Tim Hortons Iceplex — Attraction in Town of Brighton

I have had my daughter’s birthday party here 4 years in a row, the most recent being today. Over the years I have been assigned a party “helper” at each celebration who has helped make the overall experience a smooth seamless day: on the day of party have asked what drinks we would prefer ( choice of soda, fruit punch, water served in pitchers with ice), taken a vote from each party goer what flavor of ice cream they would prefer ( vanilla or chocolate) and made sure we had plates, forks, spoons, napkins, and let us know about 10 minutes before our pizza was coming. All these things are included in the price of the party package, and were well worth the money due to quality of delivery. I have always tipped heavily for the care and time the employees put into making my daughter’s birthday special. Today, however, was an exception to the past experiences. I never actually got to meet our party “helper” until I had to search and ask who it was. There were actually two girls, and neither of them told me their name. My boyfriend asked them for Sierra Mist soda, and one of the girls brought a 2 liter of Pepsi and Mist Twist. These are 9 and 10 year old kids, and they all wanted the Pepsi. Keep in mind, their energy levels are through the roof, and with 11 kids caffeine is not a needed ingredient. It would have been great if they didn’t bring the caffeine option, and I would have corrected it if I wasn’t out on the ice monitoring the kids. There were no cups, and they weren’t in pitchers, but luke warm 2 liter bottles. The helpers were annoyed visibly that I asked them for cups, and also ice which they never brought. Our pizza was delivered later than the agreed upon time, and they brought it without any plates or napkins. The plates came about 5 min later by a guy who was not either of our party helpers. We never saw either of the girls until about 10!min before the end of the party. No check ins to make sure anything was ok. We wanted to cut the cake, but didn’t have enough plates to serve it as they barely brought enough for the pizza. My boyfriend had to go up to Bill Grey’s and ask for plates and forks. On his way there he saw one of the “helpers” and was walking with one of the girls at the party. Unfortunately, she was swearing describing a “sh*itshow” to her friend... not sure if she was referring to our party (11 kids) or something else, but the kid didn’t need to hear that language from an employee. When the one helpers brought the ice cream (at 1:20 and the party ended at 1:30) she didn’t bring spoons, and was highly annoyed when I asked for them. Overall, I was incredibly disappointed as I have had nothing but the best service over the years. Unfortunately, I don’t think we will be returning next near. I am more than willing to pay for a great experience to make my daughter’s birthday special, but to be treated with disdain and annoyance is unacceptable, especially with the prices they charged us. I hope the company reads this review, and the employees are schooled on how to treat parents and kids with respect. On a side note, this occurred today after a major snow storm, and there were NO other parties going on. We ended up having the rink pretty much to ourselves. There was NOTHING else going on... so no excuses that they were busy with other parties. Just really...

I've been going to this rink for about a year and I have to say. While the the best feature by far is having four rinks. The worst is the staff, management and security along with player/management relations. They have got to be the absolute worst rink for that I've ever skated at and have since boycotted coming back there until my guys and I are treated better. I also along with about 10 others have had their phones and wallets stolen from them in the locker room a few months ago. While the rink did virtually nothing. They should have compensated and good willed a few things for the players involved. While not legally obligated to do this it would have went a long way in saying they cared about the people who frequently pay to play at their rinks. They were also very unapologetic and seemed inconvenienced by the whole thing. They seemed more frustrated with it happening soooo late at night and the fact that they had to stay and deal with us and the cops than with the fact that 10 plus people had just been stolen from on their property. It's a shame that such a great place with a ton of potential can't seem to grasp the basic concepts on retaining repeat customers. And basic customer/staff relations that would help them be a great place and not just a place. Hopefully some time in the near future this place will clean up it's act and figure out the successful formula to running a business. I've worked with the public a long time and I can tell you the customer is not always right. In this case though. Bill Gray's is wrong for not addressing or doing much for those involved. While I continued to go to their rink after the incident occurred for awhile, this is where I decided to draw the line when I repeatedly along with others continued to deal with rude and sometimes disrespectful staff members who seemed more concerned with their status in the company than the people like me who support it and pay to play there. Especially the last time I was there where I drove all the way to the rink only to have them close the skate and shoot session a half hour before it started right on me as I arrived. Then offered no courtesy or even a sorry. Just grumpy staff member's. One who told me and another it was now closed even though they let the two guys in front of us go and then another who came up and rudely told us to understand they were down to two rinks and it's not their fault. Needless to say I won't be back anytime soon. I love hockey but I'd rather travel to Syracuse or Buffalo if I have to than continue to play at this place. What can management do? Will they do anything at all? I challenge them to do something. Especially for the unfortunate people involved in the incident a few months ago. It's not too late. Then they need to take a look at their staff and reassess some of the people that work for them. They aren't doing you...

I get the feeling that the Iceplex makes most of their money from Hockey Tournaments and Practices rather than Public skating, because the experience of the latter is a bit lacking.

I'll start with the positives. It's easily accessible, relatively cheap, they do skate rentals, and they offer scooters for novices.

More on the meh side - The skates they rent can be hit-or-miss. I've had some that seemed new and comfortable, and ones that were beat and seemed like they should have been retired. COME EARLY because otherwise you will waste 10-15 minutes waiting in line to get your wristband and skate voucher.

The check-in process is a bit baffling to me because you still need to do it even if you bought tickets online. They give you a green wristband (always green when I went) and nobody ever checks them. Is it even necessary? Would they even know if you had just walked in with your own skates and headed down to Rink 4? Probably not, it's really just a waste of time. It seems a bit strange to me not to be able to just walk down to the skate rental and have them scan the bar code or QR on your phone for the rental - Sort of a half in/half out approach given what technology can offer these days. But I digress...

The actual public skate experience is definitely lacking. It is pure anarchy out there on the ice. There's usually a staff member out there with a red jacket - their primary function is to fetch the scooters for people that paid extra for them. They do not appear to be there to enforce rules of any kind. People will skate in the wrong direction, people will mill about on the ice in large groups, teens will cluster together to watch tik toks, etc. People will use scooters for bumper cars, people will leave scooters on the ice, people will ride on top of scooters, and other forms of jack-holery.

Look - I was out there just the same, trying to teach my own kid to skate, stopping, holding onto the wall and whatnot. I get it, there's a wide range of skill out there and people want to have fun. I do not expect perfection or military discipline. However there seem to be zero rules and zero rule enforcement. It's for this reason that I'm going to be just buying my own skates and looking elsewhere to see what other ice skating rinks have to offer. The Iceplex could really step things up by making the check-in process smoother and clamping down a little bit on the pure lawlessness that is the Public...