Latest posts for the topic "Anyone organising a group?"

Anyone organising a group?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 10:57:38 GMT

Well, open to the floor…..

Wouldn't it be nice if someone out there was organising a big group trip, to take advantage of the reduced cost of booking a whole big chalet?
Has anyone on here done it? Coordinated lots of little unrelated groups? Or is it a CRAZY idea?
Is anyone already putting the wheels in motion?

I've got a little group of four who could be interested in partaking, say in January next year……..

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:21:10 GMT

I can imagine the organising bit might be a whole lotta grief.

But we might be interested in going if someone is mad enough to take it on.

2 of us or maybe 4.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:26:46 GMT

Could be like a J2Skiers on tour kind of thing....

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:09:28 GMT

Someone would need to design the t shirts....

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 18:02:42 GMT

Snapzzz is your man....

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 18:03:02 GMT

Not the tshirtd

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 18:26:40 GMT

In the Hotel in St Christoph there was a group who wore group T-shirts, I have never seen anything as sad, they had printed on them all the ski resorts they had skied ...... that is mega sad

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 19:29:20 GMT

Ian Wickham wrote:In the Hotel in St Christoph there was a group who wore group T-shirts, I have never seen anything as sad, they had printed on them all the ski resorts they had skied ...... that is mega sad

mega sad is when you get a group with a complete set of seven different outfits, one to be worn each day. Sadly I have actually seen that.

The only time I ever had a holiday t-shirt was on a stag ski trip. We had a shirt for the main evening of the week, but it was a tasteful black polo with a discreet logo on the chest, not much bigger than a Pringle logo, and there were joke names on the back.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 19:45:29 GMT

Agreed, group t-shirts are sad.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 20:15:53 GMT

OK ...

So whose going to design this sad T Shirt ???

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 21:00:08 GMT

I should be working but designing t shirts much more fun. Whaddya think??

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 21:05:40 GMT

It's very good Bedrock Barney - but you've missed out my cup of tea

Surely I can't be the only J2Ski tea-totaller?

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 21:06:45 GMT

And no mention of wibble!

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 21:08:03 GMT

AllyG wrote:It's very good Bedrock Barney - but you've missed out my cup of tea

Surely I can't be the only J2Ski tea-totaller?

I'm tee total

But drink copiously of Espresso and Coke (but not pepsi)

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 21:14:40 GMT

I didn't know you were teetotal as well, OldAndy. Well, that's very comforting to know. Thank you for letting me know. It is rather scary being massively outnumbered

I would like one of those T-shirts please, provided Bedrock Barney can add wibble and a nice cup of tea to his graphics. Who's going to make them, and how much will they cost?

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 21:21:24 GMT

We'd have to have a very long list on the back after adding Tea, Coffee, ...

oh and goggles and sunglasses

and some countries

and DIY or TO ...........

and Fly or Drive ...

or Train

ermmmmmmmm .....

Might only fit someone over 6'3" and even then more of a night shirt than T shirt ....

And then make sure the ticks are in the right place

Nightmare if someone got a bobble tick and instead of a lid tick

So ........

Ally - you say you are good at lists

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 21:38:06 GMT

OldAndy,
We could solve the ticks problem very simply - just include an indelible ink pen in the parcel with the T-shirt and they could tick it themselves

I don't think we should put countries down though, someone's bound to complain that we've missed out Latvia or somewhere

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 21:46:08 GMT

ermmmm....not sure I was volunteering to be the j2ski resident t shirt designer!

I simply went to zazzle.co.uk and uploaded some graphics. They would charge about GBP15 for a design like this with discount and delivery.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 21:51:59 GMT

Bedrock barney,
It's just occurred to me that all we need really is the design. I mean, there's a guy in our local village who does T-shirt printing, and I expect there are plenty of others around the country.

So, all we need is the design and Admin's permission to use it, and then we can sort out the rest ourselves. And, I suppose we could have a couple of alternative designs so that we don't have huge long lists.

It's very kind of you to volunteer to be the J2Ski t-shirt designer

Ally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 22:09:24 GMT

ah...if you just want my amazing design then I would ask you to deal with Saatchi & Saatchi. They handle many of my brands.

Ask for Ptolemy.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 22:15:06 GMT

I phoned Saatchi and Saatchi and they said they didn't know any Ptolemy or Bedrock Barney

Well I suppose we could always use that Feedback button and see if Admin will design us one for Christmas

Oh - and one for a Christmas card as well please Admin

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 22:37:10 GMT

I thought Ptolemy was at M&C Saatchi

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 00:12:42 GMT

Far Queue wrote:I thought Ptolemy was at M&C Saatchi

No, m&s actually

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 05:52:08 GMT

Unbelievable. Someone mentions arranging a potential trip and we end up designing T shirts

If its a J2ski group trip thats been suggested, I hate to wee on anyones chips, but this has been muted several times before and I don't see how it will ever happen to be blunt.

Best of luck to anyone who's mental enough to try to organise it.

Wibble away......

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 09:14:51 GMT

Anyway I thought that in a differant thread we had persuaded Adders to donate T-Shirts for the "club" meet at the Ski Show in October....You DO remember that don't you Adders?

I expect he/she will come up with something we all wish we did'nt have to wear

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 09:39:20 GMT

bald-eagleman wrote:Anyway I thought that in a differant thread we had persuaded Adders to donate T-Shirts for the "club" meet at the Ski Show in October....You DO remember that don't you Adders?

I expect he/she will come up with something we all wish we did'nt have to wear

He/She

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 10:10:21 GMT

Wickers ..please get your english correct. He/she does not start with a capital letter as it is a personal pronoun as opposed to a proper noun, unless it begins a sentence as here! )

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 10:12:53 GMT

bald-eagleman wrote:Wickers ..please get your english correct. He/she does not start with a capital letter as it is a personal pronoun as opposed to a proper noun, unless it begins a sentence as here! )

Do you talk a foreign language ... I have no idea what you are talking about

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 10:18:59 GMT

Ian,
As far as I know Admin is male and the J2Ski news lady is female. But I don't know what all the fuss about capitals is about. I have a copy of Fowler's English somewhere - I will dig it out and have a look for you

Ally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 10:33:50 GMT

I don't see why it should be difficult to organize a group J2Ski ski holiday.

If we used an agent that allowed everyone to book and pay separately under the group booking then we wouldn't have to worry about people dropping out or not paying or anything.

And we could use a majority vote system to work out where we were going and how much we were going to pay etc.

So all we'd have to do would be to design the questionnaire and post it up, sort out the answers, declare what the majority vote was, find out how many people wanted to go to wherever it was, find accommodation to suit the majority vote, make the open group booking, and let people get on and book.

We could pick a selection of major resorts in, say, Italy, France, Austria and Switzerland to choose from.

And offer a price range of, say, under GBP600, GBP600 - GBP800, GBP800 - GBP1000 for accomodation and transfers.

Offer the choice of self-catering or chalet.

And see how many people would agree to the first week in January after the schools go back as the cheapest week to go. This would mean of course that those who teach etc. wouldn't be able to go, which is a shame, but I would expect the majority to opt for the cheaper date.

Ally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 12:03:40 GMT

AllyG wrote:I don't see why it should be difficult to organize a group J2Ski ski holiday.

If we used an agent that allowed everyone to book and pay separately under the group booking then we wouldn't have to worry about people dropping out or not paying or anything.

And we could use a majority vote system to work out where we were going and how much we were going to pay etc.

So all we'd have to do would be to design the questionnaire and post it up, sort out the answers, declare what the majority vote was, find out how many people wanted to go to wherever it was, find accommodation to suit the majority vote, make the open group booking, and let people get on and book.

We could pick a selection of major resorts in, say, Italy, France, Austria and Switzerland to choose from.

And offer a price range of, say, under GBP600, GBP600 - GBP800, GBP800 - GBP1000 for accomodation and transfers.

Offer the choice of self-catering or chalet.

And see how many people would agree to the first week in January after the schools go back as the cheapest week to go. This would mean of course that those who teach etc. wouldn't be able to go, which is a shame, but I would expect the majority to opt for the cheaper date.

Ally

As often happens, you've totally missed the point.
It would be possible to arrange it through a company who allows people to book and pay themselves online, of course.
But the point is not whether it could be done, but who would be prepared to commit to it.

Too many variables for starters:

1. Where to go needs to be agreed or decided
2. When to go -peak time or off season?
3. Kids welcome or not?
4. Flying, train, self drive?
5. Kind of accommodation - self catered, chalet, catered, hotel?
blah blah blah

All of the considerations you give to your own holiday need to be given to everyone else. Thats why it will never get off the ground, as certain people would say "yeah I'm in" and then if it ever got as far as setting a date, some/many of them wouldn't be able to make it in the end.

Then you actually have to get people to commit to paying, and if one person is group leader, they are left with the responsibility for paying for anyone who books and who subsequently pulls out or decides not to pay. Its bad enough with close friends, but with a bunch of strangers....???

Therefore, if you seriously want to get something like this off the ground, one person needs to stand up as organiser and run with it, make enquiries, and suggest basically a holiday which people then say yes or no to. The organiser chooses a resort and a date and some accommodation and puts it forward, and then whoever commits to it IN WRITING books it themselves and pays for it themselves online.

However, one massive thing here, and that is that almost everybody doesn't know anyone else personally and therefore its easy to say "yes I am up for this" from behind a computer keyboard, but when it comes to it, you'll find it a lot harder to actually make the commitment, as will others.
Plus theres the weirdo factor to consider. Picture the scene:

"Darling, I've just booked us a ski holiday to XXXX for next season"

"Wonderful sweetheart, tell me all about it....."

"Well its just you and me darling.......and 28 people I've never met from an internet chat forum...."

"I'm busy that week sweetheart......"

Ally, you seem to be the one who keeps banging on about a group trip. Man up and organise it if you're that keen; you seem to have plenty of time to research into how Airlines were formed etc etc. If not perhaps its time to finally put this to bed and never mention it again?

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 12:12:13 GMT

AllyG wrote:Ian,
As far as I know Admin is male and the J2Ski news lady is female. But I don't know what all the fuss about capitals is about. I have a copy of Fowler's English somewhere - I will dig it out and have a look for you

Ally

I think the point is Baldy didn't seem to realise that adders was male, well at least the last time I met him he was :wink

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 12:35:57 GMT

Ian Wickham wrote:

AllyG wrote:Ian,
As far as I know Admin is male and the J2Ski news lady is female. But I don't know what all the fuss about capitals is about. I have a copy of Fowler's English somewhere - I will dig it out and have a look for you

Ally

I think the point is Baldy didn't seem to realise that adders was male, well at least the last time I met him he was :wink

He sure is/was.

I didn't realise J2skinews was a lady though. That does explain the wibble though.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 12:44:15 GMT

Having holidayed with good friends before now, it's certainly a tricky co-ordination exercise.

Ally's "where everyone is going and when" idea is great though (on the sleeps to ski time topic). Perhaps some kind of permanent sticky for this could be set up. Then people can see where people have booked and may be able to meet up, even if only for one or two day's joint skiing. Therefore no massive commitment and if people don't hit it off no big deal.

Has this been formally requested through the feedback thing? **edit** it has and I've voted

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 13:55:58 GMT

On That other site 'Slush heads" they seem to organise a ski trip, how successful it has been you can only guess

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 18:47:36 GMT

I've said it before, but I think the best solution to people who wish to do a J2Ski group holiday, would be to simply decide on a resort and date. Then let anyone who wants to go simply arranges their own holiday.

If people don't get on they can simply ski with their own group, and will not have the issues of staying with the people they don't get on with. And anyone on the trip is as free to spend as much or as little time with others as they wish.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 18:52:10 GMT

Far Queue wrote:I've said it before, but I think the best solution to people who wish to do a J2Ski group holiday, would be to simply decide on a resort and date.

Agreed, I mentioned this too.

I am happy to book a said resort on a said week. If you are there and want to ski then great, if not...thats fine too. But why would you not want to ski with snapzzz?

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 18:55:29 GMT

I think the first thing to do would be to find out how many J2Skiers would like a group holiday together.

I had a go just now with Survey Monkey to design a simple survey to answer these sort of questions. I don't want you to actually do the survey but just to look at the questions and suggest things like other resorts and other questions we need to ask etc. I haven't thought much about the resorts - I just put down the first ones that came into my head because this is only a prototype survey. It seems that I can make a survey with 10 questions for nothing.

I added the last question just to make it 10. I expect someone could think of a more useful question.

