AUT Millennium — Local services in Upper Harbour

Probably a great place for swim squads, clubs, swim schools, and similar groups. Not suitable for the sports enthusiast who wants to swim as per their own program. Do not rely on the published lane availability. It's unreliable.

Whoever manages the pools availability seems to be unable to organize it in a way that minimizes impact on other guests. For example: Water polo might finish at 12 noon, Swim squad starts at 12 noon, both need the same 6 o 7 lanes (25 m). Instead of putting both into the same area to reduce interruptions, they are place in different parts, in effect reducing the number of available lanes to 7 instead of 13 or 14 for a time. The water polo people could help remove their equipment at the end of their session, and the swim squad could help putting in place the dividers between lanes. With that many hands, the changeover is a matter of a few minutes. Instead, this is left to the staff which does show any inclination to do that work. Instead they believe that lane swimming also works with the water polo goals floating around and without the dividers and that their time is better spent with chatting between them.

Furthermore, there are a total of 9 showers in the male changing rooms. Only one works to some degree. The other 8 are probably from the 2-Dollar-shop.

A few weeks back some mud fell of the shoes of a visitor. Here, too, staff had no inclination to clean it up. It was there before I started and and it was still there after I finished with swimming. That was one hour later.

At times the dividers are just sitting on the ground on the walk ways instead of either being in use in the water or rolled up and stowed away. While they are lying around on the ground this is potentially a health and safety issue.

While I understand that during the week they want to deter people from using their car park, I wonder if that is also required during the weekend. Free parking is for up to 90 minutes at the moment. As a result quite frequently cars park in zones where parking is prohibited potentially reducing the space available for emergency vehicles. 90 minutes free parking is too short if you need to change, shower and want to swim for an hour.

The AUT Millenium also has the strange rule that they they have lanes dedicated to particular swim styles. For example there is a lane that for freestyle, a lane for breast stroke, etc. You can't do an exercise on one lane where you switch between styles.

Do not rely on the published plan for lane availability. When you arrive, check with staff and have a look for yourself. Also, do not plan for using the pool at a time when the plan indicates that the number of available lanes changes. For example if it decreases from 10 to 8, then those 8 could be completely different lanes than the 10. You will be interrupted and asked to use the other half of the pool when it's split into 2x10 25 meter lanes.

Given the suboptimal skills to allocate bookings to lanes, the seemingly uninterested, if not lazy staff, some of the other shortfalls, it might still be the case that the AUT Millenium is one of the best choices in Auckland. It's not "world-class" though in my opinion.

I'll try other facilities like Westwave, Tepid, etc. I've use the AUT Millenium at least 30 times over the last year or so, but I find the service level doesn't meet their "world-class" claim and certainly not what it could be. Very disappointing at the moment.

Update on 10 Aug 2018: Meanwhile I have had email exchange with the management of the AUT Millenium which sounds promising in that the issues mentioned in this review will be addressed. I'll write a new review in a few weeks' time once I had a chance to see those changes in action. I also changed the rating from 1 star to 3 stars (neutral). My recommendation is to avoid changeover times, i.e. when the number of available lanes changes...

This review is to review the Swimming School for kids at this venue.

We were a loyal customer, who attended the school for just over 5 years. For over a year, we noticed that our girl was in the same class with no feedbacks. When contacting the administration for feedbacks, they informed that she can NOW move up to the next class without any explanations on why she was in the same class, and added in the reply "I might as well check other classes to see if there are any students who may be in the same situation"

We loved instructors, our kids loved their classes. But we were mistreated by the administrations, calling us with different names and the way it was apologised was not genuine either. When we informed we were moving to other school, they did not want to hear 'why' we were moving on but just accused us of being the parent who ignores their kids' opinions - "it's a shame especially when kids are enjoying their class".

We may be just 1 of their many other customers and they might not care too much about our decisions but we were very disappointed on how it ended and will not be coming back to...

I was at AUT Millennium several times as a parent helper for my daughter’s swimming lessons (helping them to get dried and changed afterwards) and didn’t see any clear signs that a free parking ticket was required. On the days in question, I only parked for 30–45 minutes which is well within the 90-minute free parking period — yet I was still fined because I hadn’t pulled a ticket, which I didn’t know I needed.

I paid the first fine immediately once I found out, but weeks later received another fine for a different date that I had never been notified about. Even after explaining, they charged $65 instead of the previous early payment amount of $40.

I understand parking rules are important, but the lack of clear signage and communication makes this feel unfair, especially for parents volunteering their time. It’s very discouraging to be penalised for an honest mistake and such a short stay.

On a positive note: from what I saw my daughter seemed to have fun at her school swimming. But at this stage I’m unfortunately not keen to go...