Skate Under the Palms at Downtown Ice — Local services in San Jose

We were in from out of town and went to the grand opening last night! I was excited, had never done any outdoor skating, wanted to see Krysti Yamaguchi, etc. We got there at 8:30 and she was gone, but they were having a great opening night deal - $5 for skating and rentals. I would say I had a $5 skate. The rink was small constantly circular which is not what I’m used to and I didn’t like it, they didn’t have any music playing, there were lots of cones where holes in the ice were, but the worst part was the ice. They informed me the zamboni, because I asked, is at the beginning of the night, and at the end. That’s SEVEN hrs without cutting the ice. There was so much powder and it wasn’t smooth at all. It was really frustrating. I strongly recommend to these people that their patrons would have a mug more enjoyable time If they cut the ice every couple of hrs. The conditions were bad enough that I felt the need to publicly complain about them, and I never do that. Additionally, the admission is USUALLY $17. I would absolutely not pay 17 for my trip last night.

One more thing, when renting, they only take one...

We used a Google offer for this, and loves our experience. We came on a weekend around noon. There was a short wait in line. It was easy to get the skates & put them on. The ice rink was nice & had an outer & inner section, with passages between both. It was easy to hold the side rails if needed. It was nicely decorated with trees in between. The view of the surrounding area including the San Jose Museum of Art & the Fairmont Hotel was good. This was a much better experience than skating at Union Square in San Francisco, as the whole thing looked nicer, you did not have to wait for your skating batch (here, you skate as you arrive), & parking was much easier & cheaper (free on the street on Sundays & evenings). However, during the time we came, the ice was slightly mushy, though...

Loved this place until now. Every year we drive up on New Years Day from SLO to go ice skating, it's been our tradition for years since that's all my daughter asks for Christmas, but now they turned it into a Roller Rink. :/ What does roller skating have to do with winter and Christmas time? Roller skating makes me think of summer and it's something that can be done anywhere. Unfortunately we don't have ice skating anywhere near us so this was our special treat. Just found out Hanford has it though so I guess that's going to be our new spot. Sorry but you lost our business :( you should really change your website, it's very misleading with old pictures of ice skating. If I hadn't read the article that you changed we would have wasted a trip up and I would've had a very sad kid...