Pros:
- many amenities included like free mats, towels, tea, chocolate, fruit, balance bars, tampons, etc.
- squeaky clean studio, NEVER smelly (other hot studio's I've been to always smell after a class lets out and also feel humid and sticky everywhere).
- great introductory rate for new students- $30 for 30 days- wow.
- Jillian Oakes is an amazing instructor and can make an intermediate/advanced yogi feel like a novice again (in a refreshing, exciting, & challenging way). No matter what your level of experience, she will always adjust you and improve your practice-- if you don't have an ego then this is very welcoming & humbling after years of yoga with barely any instructors adjusting you.
- dressing rooms aplenty.
- setup of studio encourages students to mingle & make friends/ casual & inviting setting.
- easy on/easy off from the highway. seriously like RIGHT off the highway. w/lots of parking.
- there's one other instructor there who's really good but I don't remember her name (she has short hair, teaches a vinyasa class).
- hottest/most humid classes available in RI that I know of that's not a militant Bikram studio. 95 degrees & I think 60% humidity.
Cons:
- not very flexible with freezing accounts or if an emergency situation comes up (injury, etc) and you miss a month they will not give you an extra month of practice- must have 6 month or longer contract for freezing privileges. I've wasted a few months down the drain where I've been injured and out of the studio for a month and couldn't redeem anything- I still go back though because they are the hottest studio temperature wise and I really prefer that above everything. I would appreciate if they were more understanding.
- they have raised their prices significantly to the point where the value isn't so much there like it was before. For what I am paying, I do not feel like I get back my dollar's worth in classes unfortunately- with their old prices yes it was worth it. Specific example: They are price-matching Raffa at $130 unlimited yoga. However, Raffa has snapped up many of the best instructors in RI over the decade it's been open- and any experienced yogi would clearly be able to tell that these instructors are very, very knowledgable. They know how to assist new students safely into positions without injuring themselves, and they know how to keep pushing the oldest yoga practitioners to new limits every class. Also the Raffa studio at this point has one of the nicest studios I've seen as well as the best class times & variety. Personally the reason I still choose PPY is because I prefer higher heat and a good instructor to low heat but an amazing instructor (raffa is 80 or 90 degrees). Also the Raffa owner seems to be a little bit greedy or money hungry since they charge for everything lol (even mat wipes- free at PPY!).
- all of the instructors are good at PPY, but again except for the outstanding instructors I mentioned above you can tell that the rest still need more hours of teaching under their belt (don't get me wrong they are GOOD, just not phenomenal & unforgettable like Jillian or Pam from Raffa for example). Also, I would prefer if the instructors were more hands on at PPY adjusting people throughout class or savasana- it seems mostly hands off at PPY unless you are seriously, seriously, using bad form.
- If I were PPY I would consider lowering the prices to their old pricing from the summer. OR if they want to keep their new prices, consider hiring some more super experienced top of the line instructors and introducing them into the schedule & also offering a few more classes a week if they still want to see the same cash flow as with their higher prices. I would also try offering one or two hotter classes (more heat & humidity) to see how popular those are. But as a studio that is under 2 years old, I would not try to match the yoga-mogul Raffa at the moment with the pricing- they will definitely get there eventually & be a better studio (seriously, PPY is the most generous yoga studio in RI to their students), but they should focus more on value and class quality for now.
Still my favorite studio in RI unless a hotter & more humid non-bikram studio pops up with better instructors :-) read more