Astro Skate of Brandon — Attraction in Brandon

Today was my first visit to this skating facility and most definitely my last. I arrived at 7pm to skate with my 4 year old daughter, my friend and her 4yr. old granddaughter. We waited in line for about 15 minutes to get inside. I purposely chose today to attend as their site listed it as open skate. Friday night was listed as teen night, so we made sure to take the girls tonight. Once it was our turn to purchase tickets, we had the displeasure of interacting with the cashier whom we told that we were not skating just the two young ones. She additionally decided my friends grandaughters shirt was not green (it was) and denied a $1.00off for wearing green as advertised. We let that go, fine, it's a $1, not a big deal. We then proceed inside, lost and had to figure out that the skate pickup area was in the back. We then went and waited in about a 20 min line for skates. When we indicated that we needed a trainer for skating, we were then sent back to the cashier to purchase a trainer indicating that we should have paid upfront. Us being new patrons did not know of this, so we proceed back to the front, where we asked for 2 trainers and inquired as to why no one asked, we were told, we aren't trained to do that. I felt that answer was insufficient and after wasting over 30 minutes in lines I was a little frustrated and immediately shared it with Amelia. Amelia stated the front desk staff were not normally here and she apologized they did not ask if we needed trainers. However if anything financial needs to be handled here at the entrance then they should be TRAINED to ask patrons if they will be needing any additional items such as trainers, extra skates, etc. Most skating rinks it is not handled that way. We then went back in line with the armbands for the trainer and when requesting the trainers we were holding our 4 yr. olds arms up and said we need two trainers and before we could even garnish their bands, the young teenager male staff member blurts very abruptly "Did you pay for them?" We both snickered and let that go as well. Our poor 4 year olds finally took the floor almost 40 to 45mins after arriving. During their skate, the refs were not very observant. Several kids were falling, pushing, not being safe, etc. and they did nothing. Second, they would do switch skate and still allow some to skate the wrong way and not help the little ones understand there was a switch. After 45 mins. of skating, my daughter and her friend were kicked off the rink floor and told as of 8:30 there were no more trainers. I was baffled! Were was this stated? We received a free pizza and drink with our admission so as we stood in line to receive this with our now crying 4 year olds who wanted to keep skating, I spotted Amelia again. I shared with her that not only did the cashier not inform us of this, or the person who took our money for the trainer, but she, Amelia herself during my first complaint regarding the trainers, mentioned nothing of a cutoff time. I guess they aren't TRAINED to tell patrons that by the way with these trainers they can only skate for another 45 mins so their may be a better time to bring them than to pay $15.00 to come in plus skate rental only to stand in 3 lines for 40 mins and to skate for 45. The site should be clear about all rules. As a small local business owner myself, I pride myself on being upfront with customers about all policies and procedures that affect them as a customer. Don't take my money and then say "oh by the way you only have 40 mins left to skate." That is not open skate night. Amelia this second go round continued with the still Animatronic face with a stale apology with no offer to make it right or any of the above. Not only will I not step foot in this establishment again, I will make sure to tell others, it was not kid friendly, the staff was unprofessional and obviously this is a business that prides themselves on taking money and caring less about the service and atmosphere provided!!!...

Come here if you want your items stolen and your body battered.

Accidentally input the wrong Roller Rink in my GPS and figured I'd give this place a try since I was already here. BIG. MISTAKE.

People cutting in line, kids out in the parking lot ON the rental skates, bad associates who care more about talking to their coworkers than properly checking you in, GOOD associates that you can't hear because the music is so loud, people with their phones out on the skate rink, people skating in the wrong direction, people cutting across the skate floor, or crash skating so close to you that they almost take you down WITH them because they're grabbing onto YOU for balance. Just.... an all around bad experience

EDIT: Just to add the icing to the cake, while I was sitting (due to a game) my wallet fell out of my jacket pocket without me realizing. When I did realize after I got in my car (I left after only like 30 minutes), I immediately went back in looked around the entire rink (both physically by walking around the carpet part of the rink, and visually, by scanning the rink floor since I wasn't about to re-pay for skates).

When looking gave no results, I went to the front desk and asked if anyone had reported a lost wallet, an unhelpful associate said no and that was it. The kinder and more helpful girl at the skate rental counter from the beginning of my visit also said no, BUT she at least asked if they could make an announcement over the loudspeaker for me. I stood around for 5-10 WHOLE minutes while we waited for the person controlling the loudspeaker to actually ask if anyone had seen the wallet. Normally, a 5 to 10 minute wait is not at all a long time, but considering there were literally no announcements being made, there was no reason for there to be such a wait. But the worst part wasn't even how long I spent waiting, THE WORST PART WAS THAT THE PERSON ON THE LOUDSPEAKER GOT ON TO TELL SOME KIDS TO STOP SITTING ON A RIDE 2 MINUTES LATER!!! So it was obvious that the person wasn't just away from the system, or busy, or preoccupied in any way. They were literally just choosing not to ask. What a foul skating rink, not being able to control your patrons is one thing, but to be outright rude and unhelpful is another.

The associates can't choose to make people have good manners, the associates CAN choose whether or not they help customers in need. I ended up finding my wallet BY MYSELF after looking around the benches where people were sitting.

And I just want it to be known that I'm not f-ing crazy; I didn't expect them to stop the music, make people get on their hands and knees, and look with me until we found it, but an announcement would have at LEAST made people turn their heads to the left and right and maybe check under themselves.

It also might've prevented someone from STEALING $60 OUT OF...

BIRTHDAY PARTY CAUTION. Recently had a b-day party for my daughter's 13th. If you are unable to have the party during non-teen day/nights this maybe be a very bad experience. Two b-day party's were happening at once on Friday teen night. I was called ahead of time twice and was asked if I had questions but never given a run down of what would happen during. As we showed up a host with no name tag and did not introduce himself lead us in inside to our table. Didn't really explain to much, took our cake to the back and disappeared. The gentleman at the door handed out wristbands for rental skates. We had a cosmic party and we're supposed to get upgraded skates, all seemed to be just regular that were given out. Once inside the host came back and I wanted to set up a way to handle the party since it seemed disorganized. I told my host I would like to get the skates and have the pizza come out right away and have gifts and cake at the halfway point. I was met with what would you like to drink and that that sounds cool but that he had this and he would start on the pizza. This was 10 mins into the party. Our host was over worked because he was handling ours and another family's party. A hour and a half in after asking about the dance floor and being told they do that at the end of the night. NO hair spary, NO face painting, NO bounce house, NO trainers for the little ones because it's teen night, NO t-shirt for bday child, NO 600 points at the prize counter(she did get a free pair of fishnet gloves). We saw the other family's pizza served then we were served. In this time our sprite drink was soda water it took till the pizza came out and twice being asked that we needed to switch to mt.dew (this was ok)and then got the refill on the fruit punch. At 10 the kids had be fully served and we did gifts. Asked again about the dance floor was told they will open it at 10:30 mind you the party goes from 8pm - 11pm. Was told the bounce house was down and that the owner was refusing to buy a new one. I was asked 20 mins till close if I was ready for the check, I said we have not done our cake (host forgot we brought one) so that was sent out to us. One of the kids skates had been taken from the dance floor so we hunted them down so she could get her shoes back. Over all the kids enjoyed the skating. Save your money, come during a non-teen night if you can take over some tables order some drinks and pizza and you would have done better with price. Host asked if there's was anything that they could have be done to make things better, husband asked about above mentioned and was given no offer of discount or anything to make up for the problems. No Manger ever came by to see how things went.. ONCE AGAIN CAUSE ON...