Northford Ice Pavilion — Local services in North Branford

We like this rink a lot. There are more open skate hours (with skate rental available) than most rinks in the area, and as there are multiple rinks here, there is ice time available for hockey teams and so forth. The only complaint I have about the hours is that there are no after-school "stick times" for school-age hockey players during the school year. Instead, stick time is consistently during the workday, no matter the time of year.

The ice is of fine quality, and the staff is nice enough. Hamden Sports has a shop on site if you need a quick ice sharpening, a water bottle, or to replace some hockey equipment on the fly. I don't think there is much in the shop for figure skaters.

For spectators and parents waiting for skaters, Wi-Fi is available in much, but not all, of the building.

Three cautions: If you are a spectator, seating may or may not be available depending on which rink you are in, and almost certainly it will be quite cold and uncomfortable in the rink. If you will be present but not watching a skater, you will find comfortable seating and warmth in the area behind the concession stand. With the exception of when there are birthday parties, there is usually enough open seating there.

Many cell phones with various providers get very poor service or no service at all for making and receiving calls in most of this building. If you need to be on the phone, you will probably need to step outside.

I highly recommend that you do NOT eat at the rink's extensive concessions stand. The menu is a full one, and the smell of fries/sandwiches/churros/etc. may tempt you, but on multiple days with varied staff people I have observed many serious and gross health code violations behind the counter. I would love to be able to snack while watching hockey myself, so hopefully the health department will come in at some point and do some major corrections.

(P.S. Pets are not allowed...

Reasonable ice arena with 3 individual rinks. However the biggest pitfall and detraction is the poor cell service and atrocious WiFi.... Want a little early 90's nostalgia? Visit this ice arena and you will be greeted with wifi speeds that could be rivaled by our old dial up internet. Got a hankering for the old 2400 baud modems, you've come to the right place! Want to load a text based web page? Feel lucky if it loads in less than 10 minutes. Thought you could get a reprieve using you cell phone? THINK AGAIN! There is little to no cell service here, and what little signal you get, doesn't seem to support data services. ... It's 2024, any business without modern wifi hosting crowds of people is simply living in the past. Maybe an upgrade out of the bargain basement of networking and bandwidth would bring some joy to the lives of the countless parents stuck in this arctic tundra awaiting their children to finish with their respective hockey...

Horrible skate sharpening. I haven't skated in about 15 years. After finding and dusting off my skates, I went down there for public skating. Had my skates sharpened when I got there... after all, they'd been sitting for 15 years. Well, I probably would have had more luck if I tried sharpening them on the curb outside. Absolutely no edge. I couldn't believe it. I played hockey for over 20 years. I know how freshly sharpened skates should feel. Whatever they did with mine didn't cut it.

Other than that, it's a great facility. Coached there, refereed there. 3 rinks now. Just couldn't believe how bad my...