For better use and better management. The UNOFFICIAL Website of Toronto's Outdoor Skating Rinks
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You are in the Prince Of Wales Rink folder
There's nothing like outdoor skating
A project of CELOS (*)
Rink change area: 2 changerooms, rubber floors, clean
Staff: Rink operator on duty Mon-Friday 3-11pm, all day Saturday and Sunday. There are rink guards for supervised periods.
Maintenance: Rink uses a tractor to clean the ice. The tractor is housed in a garage. Rink operator says he does 3-4 scrapes a shift. He says he does floods as needed. Ice maintenance - 9 shifts a week.
Comments about this rink: e-mail us at [email protected].
Rink diaries from earlier years
COVID-RELATED RESTRICTIONS: To find out how to book a skating time, go to the city's outdoor rinks web page.
All shinny hockey has been removed except for Greenwood (and only children and youth are allowed there). The city's opening rules are described here and our rinks blog is here.
Opened for the season
No reports
The rink has been marked as open until yesterday and then it was listed as "snow removal in progress" (with over 25 cm of snow). At 1 p.m. it was again listed as open.
This rink is scheduled to open on Dec.1, and it looks like the machinery is running and the slab is freezing. There's no sign anywhere on the building about when the rink will open, though.
At 3 pm, the rink is empty. The rink operator says that since the pipes were replaced, they no longer have all the trouble with melting that they formerly had.
5pm: A gorgeous spot by the lake but no sign of life except a staff member inside sweeping. Empty ice, empty change rooms, seems like it should be a perfect spot? There's a sign saying the rink is flooded four times a day -- but empty?
The rink looks ready to go, with new boards and fence and a solid slab. The boards are crammed with logos, but as far as we know, the city paid for most of the work.
The front door still has last year's sign postponing the opening, stuck on with duct tape.
A second notice says the rink will not re-open until Nov.2017. Problems with the slab were bigger than imagined and the cost will be way over budget. This was hard to predict -- came as a surprise during construction -- because plans/blueprints of the original rink (built in the late 60's) apparently couldn't be found.
First notice:
City Notice: Parks, Forestry and Recreation will be carrying out state of good repair upgrades to the Artificial Ice Rink. Please note that the facility will be closed during construction.
Project will include the replacement of the existing exterior concrete rink slab and refrigeration piping, and various other general repairs and upgrades.
• Construction to begin early August 2016 • Construction anticipated to be completed December 2016 (weather permitting)
There were two workers at the rink, perhaps waiting for a cement truck to bring more cement to fill in the corner opening. The sign on the fence said they hope to finish in December.
At 8 pm the rink door was unlocked and the zamboni driver was on the phone. He interrupted his call to say that the rink was closed because the compressors were having trouble (it was 12 celsius). I said they need to be replaced and he nodded agreement.
Actually, the ice was not as bad as it had been in December. The water was rippling on the surface but underneath the ice looked solid and white.
Listed as closed Dec.24 to Dec.27
Rink user K. E. was concerned that their group might arrive this evening with the permit they have, and find no rink. So she went and checked, and sent a happy e-mail with a photo at 4.30: the rink is open and it looks good.
Of course, it's minus 2 today, and tomorrow the temperature is going up again, with some sun. That shouldn't matter at this time of year, as we show on this web page. But this rink has some kind of trouble. There is no sign up to explain the problem, and a message for the Parks supervisor got no response. We'll have to keep digging.
It's warm -- 12 celsius at noon -- and the rink looks like a lake. It's been having trouble for some years, and this year is no exception. The door is open (and later on it turns out that the rink is marked "open" on the city's website). There is actually ice under the water, although in the middle of the rink it couldn't be more than half an inch. There are no signs anywhere to explain what's happening.
That's puzzling. The compressors are running and there is ice, but clearly there's a problem here. A commemorative sign in the rink house says this rink is one of the ones built in the centennial year, 1967. Is it possible that these are still the original compressors?
I call 311 to find out who I can ask. They give me a name of a park supervisor, Jorge Ture, but say they can't give me his phone number, they can only connect me. I leave a message asking him how old the compressors are at this rink. Later I look up his number in the city's public staff directory: 392-6883.
this is what the prince of wales rink looked like on saturday (the 12th). every year, without fail, the rink misses the opening week and is closed. it's gotten to the point where I don't expect the rink to be open until closer to January. it looks like this year they're going to miss the holiday schedule completely. i can spend 6 hours a day at this rink, 3-4 days a week at times but with how poorly they take care of it and how little they care about opening on time, I wonder how much more I could spend if they just opened on time.
