we loved it here at Michael Phelps swim school! Staff are all friendly and amazing, clean facility with lots of convenient amenities in the changing rooms! 10/10 read more

Super helpful staff when needing help with the app! My kid loves it here. Teacher is very attentive and helps relax my uptight kiddo! He always has a tough time with floating on his back and after a few weeks, she got him floating almost 100% on his own! read more

We started taking our 18 month old son swimming here. I thought it would be great to keep him in the water as summer ended. Well- he absolutely LOVES it!!!! What I love It is clean It's a big facility They provide showers and changing rooms for families and for boys/ girls On schedule! They say your name as they expect you My son after day one - talked about his instructor - Hannah. He is just learning to talk and of course he always says Hannah! pool! And gets the biggest smile on his face! The last time I took him, he rushed out of the changing room and pushed the button to open the door and ran to the stairs to dip his feet in before his class time started. Thank you for such a great experience. We look forward to Bron's swimming skills growing this year! Yelp won't let me upload photos but I will try to edit with photos. Thank you for the great school- I know my friends in other cities do not have pools to offer swim instruction - we are so lucky this place is here in Buffalo' read more

Michael Phelps website requires you to provide your consent for autobilling when enrolling for the classes. You cannot proceed with the enrollment unless you agree to this requirement. once you terminate the enrollment, it does not give you option to remove your payment information from their website. The website does not provide a feedback feature, and also office staff is unable to handle these requests when called. On top of this they are most disorganized in keeping records of schedule changes, especially after phone discussion, and update their system. This is extremely frustrating and not a fair practice or customer service. I would not recommend this swimming school to anyone. read more

The most unorganized place. They messed up my daughter's schedule multiple times. The front desk girl kick my daughter out from the pool due to their mistake. She even did not say sorry, until I complain. read more

We love MPSS! The facility is kept clean and the instructors are great with the kids. The levels are based on swimming ability and not the child's age. Which is good because learning to swim is a progression of skills (floating, kicking, adding in arm strokes etc.). Kids can focus on their instruction since the water is warm. Once the kids have moved up through the 5 levels, there is an affiliated USA Swimming club team- Velocity Aquatics! Over the past 5+ years, we have had 2 boys go through MPSS and are now on Velocity Aquatics. Both have enjoyed the experience and love to swim! read more

This is a sad, disgusting, tiny, overpriced nightmare. Tried to cancel, was charged for an additional month. I wouldn't wish this on anyone's children, such a shame! No clue how they were able to stay open during covid not following any protocols. read more

I have an in-ground pool and have yet to teach my pre-K kid to swim. Since spring is allegedly arriving and our pool will hopefully be opening soon, it's about time to teach the kid some swimming skills! Based on our first visit only, this seems like a perfectly adequate place for kids to learn to swim. The website was a little confusing and glitchy (at least on mobile), but I called the School and the rep I spoke to was very helpful in walking me through the online sign-up and payment on the desktop site - plus I had a code for $10 (woohoo)! When we arrived for the lesson (Sunday a.m.), the set-up was a bit different than I'd pictured. You walk into a waiting room area with a front desk next to a big picture window facing the pool area. The next group of lesson-goers are lined up in chairs waiting for their session. Lessons start in half-hour increments. The front desk attendant gave us the low-down. There is a family changing room down the hallway. As per their recommended I already had my kid in their swimsuit, which I did for myself also since this was a parent-in-the-pool situation. But I forgot sandals (d'oh!) so had to trek back down the hall to the pool in bare feet on the nasty floor. The pool area is heated and the water itself is warm (they keep it at 88 degrees). However, the pool itself is a tad small and they have it roped into sections with other lessons ongoing at the same time. Our pre-beginner class of toddlers had some first-time swimmers who were very anxious about being in the water. In the next lane over there were big kids taking turns jumping in and splashing into our section constantly, which isn't the best way to placate toddler anxiety about water! We were also crammed into our area pretty tight and constantly avoiding running into the other kid/parents pairs. I think it was a 7-to-1 student-teacher ratio. It was hard to hear the teacher due to a combo of bad pool acoustics and the noise of aforesaid other lesson-goers, but she came around and checked in on each of us throughout the half hour, which was plenty long enough to give the kids some useful instruction but have them not get too bored or tired of the activity. It was a little strange to be "on display" via the picture window as the next lesson group waited, but they run an efficient operation and I guess that's the best way to get people in and out. Bottom line: I felt a bit like cattle being herded through the joint, but my kid seemed like he's made progress by the end of his lesson and hopefully will keep that up over the next few weeks, as we'd like to enjoy our pool this summer after eleventy-million months of winter. Happy swimming! read more

Zero stars I have signed my son up for classes at Michael Phelps twice. The first time, when it came time to cancel, I remember CLEAR AS DAY being instructed that I only needed 2 weeks notice by the receptionist, Heidi. So, following suite, when I was ready to cancel for this session, I waited until there were two weeks notice. The owner, Flynn, says I need to give 30 days notice! I was upset but willing to take the hit. Today is Nov 11, so i verified my son's last class would be Dec 11. Flynn says: no, since its a NEW month, you gotta pay the full fee for the WHOLE month!!!!! Keep in mind, the last two weekends of December are closed because of Christmas and New Years!!!! So he's forcing me to pay for a FULL month when I can't even attend!!!! This is NOT the first time the staff have given me conflicting information. Infact, to prove that i was not crazy, i went back into my emails and found the email from HEIDI that said I only needed ONE week notice to cancel!!!!! This place is chaos!!! Do not sign up; save yourself the headache!!! I filed with BBB, too. read more

