Polar Ice Cary — Attraction in Cary

Don't waste your money on Camp Chillin! My daughter attended 2 weeks and my younger daughter attended less than 1 week (more on that below). I was hesitant to bring my daughter back for a second week, but I had a last minute change of plans, Jellybeans was full, and the kids didn't want to go to YMCA.

1. My daughter was scared of the hockey players. She said that one of the hockey players was going really fast and knocked over Ms. Liz who knocked over my daughter who fell on top of another camper. She has a bruise on her leg. When I brought this up to the camp manager she said she wasn't aware of any problems and expressed disbelief because she "talks to my daughter all the time." (This really rubbed me the wrong way after point 6...you take the word of a 6 year old at face value but my 9 year old is making things up?)

2. They spend most of the day in a sad little playroom. Think the free playroom that you drop your kids off at in the gym.

3. They advertise lessons with "qualified instructors" from 8:30-11:30 on their website. My older daughter said she wasn't offered any lessons and that they only gave my youngest daughter (who doesn't know how to skate) lessons twice. They just had free skate.

4. They put parents in the place of being bad guys if they don't fork over an additional $5/kid for a Wednesday "pizza party". Keep in mind Jellybeans, which is the same price, treats all the kids to lunch at a restaurant on Wednesdays. No additional fees.

5. While Jellybeans takes kids on daily field trips to Frankie's Fun Zone, movies, and more....the kids at Camp Chillin painted rocks, watched a lady make balloon animals, and played bingo. Oh and read.. My daughter talks about all the reading she does during all the "no toys, reading time". Worth $225/week?

6. And finally...they sent my daughter home Friday and said she couldn't come back without a doctor's note. They also said that the Director tried to call me multiple times and left multiple messages. I had no missed calls on my phone until 10am Friday morning.

This all started because my 6 year old....keep that in mind, she's 6....said she "might have pinworms." I explained that she clearly had a heat rash . However, a few years back her cousin had pinworms and she now thinks any itch anywhere is pinworms. Again...six year old logic here. (On a side note, my sister pointed out when her kid actually had pinworms there was no rash or physical signs and that at no point did the doctor tell her daughter she couldn't go to school or should avoid other children.)

Anyway, they call me up mid-day Friday and insist that I come take her home. They insisted that she was itchy and uncomfortable all morning. When I asked my daughter, I was met with an incredulous "I never said that! I'M NOT ITCHY!" My guess was they were committed at this point and just wanted to get rid of the annoying Mom. Lucky, for me I work at home, but what a huge inconvenience for lots of parents.

I was surprised that they were taking the medical word of a 6 year old, who also says she's a "ninja warrior princess". I guess that's good enough to hire her for security work.

7. Finally....when I expressed all the above points to the Director in a tone I would describe as calm but no nonsense, the director hung up on me. A customer is bringing up valid concerns, including camper safety concerns, and your response is to hang up on them? Admittedly, I did respond to her statement that they have "one of the best camps in that area" with "Well I guess that's why Jellybeans is sold out and your camp is practically empty."

You've been warned. Take it or leave it. Despite not thinking it is worth the price or hassle, my 9 year old had fun and gives it 3 out of 5 stars. My six year old's little face lit up when I told her she never had to go back and rates it a 0 out of 5 stars. In order to be taken seriously, I probably should of had my 6 year old write the review, she is a ninja Warrior...

Worse place ever for open skating BEWARE BEWARE!!!! Staff would rather play "Where's Waldo" while playing on their phone, whenever a customer needs help or assistance. The skating rink was not even prepped, when ask about the lack of prepping. The sad response from staff was " We felt it wasn't needed" , like excuse me ??? What you feel does not have a direct correlation with what NEEDS to be done!!! Prepping a track for an opening skating session would of takin no more than 10-15min. However asking a lazy staff to go remotely above minimum standards would of been too much apparently. The sad part to this is there was no more than 10 people there , so it not like they were to busy to have done this. I guess this was a foreshadowing to a place going out of business. I would recommend finding another skating rink or just scrapping the idea in general with changing the time spent there to that of a local park instead. We asked for a skater aid to help assist our three year old, but we're sadly denied over reasons which did not make sense, even though we offered a deposit and or a holding of a debit/license. The combination of an unprepared skating rink and lack of help from the manager on staff Tracy Todd, who could careless to talk with us to resolve our issues at hand ,would rather email within the next week or so. We cut our skating session very early due to the problems stated above along with super uncomfortable skates. We asked for a refund and left our contacted information for someone from management to get back to us, but well probably have better luck finding Waldo on the side of a cereal box. As I said before I Absolutely Do Not Recommend This Skating Rink!!!!!!!!!!!! So sad to see a local business treat new...

Worst ice in the Triangle. I arrived at the Ice House at 1pm on a Saturday for public skate and assumed that the ice was so choppy only because they were having trouble with the garage door that housed the zamboni since workers were there cutting sections of the door away so it could be opened. Finally around at 3pm they brought out the zamboni to smooth the ice which had half inch deep and 1 inch wide gouges in it. They only went over the surface once which barely did anything for the ice which remained rough and choppy with gouges. Not only was the ice horrible I never even got to skate again after they finally went over the ice with the zamboni because they had little league hocky practice starting a 3pm which is the only reason they did anything for the ice in the first place. I was extremely upset that I paid $38 for my son and I to skate and not informed of any schedule whatsoever and when I asked for just a partial refund I was told that it wasnt there responsibility to tell me that public skate was only from 1230-3pm even though there is not a single posting of any schedule anywhere that can be seen before you pay. I even mentioned how rough the ice was when I arrived and they said that they only surface the ice once during public skate because of complaints about how much time it took away from the minimal time that public skate was available but they could not have possibly done anything to the ice for the sake of public skate considering have bad of Shape the ice was in at 1pm only 30 minutes into the public skating session. I will never return to this ice rink and suggest that you take your...