During the March School Holidays, we went to The Rink at JCube with the cousins. If you do remember that I mentioned we had 3 days of fun when I took off from work, the first fun place I shared was Amped Trampoline and the second was canvas painting at Rush-Me-Not Art Studio. This was the third fun activity that we brought the kids to. We wanted to go to the FEO free playground at Gardens by the Bay (have not checked that out yet, but sure to go soon!), but it was raining, the second day of rain after a long drought in Singapore! So, we diverted our plans in the car and drove to the ice-skating rink. If I had more days off, I would have planned more places to go. Who ever says Singapore is boring?
The Rink is located at JCube in Jurong East, the western part of Singapore. We expected more than usual crowd on a Monday as it was the school holiday period. It was indeed crowded. We were wary of other skaters who did stunts and those that were keen of showing off at the expense of younger skaters like our kids.
When we got there, we took the kids to observe from a huge glass wall that looked into the ice-skating rink. We bought admission tickets for 2 hours, were issued with colour bands that identify our time slots, and waited till 30 minutes before our time slot before we could bring all our 8 kids in. Usually admission is only allowed 15 minutes before, but we asked for an exception as we had many young children who would take double the time to put on the skating gear. The staff were friendly and obliged to our request. Luckily we did that, as 15 minutes before the skating time started, the queue for ice-skating skates exchange was really long!
At the ticketing, we rented the “Penguin” and “Seal” skating aids. The “Penguin” was for young children as the height was lower and the “Seal was for adults with a more comfortable height to hold on to.
Most of our children could skate freely after a short usage of the skating aids. The children took turns to have fun with the aids even though they could already skate without help. The little ones sure learn fast. If you were wondering why I could skate happily and guessing where my little YT was, aha! That was because I managed to pass a sleeping baby in a sling over to my mum skilfully and thought I could steal a half hour skating session. To my surprise, he only woke up towards the end of the 2 hours fun! I skated for one and a half hours worry-free and could look after XX and YH and my other nieces and nephew.
It’s fun to skate with many children as they always manage to surprise me with the things they do!
1. YH started to grab chipped ice from the ice floor and “transport” it via his “Penguin”. XX copied him and got allergic to the ice. She started scratching and was really upset about the red botches flaring up on her skin wherever her hands touched which included her face. XX is starting to be image conscious. Thank goodness it was only temporary.
2. There was a youngster who skated at full speed and bumped into YH without any apology. Guess what the sister and cousins do? They began to collect chipped ice to wait for the opportunity to hurl at that arrogant skater! I stopped them like what a good mother should do and explained that it was wrong to take revenge as they may end up hurting other innocent skaters or hurting themselves. But deep down I was tempted to put a foot out to teach that guy a lesson for being a bully to my boy!
There were many showoffs at the skating rink. Some performed stunts which attracted many head turns. Some skated at dangerous speed. For young children, it will be better for the parents to skate near them. Still, it was fun for everyone at The Rink.
More information on The Rink at JCUbe:
Location:
Level 3 at JCube
2, Jurong East Central 1, S(609731)
Opening hours:
Monday: 10.00 am – 9.30 pm (until the first week of Aug 2013, not too sure what this means since it’s outdated, you may like to call to ask)
Tuesday to Thursday & Sunday: 10.00 am – 9.30 pm
Friday & Saturday, eve of PH & PH: 10.00 am – 11.45 pm
Tel: +65 6684 2374/5 (hotline) or 6684 2379
Website: http://www.therink.sg/
Rates: Check it out here!
Good to know: The Rink may be closed for events like Hockey and Figure Skating, etc on some days. So, it will be good to check out the website for updates before you hit the place.
Have you ice-skated before? If you come from a country with lots of snow during winter, do you ice-skate or do you have other kind of sports during summer? Tell me more!
such joy in your pictures!
Thank you!
I took ice skating lessons weekly for quite a few years, but unfortunately my ankles are just not strong enough to progress to anything to elaborate.
You’re right about Singapore, there’s never a lack of something to do!
Weekly ice-skating lessons for few years! You must be a pro now! Can you do stunts? I love watching people do stunts, must be lots of hard work into them. I have weak ankles too, got them due to intensive Netball training in school days. But I am sure Z will have a good teacher 🙂
I am definitely not a pro. I think the best I could ever do was a quick bunny hop. Haha. I was much better at rollerskating. Still I was really just mediocre at best. 🙂
How fun!! I had no idea that there were skating aids for kids – how wonderful! Glad you had a good time. 😀
Yes, I didn’t know about the skating aids too. It was a good idea!
I love going to the rink with kids, you all look very happy!
It was really good fun in hot hot Singapore 🙂
We’ve been to the rink at JCube a couple of times! The first time I just took P, but T was so upset at being left out we all went the second time. We got a penguin the first time and a seal the second time – so T could sit on it, as she’s a bit too little to get the most out of skating on her own. She insisted on having a try, but preferred to rest on the seal in between short bursts.
The smallest skate size they have is about 27 I think, so it would be hard to take a kid younger than three unless you have your own skates. Luckily for us it wasn’t that crowded when we went, even though we went on weekends. There were a couple of beginners and one child crashed into P at one point but it wasn’t deliberate – just a bit out of control as always happens.
I forgot that skate size could be a limitation. Our youngest was 5, so skates were not a problem. I always wonder if they ran out of the skates size, what will they do? Refund? That would be utter disappointment! Could P and T skate well on first try? I think kids learn real fast!
Yes, I wonder what happens? They seem to have a lot of skates and I guess you can go a size up and not worry too much…?
Did they learn to skate fast? Not at all! P was still clinging to the aid after the second round. I had to bribe him to have a little go on his own. T on the other hand was insisting we let her “do it by herself” but she’s pretty little to be able to get very far with it, so it was sixty second bursts and then she’d get frustrated and ride the seal.
Physical maturity is a factor, but also fearlessness.
Looks like such fun! And I’m very proud of you for stopping the kids from tossing the chipped ice… I would like to think I would be just as grown up as you… I would hope I would be! 🙂
Oh, deep down I didn’t grow up either, I was in same thoughts as the kids haha!
Looks fun! Might give it a try….
You should! 2 hours of cool fun is worth it especially these days are so hot here!
you’ve had a great spring break by the sound of it! It is to me funny to see ice skating pics with people wearing shorts 😀
No, we don’t ice skate during the summers, I don’t think they have any indoor rinks even open during the summer (but they do have cross country skiing “tubes”, not that I know anyone using them in the summer). If anything, we use roller blades in the summer.
Oops! You noticed us wearing shorts and short sleeves. It was an impromptu decision, we wanted to go to playground in shorts. My niece told me it would get a little warm after some time of skating as we are sweating out in exercise. Cross country skiing tubes sound interesting! You mean sit on a longitudinal thing to ski down slopes? Do people skate on iced up lakes in winter? We roller blade all year round here 🙂
No, looooong and relatively wide tubes contain snow all year around, and there you can do cross country, not really downhill skiing.
Yes, we iceskate on lakes (as long as there is no snow or it is cleared) and also on the Baltic Sea. Outside of Helsinki there are a couple of tracks cleared if the ice is thick enough but people also do long distance iceskating between islands (the skates are different)