I have no idea how I get hold of the answers yet - but presumably it tells you that somewhere on the survey Monkey website

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KR8Y7CZ

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 18:56:45 GMT

Can I wear q lid

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 18:59:36 GMT

Looks like your in charge Ally, sort it out girl....im in.....provisionally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 19:06:58 GMT

Thanks Snapzzz

Well, firstly I need a hand designing the survey. I've never done one before. Most importantly we need suggestions for resorts that we think will suit all levels of ski ability and skiers and snowboarders.

I decided to have a go at this because my daughter's uni ski club managed to organize a group ski holiday and I thought that if fifty 18-21 year olds could do it then we could definitely manage it!

They organized it through 'offthepiste.com' and everyone was responsible for making their own bookings and paying their own deposit etc. However, it was a coach trip and I don't know if these people do flights.

So - we need suggestions for reliable companies that do groups and would allow us to organize it so that everyone is responsible for their own bookings.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 19:10:13 GMT

This is such a tricky one.

A big part of me loves the idea of joining up with a biggish group of other j2skiers.

But I know that for me at the moment (ie; until something changes in my life) I doubt I would ever be in a position to book and commit.

Three types of ski holiday for me.

1 - with wife.
2 - with sister and niece
3 - alone - booked last minute, if I'm lucky, the snow is good and I have been a good boy at home

And none of these would allow for the said j2ski trip.

Pity really - I would be really jelous if somehow this all got off the ground.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 19:32:19 GMT

How about a final, end of season, trip? Let everyone do their thing all year and meet up for a late march trip in a high altitude jolly?

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 19:32:56 GMT

Andy,
I don't see why it would matter if your sister and niece, or wife were with you. I mean, you wouldn't have to ski with the J2Ski group - just go on the same date to the same place and stay in the same accommodation. It's not like we're going to book a giant bunk room in a hostel

And, it would be nice to ski with you and Snapzzz and all the other regulars, and meet lots of new J2Skiers

And, thinking about it, it would probably be better if everyone sorted out their own means of getting there because I suspect that for a group booking everyone would have to leave from the same airport, and we are all scattered about the U.K.

I will make some enquiries tomorrow.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 19:57:44 GMT

I've filled out the survey.

We (myself and wife) may be up for this depending on location. As we've already booked our family trip in school hols, that's our expensive trip away so we would want to go for a week during the low season. I was eyeing up 1st or 2nd week of Feb which is before half term and probably optimum time in terms of snow quality/weather. If mid March onwards then this would need to be one of the high resorts.

Might be worth running this whole thing along a bit to see how it pans out?

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 20:01:03 GMT

bedrock barney wrote:I've filled out the survey.

where?

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 20:02:08 GMT

Snapzzz wrote:

bedrock barney wrote:I've filled out the survey.

where?

Ally's survey. Go back about 7 posts.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 20:04:24 GMT

Thanks Bedrock Barney,
I will have to work out how to get the answers now

I've just had a look on the Igluski site to see which resorts they recommend for groups. I think the U.S. and Canada are too far away so I haven't included them. The other resorts are:

Igluski top 8 ski resorts for group ski holidays:
St Anton, Austria
This stunning compact town, in the heart of the Arlberg Ski Circus, offers a truly magnificent ski area with slopes appealing to all abilities of skier. No matter what your level, there are multiple grades of pistes available to get to different eateries and watering holes on and off the piste, making it easy for your whole group to meet up.

Chamonix, France
Against the majestic backdrop of Mont Blanc, the lively, charming town of Chamonix, in the Northern French Alps, plays host to an extensive ski area suitable for all levels of skier and snowboarder as well as enough apres ski bars and non ski activities to keep even the most diverse of groups entertained

Kitzbuhel, Austria
This fashionable Tyrolean resort really has something for everyone; from first time through to advanced skiers, with an exciting appeal to every age group. Its vast vibrant nightlife is relaxed and welcomes all groups to enjoy a little of its Kitzbuheler charm.

Soldeu, Andorra
This attractive Pyreneean resort is a great cost-effective groups destination with its fabulous selection of large properties enabling the whole group to stay in the one venue. An all encompassing ski area, superb tax free shopping, fun kids clubs, lively bars and nightclubs, make this resort an enticing choice for your larger groups.

Les Deux Alpes, France
Groups so enjoy Les Deux Alpes, bathed in the glory of the Southern French Alps. This mixed ability ski domain lends itself to all levels of skier and snowboarder alike with endless fun to be had both piste side as well as village side in the bars, restaurants and other sports facilities that this fun filled town has to offer.

Meribel, France
The mecca that is Meribel, nestled in the middle of the world renowned 3 Valleys is undoubtedly one of the favourite locations for groups. Here, diverse levels of skiers and snowboarders can separately enjoy all that the slopes have to offer during the day, not forgetting to meet up at the odd recharge stop for a vin chaud or a melt-in-your-mouth hot chocolate! They can then easily get together to enjoy the vibrant apres-ski to be found throughout each altitude of this ski paradise.

Sauze d'Oulx, Italy
"Sauze" still remains a firm favourite with its British clientele and its simple attraction is not difficult to understand. Mixed ability groups enjoy skiing on the extensive Milky Way circuit by day, finding it easy to meet up on the mountain for a few well earned rest breaks, and then can party all night down in the lively town. The transfers are short, the accommodation is good value, the food is delicious and the nightlife is pumping!

Soll, Austria
Spectacular Soll needs no introduction as a prominent leader on the European ski circuit in terms of its sheer size of skiable domain coupled with its insatiable appetite for fun apres ski activities. This said, Soll still manages to capture a unique Austrian charm and through its wide selection of quality accommodation, its variety of excellent well priced restaurants and bars, and its good range of mixed ability slopes, it appeals to groups of all levels and sizes.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 20:09:00 GMT

Snapzzz and Bedrock Barney - do you think the questions look OK? It's only meant to be a prototype survey so that everyone can look at it and come up with suggestions as to how to improve it.

It will be interesting to see how much feedback we get about the survey because it will be some measure of how many people (out of those currently reading the website) would like to go on a J2Ski group holiday.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 20:11:16 GMT

What sort of age group are we talking about here?

My regular group range between 45 and 60 but we all act like we are in our 30's!

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 20:15:42 GMT

AllyG wrote:Snapzzz and Bedrock Barney - do you think the questions look OK? It's only meant to be a prototype survey so that everyone can look at it and come up with suggestions as to how to improve it.

It will be interesting to see how much feedback we get about the survey because it will be some measure of how many people (out of those currently reading the website) would like to go on a J2Ski group holiday.

I didn't spend too much time analysing the questions (I'm supposed to be working!). The resort list might be a tricky area. You could easily have 50 names rather than 10.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 20:16:40 GMT

Twofish,
That's a very good point

I never even thought about age groups

Maybe we should put in a question about that?

I suppose I could delete the question about how many people in the family group and then we'd have to do the survey for each person going and we could have the age question.

Thanks very much

Any other ideas?

And I won't know the answer to your question until everyone's filled in the edited survey - for me to know who's going and how old they are. I know I am middle-aged and I suspect Snapzzz and Iceman are quite a bit younger, and Ian and Andy are somewhere around my age.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 20:17:22 GMT

I think your survey is along the right lines Ally.

Wonder if views around proximity of slopes (ski in/out) could be included. Bus/walk to skiing etc.

Also ...
Are you thinking one holiday destination, ie; one venue (hotel/chalet/set of apartments) or just "a resort"?

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 20:22:05 GMT

Obviously there would need to be a curfew on noise and drinking in the evening - I would suggest 9.30 as sensible.

And morning routine - breakfast 07.30 to 08.30?

Followed by the compulsary warm up exercises before heading to the slopes.

And Icy would be banned from walking around in his boxers - actually "moving around" is a better phrase, and all mops would be banned.

And ....

Or am I just micro-managing here?

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 20:26:53 GMT

Thanks Andy for your input. It's much appreciated

I won't know until I've phoned up some agents, but I was sort of hoping they'd let us book 3 lots of accommodation, so that we could each choose between S/C, hotel, and chalet.

We could have a ski in/ski out question but that one is a bit tricky. I know from experience that it's not straightforward. Off the top of my head I can think of these problems with that description. It might depend on:

1. Your ski-ing ability
2. How much snow there is
3. What distance you consider ski in/ski out to be
4. It may be gondola out, ski in

And it will, of course, be related to price. So it might be better if we asked about price first, to see how much everyone was prepared to pay, before we asked about ski in/ski out.
And, also, I can only have ten questions per survey. So I suppose we could start with this basic one and then follow it up with some more in-depth ones. That's why I put The 3 Valleys as a resort choice. If the majority of people want to go there we could then narrow it down to which resort within the 3 V's.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 20:34:45 GMT

OldAndy wrote:Obviously there would need to be a curfew on noise and drinking in the evening - I would suggest 9.30 as sensible.

And morning routine - breakfast 07.30 to 08.30?

It will be 6am if you go to Maria Alm in Austria!!

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 20:42:04 GMT

twofish wrote:

OldAndy wrote:Obviously there would need to be a curfew on noise and drinking in the evening - I would suggest 9.30 as sensible.

And morning routine - breakfast 07.30 to 08.30?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM19vUx8e5U

It will be 6am if you go to Maria Alm in Austria!!

Hah !!

My snoring is louder than that

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 20:42:39 GMT

twofish wrote:
It will be 6am if you go to Maria Alm in Austria!!

Well, it's a good thing that Maria Alm is not on my list

To be quite truthful, I don't think the resort matters too much, as long as it's reasonably okay. And I reckon the ones on my list, or the Igluski list are all pretty good. Of course, it wouldn't be too good if everyone selected the Ski Welt and April, but we'd have to sort that one out if it happened and I shouldn't think many people would select April

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 21:01:46 GMT

twofish wrote:What sort of age group are we talking about here?

My regular group range between 45 and 60 but we all act like we are in our 30's!

sounds about right

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 21:04:38 GMT

I agree with Ally, resort isn't really important as its skiing. as long as we ski who cares where we are.

First vote should be date

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 21:04:55 GMT

Snapzzz wrote:

twofish wrote:What sort of age group are we talking about here?

My regular group range between 45 and 60 but we all act like we are in our 30's!

sounds about right

So ...
You'd have to at least act all mature Snapzzz and behave

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 21:06:11 GMT

AllyG wrote:I think the first thing to do would be to find out how many J2Skiers would like a group holiday together.

I had a go just now with Survey Monkey to design a simple survey to answer these sort of questions. I don't want you to actually do the survey but just to look at the questions and suggest things like other resorts and other questions we need to ask etc. I haven't thought much about the resorts - I just put down the first ones that came into my head because this is only a prototype survey. It seems that I can make a survey with 10 questions for nothing.

I added the last question just to make it 10. I expect someone could think of a more useful question.

I have no idea how I get hold of the answers yet - but presumably it tells you that somewhere on the survey Monkey website

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KR8Y7CZ

I thought I'd repeat this as I wrote it several pages ago. I'm still looking for helpful comments to improve the survey before we actually start using it. It's a big pity that our resident marketing man seems to be off duty tonight

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 21:26:02 GMT

i'll do france late feb, march...whos in?

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 21:31:02 GMT

I wasn't really planning on people actually doing the survey until after we'd discussed the questions to see if they needed improving, but I managed to work out how to get the results, and I've just been looking at them and 5 people have voted already - thanks everyone

5 people have voted so far on the 10 questions

5/5 said they would like to go on a J2Ski group ski holiday.

1 person voted to go during school holidays, 4 people voted no to this.

The greatest number of votes was for Chamonix.

2/3 wanted S/C, 3/5 hotel, 3/5 catered chalet (obviously multiple selection going on here - didn't know the site did that.)

Self-drive 1/5, train 2/5, fly 4/5.

Favourite month - March 5/5

4 people with one person in their family group, 1 with two people.

Cost brackets for accommodation and transfers (not flights etc. - did you all realize this?)

GBP400 - GBP600 = 1
GBP600 - GBP800 = 3
GBP800 - GBP1000 = 1

4 intermediate skiers, 1 advanced

2 don't need to hire anything, 3 need skis

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 21:40:57 GMT

AllyG wrote:

AllyG wrote:I think the first thing to do would be to find out how many J2Skiers would like a group holiday together.

I had a go just now with Survey Monkey to design a simple survey to answer these sort of questions. I don't want you to actually do the survey but just to look at the questions and suggest things like other resorts and other questions we need to ask etc. I haven't thought much about the resorts - I just put down the first ones that came into my head because this is only a prototype survey. It seems that I can make a survey with 10 questions for nothing.

