I have never completed a Yelp review. I am doing so today because I am ashamed that some people have taken to trying to drag human beings by name, through the mud in a public forum. Yes, this business did recently make a management decision. Yes, it's also true that many of the skaters were impacted a result. I am also certain that as a business, they would not have made the decision they did unless it was, ultimately, the right one. My children have never had Holly as a primary coach, however, we have had experience with her over several years through both figure skating and hockey. Holly has always been professional, encouraging and at times, has done a fantastic job of reminding parents that it's ok for a skater to not jump the same way as someone else, or that it's ok for a 3 year old to spend part of their group lesson trying to scoop up enough ice for a snowball in a corner instead of running a program or a drill :) Whatever sport you do, should at the heart of it, be fun. I have seen Holly remind girls it's alright if you aren't built the same way as someone else -- that you just need to try a jump, spin, move, a different way so you can find out what works for YOU. Honestly, that kind of attitude is a bright light in the sport. She also really helps skaters of all ages and abilities develop their love of the ICE. What does that mean? It means maybe figure skating is for you, or maybe you should try hockey, or even speed skating. If you're a figure skater, maybe you have a dream of going to a National event. Maybe you just want to take tests and prove you can do it without the stress of performing. For Holly -- It doesn't matter -- she doesn't turn skaters away because they don't have a strong competitive goal. Holly is very generous with her time. Frequently, Holly volunteers her time to coordinate large and small group numbers (for skaters from a variety of coaches) for competitions. She often refuses to take personal payment for these, doing it almost entirely because she is excited for the skaters and the concept to come to life. Some coaches build fee upon fee to their families, then become progressively less interested in the child when the family can't sustain that for a long period of time. Not Holly. I am confident that once the drama calms down, AZ Ice Gilbert will build a very strong program -- one that is welcoming to everyone and not exclusive of those who don't have the "right" coaching team. My final note: I could have written an entirely different review regarding why I think AZ Ice made the changes that they did. However, I am sure that those people impacted are hurting enough - they don't need me to make it worse on Yelp. I hope that anyone else planning on posting negative personal comments about any specific employees at this business reconsider and instead, finds a more appropriate forum to take concerns they feel are valid. Your attempts to destroy someone's reputation publicly are very sad. read more

On this recent Labor Day holiday, my daughter and I skated here. We last skated here a few years ago. We normally go to Ice Den Chandler. Upon entry I was surprised at how rough the placed looked. The entryway was dark, and appeared like it had not been vacuumed in a while. The front counter was staffed by a single person, as was the skate rental area. The seating area was also dark and not clean. The facility fixtures are showing signs of age. The ice was not great, but not bad. Overall we had a good time, and the cost was reasonable for a three hour session. My preference is still for Ice Den, clean and bright facilities, well staffed with friendly folks. read more

Skating is wonderful but the environment is very dirty and not clean at all. Tables and floor were full of old dry food. They only sell chips/soda in the skating area. They did have another cafe for other options but was a little pricey. read more

My son started skating here when he was 3 years old. He started in the "Learn to skate" program offered here. Being a Minnesota born and raised kid, I wanted him to enjoy the thrill of being on the ice here in the desert. He did 3 complete sessions before we put a hockey stick in his hand for the first time. He fell in love with the sport immediately. By age 5 he was playing travel hockey for AHU which is a phenomonal program. One of the first people I met was Holly Harrington and Kurt Goar. They both have made impacts on my son's life since. He has private skating lessons with Coach Holly weekly and he has made serious improvements. Coach Holly takes time to have fun with him and keep him motivated the entire time. Her, and Kurt Goar and Bob Platt are always available to us. My son is now 8 and loves coming here every chance he gets. He has even started volunteering here with the young kids that are new to hockey on Saturdays which I highly recommend if your kids are interested in the sport. Throw in the bar, great food and cocktails and the BTM and this place is great. Thank you Coach Holly, Coach Bob, and everyone at AHU for making my son a better young man and competitor on and off the ice... read more

Thank you YELP for removing the ridiculous and the defamatory statements made in the recent "on line" review. This is nothing more than one person's crazy and UNFOUNDED vendetta against Holly Harrington and it needs to stop. The individual will try any platform to discredit her and THIS IS A CRIME! Shame on the individuals jumping in on the pity party to divert the fact that their behavior got them fired from the rink! Move along people. Nothing to see here but a hard working individual who has done nothing wrong. My 2 boys are in College playing hockey now and have skated with Holly for more than 10 years. read more

Holly is an amazing coach to all the kids here. She is so dedicated to the children and helping them learn and do their best. My kids adore Coach Holly and are such better skaters thanks to her knowledge. We love AZ Ice and we love Coach Holly and the staff there. read more

