pre-paid ice costs

[VAsk8r]

If your rink offers any kind of option to pay in advance and skate as much as you want, how much does it cost? And does it include both freestyles and public skates?

[AgnesNitt]

My home rink offers very slight discounts if you pre-pay both public or freestyle. None of the other rinks I skate at cut you any slack. On the other hand, all the other rinks have cheaper freestyle and public than my home rink.

Ice rink price is a mystery.

[CaraSkates]

I buy 40 hrs of freestyle ice for $320 = $8 per hour. It can be used in 15min increments on any freestyle session you qualify for, no expiration date. I believe the rink offers a yearly public pass - $150? I think that's equivalent to 30 public sessions.

[sarahspins]

The savings here is about $2 a sesson on freestyles... doesn't matter if it's a 45 minute session or 4 hours.. and IMO the way they are priced is wonky.

[hopskipjump]

Ours has a credit card type deal.  You put money on it and any skating time is regular price minus fifty cents.  It's not much but every bit helps.

[jjane45]

If we buy 10 freestyle coupons in advance, there will be $1 discount for each coupon.

Annual public skating pass is dirt cheap, likely because of the stiff competition around here.

[KillianL]

We have nothing such, unless...
You buy Freestyle tickets in conjunction with Group Lessons.  The discounts increase with more classes purchased - on the order of $1-$2 a ticket.
You are a facility "member" (about a buck a day) and then the FS tix are $1 less than to general public.  Public skate is free with this membership, but is usually fairly crowded during peak (non-business) hours and does not permit maneuvers with leg extensions (like camels or spirals) or 1+ revs (axels and 2+ rotations).  Not that you could find room to try these things when competing with the synchro posse that invariably overtakes center ice.   

Honestly though, I love my facility and think the prices are fair for the level of maintenance.  If I had to drive much farther or pay more to skate, I'd do a lot less of it.  Where I skate there are budget and beaucoup options.   

[fsk8r]

To make you all jealous, we pay about $60 a month for unlimited freestyle and public ice. You're not allowed to do anything remotely like free skating on public which does confine most people to freestyle. We also collect points for using the ice and paying monthly and for lessons, which can then be redeemed on either friends coming to public skate or elsewhere in the facility (so swimming and fitness classes).
We're on a really good deal, but it doesn't stop people complaining when they put the price up each year.

[taka]

That sounds great fsk8r! I'd be at the rink much more if I could get something like that!

We have a card where you can buy 15 public sessions for £65 which only actually saves you anything if you skate on the more expensive public sessions at least once using it. It can be used for the drop in SkateUK session though.

Patch (practice ice) is £5/session, though in theory if you don't book it 48 hrs or more in advance it costs more. The "higher price" is more of a threat than a reality, since most of the regulars know not to mess with the head coach and book well in advance! I would gladly book monthly or in big blocks if I could get any money off or more ice time for not much more but there is no option for this here.

[Kim to the Max]

Through my club, we have a package where you pay $195/month and can skate an unlimited number of sessions. For me, this turns out to be (on average) - 10 sessions a week (3 Sunday, 2 Tuesday, 3 Thursday, and 2 Friday). When all is said and done, I pay between $4-$6/session (depends on how many sessions get cancelled during the year due to hockey).

[FigureSpins]

We have a multi-purpose facility, with three pools, a dance room, fitness center and one sheet of ice.  There's also a babysitting room and a day camp/trackout program available.

Memberships are available for $750 - $1000 annually, which includes pool/fitness center access and free public skating but not freestyle ice. 
(It also has a $50 initiation fee) Members get discounts on group lesson programs and the facility offers special members-only classes at times.

