Grundy Ice Arena — Attraction in Bristol

Seems to be a great place for hockey, with a neighborhood feel, and we've enjoyed the public skate, but the group lessons are inconsistent. My eight year old daughter finished one session of the Learn to Skate Program and had a great time, so we signed up for another. The second round was ridiculously inconsistent. I fully understand that group lessons are by nature a little unruly, but the kids never had the same coach for more than two weeks in a row. The skills they were practicing were all over the place, and sometimes girls from four different levels were all led by a single coach. At the final lesson, the time was changed without any notice, and started at 5:45 - the five prior lessons had started at 6:15. So my daughter arrived late on the ice to start her test. When she finished and brought out her certificate, we realized she had been tested for the skills two steps below where she had started the session. When I went down to edge of the ice, to get someone’s attention to try to figure out what was going on, the head of the program came over to inform me that by taking a minute of the coach’s time I was being, "Unfair to the other students." No apologies for the confusion, no explanation for why kids were left to repeat the same skill for 5-10 minutes (in a 30 minute lesson) with no direct supervision. The program director did ask one of the coaches to retest my daughter at the proper level, but the skills she should have been learning had either not been taught or not practiced since the second or third week due to the lack of continuity. I wasn't expecting miracles, I just wanted my kid to keep learning and have fun.

After I first posted this review, I did receive a phone call apologizing for, "Any miscommunication or whatever," and offering a free session of lessons to make up for the experience, but when I asked my daughter if she wanted to go back, she said no. She's a pretty easy going kid, watching her enthusiasm decline into disinterest was heartbreaking. Six months have passed, and she still has no interest in returning. In summary: Recreational skating - fun place. Hockey - no experience but seems to be a great place. Skate shop - really friendly. Group lessons - disappointing to say the least, especially after such...

We just had my daughter’s birthday party here and it was terrific. She used to take lessons here and we thought it would be a nice birthday experience for her friends.

You can add an instructor for the kids and I’m really happy we did. Heather was amazing! She was like a secondary host and the kids loved her energy! She checked everyone’s skates before they hit the ice and gave them a short, quick lesson and did some activities with them. She made sure to take pictures and sent them to me afterwards.

The star and MVP of the event was Morgan. I dropped off my own party supplies and decorations and she set them up so nicely and put so much thought into it; it wasn’t just all thrown together. Besides setting up the room nicely, she was running the front, helping getting skates, AND taking care of our party. She killed it!! She came back multiple times and made sure we didn’t need anything. I can’t say enough good things about her.

Grundy Ice is great overall. The ice is always smooth and the staff is always...

I want to give the staff the credit they deserve and the low stars isn’t about them. We had the worst experience at open skate due to the group of 6th graders that caused so much trouble while we were there. I felt so bad for the worker, they wouldn’t listen and were actually throwing cones at her. They wouldn’t get off the ice when asked, and it was unsafe with them throwing cones, skating erratically, throwing themselves on the ice on purpose, banging their skates on the sides, screaming ect. I tried to help the worker, but they had zero respect whatsoever. Management should really have an adult on duty or someone equip to handle those situations. Nothing was done to prevent these kids from coming back, so I most likely will not be going back with my family. I was really hoping for a nice night with my kids. The workers were all kind and friendly, they tried their best, again it’s really management who I would love to speak to. It didn’t feel safe for the workers or...