You don't know a good rink until you have been to one....and this is NOT it. I grew up here when it was Polar ice and then moved to scottsdale and was always at the ice den there ... we just moved back to Gilbert, my husband and I were excited to go skating once we found a good date day opportunity. Except when we got there....he CAN'T go skating...WHY? Because his feet are too big. HR wears a size 15, and this rink cuts their sizes for men off at 13.5! We know he has big feet, but never once have we run into an establishment that does not carry AT LEAST one pair to accommodate all types of customers We talked to the manager and he blamed it on not being able to afford them and how difficult they are to find. So we are expected to go out and buy skates for him to then pay again to enjoy the facilities here....it's horrible and very upsetting :( It doesn't stop there... My mother and I stopped by to enjoy some skating since I can't bring my husband here according to their sizes available. We were surrounded by figure skaters practicing their routines, or being taught by a private out of house instructor. This wouldn't be an issue, if safety rules were followed and if there was someone from the rink supervising. Instead I watched skater after skater completely disregard the public skaters, lift their blades well off the ice and practice very dangerous tricks while not paying attention to the people around them who are less experienced and there to enjoy a good time. Then about 15 hockey players (little guys ages 5-10) entered the rink way before their practice time and decided that it would be best to practice their hockey tackles and tricks on the ice as well....we saw a kiddo almost skate right into a figure skaters blade who was not paying attention trying to practice. This is ridiculous and a huge safety issue! And no one of the employees are watching the rink at all. Skaters should like every other rink I've been to have designated rinks/times for professional or practicing skaters to enter into after a specific skill level (which I can tell you all of these girls were) I also brought this to the attention to the front desk and the woman acted clueless and surprised this was happening...but once again, this shouldn't be a surprise.... because there should be an employee on the ice at all time maintaining the public skaters safety! This is not acceptable. Fix the issues, or let someone else buy this rink to accommodate all people and make safety of all #1. - a former polar ice and ice den figure skater read more

This place is truly inept. It's as if they want to alienate customers. I belong to a hockey club that rents the ice at AZ Ice Gilbert for regular games (and did so when it was Polar Ice). When I arrived for a game scheduled for 5/22/2014 at 7 p.m., I learned from other members of the club that the rink had canceled the game without notice. So I went to speak to the manager to complain. He informed me that the game was not on the schedule for the month that he sent the club manager in April. When I indicated skepticism, he offered to let me see the email he had sent with the schedule. I agreed, but when we both went to his office and looked at the email and schedule it turned out the club game for that evening was in fact included. Amazingly, he then went on to claim that the game was not included on another schedule on his hard drive. I started to explain that it didn't matter what was on his hard drive and that the only thing which mattered was what he sent the club manager, but this turned out to be moot. Before I could finish, he had opened the other schedule, and it turned out he was wrong again! The game was included there as well. Throughout this experience, the manager's attitude was defensive and angry, never apologetic. (The same was true of the customer service representative I initially spoke to.) He did not seem embarassed that he had made this mistake or that he had falsely blamed the club manager for his error. At the end, he apologized, but he seemed far from sincere. He did not seem to care that his mistake had inconvenienced about 22 of his customers and caused them to prepare for and travel to a game that never took place. If this is an example of the type of customer service we can expect from the new management, I am not optimistic about the future of this rink. Update 6/30/2014: Called during listed business hours to find out if they offer skate sharpening services. Went immediately to voice mail, which promised a call back. Finally received a call back exactly 24 hours (to the minute!) after my initial call. They do offer skate sharpening, so that's nice, but this was still a pretty dismal example of customer service. read more

I've been going to AZ Ice Gilbert for 10 years. A lot has changed during this time. What hasn't changed is the consistency of its Power Skating staff. Holly has been my son's instructor since he was 5 years old. She is at the rink almost every day giving her all to help anyone taking their skating level to the near level . My son now lives in MN, but when in town, he comes to Holly to hone his skills. She is tough because she cares. Besides being a great skating coach, Holly is an amazing human being! read more

Nice place to go if you don't mind leaving without the shoes you came with. My daughter's Vans sneakers were stolen and she had to leave without shoes. Skate at your own risk. read more

We were looking for a fun ice skating place for family fun night so we decided on trying Az ice. The ice skating was fun. The place could have been cleaner & the tool bag with the cowboy hat working skate rental is rude!! I would put him in the back somewhere behind the scenes so he won't have to deal with people. Halfway thru our kids were freezing little heaters somewhere would be a nice addition. Not sure if we will be back.. Maybe we will try it earlier to see if they have different possibly "friendly" staff. read more

