Ober Gatlinburg Reviews

If you go when it is really busy, they pack the tram like a sardine can. Otherwise it is ok.

Learned to ski here back in the day and an especially bad day... But it was so nice to come back and have an excellent time!

Be warned that the ticketing booth doesn't open until ~1100 ET.

My boys had a lot of fun skiing once we arrived at Ober. The 1st day that we attempted to go was christmas day at noon. We assumed the wait time (2.5 hours) for the tram was due to the holiday. I decided to call information and ask about the wait once we arrived at the top of the mountain. I was told another 2 hours! At the earliest, we would have gotten to the top around 5. Add 2 hours wait, skiing would have been closed!! There were so many people waiting even behind us. We decided to leave and come back early the next day!!

My advice, arrive at the tram 30 min or so before the 1st tram (8:20) to be in line and on the 1st tram. My boys were ready to ski at 10am and had a full day. Much better second attempt.

The one area that I did not agree with was the fact that tickets were being sold to people even after we arrived back at the tram station (4:30pm). The ppl selling the tickets were not telling people that ski lift tickets close 2 hours before the mountain closes, which was 8pm! Anyone purchasing tickets for the tram had about a 2 hour wait at least to even get on the tram. They wouldn't arrive to the top until after ticket sales were closed.

Employees should I form ticket purchasers of this when they take their money!!

CALL AND GET INFORMATION ON WAIT TIMES BEFORE SPENDING YOUR MONEY!!

Most of the adult oriented rides were shut down. Even though the board said open.

Waste of time and money. Rude workers, completely unorganized.

Wow. Lots of changes since I'd been there last. Great family fun place with reasonable prices.

I really enjoyed the tram and being in a building on top of a mountain. However, I have some concerns about their food.

When waiting for my food, I noticed the kitchen door open. I saw some employees talking and touching their phone with their gloves on. I also saw several people bringing in cups and bottles and drinking out of them in the kitchen.

I admit, I don't know what the health code is in Tennessee. But in Illinois, it's not allowed. So I'm unsure how if there are any health code violations happening here, but I, personally, would be wary.

Great place eith a lot entertain for the family on top of the mountain :)

We go to Ober Gatlinburg because it's perfect for our family right now. Many of the cabin rentals in the area are beautiful - especially since the rebuild from the fires last year. And they rent for very reasonable rates. Most cabins have great amenities like game rooms, hot tubs, and theater rooms. The ski resort has a ton of activities, all in pretty good price ranges. Ice skating, arcade, carousel for younger kids and non-skiers. Skiing is fine - it's not Calli or CO so don't expect anything near that. Kids 5 and under get free lift tickets but my 5 yo did not go on a lift. Lessons are 19/person/hour. All in it was under $100 per person for lift, equipment, and lesson. It's a great place for small children to learn because the hills are small. The winter holiday weekends get really crowded so avoid those. Otherwise lines are fast. They make snow; it doesn't usually get super cold. Feb 9 weekend was in the high 50s. My kind of winter weather! The mountain coaster is another fun activity - we couldn't do it on our last visit because it was closed due to rain. Tubing is really fun for the whole family 3 and over but you MUST reserve well ahead of time. They sell out but also they don't give refunds even if the tubing is closed due to any reason Finally, all the cafes and restaurants have good beer selections and the servers pour perfect!

Was nice, find it a bit difficult to walk, either a downward or upward trek, I really enjoyed the Pantry Pancake, restaurant,

Definitely not the best ski resort to visit. The skiing is ok and it s they have this nice aerial train that s worth trying. But the staff here is completely unprofessional and not organized. Especially if you are going here on weekends. Lines to the ski lifts can go on up to 25 min and that is mostly because lift operators just staying there and not helping people that are not good at skiing, ski lift is stoping almost every 30 seconds so to get to the top will take you 10 min and it s just 1 min ride down.
If you want to grab some lunch be prepared to stay in line for hours

It has a little of everthing my favorite place too visit when im in tbe moutains.

Save your money! Staff up top is rude we wanted wristbands and were told rudely by a gentleman that they stopped we then wanted tickets to do the mountain coaster and the man judged my husband and I am made us both step in a scale if you even 5 lbs over 300 it goes off it's very demoralizing and hurtful glad. I won't be back!

