Rock Spot Climbing: Lincoln, RI — Attraction in Lincoln

I've never been rock climbing before, and we went to this place because my mother bought us climbing passes (From groupon, I think) to see if we liked it/wanted to pursue rocking climbing more seriously.

We get there and they place is smaller than I imagined. The man checking us in is friendly and helpful. He gets another staff member to come and give us a break down of how to use their gym and the rules they have. He was friendly enough.

The gym has auto-belayers so you don't have to to a class or even climb with another person to use this gym, which I thought was really cool.

Reasons for my 3-star rating: There are only two 'easy' routes with auto-belayers so really how long can you do that for anyways (not that we had the chance - see below)? The person who gave us our gear/showed us around didn't give us any chalk/tell us that we needed it (like I mentioned we had NEVER done this before so we didn't know) and it took us probably a half an hour of slipping from holds and banging against the wall to realize that other people didn't fall like that because their hands weren't covered in sweat. They had chalk. It was incredibly busy and once we got off the beginner wall to try another route a family moved in and there was no opportunity to do those climbs again. Meaning we made it maybe 1/4 of the way up other routes before being too inexperienced to get further (the lack of chalk might have factored into this, I'm not sure). Which, frankly isn't that fun of an experience.

I think if you know what you're doing and are able to go in the middle of the day during the week or late at night this gym would be fine. But for us it wasn't a very good...

It's a climbing place, with very little in the way of games or anything to add interest beyond climbing up and down walls, which gets old very quickly. Definitely not suitable for kids, either, and the entry costs are very high: $25 per person.

Edit, following the owner's response:

Some good points about the place -

They have a toddler morning, which looks great. The problem for my kids, at least, is that they were very afraid of climbing up the tall walls, or even the lower ones. The learning curve is very steep, and while the instructor was professional and helpful in explaining how to climb the walls, there was no activity or set of activities to gently ease in the kids into climbing. In the end, we basically paid $45 for two kids (6 and 7 years old) who never actually climbed anything there, but just ran around and played with each other.

I think there's great potential here to have a set of more gentle activities for younger kids: maybe climbing ladders, trampolines, ropes to swing on, etc. I also recall that we were there at a birthday once, and there were such activities for kids. It just looks like in the day-to-day operations of the place, there's no thinking about younger kids. That's not necessarily a bad thing: you can't cater for every age. But if that's the case, I would expect a much lower entry price for kids.

The customer service is good, and we were quickly processed and given instructions about the use of the place. And, of course, I appreciate the prompt and courteous reply by...

I am a parent & Troop Committee member with a local Scout Troop. In December of 2019 we had an overnight event at the Lincoln Rock Spot. Our host, leader, and instructor was “Big Matt” Goyette. He was thorough, professional, and prepared; he dealt equally well with adults and with Scouts (boys as well as girls); and he was calm when necessary but roared when that was needed. The entire event exceeded my expectations.

Big Matt had a plan that he followed throughout the evening, night, and morning. He got a large group of Scouts through the merit badge work, which made them satisfied. He also arranged for Scouts who were not working on the badge to get a good experience and have fun. His organization and poise meant that he delivered everything that had been promised to us.

He also used his own experience as a Scout to connect with the kids. They listened to him and learned what he was teaching. That's a great skill.

Making this possible were the half-dozen young instructors who handled the small groups. Matt circulated among the groups as needed, and the individual staff members all displayed similar levels of patience, detail, and positive attitude. I work at a university, and we employ a lot of students in various roles. These instructors all would be among the very best, compared to the undergraduates I meet daily. This is compliment to them as people; to Matt, as their supervisor; and to the company culture as a whole.

The facility was clean, modern, and large enough for our troop.

I would do another climbing overnight at Rock Spot...