Lagan Valley LeisurePlex — Local services in Old Warren

I regularly use this place, particularly the pool facilities. The slides, the pool and facilities are great. The staff attending the pool are generally good. However the staff at front of house (I.e. reception) leave a lot to be desired. They struggle to crack a smile and they do not seem to be enjoying their work. Yesterday I turned up with my 2 children (3 &1 years) to use the pool during normal hours (I usually turn up during parent and toddler times) and was turned away because there needed to be 1 parent to 1 child. They repeatedly informed me that there was a near fatal accident 2 years previous and that is why it is deemed that all parents may fall foul to the same fate. I asked what would happen if I had 3 kids (5, 3 & 1 years old) and I was informed that I would need 3 adults for such an outing. I think this is bureaucracy loosing touch with the real world - as far as I can tell most children have either 1 or 2 parents; and where there are 3 or even 4 step/parents it is probably advisable not to have them all in a pool at the same time. I never enjoy dealing with the reception, their dismissive and caustic tone gets under my skin. When ever there is someone pleasant on the desk it is a genuine surprise, but the rest of the facilities and staff are good enough to tolerate it. P.s. made an enquiry about lost property and no one ever called me back - but that is...

Giving this place 5 star because as previously noted with my son this place provided a quiet area for him to change in and get dressed again afterwords in actual fact the man behind the desk down stairs walked us to the disability changing facilities an gave me a key to keep until after we swam! So for this guy top marks! Also the boys had a ball in here which is the main thing. One thing I noticed I thought lazy river was a bit to busy for my liking in regards to covid an felt other parents could of reminded their kids about social distancing a bit better. We tended to stay in our family bubble throughout an tried our best to keep distance but other kids kept coming in between us swimming over us racing round lazy river ect to the point a few kids/older kids about 10/12 kept banging into us an others not the pools fault an really a minor issue depending on your thoughts on the matter. I try to be as honest as I can on these so people get the good the bad the ugly an can then make up their own minds on whether the want to attend or not. So other than that slight issue through no fault if the pools the experience was...

It's really hard to review. They are great facilities and we have a lot of fun here but it can be unpleasantly busy. The Gym is excellent but often too busy with long waits as it isn't big enough for the numbers using it. The main pool is fantastic but can be very difficult to book a slot due to it being used for classes and clubs. The waterslides,lazy river etc are great but again often packed with too many people so long queues for slides and the lazy river is often crammed. The online booking system is arcane with lots of random categories where you have to guess what they mean by different things in the timetable. There aren't enough reception staff so queuing is really bad and it's hard to get hold of anyone by phone as it is the same few overworked people in reception answering calls. Once you get in its generally well maintained (although the swimming pool changing rooms could do with a refresh and there aren't enough cleaning staff to keep up with how busy the place is). Lots of parking. The cafe isn't great. Despite the issues I'd give the facility itself 4/5 at off peak times but 2/5...