Curry Village Ice Rink — Attraction in Oakhurst

This was by far the worst ice skating experience we've ever had. What's really sad is we've been to this same rink in years passed and had absolutely no issues, but for whatever reason, this year it seems to have gone downhill dramatically. First of all, actually purchasing tickets for a session is such a huge hassle now. You used to be able to walk up to the rink and buy your tickets right there. Now, they've moved the ticket kiosk over to Curry Village where you have to stand in line 15 minutes before you want to skate to buy tickets (you are not allowed to purchase tickets in advance), with no guarantee that you'll even get to skate at the time you want, or even at all. We waited in a very long line for about 30 minutes without any employees giving any explanation as to why the line wasn't moving. Finally, a woman next to us went to track down an employee to get information and she found out that the ice rink was at full capacity and they wouldn't be selling any more tickets until people there left (no employee bothered to communicate that to the 20 of us in line before we waited there for 30 minutes). I understand they have capacity limits, but the entire ticket buying process is extremely unorganized and not communicated to anyone which is frustrating. After waiting in line for an hour, we were some of the lucky few that ended up getting a spot on the ice (only for 40 minutes though before it shut down until the night session - and no you don't get a discount for the limited time). Unfortunately, the experience only got worse from there. We walked over to the rink to rent our skates and the employees were very unhelpful and unprofessional. After telling them our shoe sizes, they gave me a size larger than asked for and my husband a size smaller. He tried skating in them but after 15 minutes of his feet being in pain because they we were way too tight, he took them back and told them he needed the larger size. For whatever reason, the employee was very reluctant to give him his actual size and kept asking him how tight they really were (why would you not just give someone the size they asked for?). As for actually getting on the ice, it was in terrible shape and made it difficult to skate. I realize we started skating toward the end of the 2.5 hour session, but they may want to consider cleaning the ice halfway through each session if it gets that bad. Now despite all of those complaints, those are things we could get over. But perhaps what ruined the experience the most for us was how absolutely terrible the music was that they had playing the entire time. We were there five days before Christmas, in snowy Yosemite, hoping for an enjoyable Christmas experience, and rather than playing a single Christmas song, one of their employees was clearly just messing around with the sound system in the limited 40 minutes we had to skate. I realize music taste is subjective, and perhaps you don't want to play Christmas music, but this wasn't just a matter of differing tastes. It was as if someone was purposefully messing around with the music with no regard for the fact that people were paying to have an enjoyable experience. To give you an example of what we witnessed, the music would go from playing the Hamster dance song to the Space Jam theme song to Baby Shark (seriously) to a kid coming on the speaker saying "this is me singing Take On Me" only to be cut off after about 15 seconds of singing and jumping into another strange song. Songs were all over the place and would abruptly cut off after about 30 seconds and then skip to another weird song choice. It seemed incredibly unprofessional and made the whole experience pretty terrible. Unless something changes, we will not be...

Staff has no idea what they were doing! Unorganized! Wasted a bunch of people's time.

We have traveled to skate annually from Fresno. Previous years were wonderful. This year, well, fell short.

We got in a very long line to purchase our tickets, was there 15 min before as recommended. Line moved very slow. We made our way to second in line from window. We overheard that they were going to stop sales for approx 15 min till they can figure out if there was more room. The employee closed the window the went to building behind ticket booth without telling anyone except family in front of line.

About 20 min later another employee walked up and couldn't believe how long the line was and he couldn't find the ticket booth employee.

5 min later they both returned, the second employee stated he would go check the ice to see if they could take anymore and finally addressed the line. My question, was I thought the original employee was waiting for someone to check the ice, guess they didn't.

Another 5 min they announced the ice was full but sure if people wanted they could get in session later as people leave or attend the night session.

A family stated that was the 2nd time that day they were locked out. They asked if they could pre purchase for the night session, they were told no because they don't know how many people would attend...

Here is my advice to staff. Figure out what your max capacity is, keep a count of tickets sold and stop once meet capacity. This would also allow to do pre sales on busy days. Also, as people leave sell more tickets, two out, two in. Advice to people wanting to attend, get to window early if busy day.

And we never was...

I’ll start by saying that my kids had a great time and I am glad we tried it once. I think this activity has great potential, but I wish they’d improve on a few things.

What needs improvement:

1. Consider having the payment kiosk next to the skating rink. It’s in a different location for some reason.
2. Please curate better music! It doesn’t have to be Christmas music, but something upbeat and family friendly at least. It was depressing/angsty music that played the whole 2.5 hours - odd choice.
3. The ice gets destroyed after an hour of skating and after that it’s kind of unusable. I’d rather stop skating for 20 mins while it gets maintained with the Zamboni and enjoy it more afterwards.
4. Also, it’s expensive considering the above issues. About $120 for a family of four. It is cheaper if you bring your own skates.

Pros:

1. hot drinks and s’mores kits were nice additions available for purchase.
2. Nice that they have helmets for kids and the skates were decent for rentals.

Overall a unique experience. Could be great with...