City Ice Pavilion

Fun fun fun! I went here around two weeks also with my cousins and we had fun. I wish I could rate this place higher but the facility needs a little bit of a facelift. Another thing is that when you get there, someone is there operating the elevator, but she didn’t tell you where anything eat lol. We were like oook we are on the second floor but do we get off? Like where is the announcement?! Lol another thing is they spray the skates with Lysol so that was really weird to me.

This is one of the best indoor ice skating rinks I’ve been too. It’s absolutely huge which has its perks when it gets busy. Luckily, I went on a day when the rink was empty for over an hour and then a few people started showing up but since the rink is HUGE you barely notice it. The skates are very good. I will definitely be back!

My daughter has been going to City Ice for a year every weekend. She has been taking lessons, and they have helped her to be pretty good. She likes going, so that’s great for me.

This is a review for summer hockey camp only.
We registered our child months before camp. City Ice reached out to us week prior to confirm only to cancel on the Friday before camp was to begin. Nowhere on their literature or website was there any disclaimer that camp would not run if low enrollment.

I’ve been coming to City Ice Pavilion since my kids were small. This is a definitely a nice place to come and enjoy with the family. Inexpensive, safe, and ample parking around the vicinity. Definitely a place to visit when in Long Island City or if you live in NYC. Subway is 2 blocks away, Q, R, 7 Line all a walking distance.

I can’t really rate the experience because I didn’t actually make it inside but I could offer you some advice if you do think of going to this place.
This ice rink is located in a very commercial area and in a commercial building, so if you intend of going out somewhere nice this is not the place to go to.
I didn’t check in advance their schedule online and arrived around 7:00 at night and there was no one at the front desk, when all of a sudden some huge guy dressed in the full hockey costume falls out of the elevator (Apparently the ice rink is located on the roof of the building) and when asked where you can pay he pointed to a room at the end of the hallway where some one was selling gear, and this guy tells us that there is no public sessions at night, only in the middle of the day.
So my suggestion is that if you wanna to try this place then check their schedule online first.

The people at the cashier’s desk are so rude. My daughter takes classes every week here, and they never ask for the pass for free skate, today they did, and it wasn’t on us so they wouldn’t let us in without paying. So rude.

Came here with a local community center group of kids, ages 6 – 18. The staff and place is nice, but we had an awesome experience with the CityIce Café!! THE PIZZA WAS GOOD! The guy (I think his name is Mike??? See photo!) is a masterful one-​man show, managing to produce 4 NY style pizza pies, all the while making coffee and taking orders from other skaters & visitors. He did it all, with a great smile and attitude. Made the experience really quite perfect. We will be back :)

If you come here for open hockey, you’d better bring 15 to 20 of your friends and two goalies because (even after five years) they can’t seem to attract enough skaters.
Maybe that’s because they change their schedule from week to week and do such a poor job of updating their online schedule. I called to confirm a couple weeks ago and the director of hockey told me the schedule was wrong and he would get someone to fix it… tomorrow. Isn’t that a little late? And btw, why don’t you update it yourself? Not your job, or beyond your skill level?
One recent occasion (with only three skaters) I asked for some extra pucks. I was told someone would bring some. No one ever did. I complained to the front desk afterwards and was told that someone had brought us pucks. I’m sure he saw that we already had a few pucks and figured that was enough. If you want to practice shooting, you want to set up in one spot and shoot pucks by the dozen. You don’t want to shoot one puck, chase down the rebound, skate back to your original spot, shoot again, and repeat.
The next week I asked for a shooter tutor. Again, no help.
I hope someone at the rink reads this and realizes how poorly they serve their hockey customers.

Public skating during the weekend can be pandemonium with crazy child madness on the ice and little ones crawling around the bleachers with skates on. And maybe a few maniacal adult skaters adding to the mayhem. The skate guards did nothing. Scary!
However, when the kiddies are not around, it is not crowded and is positively delightful.
The ladies’ room is not pristine, but there is a changing room. The lockers (75 cents) are larger than at the other rinks.
Staff is friendly.
It’s a little dark, which is sad, compared with Sky Rink at Chelsea Piers, which has large windows that open onto the Hudson.
Free bleachers — yes, at Wollman you have to actually pay to be a spectator; and Sky Rink has no observation area at all — for your friend to sit and do whatever he or she wishes, such as play games on the phone or read a book on the iPad or maybe watch you skate and take embarrassing pictures.
This rink is on an isolated block or two — un-​locatable by GPS or the app on your phone! Even from a helicopter it is non-​descript. There is a parking lot and they say there are plenty of spots, but there are not. LaGuardia CC is a few blocks away on a busy street where the #7 train stops. The walk from there to the rink is a little deserted and feels sort of sketchy. If you do take the train that Google maps suggest, you have to cross the bridge. Be forewarned. It is so confusing to get there.
This is a good rink to go to on the weekend if you have kids and want to sit indoors to watch them, or if you live in Queens and they are not letting you into Manhattan.