Non-member costs:
Public Sessions - $6/adults, $5/age 12 and under. Skate Rental=$3 <2.5 to 3-hour sessions>
Punch passes = 10 sessions/$55 ($5.50 per session)
When hockey doesn't buy the ice, the rink offers a Tuesday night "Cheap Skate" public session for $5. <2-hour session>

Freestyle Sessions - $12 walk-on <45 mins/session>
Punch passes - 10 sessions/$85 ($8.50/session), 20 sessions/$150 ($7.50/session)


At this time of the year, the freestyle sessions are a better value for lessons due to the crowded public sessions. 

[Skittl1321]

I haven't paid for ice in so long I don't really know what the costs are... (We get practice ice as part of LTS.  The price of the lessons is like 50 cents more than the cost of practice ice, so I just sign up for however many days of lessons I want ice time for.)

But there are 20 session punch cards you can buy for public and for freestyle and it works out to a small discount to buy the card. But, club members also get $1 off the price of public and $2 off freestyle, so I think that actually works out to about the same deal as the punch card (there is a discount for that too- but I don't know what it is.)

Club ice is 1 hour a week and costs $4 to walk on.  A 10 session punch card is $3.80.   Cheapest ice ever, and sadly takes place during my absolutely favorite aerobics class, so I don't get to go.

[TreSk8sAZ]

Well, we can pre-pay, but not for unlimited ice time.

Weekday rink - This rink has a contract. Pick your sessions starting on the 15th of the month, and have it in by the 25th of the month and you pay a lesser price (for my 5-6 am, it's $9, then either $10 or $11 for 45 or hour sessions later in the day). If you do a drop-in it's $14. You can miss up to four days and receive credits for those sessions to be used for future contracts.

Weekend rink - You buy tickets day of or in advance. If you buy 10, you get 1 free. But, if you are a "member" you get $1 off each session regardless of if you buy the pack or not.

[Vicki7]

My rink has a 6 session pass to publics for £30, but it only saves you 50p per session so I've not gone for it (I have lessons on Thursday morning public, when it's dead). But, the admission fee for public is £5.50, and that lets you skate from 10am to 4pm, as long as you want.

I'm going to be so sad when I get a job and have to do weekend publics or weekend patch sessions to get my skating in

[icedancer]

At my main rink if you sign up for any class you get all of your publics for "free" - the cost of 8 weeks of classes is $80 so if you skate twice a week or more it is definitely worth it - plus you get the class.  Some adults sign up for a class but never go to it - just to get the discount.

I think for freestyles you can buy a pass that ends up giving you one free freestyle (or dance - same price) - The freestyle and dance sessions here are $9 for 45minutes - 1 hour session.

[FigureSpins]

That's a great price for LTS.  Ours is 10 weeks of lessons for $155 and it includes a 10-punch public session card.  Skaters who sign up for multiple LTS lessons each week, save a little money; One lesson/week costs $155; Twice a week costs $250; three lessons/week costs $310.  The skater isn't supposed to get multiple punch passes for for the extra days.  My old rink in NY gave them access to any public session during the session, with the exception of Friday nights.  (aka: Crazy Teen Skater Night)

Our rink offers special sales on punch cards in December.  I'm thinking of saving up to buy multiple freestyle punch cards at the next sale.  Knowing my luck, they won't offer it this year, lol.

[VAsk8r]

To make you all jealous, we pay about $60 a month for unlimited freestyle and public ice. You're not allowed to do anything remotely like free skating on public which does confine most people to freestyle. We also collect points for using the ice and paying monthly and for lessons, which can then be redeemed on either friends coming to public skate or elsewhere in the facility (so swimming and fitness classes).
We're on a really good deal, but it doesn't stop people complaining when they put the price up each year.

WOW! How is your rink able to offer such a good deal? Is it subsidized by tax money or a university?

Thanks for all the answers...I'm just trying to gather some information to compare my rink to others. Right now, unlimited publics and freestyles are $600 for 12 weeks, but there are only about 8 hours a week of freestyle. We can do freestyle maneuvers on public. Freestyle is $25 an hour otherwise.

[Skittl1321]

That's a great price for LTS.  Ours is 10 weeks of lessons for $155 and it includes a 10-punch public session card. 

