Castle Downs Family YMCA

Had a very poor experience here.
After an hour of being there and doing completely fine, they came and told my niece (9 years old) she could not swim in the deep end without doing a swim test with a life jacket. Then another life guard seemed confused as to why she was being asked to do so. They made her do it without the life jacket even tho she was pretty upset about it and she did just fine as we knew she would. The rules board does state it’s 8yrs and below who need to do it and she was older than this. It wasn’t handled well and I don’t understand why she was asked after an entire hour of swimming there with adults next to her when she was doing just fine. The communication between life guards seemed odd as well with the situation. The original male life guard didn’t seem to handle it so well but the lady who did the swim test in the end was nice but seemed she thought it was unnecessary also. It was an odd and annoying interaction.

Besides this whole poorly handled situation, the change rooms were filthy. The floors were covered in mud, rocks and sand, hair, garbage and other unknowns. It was not cleaned well at all and didn’t look as though it had been cleaned recently.
We will not be going back here. Jamie platz location is 100% better.

I almost busted my face getting out of my car because there was thick hump
Of ice on the curb and spilt my drink very unacceptable this needs to be addressed and maintained

Friendly staff and members.
Fun group fitness classes.
Clean facilities. Great family atmosphere!

This is literally the best YMCA I’ve ever attended. It is the cleanest, best maintained, best staffed, and best managed of any I’ve seen across western canada. The breadth of facilities include, a pool with hot tub, a running track, racquetball court, expansive weight and cardio facilities (lots of machines = zero wait or time restrictions), gym, spin class, assorted fitness classes, daycare, and more (see photos for more). I met first day with Bradley, who was extra kind, gentle, welcoming, and happy to show me around️. The price is perfectly reasonable considering the all-encompassing variety on offer. Even the best Golds Gym I ever attended didn’t have as much on offer (and was much more expensive). There was even a specialized machine for someone with a disability. No reason for anyone not to attend here. $$

A great place for your kids to learn how to swim and do other sports while the rest of the family get their time to get fit too in the gym, do yoga, zumba and join other group sports!

Castle Downs YMCA truly do amazing work. We have our 2 kids age 5 & 7 enrolled in soccer, basketball, swimming, and in the fantastic day/weekly/summer camps.
The staff are friendly and caring, our kids always have so much fun and ask me when they will go back.
Shout Out to Brandon, who oversees the rec programs, he has made registration for our kids a breeze.
Shout Out to all facility staff during the difficult times we all have faced.
Keep up the amazing work.

I have sent multiple emails to this place to cancel my membership with no response. I moved and will not be going here anymore and received a letter in the mail saying my charges for membership are resuming in April. They don’t answer the phone and direct you to the email that they never seem to respond to. Will be flagging for fraudulent charges on my card. Unprofessional.

Closing early is not going to prevent the spread of covid. Every time I drive by here it's always creepy, dark and closed. If they can open the same hours post pandemic, then I wouldn't be complaining. Come on guys it's been over a year and we're all going crazy being couped up at home gaining COVID weight, anxious and depressed.

I have been going to the YMCA on and off for are few years as a drop in. I have been extremely happy going there. Its a second family for me. However, it was extremely disappointing to see 2 YMCA staff members (Ferah Datoo and Suzanne Dias) during COVID to not comply with the new restrictions. They did not practice wearing a mask, keeping 2 meters apart nor keeping to their own home. Please, I began you to follow the guidelines and represent who you work for. We are in this together trying to get through this.

I remember as a little boy, the lego in the preschool area smelling like poop and a hint of chlorine.

Don't be fooled by the barricade at the front and ID admission - it does not add any level of security to the establishment as they will let anyone into the change rooms without ID or payment as long as they have a good enough "reason" - they also give these people adequate time (10 minutes) to be in the back and break into lockers with lock cutters - in which I had my phone, wallet, and keys stolen from my locker.
As for the establishment itself, the weight room has many mismatching plates of varying style and size - not to mention they seem to lack enough weights for the entire area.

Very good location. Great staff. Good customer service. Maka Eatery food & Smoothie is Awesome, Overall Well maintained. Hats Off to the staff.

The Castle Downs YMCA reminded me a lot of the William Lutsky one. They have very similar layouts in terms of the fitness centre.
However, this location seemed to have a much younger crowd in general, unlike the typical senior citizen population at most YMCAs.
They've expanded their fitness centre space to accommodate modern fitness trends, which is evident in the photo with fitness equipment in a room that very clearly used to be a squash court.
Not a bad facility overall! They have a wide variety of equipment, and they prioritize the most versatile pieces.

Can’t say I would recommend this place to anyone. There are kids running around all over the place yelling and using the exercise equipment. Today I saw an ~7 year old with winter boots on the treadmill, and other kids playing on equipment. Not only is this a liability, but it decreases the enjoyment for other gym patrons. Children under 14 should not be allowed on the equipment without supervision. Staff need to enforce the rules instead of browsing the internet.

I've never felt I've had enough room to do my weights. Trying to do a weighted lunge takes room. And my workout lasts over an hour. I can usually find a spot to do my stuff. But mannn if theres like five people doing that where's the room! Otherwise this place is great. Its friendly and clean, I've never had anything stolen or locker busted in but I've been anxious for workout space.

Nice members and staff. I've been going here 5 times a week for about 15 years. I've never changed because the people are so nice.

F*** your service it’s garbage there’s classes everyday and half the pools are empty pls elect a new manager beacause clearly he/she isn’t thinking right never get time to play cause of the lessons would rate 0 if it was possible. The eatry’s service is never open and you clearly need more room in this ymca there barely any place to do workout or no proper soccer field, clearly this place wasn’t designed right and should be redoveleped and add more space there’s a whole field behind the ymca and no one plays on the field during winter add more and make it bigger and tell me who the hell plays soccer ️ in a basketball court how bad is this, the thought makes me cringe and I’m furious I want to be contacted right away!

While not a bad spot to catch a quick workout, some of the barbells are in bad need of replacement with something of a much higher quality, such as a Texas power bar. Change rooms were very clean last time I was there. Friendly staff and overall good atmosphere.

Moving the equipment around and taking the stretch space was the WORST MOVE! There is absolutely not enough room to finish any kind of workout, a lot of people use floor space as their daily workout. Not renewing next month

This place takes so long in the line at front, 1 person for like 10 people just waiting for 15 minutes

Great place to bring the kids for swimming lessons - could work on ensuring cleanliness a bit more.