Planet Ice Solihull — Attraction in Metropolitan Borough of Solihull

First visit here with a family of 4. Having read the mixed reviews I didn't know what to expect. On the whole, it was a good experience. With a couple of caveats below.

Had no issues with the parking. And, in fact, the parking is incredibly cheap. Parking a mile down the road in the town centre and the prices are double. Paid using the machine, using Google pay. No probs. The centre was clean and in a good state of repair. We thought it would be quiet in a term time weekday. But it was quite busy. Even the lovely lady who served us said it was unexpectedly busy. But the atmosphere was great. No attitudes on the ice and the rink is big enough for experienced and newbies to share. The cafe wasn't open (and doesn't seem to be during weekdays).. Which is a shame as a nice hot drink would be welcome. There are well stocked vending machines All the staff who served us we polite and friendly.

My biggest issue is the prices. At first glance on the website a family of 4 is £40. Which isn't overly cheap or expensive. But, then you have to add on skate hire. This is nearly £3 per person. So a family visit turns out to be £52.

But then, if you have youngsters, you may need the push along penguins/polar bears for help. We usually get these when we do the Christmas pop up skating. But here they are £7.50 each. For two kids thats another £15. £67 in total. Then you may need a locker that costs £1. Non refundable. £68! This is very expensive and getting on for modern London pricing.

Although there is no time limit on the skating, as a family thing to do with in experienced kids they are done in under two hours. So it's a very expensive trip.

In out visit there was also a couple of pigeons that had found their way in the roof and were flying around. Speaking to a member of staff, it was well known. Not a great look.

So, overall, a mixed bag. If you plan to skate on your own or a couple, it's not too bad. But for families, it's pretty expensive for...

Very happy memories of coming here over half-term with my 5yr old daughter and wife. They both learnt to skate for the first time and the staff were very accommodating and professional.

Unfortunately like a number of other customers, we were caught out by Premier Park Ltd who "farm" the car park which doesn't appear to be owned by Planet Ice. We paid for parking as instructed. My daughter needed the toilet before we left so we were a few minutes late coming out and charged £100. The same thing happened after her lesson the following day. Little did we know this at the time as the Parking Charge Notice came through 2 weeks later. To be charged £200 was nearly x3 the cost of her lessons and skate hire over half-term. Given Premier Park Ltd have completely tarnished the memory of watching my daughter learn to skate for the first time I will have to seriously consider whether we can bring ourselves to return to Planet Ice Solihull in the future. It appears many other customers of Planet Ice have also been caught out and issued expensive Parking Charge Notice's through Premier Park Ltd, which will have contributed to their £3.8m gross profit last year. We kindly request that Planet Ice consider buying their own car park space outside the ice rink as they clearly provide a valuable service unlike Premier Park Ltd who unfortunately seem to have survived the Covid pandemic whilst many more scrupulous companies perished. From the reviews I wonder whether other customers will be put off attending Planet Ice due to several horrific experiences with the car parking situation which would be a shame as our experience of the ice rink itself was...

MORTIFIED -

So after travelling up with my boyfriend as his hockey team traveled over 200miles to use this facility to privately hire the ice for £360 as our home rink is shut and was the only rink available to hire. Not only did we just pay for the private hire we also ended up paying up to £300 on top of the £360 in parking tickets even after we paid and have proof of payment(ticket) due to the poor signage, clocking us in and out when arriving and leaving!

When you travel over 200miles and end up arriving early for the session due to setting off early because of terrible weather conditions, little did we know we were being charged from the moment we were waiting in the car park!

This is the first ice rink that I have ever been to in my whole skating career as a figure skater (over 10 years) and I travel a lot for training/competitions and skating camps and am forever waiting around in car parks! And i have never seen something so con worthy. It’s a lot of money spent that shouldn’t have, especially when this was our first time to this rink! Even after driving round the car parks and reading the signs as we arrived we were still not aware of the shock we would’ve received in the post!

Only positive was the two gentlemen that was working that evening, both lovely! So want to thank them both!

Would be great if something was done about this as from reading previous reviews, we are not the only ones to be coned in this malicious way by sustaining money of the rinks and surrounding buildings customers! which is clearly putting a bad light on...