Huge facility with very inadequate bathroom facilities. Im very surprised this facility is code compliant

I had to update my review. It doesn't matter that some of the locker rooms need a touch up, or that the Far East Rink is in need of some fresh ice... our experience here with travel hockey has been remarkable. Our son had the opportunity to play goalie for the fall season and he was fortunate to be on a team with some good kids. The management of the team, the coaching, and the parents made our first experience with travel hockey, one to remember. If our son didn't age out of the bantam level, he'd want to stay with the team for the spring. If you're wondering if you should get your kid into hockey here, we highly recommend. The Firewagon group has been extremely high-touch and supportive throughout and you'd be hard pressed to find a more personal experience in the area. read more

Crystal Ice House - East rink. - Skating Rinks Near Me - Crystal Lake, Illinois

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The ice is not the best. Went yesterday. Couple of teenagers gave me some bigot vibes. They kept eye balling me, and whenever I sat down, they would be there, almost as if they were following me? One of them in particular was coughing very very exaggeratedly coughing, I could tell he was doing it on purpose to try and annoy me. There were some nice people there though? read more

The manager Cristina is rude and disrespectful. Yesterday she came up to me early on and told me I shouldn't be getting my daughter a helper because I couldn't walk 10 feet on another floor with skates they inconveniently put them on. There are no signs not to do this but that's ok. We have to ask for help. Put them where parents can easily access them! THEN after my daughter and I were done with our shoes on sitting on the bleachers she comes marching along at us AGAIN. This time (as several people were walking with skates on the bleachers) she singled us out and very loudly with attitude told me we cannot be on the bleachers with skates. I told her to look at all the others actually walking on the bleachers in front of her. I hadn't been ice skating in a decade. My daughter has never been. And twice this lady is yelling at me in front of my daughter. The 2nd time was in front of so many people and it was embarrassing especially since I was just sitting there with my little girl. I called to speak to a manager only to find out it was the manager. Absolutely horrible that she would speak to customers in that manner. I'm fine with safety measures and following rules but there is a better, nicer way of enforcing rules. Put some signs up and amazingly people will follow rules. We don't need some woman on a power trip yelling at families that are trying to have a good time. There are other ice rinks 5-10 minutes further that I will be going to and I suggest never going here. Oh and the ceiling is a wreck. I will say all other employees were great. Maybe they should promote one of them to be manager instead. Then we'd go back. read more

I cannot say this STRONGLY enough... AVOID, especially if you are thinking of having a party here! Absolutely zero communication between anyone, the rink is quite a bit run down, and it, simply put, both feels and looks like not a single person cares about this place anymore. read more

i do figure skating here, it's great! the teachers are very nice. I learned how to skate here and i'm learning really fast! love crystal ice house and there ice skating lessons. i definitely definitely recommend read more

My rating here is for public skate. I've been skating over 25 years at various rinks, but this was probably in the top 5 busiest public skate sessions I have ever seen (consistent with the Olympics just ending and only being a couple months after Christmas). I'm not complaining about the crowd itself, but the lack of oversight of the crowd. There was only one guard, who realistically would not be able to watch over this many people. There were people cutting off people, skating with their phones (I don't care if they do, but they were skating wayyyyy to fast to be texting and skating), people just standing in the middle (the spot designated for practicing), people skating entire laps the opposite direction, people falling and sitting for a whole with no intervention, etc. It does not help how many "skate trainers" they had rented out... which made it hard for more advanced skaters to go around the blockades of crowds. I left after like 40 minutes because i didn't want to witness someone getting seriously hurt or get hurt myself. That all said - the facility is a nice cute old style rink with nice employees and if they made a few adjustments, I'd probably give the rink a really great rating because the actual atmosphere was awesome and nostalgic. read more

I grew up skating here through high school. There are 3 rinks. The facilities are nothing to write home about, but then again most hockey players don't ask for much more than quality ice. The ice is nice and solid and doesn't seem to get overly soft in the winter....now the summer is a different story. They have rat ice on Friday nights @ 10:00 for $10 which can be a really good competitive skate at times and other times very few bodies show. It is best to give a shout up there before making a drive. I live only a few blocks from the rink and still choose to call before every skate to make sure there are 2 goalies signed up. As typical at most all rat skates, goalies are Free. During peak season (winter) you may need to get there an hour before to get signed in. You must be 18 for rat hockey. The men's league is just plain ol' okay. The refs leave much to be desired & there are usually only a few teams in each of the 3 levels (B, C1 & C2). I have skated on a team here for the past 5 seasons & would love to see some changes/addtions to the league. You usually find guys playing in leagues that they don't belong. I don't have children old enough to skate on the hockey teams or figure skating, so I don't have much to say about that. I do know that the team that play out of here is the Yellow Jackets and have all different age groups and levels for both the boys and girls. The pro shop is nice for your basics (laces, tape, etc.). The prices are comparable to most pro shops (much higher than those online). The high school kids they have sharpening the skates could care more about what song is playing on the IPOD than doing a quality job of sharpening your skates. I would say that 5 out of 10 sharpenings require me to take them back to have them fixed. I highly recommend having the only girl that works there do your skates...she is the only worker, outside of Glen the manager, that does a quality sharpen. Overall, the rink has served its purpose in my hockey life. I would love to see updates to the facilities (locker rooms, add some plasma televisions, couches, etc.) read more