A little pricey ($35) when Dollywood is charging $57. But, they have some unique rides and a variety which fills a niche. Now if they would speed up the chair lift...lol

Nice animals but u can't feed them not are there many. It's $8 and will take you an hour max to go thru it and see and enjoy it all.

Overpriced came there for the start of Octoberfest and half the rides were closed talked to one of the ride operators who said they were 'understaffed' should of told me that before I had to pay 5$ just to park

Had to wait in line for a long time but it was worth it.

It might have been better if all of the slopes were open but only two small ones were! This is obviously not their fault that the temp prohibts more slopes being open but they should definitely take it into consideration with pricing. Paying the same price for not even half of the slopes open as someone who could go on a day where It was all open is a rip off. There were so many people on the slope you couldn't enjoy it.

Beautiful place I recommend it to everyone, for adult children, good affordable price, with many distractions. I'd give it 100 stars

Waited in the snow tubing line outside for an hour and a half and only got to go down twice. We left an hour earlier than planned because the line was super ridiculous. They sold way too many tickets for anyone to thoroughly enjoy themselves. Will not waste my vacation time waiting in line like that ever again. Even the kids were ready to go... and that alone speaks volume.

Lots of fun stuff to do, doesn't cost a ton, they also have a pretty good restaurant on site.

Awesome place, rode the coaster it was awesome, would recommend everyone do it

Building is very out dated. Food in restaurant was very good.

Great service, plently of options to excite your visit. The tram ride was fun and informative.

Lot's of shops available, especially sweets. They have the sky trolley, ice skating ring, bumper carts, snow tubbing, roller coster, snowboarding and skiing available.

Great place to take your family to get away and relax.

This day was awesome! It was snowing which made it even better!

I like coming here with the kids it s fun there is activities for the summer and winter. The view is amazing. We go in our car early in the morning. The staff are friendly. Recommend to go on non holiday days.

I would not recommend it, you pay a pass and many of the attractions closed, they indicate one thing on the website and another when you arrive at the place. They do not allow you to enter the snow unless you go skiing, the Guest Service staff does not do their job well, they are not attentive and do not really support the client. Disappointed! The supervisor was the only nice person in the place.

Go somewhere else
Not worth the money.

My husband and I had so much fun here during our honeymoon

I enjoyed the bluegrass band Mountain Grass. The mountain view was nice but it is just a tourist trap.

I don't know why I'm being asked to contribute about the same place again, but my answer hasn't changed: unless you just love scenery like my wife, I don't believe it s worth the price.

Got to the top of the mountain just to find out the parking is cash only. WTF. I usually don't carry cash anymore like most people. Not a very good business decision on their part. We left and will probably never go back.

I don t know man ride it and see 5 stars because your probably gonna die

Enjoyable time for the whole family. Skate park was a thrill for the kids...they loved it (first time skating). Alpine slife was fun but the ski coaster (though costly) was a blast! Recommend carching the tram up and back but make sure to bring your wallet.

High atop the mountain, past the little guard shack, stands your destination. It is one of the few indoor ice skating rinks I have ever been to. Lots of little shops and places to get food. It is a really fun place to hang out. We watched our cousins skate while we hung out or sat on the chairs and benches.

Pretty cool ride up. SAVE YOUR TICKETS you can ride all day! also can pay to see more animals... there is also a coaster, ice skating, a maze

I am a Floridian and brought my 10 and 12 year old here to experience snow. They had a blast. We rode the aerial tram up the mountain because the road up is very steep and parking is extremely limited. There is a very large ice skating rink, some restaurants/snack bars, and a few shops. We went snow tubing, and fortunately had purchased the tickets online a couple of months previously, as all of the sessions were sold out. The kids loved the snow tubing, and we even went back a day later to ice skate again.

PLEASE READ OTHER LOW RATED REVIEWS. THEY WILL VALIDATE EACH OTHER.

Was this affordable? Yes
Was this fun for our kids? Yes
That is about all I have to say for this place. What is negative about this place makes it a one star for me.

