Polar Ice House – Cary

Staff had a rough time arriving on time to open up the rink. Very disappointing to see this happen. Today my sons game was cancelled because nobody showed up to open the rink for a 7am game. About 25 families all just waiting in the cold for nobody to show up. What a disappointment, and discouraging for young kids to see.
Woke up at 530 am then drove a half hour for a cancelled game due to an irresponsible staff at this place. Great way to start my day off!

First time my daughter is going to ice skating lessons, likes and enjoys every day classes (Camp).

My boys, ages 9 and 11 LOVE going to Camp Chillin’ Track Out camp with Anna an her staff. Anna has done a wonderful job with organizing the camp and making the camp room an inviting space. The boys love the variety of activities including legos, game trucks, kona ice, arts and crafts. This is all in addition to the huge amount of ice time that they get every day! As parents we appreciate the flex spending receipts and discounts (early booking, sibling, multiple weeks) that this camp offers. We have been going to this camp for years but have really seen a HUGE improvement over of the past year! Way to go Anna and thank you to Ice House for giving her the support to make this one of the best camps in the area.

Awful! Rented 4 pairs of skates and all were broken and horrible painful to skate in. After 2 laps I could not go any further and left. What a complete disappointment.

Wow, what a disappointing experience. This place may be fun if you own your own skates. If you are planning to rent, avoid!!! We rented 4 pairs and were given blue plastic skates that were all broken in one way or another. My kids who wear a size 9 and 12 kids sizes were given pairs that looked the exact same size (labeled differently). My husband and I were given skates that hurt so badly that we could each only do a few laps before we gave up due to the pain of the plastic cutting into our feet. So we gave up, traded our skates back in to find out they had misplaced our shoes. I rarely do this, but I did ask for a partial refund since $ 40 seemed like a high price to pay for such a terrible experience — which I was given.

My son went to ice skating camp for two weeks. Andrew had wonderful time. Friendly & professional staff. My son learned how to skate in few days. He had lots of fun. As a parent I recommend it! Parents can have a free time without worrying!

This place is awesome!!! I went a couple times before my son was born six years ago. I recently just went back and brought my husband, two daughters (10 & 4) and my son (6). It was their first time and they had an absolute blast! The facility has a wall that you can hang on to to get you used to the ice. My oldest daughter used that a lot! They have a strobe light in the center and play up to date music. They also have a place to get some food and to get warm. They have games and a room for parties. They also have classes so that you can learn to skate. It is only 12 dollars for adults. I recommend checking this place out if you are looking for something to do with the kids (it will completely ware them out!)

Perfect for a cheesy date night or a kid’s birthday party– could go either way haha
Went for late night skating and majority of the crowd was couples and high schoolers.
The rink itself isn’t anything extra-​spectacular but it’s good enough to skate around and fall on!
Music is significantly louder towards the center of the rink than the outer-​edge which makes me believe their sound system isn’t all that great.
My main criticism would be that their public skating hours is pretty random and limited so I’d suggest checking their hours before heading over there!

I have not ice skated since I was maybe 12 years old, but when some friends wanted to go on a Saturday night I thought I would tag along. I will admit I did have some fun, and would probably go back again, but it does look like this place has not been updated since the last time I went skating (I am almost 30 now)
The skating was cheap, I think including skate rentals it was only $ 12. It is one giant ring where everyone basically goes around in a large circle. My only real problems was that the skates seem straight out of 1992, I thought at one point they would fall apart. Also the ring is extremely rough and it would be nice if they ran a zamboni over it every so often.

Terrible managment. Zamboni constantly breaks down. Roof is close to caving in. Locker rooms are in bad shape. Aviod.

DO NOT HAVE YOUR KIDS BIRTHDAY PARTY HERE!
I booked a party for my 5 year old. I was a little hesitant since most of the kids were only 5 but I was reassured by several ice house workers that this age was fine. They were a little too young for this.
When we arrived to the Ice House there was an adult league outside pretty much blocking the entrance with their cookout with beer and cigarettes. After that we were shown to our «party room». This room consisted of two picnic tables in the middle of the game room where the bathrooms were along with extra cleaning equipment. The place was run down and dirty. Throughout the party multiple people kept coming in and out of the room, which were not part of the party, to use the bathroom and play games. I had grown up in Cary and went to the Ice House as a child. It doesn’t appear that they have cleaned or updated anything in 20 years.
The party «host» had put out stale, burnt popcorn and drinks. The «host» had two parties to cover at the same time so we basically never saw her. I was extra annoyed since I had to book a double party (because of the number of kids we had attending) and she spent most of her time with the other party. I had to personally go to the snack bar to get refills. I had to serve the pizza along with drinks. I had to clean up and tell the guy at the snack bar we were ready for the cake twice. When the cake arrived they had the wrong number on the cake. It said happy eighth birthday instead of happy 5^th. This was literally «the icing on the cake». The Ice House did agree to take some money off the final bill for the cake which was appreciated.
Some of the kids, who didn’t leave, decided they wanted to skate again. We had to wait 10 minutes for someone to man the skate rental desk. At this point I was given my bill and goodie bags. Since half of the kids already left they did not receive goody bags.
I expressed my displeasure with one of the Ice House workers and his response was «there is a survey I could fill out». There were no apologies given or discounts. I had spent a lot of money for this party and I was extremely disappointed with the outcome. I will not be recommending this party venue.