How long are your lessons?

We pay $90 for 8-weeks of 30 minute lessons, it includes 8 practice ice sessions (public if you are basic skils, freestyle or public if you are freestyle) and 3 guest passes (public only). Rental skates are included for lessons but not practice sessions.  You get a 10% discount if you register early, 10% if you take more than one class, and 10% if you are a club member. They add the discounts together (30%) rather than discounting the new price each discount creates.

[FigureSpins]

How long are your lessons?

30 minutes/lesson

This session is 10 weeks, but to match school/holiday shedules, the number of lessons/price varies from session to session.

As an instructor, I like 10 weeks because the skaters have more lessons before the evaluation day.
When it's a 6- or 8-week session, I nag about using that public punch card to practice every week so they master the skills before the end of the session since it's so few classes. 

Lately, the SD has been handing out the punch cards after the first lesson, but when she asks the instructors to do it, I make a big deal about using the card and practicing every week.

Our Club doesn't get any discounts on rink-run sessions.  Coaches and instructors can skate (for themselves) on public sessions for free, but unless they're teaching/coaching on a freestyle, they have to pay for the session.  One college kid who coached used to give one 10-minute lesson on a 45-min freestyle then spend the rest of the session working on her own skating.  Clever loophole.

[Janie]

To make you all jealous, we pay about $60 a month for unlimited freestyle and public ice.

Jealous!!

Our freestyle sessions barely have a discount. Not all session are the same price, but the majority of them are $10 for an hour, and you can buy in advance for $95 per ten sessions. My group class enrollment includes public ice practice time, so I'm not sure what the usual public session discount would be.

[mamabear]

We get 1 public session for each LTS class.  Classes are an 8 week session so 8 public sessions with that. 

There isn't a way to prepay for public or have unlimited public for a set price (I've asked).  Fees for public are 5.50, 4.00 for students and it's 2.50 for skate rental.  Some of the desk people will count me as a student because of doing LTS but I never count on that.

I know that freestyle has some type of punch card but I don't know if there is a discount.  When I've done freestyles in the past I've always paid each time.  It's 8.00 for an hour, 4.00 for a half-hour. 

[AgnesNitt]

Two of the rinks I skate at only have pre-paid optiion to get people through the line faster.

[techskater]

Our unlimited FS costs $400 per month.  Considering I can't make the majority of FS times, well, 

[PinkLaces]

We contract our free style ice quarterly. These are evening and Saturday morning sessions. You get a $1-$2 break depending on the legnth of the session 40, 45, or 60 mins.  If you spend more than $500 on sessions(including off-ice classes), then you get another 5% off, 10% at $700, 15% at $1000, etc up to 25% off for $1500+.  I skate about 6 sessions a week (2 - 45 mins sessions, 3 days per week) and it costs me just under $600 with the discount.

If you can make it in between 6-8 am or 1-3 pm Mon-Fri, you pay $5/ half hour.  You can buy a punch card 10 hours/$95, but it can only be used on those sessions.  It's like a $0.50 discount.

[fsk8r]

WOW! How is your rink able to offer such a good deal? Is it subsidized by tax money or a university?

Thanks for all the answers...I'm just trying to gather some information to compare my rink to others. Right now, unlimited publics and freestyles are $600 for 12 weeks, but there are only about 8 hours a week of freestyle. We can do freestyle maneuvers on public. Freestyle is $25 an hour otherwise.

It's in the UK. My rink is cheaper than most of the others, but they're not much more expensive. Normally the offer only includes freestyle ice, but as most of us don't skate public extending it doesn't really hurt the rink.
The facility is council owned, but is actually profitable and so not subsidised. The ice rink actually pays for a lot of the rest of the building. But it's been cleverly built, the waste heat from the rink heats the swimming pool. It means the air in the rink is freezing compared to other rinks, but the swimming pool is toasty.