First of all, when we arrived we could not find any signs or directions to the snow tubing area. So I asked the information desk. The lady was barely any help AT ALL. She pointed to the back corner by the coke machines . So we walked all the way to the corner where we walked thru double doors to the outside. Once we opened the doors, there was a stone wall. Construction to the left and water slides to the right. ZERO SIGNS. Zero staff to ask where to go from there. We made a huge circle by going right (because the construction zone was surely not it). We finally find a staff who was helpful and walks us to the snow tubing. We made another full circle around this entire place back to the double doors where they walk us behind the stone wall. Had this man not WALKED us there we would have never found it. I got to the place to pay for the tickets and again, just point us back down the walkway we had just come from. No specifics were given. We had no clue AGAIN, where to go. Do we get our own tube? Do we just try and find a line? No clue. We stop and ask another staff member on the way back out who said this is where you start. (We think this is what he said). He wasn t from America. Which is perfectly fine with me, however, all the instructions he gave my children were completely inaudible. We still to this day have NO CLUE what they were ACTUALLY suppose to do. My kids were afraid and felt u comfortable not understanding the instructions, but we had already paid and they made VERY clear there were zero refunds. I told the man we couldn t understand, but no one ever offered to bring another staff member over to make us more informed. My children did have fun, but as a parent this place was a NIGHTMARE!! Even trying to go see the pictures taken by staff of our kids snow tubing was met with impossibilities. It was a very slow time of yr and it still took 30 minutes in the freezing cold snow and wind to even get my kids up to the hill, AND THERE WAS HARDLY ANYONE THERE! Taking this into account with other reverse of rude staff, non refundable tickets when it s the parks error, and other nightmare events...we will NEVER be back. At least get some signs over gatlinburg, and maybe a pamphlet with safety and information printed on it......Incase the staff is not understandable.

This is a GREAT value. You can tell the place and some of the equipment is old/outdated but the bracelets are the way to go and ice skate, ride the slide thing down the mountain and the chair lift for only $20 adult and $17 a kid is a real deal. My kids had a blast here ice skating for the first time and I got to show off my ice skating skills and impress them a little bit.

Go to Gatlinburg,Tn and take a ride but take alot of pictures

There is absolutely 0 social distancing. The team members say the only thing separating you from covid is your mask - which they do not enforce. Lines are completely packed and they do not stagger people out 6 feet. The instructors for lessons do not even wear masks.

No limited capacity measures of precautions for safety. Further, don t bother with the lessons. Total waste of money and you can learn just as much from YouTube.

Avoid this place.

Has really changed over the years. Not much to do or see anymore. Very disappointed. The tram ride would be the highlight of the trip

Went with my wife. We are over 30. Would say this place is more family oriented. Food is eh. But the experience was fun...for more families then single tourists

I love the tram and the view of the city, but the shops are to expensive.

Very nice for snow sports and a fun roller-coaster. Skip the zoo during winter months, not much to see.

We enjoyed it but they need to update the place. Tubing was all sold out and that part was very disappointing.

Old, dingy, and not worth the money. The mountain coaster was the only thing we enjoyed.

Needs some upgrading in amusements. Food prices are a bit too much. The mini zoo needs more animal attraction. I like the chairlift a lot, so serene for extra cost.

mountain coaster is great and the sky lift worth every penny loved it

Definitely a Great little ride, we didn't get to ride it all the way to the top but got to ride it down. We were worried we wouldn't get to at all cause of the rain and wind. Gonna come back and hopefully everything will be open to ride and so all the outside things.

Nice place to visit for first time skiers, great views especially if you live in the flat lands of South Florida. Yes the lines were long to buy lift tickets, but if you go more than one day you can purchase tickets in advance. As for social distancing, yeah that was not happening but they try but we as a society are to blame. People were very friendly.

It Was fun 1st. Time on It!!!!! The only thing wehad to Wait for about 1 1/2 hours to Return to go back down because of weather conditions

Nice partial day activity if you do stuff at the top like the bears.

We just did the wildlife encounter & carousel because I had my 2 year old with me. We really enjoyed looking at the bears & other animals. The carousel definitely needs to be updated. Employees are very nice & friendly. There are other activities & a lot available to eat as well.

Very disappointed with the efficiency of obtaining lift tickets and ski rentals. It's 2018, they should have tablets to input information electronically instead of using pen and paper. It took us over 4 hrs to get on the slopes. They need to start using some of the efficiency models being used in the western ski resorts and learn about modern day practices for obtaining loft tickets and rentals.

Awesome service.. They don't take American Express so that put a demper n our day had only so much cash on us.. Had a good time live band and beer. Rode the mountain slide its pretty fun.. Good times

Constant disappointment. Wouldn't sell us wrist bands. Closed kiddie snow area when we got online to buy tickets. No competition so I guess they can have poor customer service