just back ...

[mummydoc]

just back from ski holiday - we had a fantastic time, we went to courcheval 1850 with crystal finest and stayed in club hotel st louis ( as reccommended by a MN) and it was brilliant, i really cannot reccommend it highly enough. the nannies were amazing, my dd had a fabulous time and now ski's red runs with ease - far better than me. the hotel staff couldn't do enough for us and the food was brilliant every night without fail. the rep helped sort out my problem boots with a smile ! and even rang me up the next day to check i was happy, the hotel manager sorted out changing my dd lesson times even though it was his day off . the whole set up was super , especially for families, there was high tea at 5 pm with a choice for the LO's , the kids food was always good - lots of vegatables, nice pasta bakes etc and always 2 puddings !!and courcheval was a brilliant resort .

Glad you enjoyed yourselves! There are sone lovely red (and not too challengng) runs in Courchevel.

Did you have lunch at Bel Air? It's one of our favourite places to stop and enjoy the sun.

prettybird - was it oyu who reccommended the place - icannot remember now - if it was thanks as you can see we have had the best holiday ever!

No - it wasn't me - we've only ever stayed in Meribel, but we enjoy skiing in the Courchevel valley.

ooh sounds good. We're off at the end of the week , how was the weather ?

are you going to courcheval ? we had lovely sunshine the first day but then it snowed non stop for the next 6 days and the sun cam eout as we boarded the coach to go home ! but to be fair that wasn't crystals fault though our rep did say she would try to sort out the weather ! infact the skiing was fabulous because there was constant powder , but i personnally find sking in falling snow hard, my dd and h loved the conditions. i think more snow then sunshine forecast , should be a great end to the season.

We're thinking of going to the st louis next year. Our DSs will be 5 and 2 - did you see the creche at all?

mamafraise - we used the creche dd1 is 7 . it was lovely, not huge but well stocked, colourful and all the little ones toys looked new, also the buggies htey had where really nice and new , but most of all the staff were all fabulous, now i know that they will be different next year but if that is the standard crystal finest use i would say definightly book it. the creche was split around the skiers and non skiers . you just dropped the kids off at 8:30 am and htey togged them up, took them to lessons and picked them up , the childrens lunches and teas where all very good quality and the dining staff sorted out high chairs and sippy cups etc for all the little ones, it was really " nothing is too much trouble" to give an example, one family had twins about 3 yrs old with them, on the first morning at brekkie i heard the dad ask if the kitchen had any goats milk ... the girl went away , came back and said no they didn't but hey would get some in...10 mins later a kitchen porter appears dusting snow off his clothes and produces a carton of gaots milk he had been sent staight out to find.

Wow! That sounds much better than our recent experience in Tignes with Esprit... Must get the brochure!

mamafraise - also had BAD experience with Esprit and have started thread on it - plse add anything as I will be complaining to them during the week via formal complaint to Head Office

we have already booked next year to go back, another great examlple is we where asked to fill in satisfaction questionnaires on the wed night - someone suggested teapots on the afternnon tea table so you could make a big pot and take it into the lounge and not have to get up and go back the 10 yards or so to the urn ...low and behold next afternoon a row of gleaming new china teapots next to the cups.... i am writing to crystal finest to say how fab they were - makes a change from having to write to complain. the cost BTW was £2800 for the 3 of us - this included absolutely everything including adult an dchildrens lessons and 3 valley lift passess and hire stuff...which was all sorted for us by crystal .if you don't need lessons or hire stuff the price would drop by about 500 quid, also my dd1 had expensive lessons with magic in motion - expensive because she went 4 hrs aday instead of 2 hrs .

Great to finally hear good reports of somewhere!!!! See you there!!!

