My Mixed Feelings About the Atlantic Pool

Hello fellow parents,

I wanted to share my honest thoughts about the Atlantic Pool, hoping it might be helpful to someone considering membership.

Check out the pool's website

The pool is located at:

Saint Petersburg, Buharestskaya ul., d 22, kor. 4

The location isn't super convenient for us – it's a 30-minute drive with the kids (luckily, the bus goes from our house straight to the pool). But it's still a 5-6 minute walk from the stop to the pool.

The pool has a parking lot, which you enter through a boom gate when you present your club card (which they give you when you buy a membership).

Then you walk towards the big building, and through the windows, you can see parts of the pools.

When we first arrived, we were immediately greeted at the reception. But that's just a word – because during all the time we've been visiting the pool, we've never received any friendly service from the girls at the reception or even a smile. That's how our service experience started.

On the other hand, the sales department is always smiling – and it makes sense; they need to lure you in so you'll buy a membership.

We ended up buying annual subscriptions, starting from September 1st to May 31st. And we were interested in purchasing a yearly subscription for 2019-2020. So, already in July, we started getting calls with attractive offers to buy three-month subscriptions with discounts. I immediately took it as a sign that they wanted to sell us those particular subscriptions (which, as it turned out, were absolutely not beneficial to us).

Then, in mid-August, the manager told us the price for two annual subscriptions and mentioned a 5% discount for a one-time payment for both subscriptions. He even specified the exact amount for both subscriptions in the correspondence. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to pay in person right away, and I managed to make it to the end of August. And when I came to pay, it turned out that there was no discount at all. Understand it however you want. They told me that the discount is only provided for a three-month payment, not for an annual subscription. And when I referenced the correspondence, all I got were apologies. It's not a pleasant behavior, and it's understandable from a sales perspective, but the customer's interests weren't taken into account here.

After you undress in the locker room, put on your slippers or change your shoes 10 minutes before the class starts, you'll be handed the keys and you'll be standing there, pushing against all the kids in front of the turnstiles, waiting for the trainer.

Voting for this is what it looks like

This is uncomfortable and uncomfortable. Then, when the trainer arrives, the kids rush to the locker room.

Next, they head to the gym for a 10-minute warm-up.

At 25 minutes, the kids hit the pool for some swimming and water exercises.

At 55 minutes, they get some time to splash around in the kiddie pool.

While you're waiting for your little one, you can chill out on the second floor for an hour.

There are plenty of tables and benches where you can sit and get some work done, do your homework, or just relax. It's super convenient.

There's a play area for the tiny tots.

And a cooler with free water, which is a nice touch.

The sales area and medical office are right there.

There are massage rooms, a café where you can grab a bite (they've got hot food, desserts, and coffee or a milkshake), but unfortunately, the ladies working there could use a refresher course on proper hair hygiene. I mean, when you're warming up food for customers, your hair should be tied back, not flying everywhere and landing in the food. Just not pleasant.

I was stoked to find a vending machine for snacks, a coffee machine, a soda machine, and even an oxygen cocktail machine (although, let's be real, those things taste like nothing).

And, as a bonus, there's a mini-market on site with all the essentials for sports and swimming.

The pool has three different areas - a shallow one for little ones, a sports pool, and a smaller pool for kids to splash around in.

On the second floor, there are three screens showing the sports halls where the kids are warming up, and one showing the frog pond.

It's awesome to watch the kids swimming in the sports pool through the panoramic windows - you can see all the lanes clearly.

The sports pool has 12 lanes, each 25 meters long. Unfortunately, by 3 pm, it's already packed with people on the lanes. My mom, who also goes to this pool, has been complaining about it too - it's like they just want to sell more memberships and don't care about the comfort of their customers.

We had a lifeguard on duty at the sports pool.

There's also a screen on the wall showing the water temperature, air temperature, time, and other info - mostly for advertising purposes.

But there were times when the kids complained that the water was freezing.

I've heard the same from the women in the changing room - the hammam is always under repair and doesn't work. That's some service.

Let's talk about the lessons.

We've had the same trainer for two years now. He's okay, but I think he's a bit too soft on the kids. Lots of good trainers leave, unfortunately. I was really looking forward to working with trainer Angelica, but she left.

We started with the "Swimming the Atlantic" program on the small pool, where the kids couldn't even swim - they could barely stay afloat. After a year (and about 67 sessions, twice a week), when we visited the frog pond and then the sports pool, the kids learned to stay afloat, swim on their backs (and even do the backstroke), which was a huge achievement.

It's great that when the kids were sick or just missed a session, we could make up for it with other trainers during their free hours (and sometimes the kids even had to do extra sessions every day), but we always managed to catch up on all our sessions in the first year. We didn't need to provide any doctor's notes, unless we missed the sessions before May 31st and had to make up for them in the summer.

The downside is that it's impossible to get through to the call center to book a make-up session. You can do it in person at the sales department, though.

Every three months, you'll need to provide a doctor's note for enterobiasis. Either you bring it from the polyclinic and submit it to the medical office, or you can pay 650 rubles and take the test at the medical office, and the results will be there too.

About the cleanliness...

Since my parents don't have access to the pool, I trust my mom's opinion, who also goes to this pool.

Last summer, around early August, the pool was closed for cleaning (for about two weeks). And after that, of course, the pool was clean for a couple of months. But by January, the water quality was already leaving a lot to be desired. There are hairs, and some kind of mucus floating in the water, and you can see it all clearly when you dive in.

I did see a woman taking water samples, but it didn't really make a difference.

The shower areas aren't exactly spotless either. They don't clean them very well. And the toilets sometimes smell so bad that you don't even want to go in.

By the way, there are hair dryers near the toilets, where you can dry your kid's hair (since the ladies in the locker rooms don't always do a great job).

If I were to rate the pool based on the quality of services, service, and all that, on a 5-star scale, I'd give it less than three stars. And we're already thinking of switching to a different pool next year. Luckily, there are other options available.