This place is pretty good! They have a full size rink and a snack bar. I take private lessons there and my coach is the best coach you could possibly ask for. She is literally picture perfect. The weekends may a bit crowded. The rental skates are just okay. Some of them stink and are dull. But whatever. The people are really nice there. I have came here about 4 times as of today.
The prices are $ 8 on the weekends and $ 5 on weekdays. The skate rental is $ 5 tax included.

I hadn’t been ice skating in quite some time. Or at least on an ice where I can actually «do things». Don’t get me wrong, free ice at Bryant Park is sweet and grateful for it. But all you can do out there is skate around in circles until you’re dizzy. And Bryant Park IS a Pond. This is a legit standard sized rink. And there are few of them out here in New York. Birthdays can be hosted here! I saw babies with cupcakes. Seriously debating this as a future idea.
Open skating is both during the regular weekdays ($ 5) and on weekends ($ 8). That’s not including rental skates. Which I’m not sure of because I never bother with that nonsense but I believe they are $ 5. They don’t have phenomenal skates here and most of them appear to be hockey skates. But they are much better than the free rink’s skates. Lockers are 75 cents and worth it. Trust me, you can’t skate with a bag. Ever. Or a phone. It’s against almost every rink in the country’s rules. And you do not want your shizzle stollen.
They also have freestyle ice (for competitive/​above average figure skaters) which is about $ 15 – 20 an hour. A bit much. Not ready to fork over the dough for that one yet. There’s also plenty of open hockey hours. But open skate is pretty generous on weekends. It starts at 12pm and runs until about 4pm. That’s FOUR HOURS of skating for $ 8. DEAL. This is as close as to a Midwest ice rink I have found in New York and now instantly has become my favorite. There was enough room for me to line up a number of scratch spins and shitty lay back spins during rush hour right after Olympic season. So, I am pleased. Not quite enough room to jump unless you like doing jumps from a stand still position but my leg is still trashed and that wasn’t happening anyway.
They have a little pizza snack booth. Bathrooms — a bit confusing. That’s downstairs. There are 3 levels — the entrance, a main floor, and an upper floor. They offer skating lessons. Which is great if you are tiny. Not sure what the deal with coaches doing classes on ice during public skating instead of private ice. I don’t find it particularly beneficial because you’re not utilizing any space and any work you have to do has to be done from a stand still position. But ice time is probably a luxury and $$$$ in a major city that I’m still finding impossible to understand. But all in all I love this rink. It has a great sense of community and whoever was in charge of manning the radio for music selection on Saturday was boss. I will be back to work on those lutzes.

This is pretty close from the 33^rd st station, and it is a HUGE rink! I was expecting it to be Rockefeller/​Bryant Park/​Central Park size but it was about double that size.
Our group of 150 got to rent out the place to ourselves, and they charged $ 8/​person (to skate for a good 3 hours). The skates were actually pretty comfy, unlike the Bryant Park ones. I had fun skating on the ice!
The food, however, was absolutely terrible (I know, even with my low expectations to begin with). I had a very stale and plastic-​like pizza that I ate ¹⁄₃ of, some fries that turned cold right away (just had a few) and the hot chocolate was watery. My other friends who ordered food ended up tossing them after a few bites, too.
Oh, and you have to go through the revolving doors and down the elevator to use the restroom. Annnd there was only one mini heat lamp on the stands! The place was FREEZING.

I love the ice rink here! I only gone once but the experience was great!
I always wanted to go here since it looks like a legal rink.
Also from reading the other reviews, I thought why not ?!
I’ve been wanting to go ice skating for a while. And finally got to since a friend finally agreed to go with me! (everyone said no! :()
So anyways, deff visit their website to see what’s the schedule. They update the schedule every week. Usually there would be hockey practice or some other things going on but keep a look out for what time for public sessions to begin and end.
It might be hard to find the place since Sunnyside is not very crowded and there isn’t a lot of people to ask around. But once you find it you’re good! (obviously)
There are two levels, one where the lockers and bathroom is located — also where you would pay for the admission and for skates if you don’t ‘have your own pair. Then there’s the top floor (the roof top) where the rink is located.
The rink is HUGE!!! It’s so beautiful! I went on a holiday (weekend of thanksgiving) so there was a lot of kids but if you can skate it wont’ be a problem. Oh, also the rink is COLD!!! but there’s hot chocolate and some other foods if you want.
The staff was quite friendly too. I found them to be professional as well.
Deff gave me a good impression of the whole place. I will come again!

