Whistler Winter 2013 - help!
My boyfriend and I will be arriving in Vancouver on 8th October this year, probably get to Whistler around the 10th. We can’t decide if it is best to:
1) pay for one of the programs to find us a job and get everything sorted
2) cut our America holiday short (we are travelling through all of September and were supposed to finish off on the 8th) and make it to the Whistler Job Fair - hopefully get a job and accommodation and possibly head back to America to finish off our holiday once that’s all done
3) just rock up and hope we can find work and accommodation by going and dropping resumes everywhere
Our main concern is that neither of us have specific retail or hospitality experience, have never snowboarded or skied before (or seen snow!!), but are both very hard workers and friendly. We thought might be worth paying the fee and securing a job before we get there because of our lack of experience. We DO NOT want to return after a few months because we can’t find a job, we plan to be there for at least a year. We will have plenty of money behind us but are thinking for peace of mind and not to ruin our holiday that we might pay the $1000 fee (which I feel like is a bit of a scam - we would be paying it just to get a job as everything else seems easy to do anyway) for a program.
We also obviously want accommodation together and have read that staff accommodation is more for single people. Assuming we get a job with a mountain we may go with different accommodation - can anyone tell me what it’s really like?
I have done soooo much research online, read a lot of these threads, but just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for us.
Hey there I’m heading over at the start of the 13-14 season at whistler too.
My wife and I are going with a program for similar reasons to you. I agree the fee is pretty stupid but to avoid having to come home cause you don’t have a job I think it’s worth it.
You’ll need to get in ASAP lots of program’s places for whistler are either full or very close to being.
Good luck hope it all works out. Check out the whistler thread too.
Thanks Wilmshurst! We’ve decided to go with a program for peace of mind even though the fee is crazy! We have found one that has spots still in Whistler so hopefully we get one! Otherwise we’re happy to go to Banff so hope it works out! Good luck to you guys too - might see you over there!
Heaps good to hear! What program are you guys going with?
Banff was our second choice but the disadvantage is there is no staff accommodation for lake Louise that’s why we changed to whistler.
Did you look into Grouse mountain or not really what you were going for ie big mountain riding?
Keep me updated on you’re progress I’ve done my visa and stuff so able to help with stuff like that.
Awesome thanks! We decided to go with Smaller Earth, it seems, as the name suggests, it is a smaller company, but they had great customer service (didn’t feel like they were pushing us into it like others!) and we liked the process we go through, as well as still having spots in Whistler! So just getting the forms filled out as we speak!
Looked into a heap of the resorts - were thinking Silverstar but saw the staff accommodation and put us off a lot!! We actually have never skied or snowboarded before (I haven’t even seen snow!) so we’ll be happy anywhere! Just thought we might as well go to the biggest and best in Whistler but it will be an amazing experience anywhere so we just can’t wait to leave!
We’re half way through our Visas and will send them off tomorrow - they were pretty easy but getting our one for USA is a lot more complicated, since we’re travelling first we have to get a different Visa so that we can return every now and then if we want to while in Canada.
Have you guys got confirmed jobs yet? Are you looking at staying in staff accommodation?
Couple of questions.
There was a law when i lived (yes yes 15 years ago 
) in Banff that Lake Louise HAD to have a staff housing spot for every position they offered? Is that not the case anymore?
Also Ayeshaje where are you from? What passport do you hold and what visa are you trying to get for the USA?
For Aussies you shouldn’t need to apply for anything complicated. The Visa Wavier program thingy last 2 years. You just have submit the details for your first trip and that’s it for the 2 years. https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/
Under help there is the question
How long is my travel authorization valid?
Unless revoked, travel authorizations are valid for two years from the date of authorization, or until your passport expires, whichever comes first. The Authorization Approved screen displays your travel authorization expiration date.
FYI - you def don’t need to go with a program. And everyone on here will say the same. I have not heard one person who used a program for a second time.
I did but I was only 18 and working holidays were a relatively new thing. I also went to the US and at that stage you paid for the visa privilege not getting a job. They offered help but they certainly didn’t help me get a job!
I have since returned to the US not on a program (but that visa is very hard to get nowadays) and I lived in Canada (Banff) without a program and the UK.
Living in Banff and going up the Mountain everyday is not that bad there are staff buses etc and the bulk of staff live in Banff anyway.
But Banff is in a National Park so has a lot of restrictions. Housing is very limited as there is not a lot of new dwellings - that’s why I was under the understanding that every job offer Lake Louise gave HAD to come with housing.
Have you guys considered Sunshine Village. That place is supposed to be pretty sweet too!
Hang on WOW!!
You are paying over 600 POUNDS!!! YIKES!
And you only get a 6 - 12 mth visa??
