A Guide to the Ward Winter Village Ice Rink

You have until Sunday, Jan. 10 to ice skate at the Ward Winter Village ice rink.

January 5, 2016

Natalie Schack,

Photo: Courtesy of Ward Village

What it is: The temporary rink is located in the IBM Building Courtyard at Ward Village, across from TJ Maxx. And, $15 gets you one-and-a-half hours of skate time, which isn’t bad. Honestly, after an hour we were pretty fulfilled on our skating quota for the day. Bring your own socks if you want, but they also have socks there (thigh-high socks are recommended). The skates aren’t super gross, either, so plus there. A coffee bar serves up espresso and hot chocolate.

When to go: Early. The rink is open 4–9 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m.–9 p.m. on weekends (and today is a Tuesday 2-For-1—buy one admission and get one free). We rolled in at 5:30 p.m. and, after grabbing our drinks at the coffee shop pop-up (duh), snagged some skates at 6 p.m. with zero wait. A good crowd was already on the ice, but the traffic never really felt too overwhelming. By the time we left at 7:30 p.m., folks were lined up 15-deep waiting for skates. See ya, suckers.

Who was there: Hot Topic must be absolutely empty right now, because the teenagers have discovered the skating rink at Ward—and they love it. There were also the expected clusters of small, quiet families—young parents stubbornly toting along toddlers who refuse to do anything but walk normally in their skates while the other spouse endlessly photographs them—but not a lot of twenty- or thirty-somethings on dates. Which is their loss, because …

It was pretty damn magical. We’d suggest you go in a group and/or with a romantic partner, buy an opulent beverage (hot cocoas here come with homemade marshmallows, swoon!) and dress for Instagram-profile-pic-taking. (But don’t go overboard in the cute-as-a-button wool hat and adorable scarf, because it’s still Hawai‘i. It gets hot when you exercise. We learned this the hard way.) Also, if you can somehow predict the weather, go when it rains. Seeing the showers from under the tent made this wintry little experience all the more sweet.

Pros:

Not to point any fingers, but this is one skating rink that doesn’t only play top ’50s hip-hop and pop, thank god.

It has quite the pretty ambience for skating. The courtyard is beautiful, the fountains are still on, there are Christmas trees peeking in from the streets, and strands of lights deck the roof of the tent.

Cons:

There’s no “fast” skating, so speed-skating wannabes best stick to other venues. In fact, the rink is actually pretty tiny, so if you’re into anything other than coasting in leisurely circles (with the occasional twirl) while humming “It’s The Most Wonderful Time of The Year” to yourself, you may be a bit disappointed.

There’s no food. Not even an S&S saimin. The plethora of Ward Village restaurants, however, is just a stone’s throw away and bringing food is not a problem. We suggest bringing snacks.

There’s nowhere to stash your bags. Fortunately, you’re never more than a few yards from the sidelines, but leaving an unattended purse out for the world to snag is always slightly unsettling. Be wise and leave most of your gear in the car.

The skate-sizing situation is an enigma. The staff automatically hands you a size smaller than your normal shoe size, yet three out of four of us needed to go another size down from what was given to us, and three out of four of us felt ourselves getting blisters from oddly sized/shaped skates by the end of the skate sesh. One of us wasn’t even sure if her skates were on the right feet. Feel it out, and don’t be afraid to switch it up as much as you need to—the staff are happy to hand you a smaller size.