I added the last question just to make it 10. I expect someone could think of a more useful question.

I have no idea how I get hold of the answers yet - but presumably it tells you that somewhere on the survey Monkey website

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KR8Y7CZ

I thought I'd repeat this as I wrote it several pages ago. I'm still looking for helpful comments to improve the survey before we actually start using it. It's a big pity that our resident marketing man seems to be off duty tonight

I will be alive again Sunday or Monday night. Off to find some more shiraz now

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 21:49:34 GMT

Thanks Icy,
Well, so far it looks like we're off to Chamonix in March next year

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 21:57:54 GMT

AllyG wrote:I wasn't really planning on people actually doing the survey until after we'd discussed the questions to see if they needed improving, but I managed to work out how to get the results, and I've just been looking at them and 5 people have voted already - thanks everyone

5 people have voted so far on the 10 questions

5/5 said they would like to go on a J2Ski group ski holiday.

1 person voted to go during school holidays, 4 people voted no to this.

The greatest number of votes was for Chamonix.

2/3 wanted S/C, 3/5 hotel, 3/5 catered chalet (obviously multiple selection going on here - didn't know the site did that.)

Self-drive 1/5, train 2/5, fly 4/5.

Favourite month - March 5/5

4 people with one person in their family group, 1 with two people.

Cost brackets for accommodation and transfers (not flights etc. - did you all realize this?)

GBP400 - GBP600 = 1
GBP600 - GBP800 = 3
GBP800 - GBP1000 = 1

4 intermediate skiers, 1 advanced

2 don't need to hire anything, 3 need skis

Too many variables.

Pick a date, pick a resort, then let people book.

my money is on it never happening still.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 22:19:35 GMT

Tony_H wrote:

AllyG wrote:I wasn't really planning on people actually doing the survey until after we'd discussed the questions to see if they needed improving, but I managed to work out how to get the results, and I've just been looking at them and 5 people have voted already - thanks everyone

5 people have voted so far on the 10 questions

5/5 said they would like to go on a J2Ski group ski holiday.

1 person voted to go during school holidays, 4 people voted no to this.

The greatest number of votes was for Chamonix.

2/3 wanted S/C, 3/5 hotel, 3/5 catered chalet (obviously multiple selection going on here - didn't know the site did that.)

Self-drive 1/5, train 2/5, fly 4/5.

Favourite month - March 5/5

4 people with one person in their family group, 1 with two people.

Cost brackets for accommodation and transfers (not flights etc. - did you all realize this?)

GBP400 - GBP600 = 1
GBP600 - GBP800 = 3
GBP800 - GBP1000 = 1

4 intermediate skiers, 1 advanced

2 don't need to hire anything, 3 need skis

Too many variables.

Pick a date, pick a resort, then let people book.

my money is on it never happening still.

I think I will agree with that one

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 23:56:26 GMT

Ian Wickham wrote:In the Hotel in St Christoph there was a group who wore group T-shirts, I have never seen anything as sad, they had printed on them all the ski resorts they had skied ...... that is mega sad

There was something as sad, and it was you, you grumpy git. ) )

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 08:33:41 GMT

AllyG wrote:Thanks Icy,
Well, so far it looks like we're off to Chamonix in March next year

I'm up for Cham

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 09:25:50 GMT

Hi, I'm new to this forum (and I guess I also feel a bit off posting here: as an outsider, since I live in the US).

I subscribed to the j2ski emails last year for the snow reports. Don't even remember how the heck I got to find it, but anyway, fact is that I signed up, selecting my local Northeast/US areas, and kept getting the weekly reports steadily landing in my emailbox, letting me know once in while that --hooray!-- we have a whopping 1-2" of new snow somewhere in Vermont or NH, while reading further down the message how much better conditions were on the European slopes...

Then, I realized only a few days ago that j2ski also has this forum!! ...which BTW: resulted in quite a few long hours spent browsing randomly through your old threads... really enjoyed reading all the ski-talk, sprinkled here and there with witty, fun comments, but also full of lots of useful info (for example, the two threads "Skiing dead dead fast!!!" that came up among my search results for "inside edges").

And now that I noticed this current thread with thoughts about organising a big j2ski-ers group trip in 2013, I was thrilled to see it, because just the other day I've been pondering if I could join such a group; I'll be turning 50 this year and I've come to find it apparently impossible to convince any of my old friends (with whom I used to go skiing back in the 80's) to meet up for a 'real' ski vacation, be it for various family/work/finances constraints, or just because some of them simply "slowed down"; so finding a group of ski enthusiasts around my age bracket sounded like a great idea. A while back I've searched for any such groups in my area, but the only ones showing up in my searches seemed to be in a way much younger range, so I did not attempt any contact.

I actually just posted a reply the other day on an older thread started by another j2ski member (Bev Springham) on the subject of group-ski-trip. She seems to have previously organized some ski vacations with other j2ski-ers. It's not quite clear from those few posts if they actually succeeded, but I'd say they might've, since I saw similar posts from her in three consecutive years (all three were for Meribel). In my post I asked if it would be doable for somebody from the US to join such group, my main concern being airfare and transfers from airport to resort...

So since you guys seem to think about organizing just group accommodations and transfers (excluding airfare), then maybe flying from the US (instead of from the UK) would not be such a problem, as long as I could find a flight to match the other group members' arrival, and I could join a group-transfer; therefore, if nobody in the group would intend to restrict the enrollment strictly for people from the UK, then I would gladly join! (please let me know of any thoughts)

And finally, after this long intro (sorry for the wibble!!!), I'll contribute some suggestions for the survey:

== For question #2 (school holidays): besides the yes/no, I'd add a 3rd choice: "no-preference", because if some people would go regardless if it is or not during school holidays, then having to choose just between yes/no can be misleading the survey results.

== For question #3 (resort choices): Some people might not care too much which resort is chosen as long as all of them are good choices. So, maybe add an extra choice to say "any-of-the-above". But that has the disadvantage of not showing what would be the preferences of the ones who are flexible. So maybe for each of the choices add one extra choice to say "Flexible, with preference for resort-'X'). Or, since adding one extra choice for each of the 10 listed resorts means would create 20 choices (and in case SurveyMonkey has a limit on the number of choices per question) then we could toss the current #10 question (equipment) and add a new question saying "Are you flexible in your choice of resort made in question #3".

== For question #4 (accommodations choices): Similarly to the reasoning above, for each of the three choices add one extra choice saying "Flexible, with preference for choice-'X'".

== For question #5 (ways to get there - drive/train/fly): Since you are not thinking to include the airfare in the group deal, then maybe gear this question towards transfers; something like "Would you be interested in group-organized airport-resort transfers?". I'd guess that whoever would be willing take on the daunting task of organizing this trip could inquire with the travel-agency/accommodations-management if they offer any group discounts for bus transfers...

== For question #6 (month choice: dec/jan/feb/mar/apr): This one is a tricky one, because some people might indeed have a very strict window of time in which they can go, while others may be more flexible; hence, the survey might end up showing a wide scatter of choices, w/o giving an idea of possible compromises. But I am not sure what would be a better way of presenting multiple choices with some kind of preference ranking. It would be great if SurveyMonkey would allow a "write-in", so people could write their choices specifying if they are flexible, and if yes then what are their #1 and #2 choices. Or if not, then maybe we could double the number of choices and name them "December-choice-rank-1", "December-choice-rank-2", etc.

Best regards,
Cat.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 09:33:40 GMT

Hi cat,

Good thoughts - thanks for the contributions.

Look forward to more form you, even though this season has started to wind down in Europe for most of us.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 09:50:40 GMT

Hi Andy,

Thanks. Yes, I know, same here : we already have Spring temps. ...That's why I was glad to hear about the possible plan for a J2Ski group ski trip next season.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 09:52:21 GMT

Have you ever skied in Europe, cat?

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 09:56:15 GMT

Many years back (70's 80's) in Romania [Sinaia, Poiana Brasov, Predeal). Since I moved in the US in 1991, only in our local NE areas. Then I went only once last year in late March in Hintertux/Austria

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 11:53:51 GMT

Hi Catp,
Thanks for your suggestions

And I'm sure you'd be warmly welcomed on a group J2Ski holiday

That survey allows multiple selections for the ski resorts, so I don't think we need to add a flexible option.

But I think you're right and I might need to add an extra 'don't mind' option for the accommodation.

Transfers are a bit of a problem, if we're all going to be arriving at different times and to different stations/airports. Maybe we should wait until we have a clearer idea of where we're going etc.?

I can see I stupidly wasted the first question. All I needed to say was please only fill in this survey if you want to go. So we could change this to something more sensible, if anyone can think of another question.

I phoned Igluski and they said that their group discounts vary according to the holiday date - so the discount for January might be 20% and for March only 10%. And they also said we can only get the group discount if we all do the same thing - package or non package, and stay in the same accommodation. People could do what they wanted but they wouldn't get the group discount. So if the majority vote was for a hotel then everyone in the hotel would get the discount but those in self-catering would have to pay the normal price.

And I asked them about Chamonix, and apparently it doesn't have any catered chalets! So if we do go there we'd have to stay either in self-catering or hotel. The uni kids seem to manage to pile into self-catering and share a room with people they don't know, but I'm not sure that many J2Skiers would be happy with this! I have a feeling that most people, unless they have their own group of friends with them, would prefer to be in a hotel or catered chalet. I should think that most of us haven't actually 'met' each other face to face.

Igluski also said they could take the money off us individually so there would be no risk to the organizer. In fact, it all sounds very easy, once we've sorted out the date, resort, and accommodation.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 13:15:00 GMT

Hi AllyG,

Thanks for the welcoming remark!

Hmm, it did not even dawn on me that the first question was kind of gratis

RE/Transfers: I agree. Once there would be enough people who firmly decided on a place and exact dates, then I we can discuss what fares can everybody book and see if we can all arrive within a reasonable time of each other (at the same airport for those who'd fly in), so that we can book some group transfer. I've never been to any of the resorts on your list, so I have no idea how much of a problem would the transfers be for any of them. I was concerned about it just in case it might be similar to my experience going to Hintertux/Austria, where after landing in Muenchen it can be quite a quest to get from there to the resort, so I'd much rather prefer a group-transfer in such scenario.

As for acccommodations, unless it was the unanimous choice, I would not be a great fan of the self-catering [enough self-catering during most of the year, so during vacations I'd prefer not to worry about any catering ].

Well, sounds good for now: let's hope enough people will show interest and sign up! I don't have any ideas for other useful Q to add to the survey. I'll write later if I think of anything. Otherwise, just give a signal whenever the survey is official, and I'll add my entries.

Cheers,
Cat.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 13:44:08 GMT

So its Ally, CatP and Snapzz going to Chamonix in March.
Is that right?

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 13:48:01 GMT

Stewart Dowling wrote:

Ian Wickham wrote:In the Hotel in St Christoph there was a group who wore group T-shirts, I have never seen anything as sad, they had printed on them all the ski resorts they had skied ...... that is mega sad

There was something as sad, and it was you, you grumpy git. ) )

I thought even you understood that Wickers grumpiness was all put on?

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 14:17:52 GMT

re: So its Ally, CatP and Snapzz going to Chamonix in March.
Is that right?
-- Yup; looks like it, at least for the time being.
Now, heading back to my yard work before the expected rain will start coming down .

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 14:21:47 GMT

BTW: (sorry this is unrelated to the thread): I kept searching through older threads hoping to find out what could be the problems behind not being able to load an avatar? Any ideas? [I am browsing to the file I chose, I made sure to reduce its size onder 130x130px, and it still refuses to show up ?!

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 14:34:19 GMT

If my plans work out I will be in a ski resort from January until May so will not be interested, but I have been meaning to do this for 5 years and I have got no where. Sso I filled out the survey, read most but not all the thread and thought I will add a pennies worth or two (should that be penny's worth?).

Have you thought about whether you will allow singles and how you are going to deal with them, ie supplements?

I am 25 but not really bothered about age of group as long as we are not surrounded by under 5 year olds.

Week before Christmas would be good, before the resort opens to tour operators, really cheap, some resorts will give out free lift passes at this time especially for groups'

Livigno has several hotels that own self catering accommodation, not sure if it as anything of usefulness.

