Melcor YMCA at Crowfoot — Attraction in Calgary

People need to understand what they're getting into when they decide to go to a ymca vs a standard gym. A ymca is more of a community center than a gym and with that comes kids, increased fees as you're paying for everything even though you may use a small amount of it, and that the people who work there may not have gym industry training. A lot of reviews don't take that into consideration and they compare it to somewhere like world health or good life, when it's apples and oranges.

Slight rant over and moving on to the actual review I am basing this off of my plus member experience or elite as some of the other members have put it. As such my experience is going to be a bit different as the plus membership gives you access to a private locker room with the hot tub and steam room along with towel service.

The building and facilities are a bit dated but most ymca are. The weight lifting area has a good selection of equipment but the layout is a bit screwy and is a bit of a case of 10 pounds of crap in a 5 pound bag, my main gripe in that regard is the dumbell section being divided in two. That being said it's easy enough to work around if you avoid the peak times. Aside from the standard equipment you'd expect to find they also have two power cages, one with Olympic weights and another with rubber weights.

From the plus locker room side of things even during peak times it's very spacious. Additionally the lockers are big enough that I was able to fit all my motorcycle gear and gym gear in handily. On the note of people complaining about thefts the solution is simple, use your brain and lock your things up. Another advantage is there are little to no kids, as the only kids in the plus room will be those who are there with their parent. The showers are good in that they don't have those terrible push the knob and the shower will turn on at a random temperature for a random time, they have your standard hot cold dial. Downside to the showers is that they're in a bit if a high traffic area and not at all private. It's basically a wide, open hallway leading to the pool with shower heads on one side. The hot tub is an alright size, reasonable amount of jets, however the water really needs to be changed out more frequently as its been pretty gross salty. The steam room is fairly good, it's pretty much what you would expect. They also have one of those swim trunk driers which is a real bonus. A down side is that there is only one washroom sall and one urinal for the whole plus change room.

The main thing however that I appreciate about the ymca vs traditional gyms is that they don't dick you around with contracts. You are free to cancel whenever with no fees for any reason. Compare this to the more commercial gyms with sales guys who look like they haven't lifted a weight in their life trying to sell you on some multi year biweekly contract with massive...

I am a member and I pay every month for a membership to come and play different sports, workout and mostly exercise. Despite the decent environment, I feel the staff are quite lazy and sometimes very hard to work with. Yesterday I was with my friends and we were in the Gymnasium playing some basketball. Badminton was allowed in the Gymnasium due to the fact that it was an "Open Gym." Me and my friends went the first time to ask the staff if we could have the badminton nets set up on half the side of the gym and the other side for basketball. The staff said that they would send the DM or Duty Manager down to set it up later. We were acceptable and patient while waiting in the Gymnasium. After maybe 15 minutes or so I went to ask again, this time they said it would be another 15 minutes before the DM would arrive to set up Badminton. I thanked the staff and returned to the Gymnasium after waiting a total of 30 minutes before asking again. I asked the staff at the counter and they proceeded to go inside and ask for a request for badminton. They came out and informed me the last time that the DM would be coming down "now." Of course that was false making me and my friends wait in the Gym for up to an hour, peering outside of the Gymnasium constantly, checking if the DM was going to arrive. Soon however the DM did arrive more than an hour later, she informed us that "The court was too full" and how "It would be too crowded having 13 people on one side of the court." I was acceptable and the DM informed us that she would be back in 30 minutes to check if it was more empty. However the statement of the Gymnasium being too crowded brought up a significant memory not a couple of weeks ago when a full family wanted to play badminton on one half of the court while basketball was on the other half. Apparently 13 was too full but I swear I definitely saw 21 people on one half playing basketball. We were not able to play basketball because of the people that wanted to play badminton. Yet the staff does not set up badminton when we ask but when a full family apparently comes with badminton rackets, they squeeze as many people as possible to the other side of the court. I was quite disappointed but not mad however. Now, going back to how lazy the employees and staff are, this event completely explains how bad it really is at Melcor. Of course, me and my friends went to play more basketball and played for up to 2 hours and the DM never really came back "after 30 minutes" to check if the courts were empty again. At this point we gave up going up to ask again and went up to workout. We later left the YMCA after working out and that was pretty much how I spent a day where I planned to be playing some Badminton into doing almost and only some of what I have planned going to the YMCA. Very Dissapointed Melcor, one...

Yesterday, my son and I were at the pool, expecting to enjoy the services we had paid for. At the time, two lanes in the pool were unoccupied, which was confirmed by staff members. I chose one of the lanes to swim, but within minutes, I was asked to leave the pool and move to the shallow end because swimming lessons were about to start.

I was not informed beforehand that the entire pool would be occupied for lessons. If I had known, I would not have wasted my time. My son was visibly upset by this disruption, and instead of enjoying our time together at the pool, I found myself running between staff members trying to resolve the issue on my own.

I initially raised the matter with the staff, and they assured me that someone would come to the pool to address the situation. However, no one showed up. When I followed up, the staff member simply waved me off, saying they were on their way, but then disappeared without providing any assistance.

When I returned to the reception desk to seek help, I was informed that my membership can be canceled as a solution. And they cancelled it without a refund and my permission! This abrupt action was taken instead of finding a suitable resolution.

Given the circumstances, I believe the service I paid for was not provided, and I was...