Went for 5 nights due to an off-season special in August 2019, but still pricy (~$200 per night). Here's a bullet point summary of the notes I took during those 5 days and nights. In sum: we won't return; it's not worth the cost; the water park is freezing and full of flies; the staff is mostly teenagers and therefore they don't care and/or don't have the ability or desire to do anything differently; the service is abysmal and the food was never enjoyable.
* Limited activities in water park (e.g,. "big river" frequently closed off, and groups of 4-6 people would have to wait at one access point to get into it and have a turn being WALKED around the river backwards (!) by an annoyed teenager. Asked one employee (the older lady who was the boss of the kid lifeguards), and she said the reason the river was mostly shut down was...they didn't have enough lifeguards. This was every day of our 5 day stay.
* Water freezing in every area but hot tub. Asked one lifeguard why the water was so cold and she said, "well, the air is pretty warm!" Is there no one at Jay Peak who checks the water temperature? I never once saw anyone come around with a thermometer and there are none in the water. Do any staff or supervisors just...walk inside this water park? You do one walk-through, you'll see dozens of kids literally holding their arms and shivering.
* Water park, every day we were there--and we went in every one of the 5 days we stayed, because we'd paid for it, despite the water temperature!--was FILLED with flies. Can't you put up some fly traps or fly paper? Sanitize the space at night when it closes? Do...something? The minute you sit down at a table inside the waterpark, they land on your food, beverages and towels. It was just...really gross.
* Bar not open all day and night Monday, and closed when we checked it out next on Wednesday at 6pm (all during hours the front desk printout said it should be open). When I found it open on Thursday and asked why it had been closed on prior days when it was noted to be open, the sole bartender told me they just shut it down if it's not busy.
* Beds (we had a studio suite with two queen beds) were overlain with some sort of pillow top which slept really hot; same for the really soft down pillows.
* Basic stuff just wasn't obtainable (just one example: housekeeping had no more 'do not disturb signs' (we asked on day 2 when we couldn't find one in the room....so we had to be woken up by housekeeping daily).
* Terrible service in the open restaurants (e.g., at one point, the Foundry Pub took 40 minutes to prepare a salad and a cheese plate). I asked for the manager as our son was exhausted and ready for bed (hence, food that didn't require cooking!), and she said they didn't have enough staff that night for the dinner rush. If you know you only have a few open restaurants on the off-peak time, shouldn't staffing them be more well-managed? How many years has this resort been open and managing the various seasons?
* The food in the open restaurants was mostly frozen stuff (frozen burgers thrown on grill; chicken tenders put out for hours under a warming lamp) or oddly-concocted, still-not-fresh items (e.g., avocado toast was actually...brownish 'avocado spread' instead of an actual avocado). There was one pizza place open and the pizza was just ok. The "Provisions" general store has a small deli, so you're better off getting sandwiches there and some of the frozen food items you can just reheat yourself in your room (if you have a microwave, which we did).
* No working lights attached to light switches in room (4 switches to the various overhead lights...and only the lamps worked). Bathroom sink clogged upon check-in.
* Found our room keys stopped working on day 3 of our stay; went to the front desk and was informed that the guy who had checked us in had set them to expire that day (2 days before check-out). Why? Still a mystery.
* Even the remote control didn't work properly: when you turn the TV on, it immediately flashes a graphic of the remote and says to hit the guide button. Remote doesn't have such a button, I call the front desk, and am told...some remotes don't have it (so no way to see what channels there are except to laboriously scroll through them all).
There are other, smaller issues (e.g., outdated and dirty décor in the common areas) but frankly, those exist in many resorts/hotels and don't bother me so much. The main issue at Jay Peak is the cost for what you get in the room, service and restaurants as noted in just SOME of the details above--and the fact that the waterpark is absolutely freezing and full of flies. Go....anywhere else. read more