Lunch over, back to work, hopefully it be quiet and I can watch F1

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 17:13:27 GMT

Still thinking about this one. As much as its a great idea, it sounds like a logistical nightmare, but it's not impossible.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 19:01:14 GMT

Thanks everyone for your suggestions

I have edited the survey a tiny bit. I have got rid of my first daft question, and added one about whether you would be prepared to share accommodation. And I've added a 'I have no preference' option for the question on whether you want to go during school holidays or not.

So - please do the survey if you are interested in going on a J2Ski group holiday. It doesn't mean you've committed yourself to going or anything. Obviously, until we've sorted out where and when we're going (by majority vote) then it will be very difficult for people to know whether or not they can go.

And if you have any more suggestions about how to edit the survey please let me know. Once we have the basics sorted out I can make another survey with more detailed questions about the accommodation and the exact date etc.

If we don't get more than at least 10 responses to the survey then I wouldn't think it was worth proceeding with this, as I would expect that quite a few people who are interested now would change their minds once we had the date and resort, because they were busy or whatever on that date. So far we've had 6 responses.

At the moment Chamonix and March are still in the lead, but we could easily have a load of votes in saying something quite different. All I can do is wait and see.

As I understand it we need at least 10 definite bookings to get the group discount. Of course, we don't have to have a discount, but it would be nice

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KR8Y7CZ

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 19:07:59 GMT

Can I make another suggestion? You have Ski Welt on there, but you also have Les Arc and La Plagne, there may also be a few from 3V as well, can you merge them so they are Paradiski/3V and also add Espace Killy as an area rather than listing resorts in the same general area?

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 19:23:10 GMT

NellyPS wrote:Can I make another suggestion? You have Ski Welt on there, but you also have Les Arc and La Plagne, there may also be a few from 3V as well, can you merge them so they are Paradiski/3V and also add Espace Killy as an area rather than listing resorts in the same general area?

Thanks Nelly

You're quite right. I forgot that La Plagne and Les Arcs are connected by the Vanoise Express. I could merge them and call it Les Arcs/La Plagne (Paradiski) or something like that. And change Tignes to Tignes/Val d'Isere (Espace Killy). As you said, I thought of that for the 3 valleys and the Ski Welt but forgot about the other 2. I think if I do that I will get an extra choice - any ideas?

What do you think of adding Sauze d'Ouix? It's on the Igluski list of resorts suitable for group holidays.

Thanks for your help. It's very nice to know I'm not here on my own trying to sort this out

Edit
And I could also change La Thuile to La Rosiere/La Thuile (Espace San Bernardo)
And change Zell am See to include Kaprun, and Chamonix to include Mont-Blanc

Ally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 21:30:35 GMT

Good luck with this

I thought you could do free text boxes on Survey monkey? Otherwise it is anonymous and not much point in that.

From a timing perspective, I would not be able to commit to anything until at least Q4 this year. I wont be booking my Jan skiing until about October

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 21:38:58 GMT

I just think you are trying to make it to complicated. You will never please everyone. I have run several group trips now, no one knew each other and everyone had their own idea of how to do it. My group numbers were give or take 20.

Sooooo...I laid down some basic criteria...like HB, fly from London, all in price max GBP600, dates between X and Y. Then I asked the question..Do you want to come given those criteria. Yes or No. Group leader then find a suitable resort within the criteria and he/she decides where to go. You then ask them to pay their money. A tip...do not go through a third party agent...I did it was worst than hell. Deal direct with the travel firm be it Crystal or who ever and get to know the person who is dealing with you.

I have never had a problem with numbers and have always had a waiting list.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 21:42:28 GMT

Sounds sound advice from someone in the know

Big stress for the leader I imagine

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 21:50:09 GMT

bald-eagleman wrote:

I have never had a problem with numbers and have always had a waiting list.

Hi Bald-eagleman,
You sound much better at this than me - do you want to take over?

I am trying to get those who want to come to take some responsibility for where and when we go so that we reach a democratic decision. Maybe I'm expecting too much?

Icy - it's OK if you can't commit at the moment - that's fine. I am just trying to help the OP with this. I think my method will work, but I won't know until afterwards

Ally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 22:31:23 GMT

7 people have now completed the survey. I think if I get 3 more responses from people who might want to come, then there will be some point continuing with this.

It's actually quite interesting looking at what people have chosen.

Q1 - So far only one person wants to go in the school holidays.

Q2 - Resort - Chamonix still top, closely followed by Tignes, 3 Valleys, and Les Arcs. Bottom is Zell am See and La Thuile.

Q3 - Accommodation - hotel is top, followed by chalet, bottom is S/C

Q4 - Getting to resort - top is fly, then train, then self-drive.

Q5 - Holiday month - March is still a clear winner here, followed by Jan and Feb. Bottom is December and April.

Q6 - Everyone so far is coming on their own, only one person is bringing one other person.

Q7 - Cost of holiday for accommodation and transfers - currently a draw between GBP400-GBP600 and GBP600-GBP800. equally bottom are GBP200-GBP400 and GBP800-GBP1000.

Q8 - Standard of skier. 3 upper intermediates, 2 lower intermediates, 2 advanced.

Q9 - Hiring equipment - 3 hiring nothing, 4 hiring skis.

Q10 - New question of sharing - one person willing to share with other J2Skiers.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 22:37:57 GMT

AllyG wrote:

Hi Bald-eagleman,
You sound much better at this than me - do you want to take over?

Ally

I think you've already put yourself up there to manage this now so its up to you to take it forward.

Best of luck.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 23:04:52 GMT

bald-eagleman wrote:I just think you are trying to make it to complicated. You will never please everyone. I have run several group trips now, no one knew each other and everyone had their own idea of how to do it. My group numbers were give or take 20.

I disagree

No harm in initially asking for opinions. Once you have an idea of what is popular you can then narrow things down.

I would have like Afghanistan as an option

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 23:07:05 GMT

FallingDown wrote:

I would have like Afghanistan as an option

Send Ally G a PM, shes the organiser for the 2013 J2ski Group Trip.com
I'm sure she'll waste countless hours researching the logistics of actually skiing in Afghanistan and let you know

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 23:08:10 GMT

FallingDown wrote:I would have like Afghanistan as an option

I can soon add it for you, if you like

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 23:08:46 GMT

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 23:27:41 GMT

AllyG wrote:

FallingDown wrote:I would have like Afghanistan as an option

I can soon add it for you, if you like

But as group organise, would YOU actually go?

No, thought not

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 23:35:25 GMT

If anyone else is interested in going on a group J2Ski holiday for the 2012/2013 season would they please complete this survey to help us decide where to go etc.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KR8Y7CZ

Thanks,

Ally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 23:37:19 GMT

OK, I was thinking to go ahead and enter my choices in the survey: but what do we pick for questions on which we have no preference? (select all the available, or just pick one at random?)

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 23:38:43 GMT

A massive job Ally - Hope you get it off the gound. Not able to even consider it as I teach - as you know. Good luck with the event.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 23:43:18 GMT

... RE my own comment: (select all the available, or just pick one at random?) -- I asked because I am thinking that the main purpose of the survey is to form an idea if we can get to a consensus, to be worth starting to 'really' organize this. On that thought, say some select "March" but really they'd be okay with January or February also, then it's hard to determine from the total entries if there are enough members to form a group.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 23:47:21 GMT

catp wrote:OK, I was thinking to go ahead and enter my choices in the survey: but what do we pick for questions on which we have no preference? (select all the available, or just pick one at random?)

Catp,
Just select all the available choices if you have no preference - because the very clever Monkey adds up all the selections for me

Initially I just posted up the survey for people to comment on, and then I was going to improve it, and finally get people to enter their choices. But several people made selections and I didn't want them to have to do it all over again.

As I said before, I think once we've received ten responses we can move on to a more detailed survey, using the information gained from the first one.

Thanks,

Ally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 23:48:42 GMT

Catp - I know how many people have voted because the Monkey tells me that as well

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 23:51:56 GMT

OK. Done: entered my selections with 'all' for #2 and #3 and jan/feb/march for #5
I really hope enough people will sign up, and this will end up being a GO!!!

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 23:52:32 GMT

Lizzie-B wrote:A massive job Ally - Hope you get it off the gound. Not able to even consider it as I teach - as you know. Good luck with the event.

Thanks Lizzie - the first question is whether you want to go in school holidays or not - but only one person so far has said yes to this, so I reckon that means this trip will NOT be taking place in school holidays.

Sorry - but you can always try voting anyway, and if we have a pile of teachers etc. vote, it might swing the other way.

Ally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 23:55:00 GMT

catp wrote:OK. Done: entered my selections with 'all' for #2 and #3 and jan/feb/march for #5
I really hope enough people will sign up, and this will end up being a GO!!!

Thanks Catp

And now we're on a new page I'd better put the link back up:

If anyone else is interested in going on a group J2Ski holiday for the 2012/2013 season would they please complete this survey to help us decide where to go etc.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KR8Y7CZ

Thanks,

Ally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:11:37 GMT

Well done Ally.
Not something I can consider so far in advance, we are somewhat late deciders!
But good luck.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:15:52 GMT

Dids1 wrote:Well done Ally.
Not something I can consider so far in advance, we are somewhat late deciders!
But good luck.

Thanks Dids

If where we're going, and when, suits you I suppose you could always come as well even if you're a late booker. You might just have to stay in your own accommodation, and you wouldn't get the group discount. But we could all still meet up in the resort

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:19:03 GMT

AllyG wrote:

Dids1 wrote:Well done Ally.
Not something I can consider so far in advance, we are somewhat late deciders!
But good luck.

Thanks Dids

If where we're going, and when, suits you I suppose you could always come as well even if you're a late booker. You might just have to stay in your own accommodation, and you wouldn't get the group discount. But we could all still meet up in the resort

So you ARE planning to go on this trip then?

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:31:56 GMT

Tony_H wrote:

AllyG wrote:

Dids1 wrote:Well done Ally.
Not something I can consider so far in advance, we are somewhat late deciders!
But good luck.

Thanks Dids

If where we're going, and when, suits you I suppose you could always come as well even if you're a late booker. You might just have to stay in your own accommodation, and you wouldn't get the group discount. But we could all still meet up in the resort

So you ARE planning to go on this trip then?

... hmmm I would have thought that was a bit obvious? [maybe I'm tired...]

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:39:43 GMT

AllyG,

Is there some time-deadline for organising the trip to get a group-discount?

Unrelated PS: I'll just add a side note that it's fun to use "organise" VS. "organize" -- initially thought "organise" was a typo, but then I realized (or is it realised in the UK) that "organise" IS the correct spelling in the UK. Also funny: Found it a bit confusing initially to keep reading "ski Holiday": because in the US, "holiday" has a different meaning than "vacation", so I was a bit jealous thinking: do they have special "Ski Holidays" in the UK?

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 07:48:13 GMT

Wow! Light the touch paper and watch it fly..! Fourteen pages and counting....
Ally, great job....fantastic effort, and I hope it all comes together...well done!

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 08:51:12 GMT

catp wrote:

Tony_H wrote:

AllyG wrote:

Dids1 wrote:Well done Ally.
Not something I can consider so far in advance, we are somewhat late deciders!
But good luck.

Thanks Dids

If where we're going, and when, suits you I suppose you could always come as well even if you're a late booker. You might just have to stay in your own accommodation, and you wouldn't get the group discount. But we could all still meet up in the resort

So you ARE planning to go on this trip then?

... hmmm I would have thought that was a bit obvious? [maybe I'm tired...]

Maybe you're tired.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 09:55:01 GMT

randyrat wrote:Wow! Light the touch paper and watch it fly..! Fourteen pages and counting....
Ally, great job....fantastic effort, and I hope it all comes together...well done!

Thanks Randyrat, and I'm really sorry about hi-jacking your thread for a few pages whilst we discussed printing J2Ski T-shirts

We've now got a very healthy 16 people interested in going on this trip (including me, Tony).

Tignes has caught up with Chamonix, January has almost caught up with March (only one vote less), catered chalets are one ahead of hotels, flying is still top, so far we don't have any beginners, and people do seem to be willing to share accommodation either with their own friends or J2Skiers rather than pay the solo supplement, and half of us will need to hire equipment.

My personal preference would be for Tignes and January, because I have less work in January and I could go on the direct train very easily from London to Bourg-St-Maurice and then get the bus (15 euros return) and 1 hour to Tignes. Or, if there were several of us, I could get a taxi which would be much quicker. Plus, January is generally cheaper than March.

But Chamonix is much closer to Geneva which would be better for flights. The only bad thing I've read about Chamonix so
far is that it doesn't have chalets. Tignes has loads (as well as hotels and self-catering).