My girls have a great time here, but unfortunately, we won’t be going back. We had a bday party here when they were young and the manager messed up on our party decorations, held up my guests for 20 minutes while I ran around with her to find plates so we could eat, and then treated me like I was high-​maintenance for her screw-​up, instead of even remotely trying to sound apologetic. Secondly, we went to a track-​out camp during the summer, and they decided to play parachute games out on the concrete parking lot. My daughter who was under the parachute, was knocked face-​first into the concrete. We had to go to the emergency room because her face was so contorted. Not even a phone call, apology, offer to have their insurance company pay, NOTHING! Years later, my daughters wanted yet, another birthday party at Ice House (recently), and the new manager decides to charge me over $ 40 for their postcard invitations. It was never even disclosed to me that they charges 1 penny for these, and I thoroughly went over all of the costs of the party beforehand. I guess it’s safe to say, 3 strikes and you are out!

This review is for the Learn to Skate. My 6 year old son told me he wanted to learn how to play hockey so we got him lessons!!! My son has been skating now for three sessions. Each session is 8 weeks long and after each session he has progressed nicely. All of the teachers are really good at teaching the young kids how to skate! I couldnt believe they could get my 6 year old to skate! After each session the director herself evaluates my son and confers with me where to place him next. After two sessions, my son is laready taking the Learn to Play class which is what he wants to do!!! Highly recommended for anyone that wants to learn to skate and/​or play hockey.

This review is for the track-​out camp.
I swear if I had the cash, I’d send my kids here every single day they’re out of school. They were so exhausted when they got home from skating and bowling, they’re actually pleasant to be around!
The counselors are nice, somewhat young, and helpful. Mostly the kids just skate, skate, skate, and have a snack occasionally. Let them know if you consider chips and soda a snack, because I sure don’t. However, as many calories as the kids were burning off, it’s probably not going to hurt them. Today, anyway.
The facility itself isn’t new, but it works just fine. At least it’s not the outdoor rinks in the parks in Minneapolis. Brrrrr!

This place is cleaner than most small rinks in New England, if that’s what you’re used to. It has an intimate feel reminiscent of a rink in the New Hampshire mountains. Maybe you can forget you’re in NC for awhile.

Feeling nostalgic and missing winter, my husband and I headed to this ice rink one Saturday in February to go skating during their public skate hours.
We probably picked the worst time to go. It was a complete madhouse. We waited in a long but quickly-​moving line to pay admission, which we thought was kind of steep, $ 7/​pp (not including skate rental). We had brought our own skates so luckily we did not have to wait in another line again.
The ice was completely packed and you had to really concentrate as unbalanced adults and oblivious children weaved in and out of the crowds. One end of the ice was occupied by a private skating lesson, and so the orange pylons made the rink area even more limited to the large crowd. There was at least one children’s birthday party in full swing, and the eating area certainly attested to that, with the french fries and pizza crusts and napkins strewn on the floor.
With it being so crowded, the ice quality was not very good until the zamboni cleared it off mid-​session. We thought we would end up skating longer, but after nearly 1.5 hours of dodging sliding children and flailing arms, we decided we’d had enough for another year.
We’ll go back again one day, but on a weekday when it is much quieter.

Having just reviewed the Raleigh Iceplex, I thought I’d reminisce about my times at the Cary Ice House…
I took a few «Learn to Play» classes at Cary and Garner Ice Houses as 1) I hadn’t played in several years and 2) they were offering a stick and puck pass worth 9 visits. Seemed like a great deal. Garner was great, fairly quiet, lots of quality ice (see other review for more). Cary however was not as much.
During the learn to play classes the instructors had us run the same drills every week, as expected. However there was something missing, the best I could describe it was that there was no «tempo» in Cary like there was in Garner. Oh well, this seems to me to be a fairly meaningless argument so I’ll press on and leave this to your imaginations.
One complaint with the Ice House occurred after a Saturday night pickup and went to a friend’s bar. I sat down for a drink, pulled out my wallet and BAM, my cash was gone. I know I had entered the Cary Ice House with 4 crisp $ 20 bills, but somehow between then and there someone pulled my wallet out from underneath all of my stinky hockey jerseys and absconded with my cash. (The jerseys get stinkier every time I tell the story, I feel its therapeutic for me to imagine the thief digging through my B.O.) Luckily, no plastic was taken. I know you’re thinking that this cannot be blamed on the establishment, and to a degree I agree with you. However, walk in and you’ll see what I’m talking about. There is no security between the door and the locker rooms. The staff are constantly moving about between serving the concession stand and the front entrance, allowing anyone to move to the lockers and do whatever they please. That would be one criticism, the other being that I had attempted to contact the management in person and left a voicemail to let them know of the situation, but I never received a reply. A quick, «that sucks, our apologies, we’ll look into the entrance» would have sufficed, but nothing.
When the Ice Houses in Cary and Garner recently switched management, I there was a notice posted in the hall stating that those stick-​and-​puck passes I had mentioned earlier were no longer valid. So that good deal for the learn-​to-​play classes was suddenly revoked. After complaining to the management at both places they simply stated that they felt as though they had given enough notice to cardholders in order to revoke the program. A non-​conspicuous flyer posted in the hallway indicating a few weeks warning was apparently sufficient to them, good to see how the new management is ready to serve their customer.
Lastly, and most importantly, the condition of the ice. Abysmal is the first word that comes to mind. I recall a few occasions skating there, going for a puck in the corners and having to avoid the construction cones and caution tape around the area of BARE CEMENT. Yes, that is correct. I should make note that this was eventually repaired and that the last time I was there (the night my cash was stolen) the ice was completely filled in. But still, I have never been at a rink that allowed people to skate on it when there was bare cement exposed, in 20 years of skating and hockey.