Kingfisher Club NUIG

Whatever about the soulless marketing corrupted wanker who named it, this is actually a pretty whopper gym.

I had read an awful lot of bad things about it online and really was expecting a dump. Instead, I've found a brand spanking new sports complex with more or less everything you could possibly need. And a whole lot of stuff that you don't(big 5 FTW).

I just wish they'd turn on the sauna in the gents. And I could go in and out without getting lost-the place is massive, and everything looks the same.

A terrible gym. Tiny weights area with benches that are a health hazard. Missing or broken pins and ripped covers are the order of the day on weights benches and machines. One leg curl machine went for three or four months with a dangerous fault and a piece of paper posted on it asking people to be careful with it as it was broken. It typifies the lack of care for customers with which this gym is run.

The weights area is also tiny, and constantly packed at all times of the day. Expect a long wait for a bench, and usually even for a rack. The cardio area is not much better. As many machines as humanly possible packed into a long, narrow space. Also constantly busy. This gym has no quiet time.

Also expect hoards of young kids everywhere around the pool and in the halls, as well as flustered and rude parents trying to control their little terrors. Also a tiny changing area that is totally inadequate to needs. What else? Staff can be extremely curt to members, although some of the younger staff are an absolute pleasure to deal with. I admire their patience, working in a gym that is awfully designed, always busy and has close to zero investment in new equipment or even maintenance of existing equipment in the five months that I have been a member.

Showers are lukewarm and are really more like low-pressured, high-placed taps, and just found out in the evenings the pool is used for college classes. Also the sauna is really cold - more like a stuffy room than anything else. Parking is practically non-existent if you want to go during the day. The classes included in the cost are few and far between.

I joined this gym late last year and within a couple of weeks the entire place changed ... the swimming facilities became mobbed with teenagers or small children depending on the time and the day of the week. I suspect that had to do with the closure of another shimming pool.
I'm a member of the club but on several occasions I've waited outside in the cold and rain before opening and I've been able to see swimming clubs inside using the facilities. An employee will casually open the door and let us in not a moment before the opening time. In contrast if you decide to use the facilities in the evening they will demand that you vacate them half an hour before the closing time despite the same facilities being used by swim clubs until after they're closed to members. In other words I feel that as an individual member I'm being treated as second class to people from swimming clubs.
The actual swim club members when they're using the facilities just throw their gear in cubicles, which is against the club policy, making them unusable by members of the public. When they're time is finished they gather in groups as if they're in their school hallways and won't let people pass unless you ask them to let you. They hog the showers which are meant for people entering and leaving the pool. Instead they take their shampoo and use it as a regular shower.
I go to places like Kingfisher to avoid teenagers and that kind of behavior, I can get that at home thank you very much. There is a small steam room and a smaller sauna. The sauna is okay, except for the oddly attired students that sometimes use it (you know, those that wear GAA shorts rather than swimming shorts and girls that go in there wearing t-shirts) but the steam room has about as much steam as my kitchen with a boiling kettle.
I've ventured into the gym area but the machinery is dated and any time I've been there some of the pieces have been unusable. Then there are the small things like foot straps that just don't work. The small things just build up though and I'd have to say I most certainly won't be renewing my membership. It's not like this is the only gym/swimming pool in Galway.