I think I'll post the link back up and let this run a while longer. So, if you're interested in coming and you haven't done it yet, would you please complete the survey.

Thanks everyone

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KR8Y7CZ
Ally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 13:43:31 GMT

I've had some more responses now, thanks

Tignes is ahead of Chamonix by 1 vote, and March is 1 vote ahead of January.

Could those who are interested in coming in January or March to Tignes or Chamonix, and who have completed the survey please pm me to let me know which dates and resort they would prefer and give me details of how many will be coming with them.

And if you haven't done the survey yet but you are interested in coming, would you please do the survey first and then pm me. I will remove the other options now so it will only be a choice of Chamonix or Tignes and January or March, plus the other questions.

I will ring a few of the TO's now and get some idea of prices etc.

I am still intending to make it a group booking for the accommodation only and then possibly sort out some shared transfers from railway stations and airports.

Thanks,

Ally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:00:42 GMT

I think AllyG is very brave to take on the organisation of this, lets face it, tricky ski trip.

But if we pick a snow sure resort, with half decent accom in a lowish season price range, what's not to like?

If you go on your own you can end up in a chalet or hotel with people you don't know and perhaps don't like. At least this way you have some comfort that those who want to go on the trip have a similar outlook to yourself. There's nothing stopping you skiing alone if it doesn't work out!

I'm up for it.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:30:47 GMT

Tony_H wrote:

catp wrote:

Tony_H wrote:

AllyG wrote:

Dids1 wrote:Well done Ally.
Not something I can consider so far in advance, we are somewhat late deciders!
But good luck.

Thanks Dids

If where we're going, and when, suits you I suppose you could always come as well even if you're a late booker. You might just have to stay in your own accommodation, and you wouldn't get the group discount. But we could all still meet up in the resort

So you ARE planning to go on this trip then?

... hmmm I would have thought that was a bit obvious? [maybe I'm tired...]

Maybe you're tired.

:

Tony_H, I was kidding!
...However, I'd rather prefer to be tired after some yard-work (at home) on a Sunday, than @work on a MONDAY !!
(... and on top of it, I am typing on my phone, so since the graphic-smileys don't seem to work, I'm trying to use the character-combos for them, which I am not sure if it will work either...)

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:41:06 GMT

Alright!!! I see that the character-combos to create smileys did work, so I'm glad to learn that!!! Now I'm wishing all of you in the UK a nice afternoon, and I'm going back to work , cause I still have a long day ahead of me (it's only 11:30AM in my time-zone)

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 18:04:13 GMT

AllyG wrote:

randyrat wrote:

We've now got a very healthy 16 people interested in going on this trip (including me, Tony).

Are you sure? Some people may have completed twice when you kept changing the questions? Or did you reset the answers?

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 18:52:17 GMT

From what I can tell, the SurveyMonkey software might be keeping a log of the identities of the ones who already took the survey; I'm saying that because when I clicked on the link to see if there are any new changes -after I've already taken the survey once- it just displayed their end-of-survey notification page. So, unless people use a different computer when they re-take the survey, I think the total count should accurately reflect the real number of people interested.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 19:04:01 GMT

catp wrote:From what I can tell, the SurveyMonkey software might be keeping a log of the identities of the ones who already took the survey; I'm saying that because when I clicked on the link to see if there are any new changes -after I've already taken the survey once- it just displayed their end-of-survey notification page. So, unless people use a different computer when they re-take the survey, I think the total count should accurately reflect the real number of people interested.

Simply delete the surveymonkey cookie and you can do the survey as many times as you like

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 19:13:47 GMT

catp wrote:

Tony_H wrote:

catp wrote:

Tony_H wrote:

AllyG wrote:

Dids1 wrote:Well done Ally.
Not something I can consider so far in advance, we are somewhat late deciders!
But good luck.

Thanks Dids

If where we're going, and when, suits you I suppose you could always come as well even if you're a late booker. You might just have to stay in your own accommodation, and you wouldn't get the group discount. But we could all still meet up in the resort

So you ARE planning to go on this trip then?

... hmmm I would have thought that was a bit obvious? [maybe I'm tired...]

Maybe you're tired.

:

Tony_H, I was kidding!
...However, I'd rather prefer to be tired after some yard-work (at home) on a Sunday, than @work on a MONDAY !!
(... and on top of it, I am typing on my phone, so since the graphic-smileys don't seem to work, I'm trying to use the character-combos for them, which I am not sure if it will work either...)

You'll get used to me. I was basically being sarcastic )

have a nice day

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 19:16:43 GMT

Far Queue wrote:

catp wrote:From what I can tell, the SurveyMonkey software might be keeping a log of the identities of the ones who already took the survey; I'm saying that because when I clicked on the link to see if there are any new changes -after I've already taken the survey once- it just displayed their end-of-survey notification page. So, unless people use a different computer when they re-take the survey, I think the total count should accurately reflect the real number of people interested.

Simply delete the surveymonkey cookie and you can do the survey as many times as you like

Thats naughty.

Maybe Ally G needs to disclose who is interested, and the results thus far of the survey, so that people know whats actually possibly going to happen.

Last time I heard, it was 3 to Chamonix in March. Best book a guide for the Valley Blanche, assuming those going are up to it

But seemingly there are now 16 genuine applicants who have expressed an interest, although they will all have input different answers, and may have to pull out if they majority does not suit them.

Blimey. This IS not an easy task to run with, and Ally really will have her hands full.

Is Courch by train not an option????

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 19:16:57 GMT

Very good point FarQueue

!
I guess AllyG will tell us soon how many of us replied to her via private messages, as that would be a better indicator

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 19:38:13 GMT

...Gee, I see that in my last msg the fomatting got messed up! For some reason it looks like when I type while connected via cellphone, typing an exclamation point automatically inserts the following stuff: open-square-bracket, followed by a forward-slash, followed by the word 'quote', followed by closed-square-bracket, and only after all that, followed by the exclamation point! ...looks like HTML markup for ending a quote section? (Now I carefully removed all that and I'm curios if the exlamation signs will look normal )
--- sorry for the tecno-wibble. Maybe others had run into this when using they cellphones: Does anybody know if there is a way to stop various characters from being interpreted like HTML code?

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 19:42:30 GMT

I use a mobile quite a lot, like now (no idea what these cell phone things are....)

It is a bit of a bug on the mobi version of the site.

J2ski towers are working on it

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 19:44:56 GMT

Iceman wrote:I use a mobile quite a lot, like now (no idea what these cell phone things are....)

It is a bit of a bug on the mobi version of the site.

J2ski towers are working on it

I always assumed this was what one got given in a modern correctional facilty (translating as a sign of solidarity with our colonial brethren)

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:00:02 GMT

Re Andy's comment about cellphones:
... yes LOL (you could look at it like that -- since I type this from 'work' ... which I shouldn't, but in view of getting better productivity when one's in a good mood - I'll pardon myself for that!)
... so cellphone/US == mobile/UK ... and did you know they call it "handy" in Germany?!?!
... and I'm saying Sorry to Ally (and others) for going way too far tangentially here!!! (Like if my outside edge got caught too deep and it's carrying me away against my will ... just said this to bring myself slightly back to ski subjects before Admin would bring the axe)

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:07:50 GMT

OK, I will lay my cards on the table.

IF, the trip develops, and it is suitable to me in terms of cost and when/where you go, I would be quite happy to make arrangements to get myself out there and if required sort my accommodation. I would then be willing (assuming others were reciprocal) to meet up for skiing and socialising. The biggest issue for me would be the when, as I am forced to work certain weeks without question. The fixed ones I am aware of at the moment are the weeks prior to all the UK school holidays, including the half terms.

I snore incredibly badly, so for the sake of others I would not be willing to share a room (I also like my own privacy), and I would want to drive or maybe go on the Eurostar if it was a suitable resort.

I will not try to force people to pick a certain date or resort (tbh I doubt you would pick a resort I flatly do not want to visit), but as I said if it goes ahead and what you arrange suits me, I would like to join in in some way.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:16:48 GMT

Far Queue wrote:OK, I will lay my cards on the table.

IF, the trip develops, and it is suitable to me in terms of cost and when/where you go, I would be quite happy to make arrangements to get myself out there and if required sort my accommodation. I would then be willing (assuming others were reciprocal) to meet up for skiing and socialising. The biggest issue for me would be the when, as I am forced to work certain weeks without question. The fixed ones I am aware of at the moment are the weeks prior to all the UK school holidays, including the half terms.

I snore incredibly badly, so for the sake of others I would not be willing to share a room (I also like my own privacy), and I would want to drive or maybe go on the Eurostar if it was a suitable resort.

I will not try to force people to pick a certain date or resort (tbh I doubt you would pick a resort I flatly do not want to visit), but as I said if it goes ahead and what you arrange suits me, I would like to join in in some way.

I reckon thats how the vast majority would like to approach it.

For me, I'd wait and see what people did and who was going, and then maybe decide to meet up if I happened to be in that area, but I wouldnt actually sign up for a group holiday with people I don't know. Hope that doesnt sound snobbish or arrogant in any way.
Like you, I'd be happy to ski with people and do some socialising, but I like to choose where I go and who I go with so lets just see how Ally progresses with things.

Some transparency at this stage would be useful though.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:29:12 GMT

In all honesty Tony, I will already be doing at least one main trip next season with my regular ski friends, but in recent years the second or third trips have dried up due to their work issues.

If I could tag onto a J2 group, it would solve the issue of me not quite wanting to do a trip totally on my own at the moment. That may come in the future, but the ability to meet and ski with "internet acquaintances" would make it a lot easier for me to get off my backside and enjoy another week in the snow.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:35:04 GMT

Far Queue wrote:If I could tag onto a J2 group, it would solve the issue of me not quite wanting to do a trip totally on my own at the moment. That may come in the future, but the ability to meet and ski with "internet acquaintances" would make it a lot easier for me to get off my backside and enjoy another week in the snow.

But the problem is that, for me anyway, the 2nd trip is always booked with about 4-6 weeks to go. That would not work.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:35:40 GMT

I've had quite a few pm's off people wanting to come, so I'm quite sure there hasn't been just one devious person repeatedly doing the survey by eating the cookies first, or using different accounts or something

It's quite simple - if you want to come do the survey and then pm me to discuss it.

I will pull the plug on the survey tonight and use the results. They're actually very interesting - I can see why people use SurveyMonkey for PhD's and things.

So, by tomorrow we should know whether we're going to Tignes or Chamonix, and if it's going to be in January or March.

And then I think I will set up a Facebook group for those going, assuming enough people use Facebook and I can work out how to make and run a FB group.

If anyone wants to unofficially turn up when we're off on this holiday, sorting out their own accommodation and transport etc. then that's fine by me

I have successfully managed to organize several mini-events in the past, although not through the medium of a public forum! But there has to be a first time for everything

Ally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:12:59 GMT

Far Queue wrote:In all honesty Tony, I will already be doing at least one main trip next season with my regular ski friends, but in recent years the second or third trips have dried up due to their work issues.

If I could tag onto a J2 group, it would solve the issue of me not quite wanting to do a trip totally on my own at the moment. That may come in the future, but the ability to meet and ski with "internet acquaintances" would make it a lot easier for me to get off my backside and enjoy another week in the snow.

Ditto. and i too love my privacy so you are not alone there mate.

And if its Cham then there better be someone that wants to do the VB with me.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:17:41 GMT

Snapzzz wrote:Ditto. and i too love my privacy so you are not alone there mate.

And if its Cham then there better be someone that wants to do the VB with me.

Well, strictly speaking he is (as are you) in his own privacy

I would do it again with ya!

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:33:28 GMT

Snapzzz wrote: if its Cham then there better be someone that wants to do the VB with me.

I am well up for doing that. But you need THE perfect day to do it so its a big chance.

Anyway, it will end up being Courch on the train seeing as Ally is running it. If she actually goes herself that is.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:46:06 GMT

Tony_H wrote:

Snapzzz wrote: if its Cham then there better be someone that wants to do the VB with me.

I am well up for doing that. But you need THE perfect day to do it so its a big chance.

Anyway, it will end up being Courch on the train seeing as Ally is running it. If she actually goes herself that is.

I think if you do a week in Cham you have a good chance of a decent day.....unless you get a crap week

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 22:19:36 GMT

I have closed the survey now, and we're going to Tignes!

However, I'm not sure whether it's going to be January or March. According to the survey results March is marginally more popular, but according to the pm's I've received more people want to go in January.

So - if you are interested in coming would you please pm me and say whether you'd rather go in January or March (unless you've done so already of course).

