Skate Station Funworks — Local services in Gainesville

Absolutely horrible . My son and I drove e 4 hours to visit Gainesville as we have never been. We have been cooped up in our home since March 18 when the Covid started as many have been. So we just needed a good fun mini weekend vacation. I found this place online and now I wish I never did. The you d lady at the entrance door was awesome. I paid for the two of us to skate and go on the go karts after. We went in and secured our belongings in a locker and it took my money so I moved it again and yepppp. It took my money again and wouldn’t lock. So my son went to the counter and got a young man (employee) to assist which he did , he was nice also.

My son and I started skating , it tools us a couple laps to get use to the plastic floor but we were starting to have a good time. THEN an employee skating up to ma and said , “ Hey sorry but you can’t wear a hat in here. I said, What?? Why?? Mind you there were 8 people in the place. He says, “Well it could fly off?” Well not for nothing but I have been in a hat ALL day and I had no hair ties with me and certainly they do not sell them. So I was not allowed to skate so basically I was thrown out. So I was very mad because I was minding my own business and not bothering anyone.

So I go to the front door and ask for only my skating money back because we have been skating only 5 minutes which I dealt with three employees and no one said a word about my hat. She called the manager over and that’s WHEN it got beyond horrible. The guy says, “I’m the manager and I am not refunding any money!” I said we have only been here 5 minutes and I’m told I’m not allowed to skate with a hat. I asked for the owners name so I could file a complaint and he told me that he was not going to give me any names.

As we were leaving my son point to the skating floor where a large male was skating on the floor and wearing a do rag wrapped around his head. NO ONE approaches him and told him to remove it. THey must have. Even to damn scared. Last time I checked a do rag co era you head just like a hat. The manager was extremely rude and nasty. He should not be in any customer service job!!!! DO NOT GO TO THIS PLACE WITH THE INTENT IN HAVING FUN!!!! Cost me 30.00 for 5 minutes of hell!!!! I would never recommend this place to...

The appeal of this place is extremely high because it purportedly offers many amenities, especially for kids, and I cannot think of another place in Gainesville that is geared towards kids like this. HOWEVER, it seems like they haven't put money back into the facilities in years. We brought our nephew to do the play gym, rock wall, putt putt, and skating. The play gym and the rock wall were fine, but the rock wall isn't extensive so it doesn't last long. But, the putt putt course is clearly not maintained. The bushes are getting over grown, there is mulch and plant pieces on every single hole, and there is trash everywhere you look. It was actually our joke that the cup tipped over on one of the holes was another hole to hit the ball into. The "river" had no water and the pond was littered with trash, balls (which happen) and golf clubs(?!). In the arcade areas, we counted 14 machines that were out of order including BOTH air hockey machines and the only shooting game. Eventually, we got thirsty, both water fountains had so much trash (and gum) in them that we decided to get drinks from the concessions. They were out of Coke, in fact, they were out of everything but root beer which tasted awful. It was clearly time to switch out all the packs for the machine which is what they said, but they acted like it was too much work to do. And the water tasted exactly like chlorine, and it was undrinkable. Finally, from past experience, I know the batting cages are junk and need to be tinkered with by the staff every single time to make work.

This place could be awesome, and I bet to a kid's eyes it is. But, for what you pay, it's pretty disappointing. If it's the recession hitting them so hard (which I can't see because it was packed when we went), then close down a couple attractions and put the money into maintenance. The only thing that needed fixing that they might need to outsource on were the arcade games, and all the rest is getting the staff more proactive...

I’m only giving this a three star because of Cameron. We booked a birthday party about two weeks in advance. We were told TWICE by a women on the phone that we had from 5-6 to decorate, then at 6 they will go inside the room for an hour to eat, sing happy birthday etc. So a total of two hours. We got there at 4:50-55 (since we were told we were able to set up) we talked to the women up front(didn’t get her name, she was a W/F heavy set) and was told there was a party in the room until 5;30 and that we couldn’t go in until 6… which we then told her about our situation and how could we have set up if we had no time to barely set up. We then came in at 5:35 to try and set up the birthday and she told me only TWO people were allowed to set up the birthday party (we had balloons, banners and other things) with the time available we were unable to out ballon’s or other decorations only the banner. This whole experience was awful. The women kept rushing us to get out and eat and blow the candles on the cake. We complained & I went up to the desk talk to Cameron and he was honestly so sympathetic, hopeful, a sweetheart, as well as understanding! He shook my hand(which is so profesional) and apologize for everything and gave us free unlimited band for two hours for the next time. We did not expect everything to be this way as we were told on the phone twice. But I am glad Cameron was able to be helpful and try to make things better when it was already ruined. Mind you, Cameron was not much involved in the party as it was not his job to be the birthday planner. Kudos to him he needs a raise and he need to be the general manager. We spoke with her as well and she couldn’t even apologize or help us. It sucks we experienced this on the day of my daughters birthday. I grew up at ST. I was a rink rat in my youth and was faithfully there...