Pettit National Ice Center — Attraction in Milwaukee

Arrived shortly after the start of public skating on a holiday weekend. We had a short wait to pay, and fees were quite reasonably priced. The cashier was very pleasant and helpful. There was a slightly longer wait to rent skates. They take your shoes in exchange for the skates, so you're wearing skates long before you reach the ice rink. It feels strange to walk to the rink and restrooms on skates, but the rubber floors protect the blades. It's also a bit of a dicey walk up and down the stairs, for those of us who haven't been on skates in decades, but grandma & grandpa both managed it.

We also rented sturdy plastic "helpers" for the Seniors and the 7-yr-old in our group, which REALLY helped us feel safer and enabled us to enjoy several laps around the very long track. Note: If you need to rent "helpers," we recommend either arriving early or being very patient, because (for safety reasons) there are only a limited number available. Renters surrender either keys or ID as a deposit, so it's not practical for someone to abandon or lend a "helper," even to a kind or convincing stranger.

The ice rink itself is huge and seems well maintained and efficiently used. During our public skating session, there were also two separate activities (speed skating coaching + hockey) taking place, on two good-sized rinks in the center of the track.

Overall, this was a fun and very affordable outing...

Took our youngest son to go skating here for his first time and he had an absolute blast. It is a bit confusing to get around the facility, but once you know where you're going it's not bad.

The facility itself is great. We were only able to stay a short time, our son was getting cranky and tired, but it was wonderful. The public skate rink is the speed skating oval, and there are two full size rinks inside the oval, for those that don't know much about skating, that's a very large area to have open to the public.

Prices are reasonable and I'm aware that they offer 5-packs as well for a discounted entry price. Kids under 3 are free as well.

The rental skates aren't bad, not the greatest quality but rentals never are, if you go regularly definitely pick yourself up a pair of skates on your own.

Overall a great place, only reason for the 4 -stars is the getting around and going up and down stairs. Only other thing, if you rent skates for the $3.50 they hold your shoes for you at the rental counter, if you don't rent skates, then you have to pay for a locker or leave your shoes out and the lockers are coin operated. I just stashed mine under a bench cause I didn't have any quarters but be aware that even if you bring your own, they don't tell you about that til you're already downstairs...

Definitely an amazing place for ice skating purposes.

For public skating, the giant "ice track" (usually for speed skating practice) is opened to the public for about $8 a person which includes skate rentals. I found it cool that you can choose to switch out your standard figure skates for hockey skates.

In the middle of the ice track, there are 2 hockey rinks. There are multiples of hockey games that go on throughout the day from kids to older adults. You skate around them on the ice track.

There is also a small snack bar under the skating area with pizza, nachos, hot dogs, sodas, and slushies

I give it 4 stars instead of 5 though because they do not resurface (Zamboni) the ice very often at all. At other skate rinks I've been to, the ice is resurfaced every hour or so. At the pettit ice center, the hockey rinks are re surfaced often, but the public skating rink was not resurfaced for multiple hours! I got there at 3pm, and skated til 9pm. The ice was already heavily scraped up when I got there, but was not resurfaced until 6pm. This meant skating was rather bumpy. And for beginners, it was pretty easy to hit a chipped up spot and fall.

Good luck to all who go. I had a...