Discover Aquatics & Swim School

I have two girls who have taken classes here since they were babies. They are fantastic for helping kids who are afraid of the water. We have continued lessons for 7 years for one kid and 4 years for the other because it is the one activity they never want to give up and just like going to weekly. I find this place to be fantastic. Very organized given all the swimmers. Warm water. The teachers are fantastic. In so many years maybe we have had 1 teacher that girls didn’t like as much. Love the report cards and prizes every two months. Even when teachers change they do it in a well organized way. All I can say is my 7 year old is adorable when she does the butterfly across the pool. The only lack of star is yes I wish they would fix up the locker room more so. They have changed carpeting, paint, main office, etc… Over the years. Looks like time for an overhaul for the locker rooms. But as per some reviews, my daughter has extremely sensitive skin and has never come up with funky skin issues because of water here. They are very clean and you see them cleaning locker room often. Outside of tile needing replacement and it looking like it needs update they are very clean here. I would love to see a discount for those of us who sign up year after year!!!
Update: they remodeled the locker rooms! Very nice and clean now. Lot more room for seating and better lockers. Well done!!! Updated to 5 stars:)

My kids have been going to this place now for the past 2 months. We have decided to pull them out. We have a 22 month old toddler, a 9 year old girl and a 10 year old son. The teachers have been good so no bad ratings to them. However, this place is very expensive and not worth it for the money. If I’m paying for a good service, I don’t mind paying it. I am a doctor and can afford it so I’m not cheap. But they charge $ 65 dollars per child per week for a 30 minute class. Initially I signed up for it because the water is heated and its a salt water pool (hence the 2 stars). However, the locker room is disgusting. They finally removed the lockers that were all jammed and half didn’t work. However, they have carpet in the locker room and its constantly getting wet. It’s a nasty moldy carpet and it disgusts me to walk in there and take my kids in there. They may be removing it soon. I knew that from the beginning when I signed up. My main problem with them and the reason I’m giving them 2 stars is because they closed the pool on a Tuesday when my baby had swimming lessons and no one called to inform us. I am working during the day so stay at home dad takes him to the 10 am lessons. They claimed they called us but we looked at both our voicemails and missed calls and we didn’t miss any from them. My husband drove from far (because we live about 30 minutes away) for nothing. There were no signs posted because we looked everywhere. Obviously they knew they were going to be closed ahead of time. They should have said it at their last class. They acted like it was our problem and didn’t even apologize. And then on the same day, when my husband tells them that we are never coming back, they tell my husband you have a balance of $ 10 because someone told him the wrong initial sign in fee. This is after we paid over $ 400 initially to sign up for 2 months. We are never going back there. We are going to the YMCA since they charge $ 75 per week for 2 sessions of 45 minutes per week. That’s worth it. 30 minutes is not enough time to teach. You get in and get wet and then it’s time to get out. Definitely skip this place. It is not worth your time, your money and they don’t deserve your business since they act like they are worth it.

We did not like the pool/​changing/​shower area because it smelled and did not appear clean to us. In our opinion, the instructor our kids had was disappointing compared to other swim schools and management was not good at resolving issues and their pricing to us was misleading to us. We would not recommend. We went to the Valley. Pool is clean. Instructors are good. Pricing clear. No hassle. You do not need to have a membership in order for your kid to have lessons. You just pay for the lessons and that is it. You don’t have to pay several lessons ahead. Simple transaction.

I was really disappointed in the way they treated us. We had to move so we informed the instructor. After we moved they called us wanting payment for the month that we were not there. They take attendance so they know that we had not shown up for classes. But they wanted us to pay for that month and then they test on Lacey. This was all after after we had already moved and instead of being lenient and understanding since we had already told the teacher we were not going to be there and we had not shown up to any other classes they tacked on late fees and said they were going to send us to a collection agency. They were very rude and unkind. I will no longer recommend this place to anybody because I don’t want my friends mistreated like we were. I have friends that currently go there and will be dropping out and my other friends will not be reenrolling their children in the fall.

Like another reviewer, it seemed like a good alternative to the Ymca. The have small class sizes for the younger kids. I question the ability of the instructors as far as rating kids swimming lessons. My child moved a month ago from the advanced class to the swim class, or maybe aquatic adventures I think it’s called. The instructor is a competitive swimmer from evergreen. My child is an excellent swimmer and this sounded great. But this class costs 80 a month. On top of the 30 annual fee. This class is well instructed and lasts an hour, but there are at least 5 little kids in this class that dont have the skills to be in this class that is supposed to be «refinement for competitive swimming». There are usually 12 kids in this class with three to 5 crammed in each lane, and at 1030 they lose a lane to private swim lessons. It seems like they are just interested in advancing kids so they can make more money. After watching this for several weeks I’ve about had enough. As my kid was coming through his other classes there were kids that didn’t have the skill to be in them. These kids should have been a class or two lower. It was a relief when 2 of them stopped coming Its and the kids that were ready for advanced class got the teaching and time I am paying for. Its frustrating to have my kid just standing there watching while an instructor has to teach a skill to a kid that the kid is not ready for. Or maybe they are just afraid to tell parents their kids aren’t that good and should stay in a lower class longer. I’m going to look into the porpoise club at the Y or check out another local place that does lessons. Or private lessons. This place should be branded as a good place for kids up to 8, but if your kid is older and wants to be competetive, go somewhere else.