I think I will hold the date open for another day and go by the messages I get rather than the survey. At the moment I am looking at a week in the second half of January.

Ally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 22:25:20 GMT

2 things

Seems a bit of a cult you are running here. If you tell others who is going you might get a better response. None of us know each other, but I know there are some people I certainly would not want to be away with. Likewise, some that I think I could have a laugh with

Need to be a bit open about it.

I can't do tignes in January. Have fun

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 23:05:27 GMT

Hi Icy,
Sorry I'm a bit tired tonight, so I may be a bit more wibbly and make even less sense than normal. It's been a very long day.

That survey was anonymous, so even I didn't know who wanted to come until I asked people to pm me - was it yesterday - I can't remember - too tired. And I'm still getting pm's now, trying to sort it all out.

The problem is that none of us know who will be going altogether until it's all sorted, booked, and paid for. I mean, some people will drop out, and others will decide to come. And then quite likely quite a few people will time their own holiday so that they can come and have a peek at us, whilst maintaining their own independence.

So if one person decides to come on the basis that someone else ISN'T coming and then that other person decides to come, then the first person would have to drop out.

Or, alternatively, if one person decides to come just because another person IS coming, and then the second person drops out - what happens to the first person?

I don't really see why anyone would worry about who else is coming, as long as they don't have to share a room with them. That, I admit, is going to be a bit more tricky to sort out. Apart from that it surely can't be worse than staying in an ordinary chalet or hotel where you wouldn't know anyone and there might well be someone you absolutely can't stand.

I would imagine that the J2Ski holiday group would break up into smaller groups of people that get on particularly well, or like to ski together. And, generally speaking, we all get on okay on the forum, so I don't see why we wouldn't get on okay in real life.

If you still want to know who's coming, I'll post it up in a few days when I've got more of an idea myself.

I'm sorry you can't come yourself I would have enjoyed your company.

Ally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 08:36:08 GMT

May I be honest, not negative, just honest here?

You have a couple of problems.

First, anonymity could be a problem. Those committing to go will want to know who else is on the list, and I cannot imgaine anyone being prepared to pay anything until they know who else is going. Plus I can't see anyone dropping out once they've paid as that means losing money, so you need to be transparent with all of this.

Secondly, who's going to share rooms? And who will decide who's going to share with who? You may have mixed sex travellers, and thats only going to cause serious upset somewhere. I know I wouldn't consider sharing with a total stranger. The alternative is single supplements, which will prove costly, if you find an operator prepared to let you have a number of rooms for singles when they could fill them with 2 or more people. Hotels and chalets are geared up for 2 people sharing, and holidays are costed accordingly. Apartments obviously can be for more sharing, but then you've got the same issue of putting people together. Plus you'll only get group discounts if you fill accommodation space.

Finally, have you considered where everyone lives? Some will be in remote parts of the UK, in Scotland, Ireland maybe, or even further afield. You'll find that Tigner holiday packages involve flights, and the standard is Gatwick which could be an issue for some people, impossible for others. Regional flights, IF available, attract a premium.

Like I said, just trying to offer some honest views here and raise the kind of concerns that I have covered when planning holidays in the past.

Personally, I think you now need to go public with those who are expressing a serious interest in going on this trip. Now you've decided on Tignes, which I assume was the majority, you might find people not wanting to go there and pulling out perhaps? I think it would be a good idea for those going to know who else is on the list, so they can decide to pull out should they discover their arch J2ski Nemesis might also be going, and also cover off where they would fly from. Knowing what gender they are will also be helpful as well as relevant.
Not trying to steal anyone's thunder here as I have no intention of organising this kind of thing myself, but trying to make suggestions that would help.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 09:02:00 GMT

I think they are all very fair points. Also important to remember is that because cham and Tignes were so close together that you may get drop outs based on the resort of choice.

Maybe a better approach would have been to say we can get xx deal in Tignes or xx deal in Cham. People can then see the reason of choice. Same for the month.

It is a very difficult thing to do when you know the people, but with a load of strangers all with different opinions it might be a bit more challenging. I might be in Tignes myself in Jan, so who knows. But then I would like to try somewhere a bit different

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 09:28:46 GMT

Unfortunately I will not be attending not for the reason I dislike anyone, as most people know that I dislike everyone
But for me January is family ski ,Little W has her final ESF gold level to complete in 2013 so I wish to ensure she completes that OK.
And as you know we are off to South Africa at the end of October start of November so I may just be struggling to afford a second ski trip at this time. Thats not to say we won't but we will have to wait and see how many pennies we have left.
Still I hope it all works out for you all and that you have a fantastic time, well it won't be that fantastic as I will not be there

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 09:36:41 GMT

Nice comments from Wickers ....

Me too

No idea what next season holds for me skiing wise, except, barring major accidents etc I'll be on the snow at least once but it does look, at the moment, like some late organising.

Mind you last summer it looked like I wouldn't get to the snow at all this season and I have managed 2 x trips

Whether this proposed trip gets of the ground or not AllyG needs applauding for taking things as far as she has so far. Fingers crossed that it will end with a superb week on the snow for those that go and may be the start of something regular.

More power to Ally

Oh - and Africa may be getting in the way of skiing for me as well. Not that I will complain
I adore Africa (wildlife, wild places) and we are hoping to go sometime end of this year - Botswana maybe, possibly Zambia. Haven't managed a trip since 2008 when we drove 3500km across southern Africa in a land Rover - epic trip.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:00:39 GMT

I might be up for it in January in France as I aim to drive out and do 2/3weeks in different resorts..I'm quite flexible as a retired old f..t and don't mind sharing...

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:12:06 GMT

Hi Daved,
That would be great

I'll send you a pm with all the latest news about this trip,

Ally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:18:30 GMT

Ian Wickham wrote:Still I hope it all works out for you all and that you have a fantastic time, well it won't be that fantastic as I will not be there

Thanks very much Ian

Things are looking quite promising at the moment. Watch this space ...

I'm sorry you can't come on our trip, but very impressed that Little W will be taking her Gold exam. There's no way I'd pass that test - it's really tough.

Thanks OldAndy for your support. I'm sorry you can't come with us It looks like it's going to be a great holiday

Tony - if you want to come send me a pm and I'll give you all the details of what we've decided so far. Otherwise, you'll have to wait until I've sorted out everyone that has said they're coming. But don't worry - there should be spare room in the chalet for late-comers

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:21:33 GMT

Kinda have to agree with Tony on his last post.

For me i am disappointed Cham didn't win out as its somewhere i would like to go but fear i won't because the family wouldn't enjoy it as much as other resorts.

I'll do Tignes if its in march, I'm away already at new year and feb so won't be able to go in Jan.
I'll want to know who is attending too. No disrespect to anyone but i am a 30 something fast skier and i would want to ski with like minded and able people.

And i don't want to share my room.

And i want to fly from East midlands.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:31:39 GMT

I'm sorry about that Snapzzz

Never mind - maybe we can organize another group holiday the following year?

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 12:03:50 GMT

AllyG wrote:

Ian Wickham wrote:Still I hope it all works out for you all and that you have a fantastic time, well it won't be that fantastic as I will not be there

Thanks very much Ian

Things are looking quite promising at the moment. Watch this space ...

I'm sorry you can't come on our trip, but very impressed that Little W will be taking her Gold exam. There's no way I'd pass that test - it's really tough.

Thanks OldAndy for your support. I'm sorry you can't come with us It looks like it's going to be a great holiday

Tony - if you want to come send me a pm and I'll give you all the details of what we've decided so far. Otherwise, you'll have to wait until I've sorted out everyone that has said they're coming. But don't worry - there should be spare room in the chalet for late-comers

I don't think it is too bad ..... Half is technique and the other half is a Slalom which they have to complete in 39 sec's or under, looks like I will be spending my ski hols on the Slalom course

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 12:28:54 GMT

I am genuinely interested..but (!) we (myself, wife and 2 children) are skiing Val d"isere and Tignes at New Year. I don't think I would necessarily want to go to Tignes again in the same season, especially if it ends up being a January trip.....There are lots of other places on my list (including Chamonix). To be honest, having experienced both VDI and Tignes, I would choose VDI every time as a base. Skiing is great in both resorts but Val d'Isere town is much more pleasant (and expensive!)

Regarding dates early Feb was our initial target for a 2nd holiday.

However, if it ends up being Tignes in March and we have skied twice by then and we have enough skiing disposable income left then it could be feasible. I know there are a few ifs and buts in the preceding sentence but at least we are very flexible regarding taking time off for holidays.

I'm a fairly new "j2skier" but I think a j2ski trip would be great fun. As snapzzz has said, ability levels and aspirations will differ and a good mix of people is probably fairly critical.

I'll keep a close eye on progress....

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:01:00 GMT

AllyG wrote:

Tony - if you want to come send me a pm and I'll give you all the details of what we've decided so far. Otherwise, you'll have to wait until I've sorted out everyone that has said they're coming. But don't worry - there should be spare room in the chalet for late-comers

You'd have had a PM from me if I was interested Ally. Which means you are correct in assuming I am not.

Personally I like to choose who I ski with and where I go. Arranging for Mrs H to meet some people I got to know on an internet forum took enough doing, but asking her to go on a holiday with people I have never met before would be an impossible task. We don't ski separately you see. Like Snapzzz, I'd want to know who's attending as well.

Anyway, Tignes is not on my list of places to ski right now. Its bleak and in France. And busyish. And expensive.

Plus I will be going away myself in January with a smallish group.

After the trouble you've taken this far, I hope something comes off in the end, but I have to say I have my doubts that it ever will.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:11:32 GMT

Personally I do not have an issue with sharing especially if it is a good looking, athletic guy, or two or three.

There are hotels that have single rooms however if you go early season or late season you might have operators willing to allocate double rooms to singles.

Remember Easter is 31 March next year

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 19:04:01 GMT

Snapzzz wrote: No disrespect to anyone but i am a 30 something fast skier and i would want to ski with like minded and able people.

And i don't want to share my room.

And i want to fly from East midlands.

No disrespect taken - 2 out of three. If you had have been going, you would have been pleased to hear the news that I am not. I would not have wished to share your room- although didn't know it was a possiblity, and East Midlands is great for me too.
However I totally agree with Andy. Ally is doing a sterling job and should be applauded. There seem to be quite a few out there who are interested and it must be a nightmare to arrange.Not knowing the final number thing. It sounds a good idea, however what seems a great idea one late night does not always seem the same the following week. Surely if people want to know who is on the list they could have enquired with a PM before they commit to the whole thing. Anyway hope all who do go have a fantastic time. Well done Ally Keep it up!!

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 19:13:52 GMT

I just dont get what all the secrecy is about?

Why all these PM?

Why not a new thread: This is what we have decided....

You may get more takers? Some people dont like to show an interest by PM. Plus your post about when and where is now lost

Just my thoughts

Snapzzz - fancy Cham in March?

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 19:17:36 GMT

Book a single - he doesn't share rooms - Falling Down might though !!

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 19:18:09 GMT

Iceman wrote:

Snapzzz - fancy Cham in March?

Yes mate, as long as you don't bring your ferret or whippet.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 19:18:44 GMT

Good idea about a whose going thread though !!

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 19:19:09 GMT

Neither do I! Nor would you want to after a hard day skiing with my boots drying in the same room and copious amounts of beer

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 19:19:30 GMT

Snapzzz wrote:

Iceman wrote:

Snapzzz - fancy Cham in March?

Yes mate, as long as you don't bring your ferret or whippet.

OMG

A hide the black pudding ski trip

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 19:19:53 GMT

Snapzzz wrote:

Iceman wrote:

Snapzzz - fancy Cham in March?

Yes mate, as long as you don't bring your ferret or whippet.

Can I bring my flat cap and Hovis?

Will PM you in Feb

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 19:19:59 GMT

So its Ok but not with a ferret !!

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 19:22:09 GMT

FQ is jealous....

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 19:23:35 GMT

Iceman wrote:

Snapzzz wrote:

Iceman wrote:

Snapzzz - fancy Cham in March?

Yes mate, as long as you don't bring your ferret or whippet.

Can I bring my flat cap and Hovis?

Will PM you in Feb

Sweet......But no racing pigeons, ok?

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 19:27:59 GMT

I was just about to go and tell Percy that he had a holiday lined up next March

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:21:28 GMT

Iceman wrote:I just dont get what all the secrecy is about?

Why all these PM?

Why not a new thread: This is what we have decided....