They keep your kid in the same level forever with no updates or communication. Loud and floor dirty

Private lessons cost $36.25 for 30 minutes. There are separate bathrooms with showers. Only one coed changing room with stalls. You will still be charged if you miss a lesson even if it is due to them being closed that day. There are supposed to be emails sent out for makeup classes that the GM Heidi told me are on a first come, first serve basis. Basically, you get an email once every month with available makeup dates and the first people to call get them. I've received their emails for other things but never for this. You will have a different experience depending on which instructor you get. Seems to be a high turnover rate and as of a few weeks ago they were understaffed. I know this from personally hearing Heidi complain to a parent about not having enough instructors and she has done several interviews with no luck and she doesn't know what they are going to do. You can see on their FB page they were hiring. The first instructor we had abruptly quit. Glass Door Review online: Former Employee - Swim Teacher in Buffalo, NY Positive Outlook I worked at Michael Phelps Swim School full-time (More than 3 years) Pros Fantastic relationships with the families and watching the progress of the students. Cons Occasional miscommunication and micromanagement from management. Advice to Management Feel confident in the training of your staff and hold weekly meetings and a monthly check in on policies, and performance. The second instructor we had was more aggressive with her training. Very hands on I'm told by Heidi, because she coaches the competitive team. I witnessed her pull my daughter harshly backwards by her legs while she was swimming underwater. She was starting her over because she did something wrong. She later told me that while she was underwater she overheard her instructor talking to another about how she wasn't doing a good job. I addressed these concerns over a phone call with Heidi. As far as pulling her by her legs, she said she knows it's not the best thing but sometimes the instructors will do this to stop the child from having to go all the way and start over. She said she is guilty of it herself. Regarding the comments, she basically said my daughter must have misunderstood because the instructor in question is a great person. There is inconsistency when your child "moves up". Apparently when the kids in group lessons advance to a higher level, they are given a ribbon and have their picture taken and put on FB to make it a big deal. Heidi told me they "try" to do this with private lesson kids, doesn't always happen though depending on how they are staffed that day. When signing up I filled out a form they require for you to cancel 30 days in advance. I got this out of the way in the beginning because we were only doing summer lessons. Heidi is the one that helped me fill it out over the phone. I listed Wednesday, 9/5 as our cancel date because our lesson was Tuesday, 9/4 and school started later that week. I was told by Heidi that I would be charged that one day. When we arrived at our lesson, we said hi to Heidi and my daughter changed and showered. We were stopped in the hallway on the way to the pool by Mr. Andy who asked if we were there for a makeup lesson. I said no, we were there for our final lesson. He told me to speak to Heidi because she canceled our membership due to the way they do their billing and another parent was at the desk taking our spot for their childs makeup lesson. She took me in the office and explained the billing process to me. I was not pleased because this contradicted our phone conversation. She said "I canceled your membership because you would have been charged for the whole month when you only had one class, I thought I was doing you a favor". That wasn't for her to decide without contacting me first. She said there was nothing she could do, we were canceled and the other family had our spot for their makeup lesson. We were owed a makeup lesson so even though we weren't charged, we should have come first instead of the other family. I told her to check for someone else to give my daughter a lesson because we drove 30 minutes and she was sitting wet waiting to go in the pool. She walked away and came right back and said sorry there wasn't. I said that was unacceptable because her instructor was there but they gave our time slot away. Bottom line, we had a contract that ended on 9/5 and she canceled it, without asking us, on an earlier date. Didn't even contact me after so I wouldn't drive all the way there. The contract states this : Memberships Fees will not be pro-rated or refunded if officially ending a membership prior to the last class of a month; however, remaining class fees can be credited to one's swim school account upon request. It clearly states here that I should have been charged for a month and then I had the option to have the remaining classes credited upon my request. read more

Great school and we are glad it opened close by. My son is 5 and went through two whole swimming programs here and is now able to swim by himself. The changing rooms are well equipped and the staff runs this place like clock work. Teachers are nice and friendly, they all knew my sons name and cared about how he was doing. All in all this place was worth the money. read more

I took my child there when he was 6 months -11months. At first I really liked the class and so did my son. Towards the end it was getting boring because it was just the same songs and routine and they never added anything new. I also did not like that they rave about their memeberships and you can join for a 3 month minimum but then they still charge you when they have camps or days off. If I planned on staying there the entire year it would have been fine but I chose the school since we could do a shorter membership and ended up getting paying for 3 classes we weren't allowed to attend. I wish they would have reimbursed members like me when they had a day off or atleast gave us the option to take an additional class one week so I didn't feel like I was losing $45+. I may consider going back when my child is older because I did like how small the class sizes were for older kids. I would not recommend this for someone who is looking for a short term membership. read more