Guptill’s Arena

A dis-​organized mess of a place that charges a pre– teenager twice to get in. An invalid ticket, that’s what they said he had after first paid admission they sent him to the back of the line and charged him again. Cohoes CCS Harmony Hill night got taken advantage of. Bummed but won’t happen again because they won’t see our family as patrons.

Haven’t gone roller skating in over 20 years and had a great time!!! Got home and bought Reidell skates!!! Can’t wait to go again! Ultra fun place!

It’s the worlds largest indoor rollerskating arena in the Guinness Book of World Records sports edition. It’s also been around since 1950 so it’s a landmark in the area. What a great place to take your kids roller skating or roller blading. There is a main skating floor, a beginner’s rink and a baby rink. There is also a dance club for kids called secrets in there. They have a arcade too. Really cool place and my son loves having his birthday party there. They rent rollerskates but you are welcome to bring your own rollerblades or rollerskates.

This is the perfect place to go if you enjoy rude management on a power trip. Although they’ll charge you full price for admission, they don’t allow you to skate at certain times for their couples or trio skates unless you are paired up or in a group of three. The skate guard repeatedly harassed me and those I was with for not following this structure they had set up. During a couples skate, I was in a group of three and the guard cut off one of the group members and told her to get off the rink. She very sternly said to me, as I was skating alone at a time during a couples skate that I had «…three choices: find someone to skate with, get off the rink, take off your skates and leave, or go talk to management.» I said maybe I’d do that, but was going to just brush it off until she talked to the manager and was looking over at my friends and I. I then talked to him about why I shouldn’t have restricted skating times if I’d paid full price to skate and didn’t have someone to skate with; his response was just oh, people like to do those special skates. Well, okay, do them, but don’t kick others out if they don’t want to participate. This isn’t a school yard game where I need to just wait to take my turn, it’s an activity that I paid for and hoped to enjoy. Furthermore, while I was standing close by, a man who I believe was a worker commented to the manager that if I met people, I’d enjoy it. I was very disappointed with the way that my friends and I were treated and, needless to say, I won’t be skating there again.

Why NOT to have a Kids Birthday Party at Guptill’s
I have never in my entire life been to a more unorganized facility EVER. After paying $ 15 a kid you get the crappiest service on earth.
* You only get the Birthday Room for 1 hour then you have to take all the kids coats, gifts, goodie bags and either check them into lockers or sit there and watch them your self
* The staff has attitude and not very helpful
* They are supposed to stamp your hand when you walk in and half the kids didn’t get a stamp so when it was time to skate we had to go thru a song and dance about getting stamped (where is your tix, i gave you a tix, well you need a tix to get a stamp, i gave you the tix but didn’t get the stamp) OMFG give these kids a stamp so they can go skate
* And of course the lovely Secrets Night Club… oh what to say about that mess. First off when a customer calls and says I would like to book a party you really should ask «How old the child is» They really should NOT allow kids under 14 or 13 into that mess of a «Kids Club»
* And if the «security or bouncers» did their job then I wouldn’t have to almost get into a fight with a 14 year old for «play hitting» someone from my daughters party.
* They have an arcade and for $ 15 a pop they don’t even include arcade tokens, which ALL places do when you have birthday parties.
* You can’t bring water from the party room into the club, so you are FORCED to spend more money because the kids are dancing and they get thirsty.
The being said if you want to go and skate for fun its great but don’t have a party there.

Billed as the world’s largest indoor roller skating rink Guptil’s should be thought of as the Capital Regions only operational time machine.
Guptil’s is a relic of a bygone America. It is a place of family friendly nostalgia and wheeled fun. My whole family loves this place and we visit quite often. Whenever we need something to do that everyone can enjoy, Guptil’s is the answer.
If you need to rent skates you will drop $ 10 (7 to get in, 3 for the rental) but you will not regret it. That is a fair price for a lot of smiles. Soda is wildly overpriced, but that is the sole complaint I have.
Guptils tries to keep the music up-​to-​date, which is fine — I suppose — since kids are their target demographic, but I would really enjoy some songs that matched the décor, or an occasional tune to remind me of skating in the 80’s.

I wish I could give it 0 stars. Not that the management or ownership there cares at all. They are the most wacked out, crazy people I have ever come across in my life. Tonight, my daughter and her friend were there. They did not lock up their coats and they were stolen. Ok, so this is their fault and I get that. We had a nice little talk about responsibility and all that. HOWEVER, I tried to call Guptils to see if they had cameras or could do anything. When I called I said to the women that answered the phone «can I speak to the person in charge» She asked me «in charge of what?» I wanted to laugh, but instead I said, «in charge of the skating, ya know, the manager?» She told me no and hung up on me. So, I tried calling back, she would pick up the phone and then hang up. So, I went down there. I asked the guy at the door and he was very vague and told me he didn’t know who was in charge. He then pointed to an old man and said to go speak to him. So, I did. I explained what happened and he kept saying there was nothing he could do about the coats. I had to tell him about 30 times that I was not complaining about the coats, but rather the person who answered the phone. I told him she sounded high (which she truly does. Seriously, call there and listen for yourself) His response was «watch it, that’s my wife» He had no clue at all how to deal with a customer. I asked him if he is the owner and his response was «perhaps I am, perhaps I am not» wth??? These people run a business? A business that caters to children??? It was seriously comical, I wish it had been video taped because it was hilarious!!! Regardless, Guptils has one less customer and if they keeping acting in their strange ways someday they will have none.

