KOREA SKI TOUR - VIVALDI PARK SKI RESORT (2014.12.11 foong pheng)

JSKI Ski Full Package at VIVALDI PARK SKI
RESORT

(with 4hours private ski lesson + free
video shooting)

There are many ski resort in gangwon
province

You can find more information searching by

http://funtastickorea.com

http://jski.co.kr

http://enjoyski.blogspot.kr/

Instagram usernname : JSKI.KOREA

Text me by

whatsApp & Kakaotalk  & LINE

+82) 10 63547963

Contact Us. :)

Enjoy Ski in south korea with JSKI SCHOOL.


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This is the after post from the vivian chua.

Just returned from a ski trip at Vivaldi Park with a fantastic experience. Early planning is essential particularly if one wants to enjoy the facility to the fullest.

1. Room booking

With all emphasis on the Cherry room by TA reviewers, I went through all sources to book one, including asking my Korean business counterpart to assist in calling the hotel 2 months before our trip; but was told that booking was not opened yet. Trying to book direct through hotel goes nowhere too, as the reservation in English website did not work and no email address for contact. We ended up booking the Maple Family suite through Expedia. Expedia had shown that they have Cherry rooms but all sold out so try your luck!

1. Transportation

Yes, there is free shuttle bus service if you can book in Korean. I was thinking of asking our Airbnb host to book for us upon our arrival in Seoul, while worrying that the bus seats may be full as we are travelling to Vivaldi on a Sunday. Thankfully I stumbled across the website for independent travelers Funtastic Korea (Funko) http://funtastickorea.com which helped to book the bus service at a nominal fee of 5,000W. Best of all, the booking of shuttle bus is free if one books the ski instructor through Funko, at 200,000W for 2-hour family lesson. Funko has interactive website that is easy to use, and detailed instruction in English of how to get to the bus stop from the subway exit. The bus was indeed full on our day of departure, and our family was probably the only non-Korean in the bus. We took the bus at Gwangwamun stop, returning 3 days later at the bus stop directly opposite the departure stop, returning bus was only half full though.

1. Maple Suite

Do not despair if you don’t get Cherry room, Maple suite was above expectation. I did not feel it’s that aged compared with other TA’s reviews, the kitchenette definitely looks new. The room is clean and spacious even for our family of 6, and came with fridge, kettle, cooking pots and pans, dish washing detergent, kettle and rice/soup cooker but NO toaster. BYO your coffee/tea packs as these are not provided too, and off course BYO large towels and toothbrush/toothpaste. While checking in we requested for the views facing the ski slopes and western room (1 queen bedded room + 1 ondol room), but was told that those facing ski slopes were left with Korean rooms (2 ondol rooms) so we chose the later, the view was awesome! Expedia’s offer for the room at USD120 is really a steal for a ski resort of such standard.

The Korean room came with 5 sets of futons, all newly ironed and crisp, but with only 3 pillows. Guest can request for additional set (3 futons + 3 pillows) at 16,800W, they don’t provide additional pillows only. No wifi in the room too but hubby managed to get wifi at the lobby, presumably through our earlier log in on Twifi in Seoul, while I could not log on so try your luck.

1. The outlets

The main grocery store is opened till 12am, we tried to get some breakfast supply on the first night (Sunday) at 11pm but all cereals were sold out, while the bakery closed at 9.30pm. We managed to get the cereals the next day, but perhaps best to BYO too. On food outlets, we found that the World of Snacks (underneath Starbucks) offered tastiest non-spicy food, try their best seller Bulgogi mushroom rice, kids love that. Even the chicken pop corns and friend chicken at Burger King is quite spicy so be careful for kids.

1. Ski rental and lessons

Funko did the ski instructor booking for us and we were to meet the ski instructor, Jay Lee at Vivaldi’s bus stop waiting area (a built-in tent with heating) but I did not read it properly and waited at the bus stop for 5-10 minutes. Not able to locate the instructor, we then proceeded to Maple hotel, get the hotel to call the instructor and he was there to meet us in 5 minutes.

Jay advised us to send the luggage for keeping and don’t bother checking in as the queue could be quite long when check-in starts at 12pm, but rooms will not be available until 3pm. We were there about 11.45 am with a long line of people checking out. We followed Jay in a van to get our ski clothes and gear, as the rental shop is about 10-15 minutes drive away. There are easily 15-20 rental shops out of Vivaldi, mainly cater for locals thus the rental is much cheaper than the hotel’s. Rental for ski gear (boots + blades) is 20,000W per day, and ski clothes another 20,000W per day. The hotel is charging 34,000W for half day if I remember correctly. We were told to choose our own outfits, and the staff measured our feet for boot size, and asked our height for the poles. We put on the ski clothes and boots at the rental shop.

Jay then took us back to Vivaldi to start our lesson.  He started from the very basic; and provided us the helmets too. The lesson was supposed to be for 2 hours but he definitely spent extra hours with us. Jay advised us to buy the ski lift just for one ride before their scheduled maintenance closing time, and brought us to Basic 2 slopes, where we were taught downhill skill in a slightly steeper slope. We had great fun learning and experiencing skiing and told Jay to assist in buying the night ski lift tickets for 6.30-10.30pm, went back to hotel to check-in, had dinner before our night ski again. Prior to the trip, I thought it must be nuts to ski at night, maybe just for adrenalin-rushed youngsters but night ski had its advantage – no tour groups and a lot less crowded, somehow the kids did not feel tired while having fun, we ended the night at 10pm!

We booked Jay for a more advanced lesson the next day, and got him to help buying the ski lift tickets for 12.30pm-10.30pm. It’s a lot cheaper to buy through instructors, on average the discount on ski lift is 38%! The ski lift ticket is RFID imputed, you could return the cards to the ticket office after each usage for 1,000W each.

We were supposed to return to Seoul on the third day at 1pm bus, but got Jay to assist in changing the bus time to 5.30pm so we skied again on the third day. At the end of the trip, all of us except our 7 year-old managed to master the intermediate slop (the Jazz line), which was beyond our own expectation. This could not be possible without a good coach who made skiing so much fun, despite all the falls and the struggles to get up from the falls. During the teaching session Jay did not use the ski poles at all, I later found out that ski poles are only for the flat area and for planting in intermediate/advanced slopes. Thus despite my 7 yo lost 1 pole in the midst of the trip, he was still able to enjoy skiing with just one pole.

Most importantly, having booked Jay earlier saved us lots of time, thus we didn’t run around like a headless chicken not knowing what to do next. All the instructors from Jay’s company http://www.jski.co.kr  are graduates with a PE degree, and are English/Mandarin speakers. Jay himself had worked for an Australian ski resort during summer in Korea. Throughout the lessons Jay (and his team) had been very attentive, patient, genuinely helpful and most importantly we could feel his passion in teaching, highly recommended. He is reachable on what’s app too, a plus point.

Funko and Jski were indeed the savior of our trip, we ended booking through Funko for Trickeye Museum (at 11,000W it’s the cheapest I can find), and Everland (group booking of 6 or more is cheaper than Everland’s current promotion of 30% off).