Community First Igloo — Local services in Jacksonville

New post a few years after the new renovations completed! ✔️ We spend hours a week here, we as a family absolutely LOVE the Igloo! We are new to ice skating and have had the most awesome experience with private lessons with Olivia. Her patience and kindness and willingness to set up extra training as needed is a blessing. The Igloo website is so helpful and always has the latest events, and makes it so easy to understand everything available at this location. Love that the calendar and event signup syncs with my apple calendar on iPhone. Shoutout to Paul at the front desk for his friendly great service, and the whole hockey staff for learning to play!! The customer service is exceptional in every area, from the Pro Shop to the coffee stand, the restaurant/bar area, the front desk staff, the coaches, and even the cleaning staff. Very inclusive and safe, helpful for disabled veterans, all handicapable and accessible. The coffee shop had the best cookies, but the hot cocoa is extremely hot, grab a cup of ice for it. We LOVE watching 8 hockey games at once while snacking on the BEST fries and cheese curds at the restaurant/ bar, and we can even watch the kids hockey practice and games from the warmer bar seating area. We got custom fitted hockey skates for the whole family and all the gear we needed at the Pro shop. Great military/ veteran discounts. It’s hot outside but always perfectly chilly in the rink, great escape for florida families. We have come to love this “third place” to have a warm, welcoming, fun and SAFE place to spend time besides home and school/work. $12 Family skate (rental skates included) has great music, and it’s awesome to watch the kids having fun together. The restrooms are always clean, main hall area is filled with people gearing up but is still organized and polite to each other. Bleachers in the rink are well maintained, lots of seating, and rink has nice fast smooth ice. Such a nice break from video games for my teenager. We can’t wait to have a birthday party at the Igloo for his friends. We are 904 Icemen fan club members too so the discounts and events for that held here are top notch, and it’s nice to not always have to go all the at to the VyStar arena. As a disabled Veteran, skating is helping me stay in shape and feel connected to the community, and I heard there are great skating discounts is you sign up with Community First bank who sponsors the Igloo! As we just moved here that’s cool to know. I saw reviews on here from past and those complaints are no longer applicable after they renovated to two huge rinks and a restaurant. We love the bartender and the whole wait staff and the pro shop. Tom, Nikki, Olivia, Maggie - you all are rockstars! You can also pick up Icemen swag, jerseys, more in the pro shop, not just hockey equipment, and they have skate sharpening on site, and custom baking for fitting new skate boots. High quality work with fast turn around time.

Now has a few driving arcade games and a custom air hockey table and claw machines with an NHL Photo Booth. They really could use a mini sticks area for the rink rats, they play anywhere...

My family and I won't be visiting this ice skating rink again. It is poorly set up and there is not enough staff to efficiently run the place at one time. My family and I went on Tues. I understand it is a busy day bc it is a discount family night and the holidays but the facility was clearly not prepared. They ran out of 3 skate sizes and once the second session started, people were still lined up for skates in a very long line. Also, with all of the people on the ice, I'm sure the ice rink was definitely over capacity (making it unsafe). We finally asked for a refund. We ended up getting passes to come back a different day.Also, on the one side of the ice, near the chairs for the audience, the ice is definitely uneven and it looks like it is not safe. When I was teaching my kids to skate, I told them to not get their skate stuck in the crevice, as they would twist their ankles. These were my observations for when we went-- Some things that need to change at this rink: *Set up 4 staff members giving tickets and have 4 staff members passing out and collecting skates. A line should not take hours to get through before one can get on the ice. *Typically, in every rink I've been in, you can get your skates at the same place that you get your tickets. Getting in one line to get in another line just seems ridiculous. If the place isn't set up that way, there should be at least 4 people passing out and collecting skates. I witnessed a girl today who needed a different sized skate. She was told to get back in line when she took her skates up to exchange for a different size. Likewise, I stood in line for my tickets and then got my skates. I then asked about the walker like tool for my daughter to help her skate. I was then told I had to stand in line at customer service again to pay for the device. This all occurred before I even got on the ice. *They charge $5 for the device to aid children in ice skating. It would be better if these could be used for free. It takes staff to rent them out and to check your ticket each time you get on the ice again. Also, I felt like I couldn't have My daughter take a break from the device to try to get her on the ice sans aiding device because someone would take the device. We were told at one point to hold on to ours bc they were all out. *Lastly, the rink should charge one fee for all day skating. These 1.5 hour blocks are inconvenient and don't allow people the freedom to come and go ad they please. Furthermore, it is annoying to have someone check your wrist band every time you get on the ice. *More staff needed, more resources needed, and...

I love the Community Igloo, however, if you are an adult looking to learn a new hobby or improve your fitness, be aware that the Learn to Skate (LTS) classes are advertised as 6 levels but they only allow adults to learn up to level 3 before they are essentially kicked out to do private lessons. Private lessons are more expensive and aren't always available at the convenient times that the LTS classes are. Not only do you pay the coach for the private lesson, but you have to pay for "Freestyle Ice" time which is booked in 30 minute segments.

I had been participating in the LTS classes since July 2022 and was just recently told that instructors "aren't allowed" to teach adults past level 3 techniques. This was supposedly established in Fall of 2022, however, I had been working on levels higher than 3 up until June 2023 when they dropped that on all of us.

Apparently this rule change was due to a lack of staff to appropriately teach level 6, however, Madison and other instructors have done an EXCELLENT job in dividing their attention equally to different skill levels within the same class. Also despite plans for hiring more coaches, they aren't even considering allowing adults to learn up to level 6. It's sad how micromanaged these very talented coaches are by managers who aren't even skating.

Don't bother contacting anyone in management including the CEO or facility manager as they will ignore your message and provide no feedback. The director of skating, Tammy, did not care to hear anyone's plea for letting adults/teens learn past level 3 in LTS classes. It was so sad to see one of the 16 year old girls in the class that had been working so hard be let down like that.

It is unfair to customers when the program is advertised as 6 levels. It also comes off as a bit ageist since this only applies to the adult/teen classes.

They pride themselves in being a Certified Autism Center (CAC) yet won't allow adults and teens to continue to learn and advance their skills in skating past level 3. That does not seem very inclusive to me.

Private coaches are often booked and are unable to take on more clients, or if they are, they only have mornings available. This is not feasible for adults working full time.

Thank goodness for Olivia for having more open availability for private coaching because she does a great job and I love...