You are going to love it and want to do another seasons get the 2 year visa for sure!!
Not sure about Banff housing, haven’t looked into it all that much to be honest, been looking a lot more at places in BC. We’ve gone with a program which gets us a job, maybe staff accommodation and if not help finding accommodation, and does the rest of the stuff which we can do ourselves. Basically wanted the security of having something when we arrived. We might get there and realise we didn’t need to spend that money, but at this stage I’m happy to pay it for the peace of mind. We arrive after the job fairs in Whistler and sounds like it’s pretty slim pickings after that if we’re wanting to go there. We obviously won’t do another program and definitely plan to stay for summer but at least we will know how it all works by then!! The money isn’t paying for our visa - it’s paying for the program. The visa is separate for 2 years and is $150 so that’s all good. Getting them sent off this weekend!
We are Aussies. The ESTA is valid 2 years from the date you get it but only does you for 90 days. You can’t restart the time unless you leave the country (including Canada and Mexico). So we have to go through the more complicated process.
If you have any more recommendations of where to go then let us know! We want a relatively large resort, enough parties but not fussed on being out every night or anything! Just wanting to experience the whole thing and meet new people! Will have to check out Sunshine Village. Kinda depends where we get placed with our program, but we get to give them preferences.
Hold on—just did a bit more googling (have done SO much already) and found an answer about the ESTA which says this:
As you have a work visa to be in Canada, for the period of that visa Canada would be your place of residence. That means that every time you leave the US your visit will have deemed to have ended as you’ve returned to your place of residence, and thus permanently left the US - which means that when you re-enter the US the VWP clock will be restarted.
Does anyone know if this is right?? If so we don’t have to worry about going through this mega process and spending $160 each compared to about $15 each!! Very excited about this possibility. We arrive USA on 1 Sept, travel for 5 weeks then go to Canada. We want to make sure we can go back during our time in Canada if we want to. Anyone know about this??
Hey ayeshaje, welcome to Boardworld. 
You get to Whistler on October 10th? The Job Fair isn’t until the start of November!
NOVEMBER JOB FAIR
Whistler Blackcomb will host our Annual Recruiting Fair at the Blackcomb Daylodge on November 1st and 2nd, 2013. We will be hiring for some full time positions but primarily part time and volunteer positions. Application to apply will be open early October.
Personally, I think if you’re arriving in Whistler on October 10th, save your money and do it through the usual process: apply for a WHP visa, get to Whistler in October, go to the job fair, get a job with the mountain, go into staff housing (if you choose). I think it’s crazy how much these programs charge for a service you can very easily do yourself. I know it’s peace of mind and I understand why people choose to go that route. Honestly, you can do so much more with that $1000 in Whistler.
You don’t need any skiing or snowboarding experience to get a job with Whistler Blackcomb (it’s completely irrelevant). Obviously you won’t be teaching snowboarding and I doubt you would be working as a rental tech or anything like that, but there are so many other jobs you could do, ranging from customer relations to food service and many more. I would even say you don’t need retail experience to work in retail. What they are looking for is friendly people who want to work for Whistler Blackcomb. Preparation is key; have a solid resume ready, bank account (do this as soon as you arrive in Whistler), put on a big smile and show them you are a smart and friendly person. It really should be as simple as that.
You might need to look into it further, but I agree with ozgirl; you should be able to just get an ESTA for the USA and it’s valid for two years. Once you have your Canadian work visa approved at the port of entry, you can leave Canada and return as you please. Please double check this but I am almost certain it’s the case.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Option (4)
Start applying now!!
I have never gone to any overseas resorts without having a job first. In fact I don’t even buy a plane ticket until I have my contract emailed to me.
I’ve done 4 winters overseas now (3 in Canada, 1 in Japan) and I have always been able to hook up a job first.
I’m not saying it’s impossible to get a job by showing up, but it’s a chance that I’m surprised so many people take.
Some of my friends have pulled it off. Some have wasted some time and money trying until they get something. Some just fail completely.
Why take the chance?
My best advice is try and lock down a job right now, before you go. If that doesn’t work then you can worry about trying it the other way.
Hope that helps 
Hold on—just did a bit more googling (have done SO much already) and found an answer about the ESTA which says this:
As you have a work visa to be in Canada, for the period of that visa Canada would be your place of residence. That means that every time you leave the US your visit will have deemed to have ended as you’ve returned to your place of residence, and thus permanently left the US - which means that when you re-enter the US the VWP clock will be restarted.
Does anyone know if this is right?? If so we don’t have to worry about going through this mega process and spending $160 each compared to about $15 each!! Very excited about this possibility. We arrive USA on 1 Sept, travel for 5 weeks then go to Canada. We want to make sure we can go back during our time in Canada if we want to. Anyone know about this??
