Frank J. Thornton YMCA Aquatic Center

This is such a great looking facility, but it has very severe management problems. The family pool is rarely open due to staffing issues. All children 12 and under must take a swim test before entering the pool even if they have passed before, either at this location or other locations. Most of the time, staffing is so short that they are unable to perform swim tests, however, nor are they able to keep track of who has passed the test. When staff can perform swim tests, passing the test means being an expert, swim-team caliber swimmer – not just swimming from one end to the other of the olympic size pool and treading water for 1 minute (which my kids do extremely well). The staff here do not trust parents to understand their own children's swimming capabilities, even when the parents are swimming alongside their own children. Nor do they trust YMCA staff at other facilities either. My six year old son took private lessons at Patrick Henry, passed his swim test there and swims regularly with his sister and friends there. Not at Frank Thornton. The lifeguards are nice here, but there's so few of them that the pool cannot operate at capacity. I won't come back until the management changes. Perhaps when management does change, they'll be able to recruit more staff.

Awesome facility! Awesome staff! Our children (4 & 7) have been enrolled in swim lessons for a few months now and they LOVE it! The staff is friendly and very knowledgeable. Their safety practices are great for smaller swimmers. When we enrolled our boys they could not swim at all and now within just a few months they are swimming! I love that it’s never over crowded. The lifeguards are great. Very professional. The swim instructors are very knowledgeable and work well with children at every level. I highly recommend. If you are trying to come for family reservations they open up like 22 hour ahead online, call and get the details for booking online, they are very helpful with providing the information needed to book online if you are having difficulties reserving your spot.

Wonderful indoor pool to go with family. Daughter and I had a great time in the pool. Large locker rooms

Beware the staff treat us like dirt here. Cannot recommend this place.

My little one was so excited about the water slide and we showed up around 10:30 am to find out that the family/kids area is only open from 3-7 pm. This is nowhere on the website with the hours posted, as I checked before getting the family ready to go. When we got there the staff showed us the obscure place on the scheduling page (where you find the workout schedules) that “Open Swim” is the only time the family area is open.