See Diaries tab
For the skating schedule, go to Prince of Wales, then click on Skating.
Rink diaries from earlier years
COVID-RELATED RESTRICTIONS: To find out how to book a skating time, go to the city's outdoor rinks web page.
All shinny hockey has been removed except for Greenwood (and only children and youth are allowed there). The city's opening rules are described here and our rinks blog is here.
Opened for the season
No reports
The rink has been marked as open until yesterday and then it was listed as "snow removal in progress" (with over 25 cm of snow). At 1 p.m. it was again listed as open.
This rink is scheduled to open on Dec.1, and it looks like the machinery is running and the slab is freezing. There's no sign anywhere on the building about when the rink will open, though.
At 3 pm, the rink is empty. The rink operator says that since the pipes were replaced, they no longer have all the trouble with melting that they formerly had.
5pm: A gorgeous spot by the lake but no sign of life except a staff member inside sweeping. Empty ice, empty change rooms, seems like it should be a perfect spot? There's a sign saying the rink is flooded four times a day -- but empty?
The rink looks ready to go, with new boards and fence and a solid slab. The boards are crammed with logos, but as far as we know, the city paid for most of the work.
The front door still has last year's sign postponing the opening, stuck on with duct tape.
A second notice says the rink will not re-open until Nov.2017. Problems with the slab were bigger than imagined and the cost will be way over budget. This was hard to predict -- came as a surprise during construction -- because plans/blueprints of the original rink (built in the late 60's) apparently couldn't be found.
First notice:
City Notice: Parks, Forestry and Recreation will be carrying out state of good repair upgrades to the Artificial Ice Rink. Please note that the facility will be closed during construction.
Project will include the replacement of the existing exterior concrete rink slab and refrigeration piping, and various other general repairs and upgrades.
• Construction to begin early August 2016 • Construction anticipated to be completed December 2016 (weather permitting)
There were two workers at the rink, perhaps waiting for a cement truck to bring more cement to fill in the corner opening. The sign on the fence said they hope to finish in December.
At 8 pm the rink door was unlocked and the zamboni driver was on the phone. He interrupted his call to say that the rink was closed because the compressors were having trouble (it was 12 celsius). I said they need to be replaced and he nodded agreement.
Actually, the ice was not as bad as it had been in December. The water was rippling on the surface but underneath the ice looked solid and white.
Listed as closed Dec.24 to Dec.27
Rink user K. E. was concerned that their group might arrive this evening with the permit they have, and find no rink. So she went and checked, and sent a happy e-mail with a photo at 4.30: the rink is open and it looks good.
Of course, it's minus 2 today, and tomorrow the temperature is going up again, with some sun. That shouldn't matter at this time of year, as we show on this web page. But this rink has some kind of trouble. There is no sign up to explain the problem, and a message for the Parks supervisor got no response. We'll have to keep digging.
It's warm -- 12 celsius at noon -- and the rink looks like a lake. It's been having trouble for some years, and this year is no exception. The door is open (and later on it turns out that the rink is marked "open" on the city's website). There is actually ice under the water, although in the middle of the rink it couldn't be more than half an inch. There are no signs anywhere to explain what's happening.
That's puzzling. The compressors are running and there is ice, but clearly there's a problem here. A commemorative sign in the rink house says this rink is one of the ones built in the centennial year, 1967. Is it possible that these are still the original compressors?
I call 311 to find out who I can ask. They give me a name of a park supervisor, Jorge Ture, but say they can't give me his phone number, they can only connect me. I leave a message asking him how old the compressors are at this rink. Later I look up his number in the city's public staff directory: 392-6883.
this is what the prince of wales rink looked like on saturday (the 12th). every year, without fail, the rink misses the opening week and is closed. it's gotten to the point where I don't expect the rink to be open until closer to January. it looks like this year they're going to miss the holiday schedule completely. i can spend 6 hours a day at this rink, 3-4 days a week at times but with how poorly they take care of it and how little they care about opening on time, I wonder how much more I could spend if they just opened on time.