You may get more takers? Some people dont like to show an interest by PM. Plus your post about when and where is now lost

Just my thoughts

Snapzzz - fancy Cham in March?

I think that's the idea of the initial survey and talk on here plus PMing, then a decision will be made and it will be more official and may generate more interest for those that don't have restrictions on where and when.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:22:58 GMT

But zee decision has been made, zat is vat i dunt understand

Sorry: Silly voice brigade are out

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:36:39 GMT

Iceman wrote:But zee decision has been made, zat is vat i dunt understand

Sorry: Silly voice brigade are out

Thanks Nelly

Icy - the decisions haven't all been made yet, unfortunately. That's what all the pm-ing is about. I'm asking the people who expressed an interest in this what do they think of this and that. And then I have to wait for their answers, which may include more questions which I then have to answer etc. etc.

As far as I know, as I said before, we are going to a chalet in Tignes on either the 13th or the 20th January. But at the moment I am waiting for one more pm to confirm which date out of the two.

And if enough of the responses are positive I will book out the entire chalet for a J2Ski group and post it up on here, on a new thread, as you suggest, so that other people can also come if they wish.

At the moment I have 7 J2Skiers and their friends and families on my list - making a total of 16-18 people. But any of these could drop out which is why I'm not saying who they are. Nothing has been finalized yet. But if all these people do book there will be room for around another 10 people in the chalet, depending on how many people want to share a room.

Please be patient and wait a little while longer

I will post it up as soon as I can.

Ally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:38:39 GMT

AllyG wrote:Tignes on either the 13th or the 20th January.

I'm out.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:39:26 GMT

I am confused.

1. I am away one of those 2 weeks on my annual family/friends trip so who knows what will go down (that is not the confusion)

2. If you are booking the chalet, how will you cover the cost of the non utilised places?

Cham in March it is then

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:49:37 GMT

Icy,
The owners of the chalet have agreed to hold the whole chalet for me, for a month, whilst I find out if anyone else wants to come. And they will then sell the surplus rooms as normal to non J2Skiers.

So, if enough people are interested we will have an entire chalet full of J2Skiers and their families and friends.

I have also been sorting out flights/trains and transfers including prices etc.

And, I have been negotiating with the chalet owners about discounts etc.

So, I have been rather busy ...

Ally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:52:46 GMT

Doing a fantastic job AllyG

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:55:14 GMT

Wow, Ally you're doing a fab job!

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:57:19 GMT

Good for you Ally,
I won't be going along as don't really fancy Tignes or January...and it's way too far away for me to decide anyway...
But I really do hope it gets off the ground and if it does that those who go all have a great time
I've organised groups of family and friends in the past and that's stressful enough so well done for even considering taking this on, let alone actually doing it.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:58:20 GMT

You going now Ally?

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:13:35 GMT

Yes, I am definitely going Icy

Actually, I'm quite looking forward to it. It's a gorgeous chalet - much posher than the sort of place I normally go to

It's a good thing we did that chalet practise when we were wibbling, so I will know how to talk to the other people in the chalet

Ally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:14:06 GMT

Link, stick the link up

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:17:54 GMT

Iceman wrote:Link, stick the link up

If you mean a link to the chalet Icy, I'm not going to put that up until after I've booked it!

I mean, there are something like 60,000 J2Skiers plus a whole load of unregistered readers, who might snap it up from under my nose, and I'd have to research and find another chalet

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:28:14 GMT

AllyG wrote:

Iceman wrote:Link, stick the link up

If you mean a link to the chalet Icy, I'm not going to put that up until after I've booked it!

I mean, there are something like 60,000 J2Skiers plus a whole load of unregistered readers, who might snap it up from under my nose, and I'd have to research and find another chalet

I thought the owners of the chalet were holding for you?

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:53:00 GMT

Icy,
They're not holding it until I tell them which date we want. And I can't do that until I get all the pm's back from everyone that's already expressed an interest.

IF I'd had all the responses back I would have booked it tonight. But obviously some people want a couple of days to think about it, and phone their friends to check when they're available etc. etc.

And I can't blame them because I'm sure I'd be exactly the same myself.

Ally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:56:42 GMT

So, let me get this right. If peeps want to commit now they have to pay some kind of deposit now for January?

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 22:10:17 GMT

Yes, as far as I remember it's a GBP100 deposit, with the balance due 12 weeks before the holiday. The whole charge for the chalet is GBP399 per person on the basis that 2 people occupy each bedroom. There is an extra GBP200 solo occupancy charge.

I know 12 weeks sounds quite a long time beforehand but it's so they can re-sell the holiday if the guests can't go or make the final payment.

My main problem as far as the money goes, is that we can only get the full group discount if one person collects all the money and hands it over to the chalet owners. Naturally I'm not willing to take that risk, so everyone will make their own payments to the chalet owners and we will get a smaller discount, dependant on how much work I do for them in chasing all the J2Skiers for the chalet payments and answering their questions etc.

Ally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 23:27:11 GMT

As group leader you need to collect everyones money and book it all together to get the bigger discount. Thats the responsibility of leading. Set a deposit deadline date, anyone who doesnt pay doesnt go, simple as that.

I cannot believe a chalet owner will hold an option open for you for a month. The chalet you were looking at in Tignes has 39 beds - are you planning on filling them all?

Is the chalet fully catered at that price, and I take it you're leaving travel up to the individuals to arrange?

Sounds like progress anyway. Albeit a bit cloak and dagger.

And who keeps 5 starring Ally's posts????

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:47:57 GMT

Ally was having some issues uploading the results from her survey. So I have offered to help out.

Ally took some screenshots, which I have cropped, resized and uploaded so they can be posted.

Please see the following.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:12:16 GMT

Based on that, why was January the chosen month when March was a winner?

I would have gone in March

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:13:24 GMT

Iceman wrote:Based on that, why was January the chosen month when March was a winner?

I would have gone in March

Perhaps best not to ask Icy

The answer may cause distress

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:17:51 GMT

Thanks very much Far Queue, that's great

If you look at the survey results you can see that 17 people very kindly completed it for me. And if you look at the question about how many people they would bring with them on the ski holiday it adds up to a total of 40 people (9X1) + (2X2) etc. Assuming none of those people in the groups were other J2Skiers who also completed the survey, it means that there was potentially a group of 40 people interested in coming on a J2Ski group holiday, as counted by the survey.

You can see that Tignes was the most popular resort, and March the most popular month. I deleted the other resorts towards the end of the survey because it was clearly a contest between Tignes and Chamonix, and likewise for the other months as January and March were the clear leaders.

However, when I asked people to send me a private message if they were interested in coming, there was only one person who couldn't come in January but several who couldn't come in March. So I picked January as the month to go.

I changed my stupid first question about whether you wanted to go on a J2Ski holiday (because the survey was only for people who did want to go on one) after some people had already responded to it. I replaced this question with the one about whether you would be willing to share accommodation, so there were 6 people who technically 'skipped' this question (because it wasn't there when they did the survey).

And then, on the basis of the survey results and the pm's I received, I started looking at catered chalet accommodation in Tignes for January (since the catered chalet option was the most popular according to the survey).

As I said yesterday, I have now selected a chalet and I am looking at either 13th or 20th January in this chalet. The first 2 weeks in January were no good because this chalet is already booked.

I am still waiting for a pm back before deciding which date to go for.

But if anyone else now feels they'd like to come would they please let me know their preference for the date, either here on this thread or by pm.

Thanks,

Ally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:20:19 GMT

Iceman wrote:Based on that, why was January the chosen month when March was a winner?

I would have gone in March

Icy,
I'm afraid the answer to that is very simple. It's because you didn't tell me you wanted to come, and could only manage March and not January!

Sorry.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:41:30 GMT

AllyG wrote:I have closed the survey now, and we're going to Tignes!

However, I'm not sure whether it's going to be January or March. According to the survey results March is marginally more popular, but according to the pm's I've received more people want to go in January.

So - if you are interested in coming would you please pm me and say whether you'd rather go in January or March (unless you've done so already of course).

I think I will hold the date open for another day and go by the messages I get rather than the survey. At the moment I am looking at a week in the second half of January.

Ally

I've just trawled through this thread to find exactly what I said about the January/March issue (page 18 if you want to check).

If people don't tell me they want to come, how am I supposed to know? I'm not psychic

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:45:23 GMT

AllyG wrote:
If people don't tell me they want to come, how am I supposed to know? I'm not psychic

Oh no !!!!!

Ally - I had you down as omniscient, omnipresent, omnipowerful etc etc

And had just decided to go with January to avoid Icy and give everyone a break.

So disapointed

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:11:10 GMT

AllyG wrote:Thanks very much Far Queue, that's great

If you look at the survey results you can see that 17 people very kindly completed it for me. And if you look at the question about how many people they would bring with them on the ski holiday it adds up to a total of 40 people (9X1) + (2X2) etc. Assuming none of those people in the groups were other J2Skiers who also completed the survey, it means that there was potentially a group of 40 people interested in coming on a J2Ski group holiday, as counted by the survey.

You can see that Tignes was the most popular resort, and March the most popular month. I deleted the other resorts towards the end of the survey because it was clearly a contest between Tignes and Chamonix, and likewise for the other months as January and March were the clear leaders.

However, when I asked people to send me a private message if they were interested in coming, there was only one person who couldn't come in January but several who couldn't come in March. So I picked January as the month to go.

I changed my stupid first question about whether you wanted to go on a J2Ski holiday (because the survey was only for people who did want to go on one) after some people had already responded to it. I replaced this question with the one about whether you would be willing to share accommodation, so there were 6 people who technically 'skipped' this question (because it wasn't there when they did the survey).

And then, on the basis of the survey results and the pm's I received, I started looking at catered chalet accommodation in Tignes for January (since the catered chalet option was the most popular according to the survey).

As I said yesterday, I have now selected a chalet and I am looking at either 13th or 20th January in this chalet. The first 2 weeks in January were no good because this chalet is already booked.

I am still waiting for a pm back before deciding which date to go for.

But if anyone else now feels they'd like to come would they please let me know their preference for the date, either here on this thread or by pm.

Thanks,

Ally

Apologies.
I'm leaving this alone. I was actually genuinely interested to see developments, but I can see its doing no good.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:24:50 GMT

Just going to jump in here in support of Ally....I'm not sure why forum members who are not interested in going are having a snipe...if you aren't interested, give Ally a break and keep your comments to yourself. Too many people seem far too quick to knock someone who is obviously going out of their way to achieve something, with nothing to gain personally.
If you've got something useful to say, say it, but if you haven't , button it and let Ally get on.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:37:36 GMT

Tony,
Would you please remove the name of the company from your post. I have also asked Admin to delete it, but if you are quick you might beat him to it.

Ally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:38:30 GMT

randyrat wrote:Just going to jump in here in support of Ally....I'm not sure why forum members who are not interested in going are having a snipe...if you aren't interested, give Ally a break and keep your comments to yourself. Too many people seem far too quick to knock someone who is obviously going out of their way to achieve something, with nothing to gain personally.
If you've got something useful to say, say it, but if you haven't , button it and let Ally get on.

I agree.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:41:37 GMT

TonyH,
You have been clear from the start on your views on a J2Ski trip not wotking. Why not just leave this alone now?
If Ally gets this to work there will be many pleased people and probably a few disapointed ones who cannot make it.
Leave it alone and let the plans take their course please.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:46:46 GMT

randyrat wrote:Just going to jump in here in support of Ally....I'm not sure why forum members who are not interested in going are having a snipe...if you aren't interested, give Ally a break and keep your comments to yourself. Too many people seem far too quick to knock someone who is obviously going out of their way to achieve something, with nothing to gain personally.
If you've got something useful to say, say it, but if you haven't , button it and let Ally get on.

Disagree

People may be interested if they knew a bit more infor

I guess you are going?

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:53:05 GMT

Surely if people were interested they would fill in the survey and ask for more info?
Ally has given dates and a resort on public forum.
I am sure she has given more info to those privately who have expressed an interest and who aren't knocking her every effort.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 13:18:47 GMT

Dids1 wrote:Surely if people were interested they would fill in the survey and ask for more info?
Ally has given dates and a resort on public forum.
I am sure she has given more info to those privately who have expressed an interest and who aren't knocking her every effort.

Why is it so tetchy??

Does not matter now as we know it is the camp site in Tignes

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:32:13 GMT

I bet Ally is regretting her involvement now

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:36:01 GMT

AllyG wrote:Tony,
Would you please remove the name of the company from your post. I have also asked Admin to delete it, but if you are quick you might beat him to it.