AZ Ice - Skating Rinks Near Me - Gilbert, Arizona

The management does not allow for quality customer service. I visited this rink with a friend and paid $13 each for a public skating session. We only had about an hour left, but that's all we were planning for anyway so it was worth it to us. I'm a size 10.5 regular shoe. I tried on a sized 10 skate and it was too long. A 9 was just right for the length, but the width was too narrow. I planned to just tough it out since there was only 1 hour left, but it was not at all comfortable. My friend had a small shoe size. She ended up trying on 5 different sizes between two different style skates, and they were either too large making for an unstable skate, or too narrow, digging into her foot at the sides. She tried one of the better fits with a loose lacing, but the hard material near the ankles ended up causing an abrasion after just 2 laps. The problem seems to be the cheap quality of the ice skates. I've ice skated in other states before and have not seen these generic, plastic, no brand skates that they are renting at this facility. The staff at the counter were very nice and exchanged our skates several times with no problems. There was, however, a sign posted that stated "no refunds" for public skating sessions. The kicker was that the staff member said "Yea, we get these complaints all of the time. Sorry." It wasn't that staff member's fault, but one would think that management would look into the complaints and make some changes if this was indeed a common complaint. It seems that their solution was to post a sign stating that there are no refunds instead of addressing the underlying issue of stocking poor quality skates. My friend and I had a good time, because there was something hilarious about our failed attempt at ice skating in the desert, which was our mistake to begin with. I would not recommend this rink to anyone, unless your idea of fun is paying $26 just to try on skates, skating 2 laps around the rink, and having you or your friend suffer from a painful ankle abrasion, all in less than 15 minutes. read more

My son plays in a youth hockey league here and has for over three years.. New owners took over and it has gone from ok to worse.. The kids play at the South Pole where there is no "real" bleacher seating to watch the teams play. Nevermind that it is freezing in there.. The travel team practices in the North Pole where no one is really paying attention to them.. But I guess when you pay $3000 vs $800 it apparently doesn't matter. Or so the owner told an upset parent.. The games are late.. 8:00. On school nights and there is no consideration because they pay less to pay.. Let's see how much money is lost when parents don't sign there kids up next year for this sub-par excuse for a league.. Who suffers the most? The kids... read more

My two youngest did a hockey trial for 6 weeks through the Coyotes here. It was great!! They supplied all the gear and the teachers were awesome!!! :)- give it a try if you have young one interested in hockey! 100% free!!!! read more

Just watched new staff members put over 15 pairs of loaner skates away without disinfecting them. My daughter's been figure skating here for over a year. Never had any issues until new ownership took over. The place is going downhill and needs a lot of revamping. New owner stopped free skate before practice, lost my payment and places the figure skaters on the south pole ring (which is freezing has no arcade game or snack bar/tv to entertain restless siblings) while the north pole ring is completely vacant. Hopefully this is just some growing pain and will improve with time. Until then, my daughter will be finding another hobby. read more

My family lives at this rink. My husband played hockey as a kid and in college. We knew once we had boys that hockey would be the sport in our family. Our first son started at a different rink and struggled to learn and develop... we went to AZ Ice Gilbert and Holly was there to help my son learn what he was lacking and she did it in one session ...of course hockey is a lifetime learning and growing experience but she gave him the confidence he needed in just one lesson... he now plays travel and has grown so much in the last two years of playing hockey. Holly is now teaching my 2 younger boys skating and they soon will be playing the game of hockey! We absolutely love this place. We call it our second home ...with 3 boys I see us playing and skating a lot in our future!! read more

AZ Ice Gilbert is our home away from home at least 3-4 nights a week! My oldest started there 6 years ago in the Little Howlers program!! The reason we joined mini mites, mites, and AHU Knights is because of Holly Harrington. The reason my daughter ice skates on occasion is because of Holly Harrington! The reason my boys and his entire team are the best mite skaters in the valley is because of Holly Harrington!! The ice skaters are lucky to have her and the growth of that program will thrive because of her!! read more