I think the answer is if its not true (and I think it is!) they wont/don’t care.
But whilst i was reading your first point I was remembering this…
i did a season in america then moved to Canada. I had been living in the US for 5mths. When I left my job I had 30 days to leave the country so i applied for the additional tourist visa because the rule about crossing the border had just come in! (ie they had realised people where just going to mexico or Canada to refresh their visa so they made leaving the country putting an ocean between you and america or two border crossing.
They never ‘activated’ that second visa. Even though I did day trips to the US and back. I also left to come home via the US. not one time did they ‘activate” that visa (ie stamp it - it was way before electronic visa’s)
Then several years later I went back to live in america again and i didn’t bother with the second visa even though the same rules still applied. this was less than 6 mths after 9/11 so border crossing was pretty tight. I then actually forgot about the rules and I booked a last minute cruise to mexico it left a couple of days after my current work visa expired and so I would have no visa.
So I spent a day in the immigration to try and sort it out. They didn’t care - I went on the cruise and came back in with no dramas (i was pretty stressed on the cruise thinking I wouldn’t get back in!)
So in summary I wouldn’t bother.
But if you do get stopped at the border all you need to do is go to the Australian Consulate an applied for a visa… Just don’t book anything that matters. Just do a day trip.
Wish I’d heard from you guys a day or 2 earlier! We’ve already paid our deposits for a program unfortunately. From what I read about the November job fair was that it was mainly part time jobs, thought we were missing the main one from this info—
September 2013, Whistler Blackcomb will be interviewing for full time winter jobs in:
Montreal September 11th, 2013
Ottawa, September 13th & 14th, 2013
Toronto, September 15th, 2013
Kitchener, September 16th, 2013
Barrie, September 18th, 2013
Whistler, September 27th & 28th, 2013
Which we couldn’t make because I wasn’t cutting our USA holiday short when it would mean I’d miss NYC!!
The programs are kinda at the stage that you need to sign up now or miss out and either get no job or the crappy ones (well that’s what they tell you anyway….had a very nasty guy at one of them which was mega expensive laugh at us when we said we’d chosen a different program and that there’s no chance anyone else could get us a job in Whistler. Looking forward to sending him a nice photo of us when we arrive 
) so we only signed up on Thursday :| I’d gone the last 3 months thinking it was fine to turn up and do all those things you mentioned rider26 and then suddenly found a huge amount of blogs etc with people saying they didn’t get jobs and it freaked us out! Andy - I was under the impression it wasn’t so easy to get a job now because of all these programs and their job fair…guess that’s what happens when you’ve never done it before.
Oh well we’ve done it now, it’s non-refundable and we’re saving really hard so we’ll have more than enough $$ behind us anyway. Probably get there and go yeah we didn’t need to spend that money…but it means I won’t be stressing during our 6 weeks holiday beforehand and it will be all good when we arrive.
Going to call the America Embassy on Tuesday to find out about this Visa thing. Really hope we don’t need the other one cos it will save us a lot of money and effort but don’t want to get caught either. I read some more and lots of people have said they have just gone with the ESTA but it’s a bit of luck whether the guy at the border cares! Good idea ozgirl though with just trying it with a day trip to see how we go.
Thanks everyone! Hope we make it to Whistler, if we don’t get there for winter we’ll head over for summer and let’s be honest, we’ll probably want to stay for another winter!
Wanted to ask too what staff housing with Whistler is like? Saw a video of Silverstar and it just looked horrible. Dirty and sharing with 2 other people in the room. We just want it to be clean and have a room to ourselves (we’re photographers - our camera equipment is worth more than our cars). If we don’t like it is it easy enough to find something else?
Now you’ve got peace of mind and you don’t need to stress - that’s a good thing.
If you don’t want to stay in staff housing, I feel you need to make that decision and make alternate plans before the season starts (as early as possible). That’s not to say you can’t get lucky, but I don’t like your chances once the season starts.
Staff housing is pretty decent though. You will only have the two of you in your bedroom and I think four people total for the apartment. There are three locations. My advice would be to get into Brio. I will give you a quick rundown of the three (I haven’t stayed in any of them but have visited all).
Brio: comfortable accommodation, only a 10 minute walk to the village.
Westside: comfortable accommodation, closer to Creekside than the village, you will need a bus pass (probably 10-15 minute bus ride to the village).
Glacier: this housing is actually on Blackcomb Mountain (at Base 2) which can be convenient, housing isn’t as nice or spacious as above, Base 2 access by the gondola from the village (less than a 5 minute ride), access to Base 2 can be difficult after the gondola stops running (you will need to pay for the bus to get up there).
I think Brio gives you the best of both worlds; good accommodation, good location, save money on bus passes.