Planet Ice Widnes - Widnes

Salami W.

I used to come here just after it changed from silver blades and the management then was amazing it was a great place to bring the children and we always loved it. Now, it’s absolutely shocking (understatement). Clearly had a change of management who don’t have a clue about running a place - need to step down. We had to wait outside in the rain for 20 minutes for people to start going in on the session time and then another 15 minutes to actually get served as there was only 1 young girl on the counter and she couldn’t find my booking info. Had to wait another 10 minutes at skate hire counter then the skates I got wouldn’t clip shut properly and were too big. Exchanged them 20 minutes in when the skate hire had gone quieter, were blunt I couldn’t stay upright. There was no stewards on the ice. Someone had an accident it took 10 minutes to fetch someone. No staff anywhere in sight. 1 girl serving in the cafe and had to wait another 20 minutes to get served, then 10 minutes for it to come out, got 4 hot dogs and the buns were hard and may aswell have been croutons (in pieces). £5.50 per hot dog! Chips were warm and greasy. Went back up to explain, the only girl serving disappeared for nearly 10 minutes leaving a whole queue to find a manager. The toilets were a disgrace someone had peed all on the toilet seat and up the wall and tissue everywhere. Bins were full. Glass around the rink had “c*nt” amongst other lovely language written all over it. Hockey skaters coming in and knocking everyone over. Asked to speak to a manager, Rachael with pink hair approached us and was extremely rude and took everything I said personally and then gaslit me as if there was no problem with what I was describing. I suggested I’d take her round to see and she just said “no need” and walked away. Not what I would expect from a manager or as a paying customer. It was the biggest waste of money in a long time. Health and safety nightmare. So disappointing and the kids even said “I’d have a better time going to maccies”. Nearly £100 spent all in all for an hour we’ll never get back. Do NOT waste your money. I left feeling really sad and as if I had done something wrong for trying to do a nice thing for the kids.

Kim L.

Expected this place to be buzzing with school holiday, it was sadly lacking! The price is prohibitive for locals as it's far too pricey for most, especially if you add boots,socks, gloves and snacks to the bill! One adult two kids you would look to spend £100 easy!
Other than spending money it is good fun and the kids did enjoy it. I recommend making sure you take a sweater of some kind even if the outside temperature is hot. You may even find taking a change of clothes a good idea for kids who have not done this before as you get very wet from falling! Nice experience but not likely to do it again due to cost.

Tom C.

Planet ice is my local rink, and usually this is a great place to skate. Recently however, I’ve noticed a shift in the way this place is being run, and the general attitude of some of the staff is just unreasonable and unprofessional.

(I’ve been coming to this rink 2-3 times a week for the last 6-7 weeks, and I’ve never seen the ice surface this bad until today. Not level at all. Lumps, bumps and lines across most of the surface making it difficult to skate effectively.)

I approached reception during the first 30 minutes of my skate session this morning to ask a couple of questions regarding the surface of the ice because it was out of the ordinary it being in such poor condition, and multiple people agreed with me when I asked other skaters if I should make the management aware it was a problem.

There was a lady in reception that I spoke to today, Rachel I was told her name is.
Reception said that she was the manager, even though I’ve since been told by members that she is not.
Rachel was quite clearly annoyed for some reason and chose to get on the defensive and become argumentative as if I was complaining about perfect ice for no reason other than to annoy people.

I don’t know if it was my attitude or what I said that offended her so much but she was clearly aggravated and took it personally when she was being questioned about the ice surface and resurfacing process.
She abruptly told me that the ice was perfectly fine and that she would go and get her skates and check it herself.

She hardly checked it herself. She skated straight to a couple of the figure skating coaches standing together and asked for their opinion. I then watched from the side line as one of them acted is if they had no balance and were going to fall, and they all had a laugh and joke at my expense, making it out that my skating is the issue.

