J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by andyoneil

Thanks all

From Valdinet: "Another development on the slopes is that the iconic Face de Bellevard piste has undergone a bit of a makeover to help congestion on the run. The diggers have been hard at work over the summer smoothing and widening the run to make it suitable for World Cup competitions and also to make it more enjoyable for regular skiers. The venue for the Olympic Men's Downhill event during the Albertville games in 1992, the 3km long Face is a legendary run and we'd like to keep it that way!"

I shall keep waiting for an update

LivingThe Dream wrote:

andyoneil wrote:LTD:

Forgive my cynicism but you've made 3 posts in total, each of them a new topic to do with gathering info on what we we think of the TO's practices etc

Are you perhaps an "industry insider" researching?

I don't care if you are - always interesting to see debate, just wondered idly that's all?

Hey no worries, in truth I have applied for or looking into a number of resort rep jobs either as standby or for the smaller company's or chalets that hire later then others (mid December say). I guess it's trying to get an insight into which company has a good relationship with their customers, which ones are in it for the money and numbers, and of course for myself to get a better understanding of what I could bring to the position etc

Appreciate all the feedback, and like I said not done TO holidays before so can't relate from my own experiences.

Fair enough - and well done to you for trying to be ahead of the game in your prospective employment

for meetings then: don't have them in expensive bars, don't go on and on and on (people want their dinner), don't sell the bar crawl as anything other than what it is - everyone's seen it before and will make up their mind if they want to go - false enthusiasm about how its better than any other crawl is just trite!

LTD:

Forgive my cynicism but you've made 3 posts in total, each of them a new topic to do with gathering info on what we we think of the TO's practices etc

Are you perhaps an "industry insider" researching?

I don't care if you are - always interesting to see debate, just wondered idly that's all?

As for the question:

I don't mind a welcome meeting as, even if one has been to resort before, you never know what's changed and the guys who have been there all season will do.

The one exception is when Crystal had their meet and greet in Dicks Tea Bar one year - after the "free" drink had gone then one needed to have another whilst listening so had to buy a pint at Dick's prices - not funny at 5pm when it would have been a third of the price anywhere else...

Far Queue wrote:Well, the Val D'Isere site says they have a map coming, so that may be a new one, otherwise they would simply have used last years I guess.

Keep an eye on This Page

indeed - that's the one I referred to in OP - just wasn't sure if anyone might have come across it posted elsewhere in the meantime

well I know they've replaced at least one lift and re-modeled the Face a bit so I wondered if any other runs had changed

with the stick they get every year for their piste grading I thought they might have changed the classification of some runs

Off to the EK in Jan so want to see if anyone's got a link to the new version of the piste map for this season?

Its "coming soon" on the official web site....

Reason I ask (and here's an admission that may spark another debate) is that every year I create a list (colour coded of course) of all the runs in resort and then see how many of them we can get done over the course of the week.....

I know its sad and my wife points and laughs when I say things like "let's go up that drag lift so we can do the run down - we haven't got that one yet" but I enjoy it

:oops:

as most people have said - it's very much personal preference etc and one bad rep/property/meal can tarnish a whole company (perhaps unfairly) forever more in that person's eyes

Personally I've used all the big "high street" TOs over the years with Nielsen/Crystal/Thomson/First Choice and Inghams all getting a look in at some point.

Of late I've settled with Inghams more often than not for a number of reasons:

Right Resorts
Right Accommodation (chalets usually)
Right Flights (Newcastle - the smaller chalet ops don't seem to comprehend that LGW and MCR are not the only choices which actually makes them expensive once I've factored in diesel, parking and overnight stay)
Found staff to be helpful in resort
Found staff at home base to be helpful too (MANY changes to initial booking this year)
Lastly and most importantly for me: they could not have been better when my wife was injured by an out of control idiot in VT years ago)

DIY doesn't work for me personally due to location etc (and I've seen this year that I'm going to VDI significantly cheaper than the Tignes trip)

Just my 100000000,0000000 Greek drachmas worth....

I've got a pair of Bolle Racing Snake variables - Vermillion Gun if I remember rightly is the tint

They dont go over my glasses per se as I have an insert that is basically the lenses snapped into the frame

Very comfortable, react quickly to changes

They dont go down really low so I still carry my bright yellow ones for "white out" moments but they're generally great allrounders