Would give it no stars if I could. Place had such potential but they have literally ran it into the ground. Good luck getting in and out of there with all the potholes in the parking lot. Place smells like mold and you cannot find an employee to save your life. Over four million in the bank and they can't even clean the place. The hockey director is a joke, only there to collect a check and that is it. He won't return any calls or emails. The price keeps going up and the place keeps falling apart. Glenn was the only reason I would step foot in there and now he is gone. What a joke! read more

Place is unsafe. They leave teenage employees in charge. I got knocked down and injured by one who was skating at top speed. He fled and his friends working there pretended nothing happened. My calls to the owners were ignored. If you have to skate here, be sure to have cameras ready to film dangerous behavior. read more

Our friends grandson is in 'learn to skate' here. OMG, it's so stinkin' cute. Not sure of the age range, but he's three and they skate for about 1hr. Saturday mornings, about 10-11am, +/-. read more

Definitely do NOT recommend the place to host a birthday party! Disorganized, zero communication between party planner and staff. Arrived excited to have no one there explaining how the process worked, to help direct us to how to check in, get skates, etc (until I finally found the manager who didn't event know there had been a party on the book). The room was not set up and I was handed a key told I can take the tables down from the wall, use chairs and extra decorations were in a closet. They didn't have food order and were rushing out to buy frozen pizzas. I had to approach and ask about the rest of the food in the package. The manager on duty was super friendly but this stress NEVER should of happened for any of us. Called the following day to speak with party planner and was, "oh yeah, sorry. That should have happened". Umm... how about "we messed up I am so sorry let me give you a partial refund for the trouble". That was the very least they could have done to correct this. read more

New ownership. Read your contracts well: If you have to pull your kid out for whatever reason: They keep your money. The place is dirty, ice quality is very sub-standard, locker rooms STINK, showers are unsanitary - the place is falling apart. Ownership is NOT trustworthy. These comments do not include Jerry's Pro Shop. They are great. read more

I have been playing at this ice house for 3 years now. Very clean and nice staff the ice is always nice to skate on the prices for any program are reasonable And the players are all genuine hockey players. Great place overall! read more

Facility is okay. Several rinks, but public skate hours are fairly limited and somewhat crowded. Not enough skate aids for the amount of people--if you have small children, you'll probably need to get there near the beginning of public skate hours to get one. Also, keep an eye on it as other people will just walk off with what you've paid for. The teenage staffers seem reasonably competent and pleasant enough. The office manager will pass off any complaints as "your fault" and will be certain to point out any of your perceived failings rather than resolve the issue in a professional manner. read more

my daughters take figure skating lessons here, older building with three rink. The instructors are the best, very helpful and patient with the kids and seem to really enjoy there job. Always filled classes and busy. Rates are good considering we what other rinks charge. read more

As far as staff, I would highly recommend the Crystal Ice House. Front desk personnel are knowledge, and the figure skating instructors are wonderful. As far as the building - very poor. It is old. It needs updating. The new owner promised this would happen several years ago but nothing has been done. Not enough bathrooms when special events are going on. Seating varies by each ice rink and metal seats are just not fun when you are watching skating. Spend some money and get things fixed up. I would hate to see quality instructors leave because the building is so outdated. It's sad. read more

My son has skated at The Ice House for the past 4 years and while the facility could use some sprucing up, overall, the employees are friendly and the ice is good. Yes, the locker rooms can smell, but as we have traveled to most ice rinks in the area to play games, those locker rooms smell also! The rink was recently purchased by Firewagon Hockey and renovations are in the works. Jerry's Pro Shop is a bonus to have housed in the facility if you need any last minute hockey or figure skating items. read more

My son tried skating lessons today. I was told twice by front office staff that he could try a class and if he didn't like it we'd get a refund. This was not the case at all. They staff was very disorganized, was given wrong skate size after being told by staff to pick the same as his shoe. Then the instructor told me the rule of thumb is 2 sizes smaller than shoes. I made the change 15 minutes before lesson was over to the better size skate. Instructor was nice but overwhelmed and she said she should've had an additional instructor for the class. The instructor was kind but front office peope were not helpful and charged me insurance, skate rental and for the tried class, $30 for one 45 min. class. Not happy at all with Crystal Ice House. read more

This is a great facility, been around a long time. I enrolled my 7 year old son in their junior jackets program this fall/winter, it was a fantastic program. We'll be enrolling him again. read more