This place is a joke. Arrive and park and see a line to "get into the line to buy tickets". You read that right... I needed to get into an hour long line to get into another line to buy tickets. Prior to getting into the line, I asked an employee what the line was for (there was no signage). The response was a grunt and an expletive as he walked away. I ended up crossing the street and discovering that there was a way to purchase tickets immediately that would allow me to skip the ticket line. So... for $90 a person (access to the park shuttles and a meal), I got to skip the ticket line and go straight to the shuttle line. The line for the shuttle wasn't too bad (about 10 minutes) and we soon arrived at the first stop.
The view here was amazing and you can alse enter a building that gives access to a glass horseshoe deck. However, there was an hour plus line to get to the deck. This is the winter and it is about 28 degrees outside and there were only 3 working heat lamps for a line with hundreds of people. The person behind me got a cup of coffee for $9. When he asked for a cup cozy, he was told that they were out. When he asked for an extra cup to keep his hand from burning, he was told it would cost another $9. What?
We get to the front of the line for the view deck and a security guard asks to see my ticket. I was given a bracelet ticket with a bar code. I pulled back several layers of clothing to show the bracelet and was told to take off my jacket so that security could see the whole bracelet. Seemed kind of unnecessary since I was still 30 minutes away from the front of the line and the ticket wasn't needed yet. When I started to comply, the guard literally said, "geez, can't you move any faster?". This was about 10 seconds after he had asked me to remove my jacket in the freezing cold.
Now we get to the glass deck. All personal items have to be stored in a locker so... no pictures unless you want to pay for the pictures that they take for $65. As I am about to go through the metal detector, one security guard asks me to come through. However, the 2nd security guard stops me and says to wait my turn. I pointed out, very nicely, that the 1st guard asked me to come through and she replied that she is the guard that counts. Huh?
Finally, we wanted our included meal but the restaurants in stop one and stop two are both closed. That left us with only being able to use our meal voucher at the 3rd and final location. What did we find there... you guessed it, another hour long line in the freezing cold.
Summary.... great views but very overpriced and a very rude staff. I would not recommend this location.
Response from Host
Jan 2020
khanman415,
We're very sorry about your disappointing experience. We are working to improve signage at the Ticket Terminals and the process of buying on-site to limit wait times allowing guests to have more time to experience the Canyon. We are also improving our communication to encourage more guests to purchase tickets online and skip the wait altogether.
We don't allow guests to take electronics onto the Skywalk to prevent items from being dropped onto the glass and to regulate the flow of traffic. We want to be sure everyone has sufficient time to take in the views and enjoy the experience.
We sincerely apologize for your interactions with some of our staff. We always do our best to provide quality customer service to all our guests, and we apologize that we failed to do so during your visit. We appreciate your feedback and will be sure to pass this onto management so we can improve in the future.