I thought “I must be going crazy” assuming that people are making fun of me, but when I confronted one of the coaches and asked them what was so funny about bad ice and why he’s acting as if he has no balance he explained that they weren’t laughing at me, they were just talking about me while joking about the colour of Rachel’s hair which is bright pink.

I find it impossible to believe that they’ve had a conversation about the surface of the ice, and then the conversation has instantly evolved into a joke about Rachel’s hair colour.
From where I was standing I felt as though I was being made a laughing stock and it made me feel anxious, ashamed and annoyed.

I pay like every other customer. If I can’t complain about the surface of the ice without being brushed off and laughed at, then I’m not sure I feel comfortable skating here. It’s a shame too because I really like the planet ice, but this interaction in particular has made me feel like some staff don’t respect the ice itself, the customers or their opinion.

Moomin75

Disgusting and an absolute rip off!! £18 each to get in, £7.50 per hour to hire equipment. The whole place is filthy, hasn't been cleaned for months, ice was black and dirty in parts, every surface had a build up of muck!
The skates were torn and filthy, staff were miserable too.
Don't waste your money going here, we left within half an hour, never going back.
Saved up for a half term treat for my autistic son, so disappointed and now skint!!

Helen B.

I booked and paid this morning for an afternoon session today.
We shortly after half a medical incident.
I phoned to explain and asked if it would be possible to obtain a refund due to our emergency meaning that we cannot attend the session this afternoon. I was told absolutely no refund would be considered.
Despite me explaining that we had a medical emergency. There was absolutely no discussion to allow any dispensation for what had occured. Absolutely unhelpful and inconsiderate. I'm disgusted with the lack of customer service.

Linda M.

Went here Thursday 15th Jan for my grandsons 9 th birthday booked for 2 hours. . Party of 14 8 adults snd 6 kids. Very dissatisfied with the amenities , no cafe. Just vending machines. Toilets were dirty. Then to top it off the ice hockey team came on the ice about 5-20 and spoilt the fun for the kids. They were razzing around everywhere making it very dangerous for my grandchildren. Very disappointing. Won’t be going there again.

Alex (.

I go here every other week , for a solo experience it's great.

However for parents planning on going with toddlers, up until Christmas whilst the day is divided, go on the Saturday morning sessions. Or just wait until after Christmas when the day gets put back to £15pp for 4 hours. Just have to bite the bullet on the price, research before you go in so you don't get caught off guard by the price.

I used rental skates for about 5 weeks , on my first day I had to change skates twice because they were a little bit too small , so for the people hating on the skate quality , just ask for some other pair it's not that hard 🙌

George E.

My girlfriend and I have been to Planet Ice in Widnes twice now. Although our first visit went great, our second visit was spoilt by one particular staff member (an older man with a scouse accent).

When getting our skates, we arrived at the booth with no staff present. When a staff member did finally arrive, he was blunt and rude. He rushed us to take our shoes off, leaving them on the counter instead of storing them in a safe place.

Later, I found that my skates were too small, so I needed to swap them. We waited for a while at the booth (alongside another couple who wanted to return their skates), but the staff member didn't turn back up. The other couple resorted to grabbing their shoes from the side (as I mentioned, the shoes were not stored properly and were instead left on the desk) and left their skates on the counter.

When my girlfriend managed to track down the staff member, he was rude to her, stating that "[I] should have known which skates would have been the right ones", but as I am not used to skating, I didn't know this.

When he arrived to the booth, he complained about how he had to walk "all this way" (the length of the rink) to get me new boots. He reiterated how i should hve known and asked me my shoe size. I told him I'm usually a size 11. Instead of giving me a size up, he sized me down and stormed off.

This ruined my entire experience. My feet were in pain the entire time and we ended up leaving earlier than intended.

I get people have bad days, but there was no need for this aggression towards paying customers. It is (presumably) this man's job to man the skate booth. He has no right to treat us this way.

We will reconsider visiting this particular rink in the future and hope this man gets spoken to regarding his behaviour today.