PARENTS WHO WANT TO BOOK A PARTY BEWARE!- I am pretty bummed to write this review because I was excited that an ice rink came to central Gilbert. I booked a birthday party for my daughter and we were all pretty disappointed, and definitely not worth the money. What they don't tell you when you book are a couple things: 1.) They have 2 ice rinks: one that has a heated observation/gathering area and one that is not heated. All the party rooms are located in the NON-heated area and therefore are FREEZING! I have had birthday parties at other ice rinks before and never ever had to dress warm like I was going ice skating, and neither have my guests. So myself, family and friends (basically all non-skating adults) froze their butts off- so dress warm! 2.) You can pick 2 times to reserve the room for an hour. Luckily I picked the hour before the public skating time started, so it was well lit. The poor kid that came after me had to have her birthday party in the dark because they turn all the lights off for public skating. There are no separate lights for the party room. Again, they did not tell the parents this, so no one was prepared to have a lights-out birthday party. 3.) They choose the party room for you. I happened to have room #1 which is literally pressed up against the glass during teenage testosterone-driven hockey practice. These boys thought it would be really funny to routinely, very loudly slam into the glass to get attention and make everyone jump, in addition to acting inappropriately that is not suitable for little kids to see. The design is awful and the food and service was mediocre. The decorations were just blah. Nothing special whatsoever about this place. I've actually never had anyone come to me and complain about my kids party, but this time it happened! In addition, literally EVERY SINGLE person/child I have spoken with post-ice skating ended up with huge blisters because the skates were awful. I just don't ever remember it being this bad at other ice rinks. Oh yeah- and all other ice rinks play music, this one does not. What a bummer and how boring for skaters. The only positive thing I can say about this place is that most of the staff were friendly and helpful, and that was about it. read more

Went here for my Choir fundraiser and was greeted by a fantastic worker named Justin. He helped me and went above and beyond to make sure me and my family had a great time and we did! He told me to apply for a job and got me and application. Turning it in today hope I get it. read more

I used to go here when it was called polar ice. I I went on many fun dates here. I'm at the best skater and get no way say this is the best place for skating but it's the best place to go in Gilbert. Great Place to go during the summer read more

My family and I recently started skating here and have definitely enjoyed this rink. We have started making this a weekly activity and I just got my own pair of skates (the rental skates are garbage). Other than the rental quality this is a great place to go have fun. read more

This was our first visit in a long time. The staff was friendly and the facility was pretty clean. My struggle here was the fact that no music was playing. It got extremely boring fairly quickly going in circles on the ice with only the sounds of human voices. If possible add music to liven the place up during free skate read more

The place has potential but it's really messy and dirty. Somehow the staff just does their own work and it's nobody's job to clean up. There is trash everywhere and the restrooms are disgusting. What this place needs is a manager who cares and has a bit of pride for his work. read more

We have been going to AZ ice for over six years now. My son started skating before he turned 2, and has had amazing coaches and staff who have helped him learn to skate and play and continue to develop his love for hockey. He continues to work closely with Holly Harrington as a skating coach. She has always taken the time to teach him and encourage him and I feel like she loves him as if he were her own. I feel the same way with my daughter, she is developing her love for figure skating. My kids and I love Holly, and a lot of the staff as well. AZ Ice really has created a community and family for our kids and their friends. Whether it's their hockey team or figure skating, everybody we know there cares about each other and it truly is like a second family for us. Yes the kids run around like they own the place haha, but when we choose to spend 4-7 days of our week at the rink skating and playing hockey, it really does become a second home. We love it! read more

The only reason I'm giving this place 2 stars is because the staff is friendly and the place is clean. I figured this would be a nice place for public skating since it's closer than other locations, but I was wrong. The website says that it costs $9.50 and it cost me $12. An extra $2.50 isn't a big deal, but it was not worth the price compared to $10 at a different location. There were not many people there which was nice because then it wasn't so crowded, but the ice skates that they let you use were terrible. They're cheap and they are not sharp. They're EXTREMELY dull which made it very difficult for all of us to skate. We stayed for about 15-20 minutes and then left because the skates were so terrible. The soles of the skates are oddly shaped and rounded which makes it very uncomfortable and quite painful. All in all I do not recommend this place. The extra distance to go to Ice Den in Chandler is very worth it. Especially for some nicer skates and you only pay $10. read more

Just had our child's birthday party here. This was our first time and I found the staff to be very helpful. From the price to the party attendant to the instructors we rented for the party, we were very pleased. The only reason I don't give five stars is because it was absolutely freezing in there, teeth chattering cold. I guess I should have expected that but I severely underestimated how cold it would be. The instructors were invaluable to the party for the kids and adults who have never skated. I would absolutely recommend this place for a party and we'll definitely be back for public skating, dressing a lot warmer! read more

Good times. Lockers available for your stuff as well but never any problems at this rink.

We had our daughter's 6th birthday here. It went so smooth, I actually got to socialize with the other parents and watch my kid have fun. All of the kids had a great time. I requested to hire an instructor to show the attendees basic fundamentals of skating. This helped to get the kids going. The pizza was good enough and we upgraded the decorations. I recommend this place for a stress free party read more

The building is really nice and clean! I noticed these two young men with long hair, one a little shorter then the other. They caught my eye because the both always seem to be smiling and helping people out. They are always working hard to keep people happy and the building clean. The young man with long curly hair always sharpens my skates and does a great job. read more