Reviews
Well, it was my 1st time visiting the ice rink but my daughter and I, plus friends had a great time. Yes, it was busy not full capacity apparently, so the amount of people was enough. Anymore, then I would certainly say overcrowding would of been an issue. The young man who gave us our skates was very good, particularly to the kids. Throughly enjoyed our lunch too. I'm easily pleased so, a big thumbs � up from me.
My little ones had such fun the staff in the ice cafeteria were so kind and gave us lots of free hot marshmallow hot chocolate‘s very kind.
Loved our very first trip to Van Hage. My daughter had never skated before. She found the skating boots tricky but they have skates that go over shoes with 2 blades. We swapped for these and they were easier for her. I also recommend the banana for littles instead of the penguin as they can sit and ride on it.
We didn't realise there was a Santa grotto nor that you have to book online so make sure you search the website for all bookable festive treats. The decorations in the shop are worth looking at in themselves!
I came last night with 6 children (my 3 and 3 of their friends), after mine had a fantastic time there last week.
Booked for the last session of the season and loved every minute of it especially as It was a fun one.
Lots of music and laughs and watching the 6 attempting the YMCA on the ice was hilarious.
Thankyou for a fun night.
Will look forward to next season �
BEST skate EVER at 6pm on Fri 5 Jan as there were 19 of us on the ice! Not crowded,plenty of room to have a 'proper' skate� We stayed to watch the 7pm skaters come on & were soooo pleased we chose the 6pm one as it looked manic!
Would definitely go again but it a shame they allow so many on the ice! That's ok if your a good skater but for people who haven't done it for 12 years!! We need a little more room 😂😂
Went with the family on Boxing Day - apparently it was quieter than previous years, quite a lot of space on the ice. Sounds positive compared to others' reviews on here, perhaps we were lucky with the day.
Bright sunshine was lovely through the roof!Cafe coffee also good
The biggest plus is it is a proper ice rink with ice, not the plastic ones that pop up everywhere at xmas time. Only downside was the amount of people. Too busy to actually skate. Not helped by people skating in big groups so you end up crashing i to the back of them. Despite signs saying not to do this Marshalls didn't attempt to split them up.
Those couple of things wouldn't stop me visiting again though.
I went with my granddaughter and son in law. Unfortunately there was no more skating aids left for my granddaughter so she ended up sitting out. I found that there was far too many of the skating aids during the session and being a very novice skater it would have been easier without being cut up and knocked about. Perhaps have sessions with and without the skating aids for easier, leads crowded skating.
Great place to skate and much more enjoyable off peak skating, not overcrowded and no long ques.
Easy to find - More than adequate parking - Prebooked so quick getting through - Cafe a little slow but food portions large :) - Getting on and off the rink was ok - not stressful - Staff pleasant and helpful - Yes, it was busy but most rinks are at this time of year.
All in all a very enjoyable afternoon and the family were happy.
As many have said before me, a good rink and helpful staff. My wife took a tumble and staff raced over to her to offer assistance and check her over. As for the over crowded bit.. we did find that last year but this year we enjoyed a post Xmas skate and found it much better and particularly for our children who felt much more able to skate around. Looking forward to January 2018 :)
Went New Year’s Eve and was so overcrowded,the kids couldn’t skate properly as there was so many people on the ice. Think you need to reduce the number of people on the ice so people can actually skate and enjoy it
Rink is fine and staff generally pleasant and helpful. Way too overcrowded though. The way you're loaded in, there's just no room to move, very hard to put skates on as not enough room to sit down, especially with young kids. The process of coming off the ice at the end was much better. The cafe is fine, quick service but the coffee was average. Parking organisation was brilliant. Would give it four stars if not for the arrival experience.
Not sure I should write a review as my mum wrote one today and because she put negative comments about the ice cafe and the amount of people on the ice it was removed and she was told that she it was abusive and she definitely wasn't she just stated her opinion, obviously you can only write positive remarks
I’m afraid it lost 2 stars because of no disabled toilets working, one locked no one could open it and other engaged for 30mins and turns out it had been locked from outside or no baby changing facilities,there may have been in other parts of the building but I was there watching my family ice skating and so used nearest toilet. Other than that (which I think is important) me and my family especially the grandkids had a great time.
I've been skating at Van Hages for several years, and drive a long way to do so. What always made it worth the drive was that you had enough space on the ice; sadly yesterday it was much too crowded to skate properly, and I feel that this might make me think twice next year. Everything else was fine, although a slow queue in the Ice Café.
I've been coming for many years now to ice skate with my children and this was by far the most disappointing. My session was extremely crowded, there was no room to do anything other than shuffle along on the ice. There also seemed to be more skating aids this year too - some of which were being used quite carelessly and causing minor accidents. I also notice that there wasn't a single Christmas song played either (which I appreciate is personal taste), but the whole experience seemed to lack it's usual festive/magical experience. Overall quite disappointed.
I love skating at van hage but the session we went to was so crowded! The queue to collect shoes was long and there was no space to get skates on without the risk of having your toes chopped off by all the other people. Trying to get on the ice took ages and loads of people were pushing and shoving. We had pre booked a skate aid thankfully. The penguin ones are great, although my children both fell several times and the penguin went flying (they were absolutely fine just wanted to point out they help but won't stop children falling who are new to ice skating) we have used the banana skate aids before. They are great as 2 kids can sit on them and get pushed around. When we got on the ice it was so busy and really difficult to keep my young children together and safe! People were crashing into each other and falling over. Having said that the skate staff worked really hard to help people who had fallen over and return lost skate aids. We left the ice early to beat the crowds to get our shoes back but that was probably just as bad as getting skates.