Mummydoc - sounds fantastci - I want to book! Used to go to Couchevel every year pre-DC - have been saving it till they are old enough to appreciate it!! Is the St Louis a hotel or chalet? Is iot ski-in ski out? Also, how did ou find gettig the skis - did ou bring our own or hire and was it relatively hassle-free?

the st louis is a hotel but is staffed and run completely by crystal finest english staff , we think it sleeps up to about 70 , there where about 50 adults and 15 odd kids last week when we where there, so it feels like a clubby type hotel. we had a hotel room with ensuite and bathroom ( fluffy robes , molten brown toileteries) but the lunge area people tended to sit together to chat etc very sociable, but when you wwent into dinner you had your own table - nice if you wanted to gossip about he other guests it is as good as ski in/out as you put on oyur boots and cross over the road and walk about 10 yards on snow to edge of very easy green run which takes you down to main lifts etc , this take 1-2 mins or 20 secs if your are my dd1 . i pre booked everything in the uk skis etc, so on the coach the rep checked through all the details with us and when we got to the hotel she took us to the hire shop and helped get us all kitted up and then we went for a drink and the hire shop delivered it to the boot room at hte hotel , on the last day we keft boots etc in boot room and they were collected again - absolutely no hassle, we have been told htat next year they are using a hire company which actually drives to hotel with stuff so you don't even have to go to the shop in the first place. it was the cheapest holiday but they do offer frre kids places so it is considerabley better value than similar set ups like mark warner. if oyu go out of school holidays like we did the creche etc is very quiet , infact some days htere were more staff than children

oops sorry about typos should read it wasn't the cheapest holiday...

Skis delivered? Am booking right now!!!!!!!

i kid you not , we wnadered to shop , imeediately looked after , charming french man flirted with dd7 who was given bright pink boots and allowed to choose her own ski's ( lilac with hibiscus print flowers) and then we wandered off for vin chaud ( hot choccy for dd) by the time we got back to hotel for the complimentary champers and canapes the skis and boots were all neatly labelled with our names and in th eboot room !! i know it all osunds too good to be true but it wasn't. i am now at work feeling very post holiday depressed as it was so good.

mummydoc - you are nopw officially my hero - have booked for next feb half term!!!! We were going to go back to La Rosiere, but can't get a better recommendation than yours ( I am always verys stressed by the admin on the first day of the hol), and we a re'off' Esprit after a mumsnetters experience described on another thread.
Thanks!!!

glad to help - doesn't next season seem such a long way off - hope you have as good a time as we did, lots of the staff said they were definightly going back next year - interestingly our rep let slip she was being head hunted to be resort manager for scott dunn !!! we were very impressed she certainly was very high calibre for a rep IYKWIM. we will be going next year but probably not 1/2 term .

Another two plusses for Crystal Finest - when I booked online, (am very unco-ordinated today - am on low carb diet...)I forgot to put in my Ski club GB code for a 5% discount. Rang 'em, no prob, they amended it ( was expecting them to be more officious)AND THEY HAD A NORMAL PHONE NUMBER (!!) (Sorry to shout - but a hol company with a publicly stated non-0870 number!!!)
Okay, as you said mummydoc, not cheap, but want least stres poss while DC are little - and - wey hey - am going back to Courchevel!!!! (Must remember to brush up on my Russian before next Feb...)

lol at the russian , didn't see too many ruskies around but did see lots of private helicopters gogin to the altiport , and staff said Jonny Depp had been in town a few weeks ago, i got them very excited by saying i thought i saw Jude Law in a cafe but on clsoer inspection it wasn't - drat. can i ask how much next 1/2 term cost and iare you getting aan adjoining room for your dc ? maybe we could squeeze our bank account ot do 1/2 term and later.

also on low carb diet so am blaming all typos on that from now on

Cost is about 4k with all the extras booked up front ( much easier that way) but I consider skiing as the main holiday, we go on a cheap camping hol in the summer. DH can't come skiing as kees are kn**ckered, ( he misses us while we are away, so extra nice when we get back , so we are in one room (me , DS1 & DS2)