MetroRock Newburyport — Attraction in Newburyport

I'd like to be able to give this gym a higher rating - it's a great space with awesome route setting, and I know there are a lot of nice people there who genuinely care about the sport of climbing and making the gym a nice place to be. But as someone who goes here regularly I just can't, and do have to agree with some of the other reviews that have been left.

Members come last at this gym - youth teams, after school classes, and birthday parties, are given absolute priority. Especially on the weekends the gym is mainly used as a family fun center, with no consideration for anyone who is there to actually try and climb. The main issue though is safety - I've been at this gym on many an occasion, particularly on weekends, when huge numbers of kids have been running, unsupervised, throughout the entire gym, screaming and throwing themselves onto the mats and walls, often directly below climbers. It can be complete chaos, and very much feels like a Chuck-E-Cheese. Unfortunately, while this is happening, it seems staff are never anywhere to be found.

Despite the great space and route setting, for anyone looking to get in a serious climbing session it can be really hard...

I am a regular at this gym and I hate it. The only reason I climb here is because the next closest gym to me is 45 minutes away. Here's why Metrorock newburyport is a terrible gym.

The place is way too expensive. I pay $100 a month for a reoccurring membership and what does that get me? I get to climb in what feels like a Chuck E Cheese. The gym is constantly full of barely supervised children running around. Even early afternoon on weekdays the gym has a bunch of annoying kids in it.

The route setting is pretty mediocre and the gym caters to youth climbing so many routes are very awkward for adult climbers. The walls are short, and they have little variety in the holds they use. The gym itself is very small so it feels really busy even if it isn't.

Metrorock is a climbing gym that caters to families with young kids and it very much feels like adult climbers are simply tolerated. If another climbing gym opened up reasonably close by I would cancel my membership here in a heartbeat and never come back. I might just cancel my membership and hangboard until spring anyways. $100 dollars a month is starting to feel like a rip off...

Friendly staff, good variety of routes that are fairly rated. New routes pop up every three weeks or so, so if you climb often you may run out of new routes in your level. Can get crowded as there are often kids classes or group nights (would recommend avoiding "guys night" on Wednesdays).

I really like this gym when it's not too crowded but I do have a similar complaint to some of the other reviewers. I've been going biweekly for probably two months now and usually there's like one or two people in the way of the top roping walls. They'll move if you ask but I shouldn't have to. However, yesterday there was a huge crowd of boulderers blocking like a fourth of the available top roping routes. Even worse, a coach/staff member was blocking a few routes in another spot having a meeting while sitting under a top rope wall! I know we are uncommon and most people autobelay or boulder, but it just comes off as really rude especially when they can clearly see us trying to climb. Wish they would enforce climbing...