Swim meet review: The actual pool is lovely! If you park when you drop your swimmer off, you might get a spot that's not a hike. I dont mind walking, but swim meets often happen in winter and it's cold and windy here, and space inside is very limited. If you're here for a big meet, there will not be enough space in the stands or the gym. The home team might not have enough people to be timers and will ask for volunteers. The bathrooms are old, and the swimmers say the locker rooms are also meh. The gym is also very small and unless you grab a spot right away, there will be nowhere for you to sit, not even on the floor. read more

- attended the 2025 Central Zone 14 & under swimming championships event held at the Rochester Recreation Center - web site says seating at the pool area accommodates 1,294, but a person attending their orientation was told 800 by site personnel - it was a crowded mess - limited parking, so we took an Uber every day. Some people were told to park in a lot that was a 15 minute walk away. - construction mess was going on while we were there - overall, the event seemed pretty disorganized. - they ran out of wristbands on day 1 - very limited concessions - very limited seating in the gym to view swimming heats via video (for people who couldn't/wouldn't use seating in the pool area; the seating in the pool area was tight, and for this event, was inadequate) - simply LOVED (not) the woman sitting immediately behind me screaming in my ear. Next time I'll remember ear plugs. - no event t-shirts day one; T-shirts not available to purchase right away starting on day 2, and, up a flight of stairs of course. Moved downstairs starting on day 3. Limited size selection being sold. - quite a few stairs to climb for access to pool seating area - rules not enforced (many times people got away with standing at railing blocking view of pool contestants, even though the railing was marked "no standing"). People perpetually went down the up stairs and up the down stairs. - during several heats you couldn't see the contestant in lane # 1 from the stands, due to the line of people standing at the pool edge down below. - narrow/tight seating (packed in like sardines). I've never been bumped and knee'd in my back so many times as I was at this venue. - no handicap access to seating area that I could see. - loud speaker announcements hard to understand/make out - helpful friendly personnel ("Tom" in particular) - EXTREMELY LONG line to get in on day 1 - nice pool - Rochester itself was a good city to hold the event in (easy to get around in, lots of restaurants to choose from, everything a short drive away, nice hotels, friendly people) - I appreciated the National Anthem at the start of day one, and at the start of day 2's late afternoon relays. I may have missed any others there might have been. - overall, I think the Rochester Recreation Center could have been better prepared for the event, and in my opinion, was overwhelmed by the number of people attending. read more

If you're into hockey, figure skating/swimming or diving you probably frequent the rec center. For us the rec is the place you go to take the kids skating (open skate) or to watch our junior hockey team (Rochester Grizzlies). The recent remodel added a senior center to the facility which seems pretty nice! The parking is one of the challenges on the big events and the layout isn't the easiest if your not familiar with where you are going. Overall its in good shape and functions well for what it is. read more

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Don't try to go ice skating there!! My legs are scarred thanks to their ice skates! I'm hesitant to go back there read more

Rochester Recreation Center - This is what happens if you use their ice skates! My legs were raw and bleeding as I took off the skates, and there is still scarring. - Recreation Centers Near Me - Rochester, Minnesota

This place is great for swim meets/ hockey games. My only complaint is that the locker rooms are a little dark and nasty. Very damp and gross. Otherwise, a great place to come for sports! read more

I come here to swim laps in winter. It's a great facility. I think most people in town use it for their kids hockey. The rinks are constantly in use. They have pickleball and exercise equipment. It's nothing like the privately owned rochester athletic club but if you like to swim or skate this place is fine. Parking is the main drawback, there's just not enough of it. I've had to park across the street sometimes when there's tourneys on. The is plenty of places nearby though for food and coffee. It's a fun place to get together with family and friends. read more

Rochester Recreation Center - Olympic size pool - Recreation Centers Near Me - Rochester, Minnesota

I go there for the pool and it's really nice! You can also take swim lessons, or dive lessons there, and they have two 3 meter diving boards and two 1 meter diving boards. There is a bigger pool, non heated, and a smaller pool, heated. read more

We were here on November 11, 2017 for my daughters birthday party. Needless to say it was a disaster!! It started out with no one returning my call. I ultimately had to settle for 2:30-5:30. However, when I called, the woman explained that they had just changes their phone system..so, I chopped this up to chance and let it go. So, the kids were swimming in the pool located at the very end of the lap pool through the doors and, about an hour in a woman walks over and tells us to leave. She claims that we paid to swim at the other pool, not this one. She states that only those who have a 125 Live card can be there at that time. I tell her we were having a birthday party and that we were told we could swim here.. She says no, you need to leave. And as she was saying this she was taking an aggressive stance and even leaning in and getting into my face. I think, ok, she believes that the older kids are scaring her grandkids so I told her I would talk to the birthday kids and ask them to stay on the opposite side her grandkids were and to try to not splash. She replied, no, you have to leave. A woman, who worked at 125 Live, was trying to calm this woman down and to be frank, I felt sorry for her. When I tried to explain to her that I had paid for this time. She grabs her badge and waves it in my face and says.."do you have a badge, no I didn't think you do, so leave. The pool out there (pointing to the lap pool) is the one you paid for, not this one." At this point this woman had made such a scene that I felt threatened..and here I am thinking, how is this happening at what is supposed to be a family place! So, this apparently unhinged woman, had made the birthday kids so uncomfortable that we felt is was best just to move to the other pool so the kids didn't feel threatened. Then, when the kids got to the other pool the lifeguards kept scolding them about splashing! I mean really, the rec center has toys for the kids to play with yet, it seems, these are just for show and not to be actually used. In the meantime I went and spoke to the woman selling tickets, who looked into it and then told me that I was in the right and that she didn't have the right to tell us to leave..however, its not like anyone told her that. I did find a nice man who worked at the rec center who did try to speak to this woman and she would not budge. So essentially, she was rewarded for her bad behavior because even though she was in the wrong we were the ones who left in the end..to top this off, at 4:15, over an hour before we were due to leave the room we rented at the rec center, a woman came and said that they had the room rented and that they needed to be in there at 4:30..I was like really! So, we did vacate, mainly because the woman was really nice about it and we were in fact almost done anyway..however, this whole experience turned us off to the rec center as a whole. I will definitely never have a birthday party here. In fact, I will never swim here again. And I would never feel comfortable leaving kids here by themselves! If this woman was allowed to get as aggressive as she did with an adult, I fear what she would do with a child. My advice: stay away! However, I will say this, I have never had a bad experience skating..but, it seems where swimming is concern, those who have a 125 Live membership now think they own the swimming area..and worse of all, nothing happens to them when they go out of their way to show it. read more