I had not been to Guptill’s since 1993-​ish. It hasn’t really changed and they are now celebrating their 60^th Birthday (Congratulations Guptill Family). As a result of it being its birthday, they gave EVERYONE a coupon to come back and skate next Saturday for FREE!!!
Admission is $ 7, skate rental was $ 3, my hog dog was $ 3, and bottle of water was $ 2. It is estimated that a person of my stature burns about 800 calories over the course of 2 hours of roller skating and I did about 3 hours of skating, so I don’t feel guilty about that hot dog. So for $ 15 I had a great afternoon, snack, and workout! Lockers are 25cents each.
I had forgotten how much fun roller skating was. It was a little scary because there were kids every where and they kept falling and then I kept almost falling trying to avoid the human speed bumps on the floor. You’ll be happy to know that they still have the neon sign indicating «all skate», «couples moonlight», «trio», etc. You’ll be sad to know that they are no longer spinning Madonna and Bön Jovi 45s. They have some new lighting and the skater police still patrol the rink but don’t seem to enforce the rules as strictly as they did when I was a kid. You’ll be happy to know that I did not fall. Not once. I had some close calls.
Thank goodness i workout strenuously 4 times a week. I anticipate that despite my efforts that i will be icing my knees and bemoaning sore gluteus maximum, medius, and minimus muscles for the next weeks.
I’ve decided that after begging for a Guptill’s Birthday party for most of my childhood and being denied, I am going to have my next birthday party at Guptill’s…I don’t care if its for kids.

Guptils holds the Guiness record for the biggest indoor skating rink in the world and its right here in sweet ass Latham.
Things kids are good at scare me because they never get hurt when they fall. When I found our that my friend Friday was having a birthday party at Guptils and there was going to be roller skating involved I was pretty sure I’d break my wrist because I’m not a kid and didn’t learn then.
I strapped on my rental skates and after a scary 20 minute learning curve I was totally rocking out. Once you find your balance rollerskating is graceful, even beautiful and really fun to do. You can talk with your friends or slow dance or even groove out as there is inherent rhythm in the movement.
The scene is wholesome fun. No swearing, or drinking… And that’s where I take a star. I totally understand why drinking and rollerskating is dangerous, but a worked up a thirst and a beer on skates would have been great.
It was $ 10 on a Saturday night for skates and entrance. That seemed perfectly reasonable to me. $ 3 for a soda was a little steep but locker rentals are just a quarter.
Overall we had a great time and it was fun to do something different for the night.

This was simply the place where, detached from any sort of reality, I thought I could make a pass on whoever I had a crush on in elementary school on frickin’ skates at an indoor rink.
It’s worse than lame. It’s lame FAIL.
Oh, and Secrets is the club that is actually for teenagers where you can buy a girl a soda. Even more lame fail.
The food is actually ok for the kids, they’ll eat it up right quick. There’s also an ice cream stand that serves up nice cones (that was a good line in 5^th grade) and when you just felt like you weren’t cool enough to skate, you go and play the arcade or skip over to get some ice cream and hang out with the real cool kids.
The rink itself is huge and polished so that yes it’s harder to get any traction but in the end that is safer due to probably easier falls and smoother skating. They have special programs, lights, and songs that amp up the fun to even more embarrassing heights once you’re aware that the whole thing is pretty schlocky (oh ABBA).
It’s a more novel way to waste a couple hours and good exercise certainly.
Ian is correct, they hold other events as a supplement, so be sure to check out their schedule if you are an adult and do not have kids. Because if you’re just there and meet that description, that’s another lame fail.

When I was in sixth grade this was totally the place to go. If you had your birthday party here, you were pretty cool.
I don’t think I have gone skating since then — until yesterday, that is. I wanted something fun to do with my 13-​year-​old sister and was looking for something I hadn’t done in a long time. Guptills fit the bill.
We had a blast skating and somehow I managed to stay off my ass, which was pretty damned amazing. Open skating is from 12 to 4 p.m. on Saturdays, and admission is $ 6. Skate rentals are $ 2.50. It’s not dirt cheap, but it’s pretty affordable. I’m looking forward to going again.
Oh and there’s also a small arcade, a snack shop selling nachos, pizza and soda, and a pre-​teen dance «club» called Secrets. Back when I was 11, Secrets was pretty cool — I mean, where else could a 6^th grader scope out the «hot» 7^th graders?

Back in the day, I used to come here a lot to do some roller skating and rollerblading for recreational exercise outside of playing hockey. It was a lot of fun going round and round to some 80s and retro music. The very large arena floor is spread out, so there’s plenty of room to skate around in a general counter clockwise direction. The place is very dark with moving lights, so keep an eye out for objects and other skaters. Skate rentals are available at the skate shop. Today, Guptill’s Arena is still a good place for roller skating, for the exercise, good times, and dates too.
To the right of the roller skating arena floor, is the snack bar area and beyond that Secrets Night Club, a predominantly 18 and under dance club. Secrets is a popular weekend hangout for area high school and middle school kids. A lot of parents drop the kids off and «boogie» out of there and come back around 11:00 PM to pick up their kids.
Gosh, I spent much of my «rebel years» at Secrets clubbing with my friends in unison to the loud Top 40 club music on the dance floor with the lights, action, and water cannons. It was definitely the place to be and it’s «jammed to capacity.» The bar here served non-​alcoholic beverages. When there’s a Beach Party or Spring Break Party here, there’s no-​no-​no-​no-​no dress code!!! (as heard from the local radio ads on FLY 92.3).
On the outside of Guptill’s Arena in the same building is Guptill’s Coney Express, which serves great ice cream treats during the warmer months.
Classic car shows are held out in the large Guptill’s Arena parking lot by the Capital District Cruisers June through September (usually on the 2^nd Monday of each month).
LOCATION: 2.5 miles north of the Latham Circle on US Route 9