Public Skating

Rink at Lionshead/​Arrabelle– The worst experience for first timers, especially young children.
At Lionshead there is a public skating rink, run by the Arrabelle, that opens from 1:00pm. My 5 year old daughter was very excited for her first time, but this is not the place to initiate them. There were skaters who skated too fast for the number of toddlers falling down on the rink. Additionally, the rental office only had *3 *skating assists which were given out on a first-​come-​first serve basis. We arrived at open, so yes we received one of the coveted assists. It caused jealousy, resentment and fights between the parents (not the children). The ones with the assists were constantly harassed by the other parents who felt entitled to disturb them. It was a very unwelcome and uncomfortable situation.
Solution: 1) The rental office has to enforce their own rules– its first come first serve. When they are done with it, they will bring it back. Don’t bother those other parents. OR
2) provide more skating assists or allow people to bring their own.
The skating rental is good for all day. Though we only lasted an hour on the ice with most of it sitting down with my child crying made worse by other inconsiderate parents interrupting. When I returned the skates after one hour, the staff half-​hearted offered a refund, but only if I waited for the manager– however long that would have taken. I declined their offer.