We thought this would be a great alternative to the YMCA for swim lessons. We have heard good things about Discover, and although more expensive than other places for swim lessons and a good distance from our house, we decided to give it a try.
I am not sure how this place is receiving such good reviews. The locker room smells overwhelmingly of mold. It is very noticeable and hard to be in for long. The locker room is filthy. The carpets are stained, the paint is peeling is some places, the showers look grimy and gross. The floor around the showers and toilets are disgusting. I would typically have my child take a shower after lessons but not here, I took her straight home to bathe.
The pool is decent but it is so hot in there as a parent waiting it feels like you are in a desert in Arizona or doing hot yoga. It is unbearable.
The teachers were ok. Not excellent, not terrible. But for the price for the lessons I expect excellent. One thing that bothered me was in a few of my childs lessons there was another child who was misbehaving enough to be a total disruption to the class. The teacher spent more time dealing with the child than teaching the other two children. I am paying for lessons not for another child to be given more attention because of their bad behavior.
Another thing that was very frustrating was you can’t take a make up lesson until after you have missed it. I knew we would be on vacation and would miss my childs lesson on a Thursday. I asked if my child could take the lesson Wednesday instead and I was told she had to miss it first but then I could call in and try to find another spot when I got back for the next week. That means that really you arent getting a make up because the next week you are back you are attending your normal lesson. This policy does not make sense at all.
The prices for lessons are not cheap. 65 a month for once a week, 30 minute lessons. Folks, that is 16.25 for a half hour. In addition they require you to pay an annual 30 registration fee. This seems very steep and unreasonable.
I did appreciate the amount of classes and times available — hence the two stars.
For that price, I expect clean facilities and excellent instructors. I can’t recommend this place.

We were extremely happy when we initially found Discover Aquatics. We weren’t very happy with the instruction at the local Y so we sought an alternative and found DA. The kids made great progress at DA where they had seemed to be stagnant at the Y.
My son and daughter started getting these rashes on their backs and legs and at first was baffled by what was causing them. One week my daughter got sick and skipped swimming and the rash cleared up. The next week we went back and the rash returned. This sounds horrible now in hind-​site but we were so happy with their progress that we devised a work around where we gave both kids a full shower immediately after swimming, not the typical after swim rinse off, but the full soap, shampoo. This seemed to work for a few weeks, but then my daughter got a skin rash that was more serious than previous ones, we took her to the doctor and the rash tested positive for Strep. This was too much, so we decided to dis-​enroll both kids. When we called management we were told that our kids were probably sensitive to the chlorine. This is definitely not true, since we previously owned a house with our own pool-​we used lots of chlorine in, neither kid ever had any problem. We have had absolutely zero skin problems since we stopped attending DA.

Update: We’ve been taking our kids here for over 3 years and I finally have decided I can’t deal with it anymore. It sure seems like they have had a hard time holding on to good instructors in the last year or so. Consistency is key not only for the comfort of the kids, but because every instructor seems to view skill proficiency a little bit differently. I grew tired of having my daughter get bounced around from instructor to instructor. Sorry to go, Discover. It used to be better.

The teachers are great but the facilities are questionable. When I was there I noticed several safety concerns including mold on the walls, chipped tiles on the pool deck, sharp metal patruding from the wall, and counters pulling away from the wall. I also witnessed in several people and experienced myself rashes after being in the pool.
If they fixed up the place it would be great but for now I highly recommend caution if you plan on swimming here.

All I can say is wow! Discovery Aquatics is a great place to have a child’s birthday party! We had our daughter’s 7^th birthday party there and it was fantastic! The party room was decorated so cute and the staff was amazing. Debbie was the party coordinator and she was incredible. She had everything set up and ready for us when we arrived, she kept the party going at a perfect pace, she set up the gift opening, food, cupcakes, and cleaned up afterward. She provided us with our every need throughout the party. She even had a clipboard for us to write down a list of gifts for thank you cards. I highly recommend Discovery Aquatics for a fun, safe and stress free party.

Lots of time and teachers available. They keep each class small so they can focus on each student a lot more. The place is always warm and clean. They also have monthly activity nights which my son loves. He has had 2 teachers here so far and 5hey both have been great with him. His current teacher is Arraya, she is great at making sure he is doing his tasks and makes sure he is learning in a fun but educational environment. This place costs a bit more than most places. This isn’t a mega facility with 10 kids to a class, well worth the every penny.

After swimming there for 3 years, i am now choosing cleaner, less expensive, and better managed pools. Pros: warm, less chlorine, helpful lifeguards.
Cons: dirty facilities, unfriendly new management, higher prices, broken showers, cheap repairs, and very limited lap swim times.

We really love this place. Their birthday parties are top-​notch. My oldest daughter is now swimming after only 4 month. My 2 year goes underwater now without any fear.

We first learned of D.A. when we were ready to take my 4 MONTH old son swimming. We didn’t want to expose him to chlorine so we decided to try D.A. It was FANTASTIC! Bathwater warm water and a teensy bit of chlorine — so small an amount that you can’t smell or feel it at all.
We loved it.
I recently reconnected through a «Family Fun Swim/​Fundraiser» for my son’s Parent Teacher Student Organization. It was a ton of fun having the whole pool available for us ONLY and again — lovely to swim. I don’t swim in pools EXCEPT at D.A.
My only suggestion would be that they consider adding a 30 minute activity with these family fun raisers — something like they do at B-​Day parties. It may attract more participants.

We are so glad to have found this place for several reasons.
My oldest child was really afraid in the watter when we started lessons at Discover. The small classes and amazing teachers made all the difference. She is well on her way to be a confident swimmer.
The other reason is simple, the water is warm and chlorine free and i love going there for open swim with the family.

Very Very Expensive. You can get a way better deal at Shelton High School, less then have the price for lessons and three times less for open swim!!! :0
The funny things is that the saline pool they use is cheaper to maintain then the H. S’s…so it is a wonder why they have such high prices?