a treasure!
super cheap, esp for nyc
nice clean facility
very friendly staff
what a nice place

The story is that the guy who built this made it so his kid would have a place to skate and play hockey because there wasn’t anything like this in Queens. It’s wild how it’s top of a building. I like looking at the ceiling and thinking of space.
I love this place. 13 for skates and ice time. 8 if you have your own skates. And their skates are fine. Not that plastic crap at antiquated skating rinks. No disruptions, completely hassle free. Watch out for little kids pulling down their parents to the ice.

If you weren’t looking particularly for ice skating or hockey then this indoor rink would be like a vegetarian to a butcher shop. City Ice Pavilion is huge and their rink is huge. To enter the rink you have to go through these huge turnstyles. City Ice Pavilion is located at the end of Long Island City where Queens meets Brooklyn where all the warehouse businesses and people scarcely go because it’s not retail nor residential. But it’s conveniently a few streets down from the 7 subway line and has a parking garage. This place is the cheapest place I know for skating, hockey and rentals. Or bring your own skates but here is some basic pricing:
Public Skating: Check the calendar.
$ 5weekday/​$ 8weekend Admission, $ 5 Skate Rental, $ 2 Helmet.
Hockey: $ 20
Figure Skating: $ 20
This place caters to all but you have to check the calendar and go to the registration desk. One day you’ll see teenagers and kids (all ages, check the calendar) practicing and another a team of adults playing or visa versus. If you’re a novice this place is perfect, it’s not too crowded on the weekdays and the instructors are pretty good. There’s also session for experienced skaters on the ice. There’s one on one and lessons.
—Decent sized lockers: 75cents to operate
—Locker Rooms
—Clean Bathrooms
—Pro Shop to buy all your gear on the ice
—Vending machines for energy
—Many aisles of in good shape skates, they have many many many
—The rink is plexiglass surrounded
—Bleachers to watch games or your kids
—It’s cold in there

What would Brian Boitano do?
Not sure.
But I digress.
The rink is no fuss, no muss and a great way to spend some downtime.
Only complain is, the staff needs better crowd controlling skills. People were going every which way instead of collectively skating one way. I’m sure lots of injuries occur this way.

Let’s make a few comparisons, shall we?
— Rockefeller Center
Cost*: $ 15.50 on weekdays; $ 19.00 on weekends
Crowdedness/​skating atmosphere: Lion King wildebeest stampede
— Central Park
Cost: $ 10.75 on weekdays; $ 16.00 on weekends
Crowdedness/​skating atmosphere: Merritt Parkway after a deer-​vehicle accident
— Chelsea Piers
Cost: $ 13.50
Crowdedness/​skating atmosphere: OK, I haven’t actually been here in years, so I’m not actually sure how crowded it gets these days. But it’s $ 13.50 for a plain ol’ rink. Come on, now.
— City Ice Pavilion
Cost: $ 5.00!
Crowdedness/​skating atmosphere: Aplastic anemic bone marrow (sorry, just took a hematology exam… translation: IT’S EMPTY).
THIS PLACE MAKES ME SO. VERY. HAPPY.
Don’t come here for the touristy NY skating under the giant Xmas tree experience. Come here if you want to skate on your own or with some friends and not have to maneuver around impenetrable chains of giggling pre-​teens. Come here if you want to be able to skate regularly and not be shit broke. Come here with a date who you’re not looking to impress with over-​the-​top romantic-​ness but rather with a good time and some room to frolic around on the ice.
But don’t come that often. I don’t want it getting too crowded.
P. S. The only downside of this place is the ugly-​ass Rangers logos all over. So I’m posting a picture of myself indifferently flipping one off in exchange for not docking the City Ice Pavilion a star for their sins against hockey humanity.
— — — — — — — — -
*All of these prices are for admission only — not including skate rental. (But can you guess who offers the cheapest skate rental?)

Came here on a groupon.
Staff very friendly.
Easy to get to, just take the 7 train and walk like 3 blocks.
Place seems pretty new and clean. Regular prices are affordable compared to Chelsea Piers.
Lockers are like 75cents.