Skate City Arvada — Local services in Arvada

Today we went to Skate City in Arvada, the 2-4:00 session. It wasn't too terribly busy, though there was a good amount of kids, a handful of teenagers, and a few adults using the rink. The physical rink was in fairly good condition (that meaning there was no skid marks or slippery patches). The walls are sturdy, and one of them is a large fiberglass window where there are tables for parents or guardians to watch their kids. That is also where the food is located. There are a good amount of tables and booths. There is a nice skate rental area in the back, (no extra cost) and they have most sizes of skates for kids and adults. The price is $5.00 per person to enter the rink. The actual skating itself Is pretty good. But there are several fairly large details that prevent it from reaching a skating rinks real potential.

1: First things first, the music was the low half of mediocre at best. In simpler terms, it was awful for anyone who doesn't like R&B top hits on replay. In a skating rink, there should either be 80's music or something more inconspicuous.

2: The food. Disgusting. I know people don't go to skating rinks to eat, so I'm not expecting 5 star gourmet organic Colorado fancy food. But because there is a food option, I would expect baseball stadium level or above. But this food was a far cry from even that. There was the normal sodas, (only Pepsi products) and bottled water. Though if you want ice, make sure to let them know. (They give you about 2 ice cubes otherwise). They refuse to give you chips unless you buy a hot dog, and the "nachos" are just stale tortilla chips in a plastic container with a little cup of a liquid orange luke warm chemical cheese type substance that tasted like bleach. I'm glad nobody I was with tried the hot dog or pizza, I can't even imagine the quality of those.

3: The general atmosphere was poor, and the space was very closed in. No windows, and fluorescent lighting seems to be designed for giving people headaches. Though most of the time, the colorful disco lights were on and the house lights were out, for the occasional song or game, the bright white lights were turned on inside the rink. The actual facilities (Restrooms), were gross with a down sloping, wet, brick floor that was hard to scale in roller skates. The toilets themselves seemed to be about 2 inches from the the floor, and only one stall out of three had a working lock. Honestly, how hard would it be to fix a simple sliding lock! The whole building smelled like "the sweaty feet of and unfortunate soul". Overall, the environment was unpleasant.

So, in conclusion, with just a slight bit more effort they could be an impressive skating rink that truly could be Colorado's choice for family fun in Denver. But with music that's painful on the ears, food that could probably poison the world's most hardy tortoise, and an environment that is an actual insult to the human nose, Skate City Arvada falls...

Me and some friends went to Skate City Arvada for the Two O'Clock to Four O'Clock session today, and we all left with some very mixed emotions about the place. As already stated by one of my friends, Emma D., the food, music, and AMBIENCE of the place were certainly questionable, but the actual skating was good, so I don't feel the need to elaborate more on that, but one point she forgot to touch on was the Dj.

The Dj, whose name I don't know, will go by Albert J., because I am not named Albert J. and because he looks like an Albert J, but NOT because I hate people who are named Albert J. (Sorry for this Albert J. related run-on sentence, I just don't want the Alberts of the world to be offended.)

I feel like this Albert J. may not have known he was signing up for a job as an employee at a Family Friendly Establishment, because he is a very impatient person, especially towards small children who are just learning how to skate and not amazing yet. One of the parts of his job is to go around the skating rink and give tips and help to people who are struggling. HE IS NOT GOOD AT THIS. HE IS NOT EVEN DECENT AT THIS! Sure, he skates around, but when he finds someone stuck, he is less than helpful. He says things like "Point your feet out", even to little kids who may not understand that, then skates away without even looking to see if the person he was "Helping" could do it right.

He isn't great at helping, but also isn't great at disciplining. During our visit there was a kid, about 9 or 10, who could skate very quickly and very well, but who went around grabbing onto and pushing off of people's legs. Albert J saw all this, he was even watching the little brat fly around on his leg-seizing vendetta, but did nothing. Not talk to him, not limit his skating, not even apologize to the people grabbed. Bleh Albert. Really.

At one point, it is apparently a Skate City thing to turn on the "YMCA" song and have everyone dance to it. Now this would be fine, but Albert J. turned it into a Cruel and Unusual Punishment by hunting people who weren't dancing down. That's right, everyone who didn't want to do obnoxious movements was tracked down by Mr. GOSH DARN Albert J. and thoroughly questioned until they submitted to dance. You also couldn't leave the rink during that song. YOU HAD TO DANCE, AND HAD TO BE ON THE RINK. I doubt this would happen, but the YMCA originally started as a young person's religious Christian group, so what if someone with a very strong religion didn't want to do it! It's one thing to encourage a person to dance, another to make them.

So Skate City Arvada, I want you to ask yourself this: Is this really the face you want to put forth to the public? Or is it time for you to have a talk with this "Albert J". Thank you for your time, A concerned citizen and rescuer of...

I've came here since I was a kid, and now I take my kids here. For the most part, I normally don't have much to complain about, if anything at all. I came on a Sunday 2 or 3 weeks ago. Aside from the DJ they only had one person working. I Stood at the door for about 10 minutes before being able to pay, and be let in. Then had to stand and wait almost 10 more minutes just to get skates. My kids and myself do not use skates. We wanted roller blades, as that's what we rent every time. My daughter, my son, and myself all wear different sizes. Well they didn't have blades in any of our sizes. I had to get a size too small, and my daughter had to get a size too big. My son went ahead and got regular skates in his size. I tried to blade with a pair a size too small but only lasted about 30min or less before I had to take them off, due to them hurting my feet. My daughter tried her blades in a size too big. She lasted about 15min before she had to stop skating because they were rubbing on her ankle, giving her a blister. She decided to go trade the blades for skates in her size. Again, she had to wait about 10min before the worker finally came over to the rental counter. She does not like skates at all, and only likes blades. She gave it a shot though. It was very frustrating for her trying to use them instead of the blades. After about 10min she was done skating too. I went to the concessions stand to get some drinks, and again had to wait about 5min before someone came up to the counter. After all that we were pretty much over it and decided to leave. I spent roughly $50-$55 in total. Only to be there for about an hour, and to only spend 30min or less actually skating. I was really disappointed in my visit. The DJ seemed to be struggling that day as well. A song would start playing and after 30 seconds or so, the DJ would put on a different song. That happened multiple times during my hour-ish visit there. I guess if you have your own blades, it wouldn't be so bad... If you plan on going to blade and need to rent them, then good luck getting one of the only sizes that they have available. This is the place that I prefer to skate at, but if they do not have the correct sizes in blades that I need next time then I don't think I will ever go back. Another complaint I had there was how dirty the restroom was, and it had a pretty foul oder as well. Hopefully on a busier day, they have more staff to make the whole...