YMCA of the Suncoast: James P. Gills Branch
Reviews
Gym is small but passable. However, if you have an infant or toddler and you need to have them watch the kid while you workout, good luck trying to get a full workout in. The kids club staff apparently has no ability or interest in working with younger kids and will think up very lame excuses for you to have to come get your kid, forcing you to cut your workout short. It looks like all teenagers running the kids club, with no experience in dealing with babies so their solution to every problem is to make the parent come get their kid. If you need a gym with a kids club that actually does their job, L.A. Fitness is the better choice.
This place is not terrible for summer camps, but it is pretty darned close to terrible! I should have known better when I was never even offered a tour of the facility where my kids would be staying. From the beginning I had problems with even enrolling my kids. I had to return several times because they did not have the proper forms and did not request the right information. Then when I paid the down payments, they had a great deal of trouble getting me a receipt, which should have been given the day I signed up my two 6 and 9-year old kids. Several days I went to drop them off in the morning so I could head to work and the place was closed and they were late arriving, making me late for work. One of the days I was forced to leave my kids waiting outside of the building with a few of the group leaders who were also waiting for the one who had the key to show up. Then, the Camp leader was constantly pulling me aside to tell me all of the horrible nasty things my daughter was supposedly doing, like "not listening" and "spitting on another child". After some discussion with my kids about what was happening, she admitted to not listening (not getting in line when told to, not putting away art supplies when told, etc) she said she never once spit on anyone. When I asked the camp who it was my daughter supposedly spit on so that I could get to the bottom of it, no one could tell me who the other child was and offered no help whatsoever. Apparently at this camp anyone can accuse your kids of anything they like and your kid will have ZERO right to face their accuser or try to defend themselves. They will be automatically guilty and "written up" regardless if they did anything or not. In the beginning, I was also told that I could sign my kids up for swimming lessons and that they would be taken from the camp building to the main building, every day for a lesson. I paid for these lessons... only to find out later that they offer NO such lessons at all, and wanted to "credit my account" for what I paid for the lessons that did not exist. I witnessed other parents there, extremely upset and agitated, yelling at administrators over the fact they were not asked to send their kids to camp with sunscreen and then seeing their kids badly burned from sun exposure, as the camp's leaders would neither find sunscreen to use on them nor would they allow the child to stay indoors or remain in the shade. I chose this camp because it was cost effective. You get what you pay for folks!!
Excellent location. Lappool, aerobics, free weights, backetball..
Excellent staff, great facilities