the bus or those experts who can ski some of the connecting chutes.) Combined pass is ~105. Half price passes are 50% off the combined pass, which is ~52.50, NOT 50% off a pass at either area. So, at the SLC ski shops, you get get a Alta pass for 74 (79 window price) and a 2 out of 5 Snowbird tram for 70 per day (87 per day window price. So the 50% off additional days save you ~22 per day for Alta and ~18 per day for Snowbird.
Lodging savings with the MCP may or may not be better than other lodging deals.
Thanks for all the insight!
I wanted to bunch the CO, UT, and WY trip into one mega trip because I have a couple of friends in Denver who are going to join me. That is a lot of driving (DEN to Aspen to Jackson Hole to SLC back to DEN). I don't think buying flights for all of us would make it worth it. I think the plan would be to all jump into a friend's Suburau and just drive over the course of 9 or 10 days.
I did two trips out West this year (Winter Park/Steamboat and Whistler) and I know I can easily fit in another before the end of the season next year. With the Whistler trip, I took advantage of the bundling (lodging with lift tickets included). It came to roughly $144/night but with three days of lift tickets, I think in the end, it was worth it.
I also ended up paying the walk-up rate at Steamboat. Never doing that again. I'll definitely be doing more search vis a vis the liftopia, multi-day options.
I realize that I don't have to use it at all the "destinations". That option I laid out above would be my best case scenario. Still looking mighty attractive....
JohnL wrote:
The biggest mistake people make when determining whether buying a MCP makes sense is to compare with the single-day walk up rates. Instead, you should compare to the price for multi-day lift tickets (4 out of 6 days, etc.) or other discount sources (Liftopia, Salt Lake City ski shops, etc.) You have to do some research.
Big caveat on the savings for Alta/Snowbird. The good news is that the pass gets you a combined Alta/Bird pass. The bad news is that you really don't need it (both areas are big enough to ski alone for the day. Possible exception for those staying in Alta wanting to ski Snowbird for a day without driving/taking the bus or those experts who can ski some of the connecting chutes.) Combined pass is ~105. Half price passes are 50% off the combined pass, which is ~52.50, NOT 50% off a pass at either area. So, at the SLC ski shops, you get get a Alta pass for 74 (79 window price) and a 2 out of 5 Snowbird tram for 70 per day (87 per day window price. So the 50% off additional days save you ~22 per day for Alta and ~18 per day for Snowbird.
Lodging savings with the MCP may or may not be better than other lodging deals.
Yea, the prices I quoted at Mammoth and AltaBird are mostly walk up multi-day passes. You can almost always find better than walk-up day to day. At the very least, the multi-day at the resort is worth it, but often can find savings beyond that with multi-day from liftopia, etc. or at one of the ski shops where they sell discounted tickets. There's also the SuperPass if you're skiing Utah resorts a ton, or the EpicPass if you're skiing a bunch of [overrated] Vail resorts ;).
Good point on the Snowbird/Alta prices. Not much of a savings there, but still not bad. YMMV for sure though based on where you specificially are going and what deals you can combine. I ran a bunch of scenarios for myself and found the MCP to make tons of sense for me. Not to mention. I also got the MCP as a partial gift from my better half (idea: ask for it for your birthday or christmas :D) , but my math here was based on me paying for all of it out of pocket.
For me, getting the MCP has been a no-brainer because I typically spend 7-8 days at Alta Lodge in April. $52.50/day for the additional days is about as good as I'd been able to do in the last few years. Except for the low snow year there was a Spring Pass after April 1 for $199. While I mostly ski Alta, having the option to head over to Mineral Basin without paying more is a plus. The drive from SLC to JH isn't bad at all. Only a little longer than my drive to Massanutten from home. My ski buddy also got the MCP. So we planned a few days at JH before a week with Ski Divas at Snowbasin/PowMow.
For JH, the lodging discount wasn't really worth it for a 2BR condo. I did better using VRBO.
marzNC wrote:
For JH, the lodging discount wasn't really worth it for a 2BR condo. I did better using VRBO.
Was the lodging discount worth it at the other resorts?
nakedskier wrote:
marzNC wrote:
For JH, the lodging discount wasn't really worth it for a 2BR condo. I did better using VRBO.
Was the lodging discount worth it at the other resorts?
My sense was that the discounts were only helpful to people who are interested in staying at ski in/out resort lodging, whether the resort hotel or condos. Someone who calls Central Reservations to book their vacation could save a bit using the MCP discount. Some of the discounts applied only if something was booked before early Dec. Discounts were 10-20% for the places I checked.
Probably the last few days of the first phase for the Mountain Collective Pass (MCP). Later on it will be offered again, but probably for $20+ more. The other early bird incentive is a third included day at one of the destinations, but you have to choose the place at time of purchase. Since an MCP for a child is $99, a family who can plan to visit two of the destinations might do well making use of the MCP.
After about five years of mulling a ski trip down to South America, I finally bit the bullet today and booked a week trip to Santiago! I think the two extra days at Vallee Nevado pushed me over the edge. Price of the plane ticket was about $850, I'd say about the cost of two trips out West. Since I get to go to South America (I've never been), I think it was well worth it. We're going the week after Labor Day.
Looking at the transportation and lodging options there, it seems to cater to the resort go-er. I found reasonable lodging rates at the resort website but it's bare bones. The extras (rentals, lesson, airport transfer, half-board, etc.) send the price through the roof! Anyone have any suggestions on a reasonable airport transfer from SCL? Vallee Nevado wants to charge us $450. For that rate, I should just rent a car!
Also was thinking of doing a couple of days down in Santiago. GF is willing to put up with three days of skiing if we can go to a few wineries. Any delicious wineries within reasonable distance of Santiago?
Before renting car, check with AAA or somebody to make sure you have insurNce and that driving the local roads is safe and practical! Bus might run between airport & ski area. I suspect there must be some sort of package deal offered through ski resort.
post on Epic etc looking for advice. Have passports and if necessary, visas.
Good luck
That airfare's not bad. I've considered going back to the Alps in recent ski seasons, but airfares on reasonably convenient routes to Zurich or Munich have been about $1100-1200 when I searched.
The package that Vallee Nevado wanted to try and sell me was $450 for airport transfers! Lodging was respectable at $385 for three nights but I couldn't justify adding on almost $500 to get myself and my girlfriend an hour and a half up the road from the airport.
I'm an old hand at driving overseas. I spent a month road-tripping through South Africa in '09 and owned a car while living in Montenegro in '06. I will check my insurance coverage, though. Thanks for the advice.
