It was two weeks of, “Mom when are we going snow tubing with the boy scouts”. I was looking forward to it myself. Neither my boys or myself had ever been snow tubing. I had been to Hidden Valley Resort in Hidden Valley, PA for a wedding about 10 yrs ago, but that was about it. The boy scouts in our area do this trip each year. This is the first year we were actually able to go. I lined up a baby sitter for my toddler. I was a little nervous. I didn’t know what to expect. I’m not a fan of being out in the cold for very long. If I had only known that the cold would be the least of my concerns.
We arrive at Hidden Valley Resort. The snow tubing sign was prominent at the entrance of the resort. It wasn’t hard to find at all. We quickly found our boyscout pack, signed our release paper, gave our money to our pack leader who got us the group rate ($14 a piece for 2 hrs), and before long we were headed to the snow tubing slopes.
Our group time was scheduled 12-2 pm. Two Hidden Valley Resort employees gave us all a quick run down on the rules for safety. There was a visible conveyer belt (they called the magic carpet) that would take us with our tubes to the top of the hills.
It started off well enough. Then it started to get busy, yea, pretty busy. The Hidden Valley Resort employees were starting to become noticeably frazzled and at times, down right rude.
There were 2-3 employees at the top of the hill that were supposed to be helping to push people down the hills, as well as let us know when it was ok to go. They did neither. Several times I had to leave my inner tube to mark my place in line to step away and push my children down the hill as the employees stood there complaining about the people and socialized.
There were 2 employees at the bottom of the hills thatI had assumed were there to direct people. Only a few times did I hear them yell at small children to hurry up and get off the slopes. At one point I witnessed a child that looked to be about 5 or 6 yrs old literally get run down buy a full grown man in an inner tube. (Thanks employees at the top for being so vigil). The father was panicked and ran over to pick up his son. The employees just stood there. In the panic the father ran his son off the slopes leaving the tube behind. The kind and caring worker ::that’s sarcasm:: picked up the tube and threw it to the side while shaking his head and rolling his eyes. Seriously people, I witnessed this.
As it grew busy they opened another “lift” to the top. The conveyor belt was still running but they opened up one that had the hooks that hooked onto the tube handles and gave you a ride up on your tube. My boys were in front of me. The employee hooking people up to this list was visibly annoyed. He was yelling at my 7 yr old “Hurry up, Hurry up, let’s go”. It wasn’t just my child though, I observed him speaking similarly to other people and children going through.
After an hour we decided to go inside where there was an over-priced concession stand. No one was manning the station. There were two employees directly behind us that were handling the tickets. They stood there and socialized as a line formed at the unmanned concession stand. The man behind me became impatient and asked the ticket employees if someone was working behind the concession stand. She said “oh let me see if I can find someone”. After about 5 more minutes a girl comes down to take our order who says “I don’t normally work down here so, I’m not familiar with the menu.” Great… We did finally get our food. We sat at a bar style counter and ate. I noticed a younger man sitting behind me eating. I thought he was another snow tuber. He cracked some jokes at a guy coming through the door. At least 3 of them gathered around. It turned out they were employees. As I nibbled on my soft pretzel I got to enjoy their rantings about how busy it was. One employee even said “These people…dude you sit on the tube, you grab the handles, and you go down the hill, how hard is that?!” I was shocked that these Hidden Valley Resort employees were allowed to sit there and bash the clients that were sitting right behind them.
It could have been a great experience at Hidden Valley Resort in Hidden Valley, PA for my children, the boys scouts, and I. Instead the customer service made us seem like we were more of a pest than paying customers.
***This review was not solicited by Hidden Valley Resort, in PA or any other company or person. Occasionally have a very positive or negative experience with a company and feel the need to write about my observations. All opinions expressed are my own personal opinions based on my experience. This post does not represent those of any other person or party but myself***
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