Ally

Done. Apologies.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:47:09 GMT

Iceman, for similar reasons, can you please amend your post to remove details. Ally is trying really hard here to sort this out and I think we should give her all the help we can.

Thanks, sorry you can't make that date but if this works there is sure to be others.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 17:13:44 GMT

Dids1 wrote:Surely if people were interested they would fill in the survey and ask for more info?
Ally has given dates and a resort on public forum.
I am sure she has given more info to those privately who have expressed an interest and who aren't knocking her every effort.

Well put - This is what I tried to say in an earlier post. It must be a massive job too and many people I am sure appreciate it.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 17:16:45 GMT

Iceman wrote:
Does not matter now as we know it is the camp site in Tignes

The Les Brevieres campsite is delightful, on the banks of the Isere but close enough to the village.
Of course this is a choice due to Nelly and her glamping in a teepee

Keep up the good work Ally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 17:35:24 GMT

Thanks Icy

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:26:10 GMT

Thank you for your apologies Tony

And thank you for editing your post Icy

I will post any new developments up on this thread, and when I have booked I will start a new thread.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:26:49 GMT

i usually do a tip to couchevel every jan. We have a large group of mixed ability so everyone can find a buddy of their ability. We usually fix the date in May so please get in touch if you are interested
definately no t shirts by the way!

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:36:45 GMT

Bit annoyed that March won out but Jan was picked. I wanted March.
Not sure i understand the explanation of that decision though.

Might start a "who wants to ski with Snapzzz at beginning of march" thread

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:38:55 GMT

Snapzzz wrote:Bit annoyed that March won out but Jan was picked. I wanted March.
Not sure i understand the explanation of that decision though.

Might start a "who wants to ski with Snapzzz at beginning of march" thread

Me and Mr Nelly are going in March - lets go!

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:39:51 GMT

OldAndy wrote:[The Les Brevieres campsite is delightful, on the banks of the Isere but close enough to the village.
Of course this is a choice due to Nelly and her glamping in a teepee
quote]

Ooo that sounds nice. We have a stove so won't get cold. Well, maybe a bit.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:40:30 GMT

NellyPS wrote:

Snapzzz wrote:Bit annoyed that March won out but Jan was picked. I wanted March.
Not sure i understand the explanation of that decision though.

Might start a "who wants to ski with Snapzzz at beginning of march" thread

Me and Mr Nelly are going in March - lets go!

Me and Snappy are considering Cham in March. Fancy coming

We could do a survey then choose where and when we want to go anyway

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:40:44 GMT

NellyPS wrote:

Snapzzz wrote:Bit annoyed that March won out but Jan was picked. I wanted March.
Not sure i understand the explanation of that decision though.

Might start a "who wants to ski with Snapzzz at beginning of march" thread

Me and Mr Nelly are going in March - lets go!

And Icy is up for it too! Thats 4

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:42:11 GMT

We are supposed to be going with another couple as well, that's 6!

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:42:58 GMT

good times

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 19:26:08 GMT

Ally I will take my hat off to you if the holiday all works out. I can not believe how much work you are putting into it. Its bad enough organising a group of people that you know let alone strangers. But my worry's would be that unless you know some-one personally but just through the internet people may not be who they appear to be. People that come across as grumpy may be lovely people and vice versa. This is just my opinion but I would have thought if people are going to a certain place at the same time, exchange mobile no's, meet up some-where for lunch, have a days skiing to-gether. If every-one gets on with each other by all means book a holiday to-gether the following year. If not steer clear. As I said its just my feelings and not meant to cause any offence.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 19:34:06 GMT

Snapzzz wrote:

NellyPS wrote:

Snapzzz wrote:Bit annoyed that March won out but Jan was picked. I wanted March.
Not sure i understand the explanation of that decision though.

Might start a "who wants to ski with Snapzzz at beginning of march" thread

Me and Mr Nelly are going in March - lets go!

And Icy is up for it too! Thats 4

Chamonix in March sounds good to me as well

Of course, I would have to ski 100 yards behind snapzzz now that he has his new bright green jacket/blue kegs and me being in my brown jacket bought from Woolworths.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 19:55:58 GMT

bedrock barney wrote:

Snapzzz wrote:

NellyPS wrote:

Snapzzz wrote:Bit annoyed that March won out but Jan was picked. I wanted March.
Not sure i understand the explanation of that decision though.

Might start a "who wants to ski with Snapzzz at beginning of march" thread

Me and Mr Nelly are going in March - lets go!

And Icy is up for it too! Thats 4

Chamonix in March sounds good to me as well

Of course, I would have to ski 100 yards behind snapzzz now that he has his new bright green jacket/blue kegs and me being in my brown jacket bought from Woolworths.

Looks like 7 then! We are doing the VB if your up for it!

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 19:57:04 GMT

Certainly will be

As long as you will hold my hand on the walk down from the cable car?

Sounds like a great day out

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:05:51 GMT

RoseR wrote:Ally I will take my hat off to you if the holiday all works out. I can not believe how much work you are putting into it. Its bad enough organising a group of people that you know let alone strangers. But my worry's would be that unless you know some-one personally but just through the internet people may not be who they appear to be. People that come across as grumpy may be lovely people and vice versa. This is just my opinion but I would have thought if people are going to a certain place at the same time, exchange mobile no's, meet up some-where for lunch, have a days skiing to-gether. If every-one gets on with each other by all means book a holiday to-gether the following year. If not steer clear. As I said its just my feelings and not meant to cause any offence.

Hi Rose,
It's okay, I'm not offended. I suppose it's a new challenge for me, organizing a group of people I've never met. And finding out how to use that SurveyMonkey was very interesting, plus there seems to be a second spin-off ski holiday now from the choices I rejected of Chamonix and March

When we get back from the holiday I will let you know how it went. I guess I'm pretty easy-going and I get on okay with most people, so I'm not worried

Best of luck everyone with the spin-off ski holiday

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:08:34 GMT

AllyG wrote:I get on okay with most people, so I'm not worried

But its the others you may have to worry about

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:13:07 GMT

Iceman wrote:

AllyG wrote:I get on okay with most people, so I'm not worried

But its the others you may have to worry about

Oh, I'm not worried about them either - I will take a refresher course in karate and judo before I go

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:15:06 GMT

Snapzzz wrote:

bedrock barney wrote:

Snapzzz wrote:

NellyPS wrote:

Snapzzz wrote:Bit annoyed that March won out but Jan was picked. I wanted March.
Not sure i understand the explanation of that decision though.

Might start a "who wants to ski with Snapzzz at beginning of march" thread

Me and Mr Nelly are going in March - lets go!

And Icy is up for it too! Thats 4

Chamonix in March sounds good to me as well

Of course, I would have to ski 100 yards behind snapzzz now that he has his new bright green jacket/blue kegs and me being in my brown jacket bought from Woolworths.

Looks like 7 then! We are doing the VB if your up for it!

I lived in Chamonix for two years and never quite got round to doing to VB. Shame on me

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:17:23 GMT

NellyPS wrote:I lived in Chamonix for two years and never quite got round to doing to VB. Shame on me

We have our own Chamonix guide then (not VB)

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:18:23 GMT

Iceman wrote:Certainly will be

As long as you will hold my hand on the walk down from the cable car?

Sounds like a great day out

looks like I would need brown trousers as well as a brown jacket

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:19:46 GMT

bedrock barney wrote:looks like I would need brown trousers as well as a brown jacket

Oh no! How will you get those as Woolies is no more

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:24:08 GMT

bedrock barney wrote:

Iceman wrote:Certainly will be

As long as you will hold my hand on the walk down from the cable car?

Sounds like a great day out

looks like I would need brown trousers as well as a brown jacket

Vallee Blanche ...hmmmm

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:32:43 GMT

Wiggly bum time

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 21:00:49 GMT

Crikey, the VB looks busier than McDonalds in Lewisham at lunchtime on a Saturday just before Xmas

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 21:02:35 GMT

And all with a guide = loadsa money!

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 21:03:13 GMT

Far Queue wrote:

Crikey, the VB looks busier than McDonalds in Lewisham at lunchtime on a Saturday just before Xmas

It's okay FQ, no need to worry, there are enough crevasses for everyone

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 21:05:25 GMT

bandit wrote:there are enough crevasses for everyone

that's what I saw Bandit

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 22:28:45 GMT

Tignes in January and Cham in March... sounds like a plan.

I'm not bothered about going on hols with people I have never met. If 2 of us booked into a catered chalet we would be with people we didn't know anyway. What's the difference?

Nothing stopping anyone doing their own thing.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 06:56:15 GMT

Vallee Blanche is no more difficult than most red runs in Chamonix, would have been easier actually if it were not for crevasses. Arete is scary because of exposure, but the guide told us to use crampons and it made the walk somewhat easier. Was the first and the only time so far that I wore crampons. My first off-piste experience too, but because of the traffic and no new snow for couple weeks when we skied it, it was more like a piste. Definitely take a guide though.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 12:41:31 GMT

Iceman wrote:

NellyPS wrote:

Snapzzz wrote:Bit annoyed that March won out but Jan was picked. I wanted March.
Not sure i understand the explanation of that decision though.

Might start a "who wants to ski with Snapzzz at beginning of march" thread

Me and Mr Nelly are going in March - lets go!

Me and Snappy are considering Cham in March. Fancy coming

We could do a survey then choose where and when we want to go anyway

Will you be using, Survey northern monkeys.com for the organising site )

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:53:47 GMT

Yep

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 09:36:49 GMT

We have made some more progress in organising a group ski holiday.

The date is 13th January 2013 and the place is Tignes.

I am hoping to be able to release details on the chalet tomorrow, on a new thread.

So, if anyone is interested in coming on this J2Ski group holiday would they please keep a look out for the new thread tomorrow.

Thanks

Ally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 16:39:30 GMT

AllyG wrote:We have made some more progress in organising a group ski holiday.

The date is 13th January 2013 and the place is Tignes.

I am hoping to be able to release details on the chalet tomorrow, on a new thread.

So, if anyone is interested in coming on this J2Ski group holiday would they please keep a look out for the new thread tomorrow.

Thanks

Ally

Well done Ally.
I actually didn't think it would happen so fair play to you.
The chalet looks nice, I know which one it is I have someone on the inside

Have you got final confirmed numbers now?

I'm going to probably be away that very same week.

Phew

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 17:04:36 GMT

Second week in Jan is my usual week away. Not sure where i am going. Would like to try somewhere different to France, Italy or possibly Austria. It will depend on the snow.

If snow is looking pants might end up in vdi

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 17:05:21 GMT

Hi Tony,
I have nearly got the details sorted to put up on the new thread, but we had a family crisis today and I've been very busy. Plus I have to take my daughter out driving now.

More later ...

Thanks for your well wishes. This holiday is definitely happening as the chalet is booked now.

Ally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 17:05:58 GMT

Iceman wrote:

If snow is looking pants might end up in vdi

Which shares the same ski area as Tignes, so you could bump into some of the group while away

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 17:07:54 GMT

Yes, I know. Hence the reason I will not be stay in tignes. Or les brev to be more exact

Really want to do Italy though. Great food and wine

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 20:58:41 GMT

I have posted up the new thread about the chalet Bonjour-Bonjour in Tignes for the J2Ski group holiday.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 21:12:06 GMT

Good work

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 21:18:10 GMT

I have posted it in the France section.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 1 Apr 2012 22:52:05 GMT

I would just like to repeat what I have said several times before, about the reason why I picked January and not March as the date for this holiday.

The survey results showed that March was slightly more popular than January. However, when I asked if everyone who was interested in coming on this holiday would please send me a pm, there was only one person who said they couldn't manage January but could come in March, whilst there were several who could manage January but not March. So I decided to book the holiday in January.

And, neither Snapzzz or Icy told me they could go in March but not in January.

I am very sorry they are disappointed not to be able to come on this holiday on 13th January, but as I said several pages ago, I am not psychic!!!!!!

Ally

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 1 Apr 2012 22:56:43 GMT

As I said, no need for an explanation...

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 1 Apr 2012 23:04:58 GMT

Iceman wrote:As I said, no need for an explanation...

Thanks Icy

I know you said that on the holiday thread, but Admin cut it out whilst leaving the bit where I said I would explain on this thread.

Plus, I'm not too sure that Snapzzz really understands what happened, and I don't want to leave him hurt and confused about this.

Re:Anyone organising a group?

Sun, 1 Apr 2012 23:19:42 GMT

Ok, I don't think he is hurt though