Liam Weaver

Review of Cardrona Alpine Resort

My wife and I skiied at Cardrona on Monday. Outsid...

My wife and I skiied at Cardrona on Monday. Outside peak season. Commuted from Queenstown. 2 hour 15 minute travel time to the mountain from just out of city central. 4 hours and 30 minutes travel time in total return for the day. We tried to organise our skis and boots the afternoon before but couldn't arrange to pick them up from their town base in the morning of travel so suggested we organise in the morning on mountain. We paid extra for performance ski and boots.
On arrival at Cardrona had very little performance range of skis and boots on mountain and was told by staff after waiting 30 minutes for service that I would have to try regular boots and rejoin the line from the basic rentals as they didn't have my size...a very common 25.5!

Women's toilets at base over flowing out the doors.

Once on the snow we waited over 25 minutes for the lifts. Snow quality was good but once on snow (after 10. 30 am) it very chopped up. We saw lots of accidents and collisions on mountain due to the numbers.

Captain's Cafe was dirty and overpriced. Women's toilets disgusting here too. Toilet paper dispensers broken, 3 toilets out of order, doors fallen off. $37 for 2 x pieces margherita pizza, a beer and soft drink. The pizza was served in bowls.

We spent over $500.00 for one day and extremely disappointed with customer care, experience and facilities. Being we skiied on a Monday, we can only imagine the level of service on weekends and holidays! Wanaka and Q'town and surrounding ski fields are struggling to keep up with the demand. We were planning to ski two more days but after day 1 we didn't return.