Wilmington Ice House - Wilmington, NC

[FigureSpins]

Wilmington Ice House
Wilmington, NC
Home Club: Port City SC (USFSA)

LTS USA (form. Basic Skills) learn-to-skate program, but mostly hockey.

200' x 85' with rounded corners and a hockey barrier  (NHL Sized)
No harness, on- or off-ice

Nice party rooms with picnic benches.  Interesting.

Snack bar has an ordinary menu, but the counter-service area was clean and well-lit, with lots of well-maintained tables and seating.  Windows overlooking the ice rink.

Pro shop was all hockey except for a small display of soakers and guards for figure skates and three models of low-end Riedell PVC skates.

Bathrooms were clean, one stall out of order, but the flooring and fixtures could use some updating.

One note: I hadn't realized how common the prison-entry lobby setup was until I moved to NC.  Several of the rinks have a single entry door that leads down to a locked door and the cashier window.  It's like a bodega in a bad neighborhood.  The larger/exit side of the lobby is blocked off by steel bars.  Seriously: it's like what you see on TV when people go to visit prisoners.  I wonder if this is a stock design or if there's a crime problem? 

Either way, most of the building was taken up by the rink.  Once you get through the locked entry door, you're rink-side and surrounded by signs saying "Beware flying pucks."  The netting could use some tightening.  They have the silver-foil ceiling insulation, but it's not too low, so that's good.  (Usually, the dropped insulated ceilings feel closed in."

Best feature: the curling stones in a three glass-door refrigerator.  I have never seen anything like that - brilliant way to store the stones at a constant temperature and keep them out of the way.  (A chain and padlocks keep the busybodies out.)  Yet, no literature on curling teams or rental, which would build interest.  Maybe they belong to a Club.