Wilson Aquatic Center — Local services in Washington

I’ve been a competitive swimmer & lifeguard for years. Unfortunately DC public amenities have never been of good quality and this applies to this public swimming pool. Honestly doesn’t deserve a one-star.

Wilson pool is always full. I tried coming on early mornings, mid-day & afterwork and 5-6 lines are always closed no matter what for different and random classes and meet ups and so called lack of staff while they literally do push ups and play group activities near the children pool. It’s intentional as enough staff walk around the pool doing nothing or are in the life guard room checking phones. After work during the week is awful since besides those 5-6 closed lines, 3 ppl end up swimming in a lane which should be illegal and while you’re swimming random meet up groups show up claiming it’s their line so ppl end up waiting 10-15mins for two lanes and they don’t allow you to swim in the children’s pool. It’s a joke just wasting your time arguing with staff who have no common sense and threaten you to call police if you swim in children pool Stay away from this pool as it’s too dirty with no supervise. Once I was swimming and noticed some stuff goes into my mouth went down deep and noticed there were so many used bandaids in the water, let the lifeguard know and they just came and said gross, didn’t even bother to close the lane and clean. Amenities and shower are so gross and dirty full of empty bottles of shampoo and ppl’s hair clogging the shower. Brought all these issues to the attention of pool’s manger and DC team and no response just heard it is what is. Nothing is posted on their webpage in terms of what classes at what times are going, what lanes or how many lanes will be closed or they’ll be closed because of an event you go all the way and noticed sth on the door so call in advance. As a swimmer, I tried three competition pools in Virginia (NOVA) and regret living in DC, the VA pools were so clean and well maintained. DC residents suffer with such low quality and scarce public amenities and council members. Avoid this pool unless you have no option and just want to go swim, do lapses in your lunch break hoping you...

Dear Reader, Candace, and 5 star Reviewers: Any 5 Star review is either based on prior experience at bare bones or poor aquatic facilities, from a place where they don't have large indoor pools, or they were so narrowly focused on their single activity that they ignored the many things in a sad state of long-term or frequent disrepair in addition to the inconsistent customer service.

This place is good... As long as you don't use the showers, rely on the suit spinner dryer, come when the pool isn't busy with team practices, if you don't want to use the hot tub or kiddie pool, and you don't inconvenience the staff.

Zlotica and semper sodalis ' reviews contain the FULL picture of the state of this aquatic center.

The only other thing I would add is some detail that OFTEN the changing rooms are clean if you are there at the right time and day. Some days, perhaps when maintenance staff calls out or have a different assignment, the locker room and shower floor can look like a wet health hazard, with a brown slurry of outside dirt, hair, and dirty shoe prints.

It's a fact that bacteria explode in the presence of low light and lack of air flow. Some people might be cold, but for the love of athlete's foot, please get some fans or something.

To quote semper sodalis: "It used to be a state-of-the-art facility, but has deteriorated in the last few years. The hot tub has been closed for at least two years and the smaller pool is open only for classes and sometimes not even then because of the shortage of guards. The shower stalls are in dire need of repair. Some shower stalls have no water at all. The reception staff is eating and looking at their cell phones while swimmers come in. Often there is only one person at the reception and if someone needs to register, which is a lengthy process, regular members have to wait. Any complaint is described as...

Overall, a solid 4 stars at least. No pics, but a few words to justify the rating. Prior to utilizing the Wilson Aquatic Center (WAC) , I swam at the Tenleytown fitness center we'll call it, across from the post office. This fitness center is now closed. I'm glad I was " forced" to start swimming at the WAC! For D.C. residents, it is free with your driver's license/ID. The building and locker rooms are well maintained, cleaned and stocked. I've swam there now approximately 10-15 times and it is consistent. The pool itself is a nice 50meter pool which you can swim the 50m length on M/W/F and the 25m cross-pool on T/Th. Water appears clean and the pool is well maintained. I usually swim between 8:30 and 10:30am and there is always plenty/enough lanes to accommodate the swimmer's. The website is ok for info., however, calling them directly is a better choice if your questions are not fully...