Clary Anderson Arena — Local services in Montclair

I took my son here for skating lessons. The worst experience period. I should have known from the beginning when we arrived for the first class and there was absolutely no direction as to where we should go, and the rink was in chaos. We got very vague answers from the staff as to where we should be for our class and really, had to figure it out on our own. The class itself was a waste of our time. The instructor was unable to teach my son, let alone any other kid in the class anything at all. Since I paid for a bunch of weeks in advance, I took him and finished out the remaining classes but ultimately, was very disappointed. The instructor tried to get us to do private lessons with her after the classes were finished, and I politely declined. Don't bother with this place. We found a wonderful instructor at Fritz Dietl Ice Rink, and after the first lesson, my boy was very comfortable on skates and is enjoying...

Nice little no frills arena. They could do with keeping it a bit cleaner or renovating - has that hockey locker room smell that hits you when you walk in.

Was not a fan of the group classes and how they are run. A bit disorganized, and the instructors are not attentive. There are some good teachers here but the tots groups aren’t managed well. Most of the time the kids are left unsupervised while parents bring their kids to class 15 minute late and the instructor rushes to meet them on the ice. Per class maybe there is 10 minutes on a good day of actual instructing/teaching. It’s actually so bad that the mom/dad & me class had better success teaching their kids to ice skate than the tots group. Let that sink in for a second. Do not recommend the group...

The rink is a reasonable size, but the ice is kind of strange in some inexplicable way. It's not overly scratched up, but the feel or hardness is a bit different than most rinks I've been to. The rink was also very crowded when I went, even in late April. You have to register online in advance, and the registration process was pretty tedious. On the plus side, there is plenty of seating to lace up your skates as well as a dining area. The entrance to the rink was kind of difficult to find, and parking was confusing at first. I didn't see a dedicated parking lot, but there's free street side parking. There's also a playground outside for kids to enjoy. Overall,...