I am the mother of a two year old so typically whatever keeps her happy and entertained I'm happy with.
Unfortunately, I was disappointed with winter park even though my daughter had fun and I'm not the picky type. Here is just a couple of the negatives I noticed in our 1.5 hour stay:
- We entered the park and it seemed like a cattle yard for people. The lines were extremely long (for tickets, food, slopes) with no organization to anything. If you are the type who hates large crowds or being closely confined by people, this place isn't for you.
- Lack of seating to accommodate the amount of people. If you have an elderly family member or someone with a stroller or infant who wants to tag along, get there early to scope out your table or end up standing the entire time.
- 1 bathroom for the ENTIRE park. I did not use the women's bathroom but my husband used the men's and there was 2 stalls and 3 urinals, for a park packed with people.
- The kids Korral consisted of two kiddie slopes. One of the slopes did not work properly and kids would attempt to go down only to get stuck and completely stop about 20 feet from where they began, parents were slipping on the slick snow to walk down the slope to try and push their children further down. There was no actual play area for the smaller children.
- The passes you purchase are for 3 hours, but who is enforcing these time tickets? The 3 hour passes were to I'm assuming help keep the park pretty cleared out and less packed but it didn't seem to help at all.
- The lines for the slopes were extremely long. If you have smaller, impatient children this isn't for you. We waited for approximately 30 minutes the first time going up, the attendant at the conveyor belt didn't take my daughters height and did not say anything about her riding the slopes. We stood in line again a second time for approximately 1 hour FINALLY making it to the conveyor belt and the attendant kicked us off! Our daughter was too short. We explained she just went on with us prior and no one said anything, he didn't care. We waited for 1 HOUR. Our daughter had so much fun the first time she was heart broken when we were booted.
- Lack of concern for the customers safety or well being. I understand you sign a liability waiver but damn! I watched a middle age women going up the conveyor belt about half way up sitting tumble over, she tumbled a good way down, feet over head when she finally landed on all fours. The woman was obviously injured and frazzled. I was in the kids Korral so I could not go to immediately help this woman up, but the staff turned off the conveyor belt and literally just stood there and waited for her to get up. Didn't try and move to help her whatsoever. There was a group of kids and teens behind her a ways that did not even offer a helping hand (shame on these children). This woman stayed on all fours for a hot minute trying to collect herself so she could stand back up at an angle and ride the belt up. She eventually got up and looked injured or at least sore trying to continue up.
Some positives:
- my two year old enjoyed the slopes
- We had fun on our one ride down
- since it is manufactured snow it wasn't freezing out
All in all, If you are in Ruidoso and need something to do if there is snow on the group just enjoy the free fun and find a small slope yourself. It wasn't the worst experience, but with how much money they are making ($20 each adult) invest some of that money into expanding your park and making more slopes for smaller kids, adults and family slopes. We were disappointed in the end and won't be visiting again. read more