Skate Factory — Local services in Vero Beach

TLDR; I grew up skating at this rink, although I moved to Virginia at 9. Recently came down to Florida to visit my dad, and when I came skating here to see how things have changed, I noticed it hasn't much. Although not a bad thing, I was expecting to see some changes over 6 years. EDIT: It has changed a bit actually based on seeing pictures from several years ago.

This review is based on 5 main points; Skating, Staff, Seating, Food, and Games. There won't be any pictures provided because there are other reviews you can find with pictures.

Skating (7/10): The rink floor is small for the average skating rink. Although it isn't too small, it can get crowded quickly. The lights were cool, there was a variety of coloured lights and effects though nothing too grand. The floor was semi-slick when I skated here (12/20/20), but I do have a rockered wheel set up on my inline skates for slalom freestyle, so it really depends on what you use. They hosted limbo, skate races, lucky numbers, hokey pokey + chicken dance, and a fast skate in the beginning / early on which I prefer is something you do later on so that more people can participate, but I feel that they know what they're doing. The audience is mainly younger kids and teenagers depending on what day you come, but you can assume what audience there is by looking at their calendar online. Floor guards are there to ensure safety of children which is a must. Overall pretty good, though can be improved with size and timing of events / games.

Staff (6-8/10): I'm going to be fair, I've only been here once to skate this winter, so I don't have a fair say in what the staff are like. There is a mix of younger, older, and some middle aged people working here, all of which I'd like to say are proper, but there might be that small group of staff that aren't, who knows.

Seating (9/10): There is good seating; booths, benches, and tables to sit at. They are yellow too, which is great, because it's yellow. It's clean and there aren't any sticky spots, good if you don't like your pants or shorts to get dirty. Overall, the seating is top quality, there is plenty of it in the rink, but make sure to make it aware that you're sitting where you're sitting. Can be improved if the benches were more yellow.

Food (8/10): If they display the menu from a tv, you know it's good. There is a good selection of food, the usual classics of a skating rink and more. They have churros, very good, love me some churros. I'm going to be honest, I didn't even take a look at their menu, I was too busy skating. You can probably look up a review with a menu, its gotta be out there somewhere. From my understanding, most of the drinks are from vending machines, which isn't bad, but it's served from a vending machine, let that sink in. Overall, pretty good, could be improved if the vending machines weren't so close to the snack bar.

Games (10/10): There is a surplus of games here, your child will be asking you for quarters non-stop, mainly because the lock game there looks so easy to beat but isn't, I've spent too much money playing it. Its nice that there are a lot of games, though I feel as if they had to sacrifice seating and part of skating floor to make room for the games. I could go on for days telling about games (no I can't), but to sum it up: Plenty of games, that's it.

Overall Rating (8/10): This rink is beautiful, it's clean and has a good community (for the most part). They have a speed skating program which is popular. As a fellow human that also works at a skating rink, I would love to make this place a home for myself haha. I haven't mentioned all of the details for this rink, but you can find a lot more on their website » skatefactory.us «. Looking forward to coming back later this week. Seven words to describe the place: Fun, exciting, enjoyable, curse...

I loved it! Brought the hubby for a date night on Tuesday free pizza skate night and we had an absolute blast! Denis (the skating instructor) is AMAZING! I’ve taken lessons where we used to live and not a single one of those teachers ever checked my skates. Denis knows his stuff! He watched me for all of 30 seconds and knew my trucks were too tight and that’s why I couldn’t crossover (turn) or steer without lifting my feet. I ended up getting an impromptu mini lesson on the rink and within 10 minutes was doing crossovers and I can steer properly now! He gave me a few things to practice too and I can’t wait to come to another skate night.

The rest of the staff was really friendly, the rink wasn’t over crowded, the floor guards (referees) called out the couple of times someone was skating too fast/close to less competent skaters and I saw them check on anyone who fell and didn’t immediately hop back up, the bathrooms were clean and check in was easy.

To address some of the negatives I saw in other comments, because I read these before I go somewhere new: the rink is not tiny. It’s not massive like the oversized ones in large cities I’ve been in that are designed to hold 100s of people, but it is by no means tiny. We had plenty of space, even with lots of skaters on the floor, without being crowded.

They have AC. Not sure if that reviewer went on a day it was busted but they have one and it works well. If you are unfamiliar though, you will SWEAT while skating, even in AC. You’re exercising and most people skate using their whole body and it’s a large open area with a lot of people. You can skate wearing a personal fan if you need it.

The floor guards do pay attention, in my opinion. I am not saying the other reviewer didn’t experience this, as I have not gone on an adults-only skate night, don’t know who the floor guards were and may have differing opinions on how much supervision is needed for adults skating. But they were very attentive while we were there, when people broke the rules or people fell, whether they were adults or children. I also watched them pick up things that fell on the rink.

Bottom line- it’s fun, affordable, for all ages/skill levels and the pizza is...

Took my daughter and her friend here , thinking this rink in Vero Beach would be better, bigger and nicer than our local one in Melbourne. BIG MISTAKE!! Drove 54 minutes each way, only for: Smaller rink More expensive Terrible food and prices Rude employees Young , rude employees with attitudes Change of skate theme every 15 minutes, kicks skaters off the rink to change to backwards only, or fast only, etc. Very annoying and cuts down on regular skate time. No skate mates allowed during certain hours/days No walls for beginners No in/out privileges for parents not skating No phone service inside (they have free wifi, when I asked the kid what it was, he just pointed to a sign 4 feet above my head, didn't say a word, just extended finger and pointed again. I'm blind in one eye, so that was hard to see) Ghetto location And I could comment more , like how many times I was cut off in the parking lot, how many times people just came and took over our table, even with our stuff there and 75% of other tables open. We won't go back to Skate Factory again. I didn't think it could get more ghetto than Galaxy Skateway, and I was wrong. Galaxy is bigger, cheaper, more chill , less skating restrictions, less restrictions period, and 10 minutes from our house. I guess if you live in Vero Beach, you don't have other options, just like we don't in Melbourne. But if you want to venture North 35 miles, it's well worth it to go to Galaxy. Maybe I'm just an old cranky 56 year old mom trying to ensure my 11 year old daughter and her friend had a good time during their spring break or maybe I have to high of expectations, or maybe FloriDuh in general has just accepted... less than. Businesses have decreased customer service since pre- pandemic, realizing they can still make a profit by reducing hours, staff, quality of services, hiring cheap inexperienced rude kids, and increase pricing, and still bring in the patrons. So disappointing. I do reviews for a living, for a Major Online Retailer, and this is my first 1 star review, ever. And it's...