Fun & Fitness Center-Downriver Y M C A

My daughter has been taking swim classes here for about a year and she loves it. The instructors are very patient and knowledgeable.
I would love to actually join but the family membership fee it outrageous. The only reason I pay for the community membership and higher class fee is because my daughter is thriving in the swimming program.
The layout of the building is peculiar. The locker rooms could use a good scrub down.

We had a family membership for close to 10 yrs but decided to cancel. The weight area is fine. Some of the machines are dated but as long as they function and maintained that’s all that matters. Some of the new equipment they have purchased is lower quality; calibration issues?
My wife primarily took the exercise classes, which she really enjoyed.
We cancelled because the place has become dirty and ghetto. The weight area upstairs is fine but the gym is overrun with punks at times. Which I believe foretells future problems. Also the locker room and showers are not cleaned enough.
The Y seems to be obsessed with an outreach program to provide discounts (or free membership?) to lower income folks. I speculate that is why my non resident family membership was starting to approach 90.00 per month.
Personally, I wouldn’t object to paying a slightly higher rate to help someone struggling, but if the parent (s) of these teen and young adults have no control over them then get out. Does the Y ever enforce any of their guidelines laid out in the membership contract?
The Y does essentially nothing. You can hear a constant barrage of loud swearing and arguing on the basketball courts during open gym. The monitoring is essentially non existent .
What really did it for me was after a workout in the evening, I was walking around the track as a cool down, and I noticed a group of guys in a corner of the gym playing craps.

I have mixed feelings about the Y. When I first joined a few years back I thought it was very nice. Now it seems like its jam packed and overcrowded.
I joimed primarily for the child watch program. My daughter hated it as she was very attached to me until recently. I took her several times and she wanted to be held and have her pacifier. I dont think the program is equipt or patient enough for infants. They had to come get me every 10 minutes until finally I gave up and went home. The childwatch room is jam packed full of stuff and it doesnt look all that clean.
In the last few years the work out area for adults has grown a lot. So much that it seems its taken over the Y. Theres machines everywhere. They took out a lot of the seating by the front door for some office space. The set up is very odd.
Many of the classes require payment. So on top. of the $ 45 for southgate residents or $ 75 for other, classes are anywhere from $ 20-​$ 100 extra. Theres not much else included in the actual membership fee.
Lastly, for being a family friendly facility the parking lot set up is horrible. I used to take my infant dughter and toddler son with me to the gym and I had to walk a mile in the parking lot just to get to the door, all while dragging a bulky carseat and making sure my 2 year old didnt decide to make a run for it and get hit by a car.
The Y needs to build more space for the work out area and the tiny child watch room.

I chose the ymc because of their childwatch program.
I have had a membership to planet fitness for a few years, but having had a baby it is hard for me to get to the gym. Getting her ready and dropping her off at my grandma’s house 15 minutes away and going to pick her up after takes about as much time as I spend working out! my grandparents use to take me to the old downriver y before they built this facility. I use to love it when I was a kid and they got to workout while I did swimming and classes, which back then were included in the membership fees. I even had a few birthday parties at the pool!
What they should tell you at the time you sign up is that if you opt for 12 months there is absolutely no cancellation allowed. We live in Southgate, so we pay $ 49 monthly. I haven’t been able to use my membership because my 1year old hates childwatch. The one time she did fine she ended up getting sick from all of the sneezing stuffy kids in there and had a cold for about 8 days. My fiancé’s 8 year old has been there four times and every time she is ready to go swimming but for some reason either there isn’t enough kids to take or the last time they informed me we need to get there 15 minutes before the listed swim time. The family locker room usually smells strongly of urine. The last time we used it I was so disgusted that we left and on our way out we stopped at the front desk to let them know how gross it was.
The most recent visit I had was for about 15 minutes with my toddler about 4 – 5 weeks ago. I got very upset because from the monitor i could see my daughter was having a freak out and the workers ignored her for a few minutes, picked her up facing away from her, and plopped her infront of another toy. She was still crying and chasing the woman to pick her back up and comfort her until she gave up and started reaching for the door handle, still crying. I was so disturbed by it that i went to pick her up from there and i walked straight to the front desk to cancel my membership. The whole point of my joining was for childwatch and neither me nor my child is comfortable with her being there. I was flat out told there is nothing I can do about cancelling and pretty much treated like a joke. The director argued that no one has ever complained about their childwatch program and i am the first because it is up to everyones standard. I felt very offended and i told him it was not up to mine. I told him about how sick she got last time and he pretty much had the «well she didn’t get it from here» attitude. His only answer was to start bringing her more often and maybe she will get use to it. 1. Not everyone is a stay at home mom who can take a half hour to get ready for ten minutes at the gym every single day and 2. If I am not comfortable with the way you run childcare why the heck would I subject my child to even more trauma?!
Also, the free workout with a trainer was cancelled because childcare worker said i should wait until my daughter gets comfortable. They never called to reschedule.
So now I am trapped donating $ 49 a month to a corporation I no longer want anything to do with. Lesson learned and I am counting down the months until may so I can cancel and go to L.A. fitness.

We discontinued our membership, the reason is our kids used to love the pool, but after a few visits we found out u can’t have any fun in the pool with their over excessive rules they have and marked off areas where we only had a small area to swim. The really need to loosen up and give more open family swimming. Great to exercise there though, lol pool is horrible and not family friendly.
Still foul mouthed kids rule the gym. Not a good place for your family. Lots of thugs as well.

My son loves the sports programs that they have. They are very reasonable and only last about 7 weeks so its not a long commitment for him. Summer time is here so that means their outdoor pool is open. It’s a great day trip.

I go here regularly to work out, right off the highway in Southgate.
The YMCA is always clean, with plenty of machines, and an awesome indoor track. There are quite a lot of people who utilize this place for their classes, huge indoor and outdoor pools, daycare, basketball court, sauna, and physical therapy. They really kind of have everything.
They run yoga classes, zumba, crossfit, and tons of other classes, as well as offer personal training. They seem a little expensive to me but have been told comparatively they are great.
I only have limited interaction with staff, as I come to use the equipment and don’t like talking to people in the gym, but they are generally pretty friendly. I haven’t seen anyone upset to be there.
I try to avoid going after work, because there are too many people there. Two rows of people walking slowly on treadmills doesn’t do it for me. BUT– Try going on a Sunday, there is barely anyone there! It’s kind of a paradise.
I realize the Y might be cost-​prohibitive to some– and it is a totally different atmosphere than a come-​as-​you-​are-​and-​negate-​your-​workout-​with-​pizza kind of gym, but it is very friendly, non-​judgmental, and with plenty of people to help you out. And no annoying alarms or purple color schemes!

This facility baffles me. The Downriver area needs a real gym like Lifetime Fitness. The membership to this gym is already within the ranks of Lifetime, but offers a sub-​par service.
I use to work out at the Royal Oak Y and stopped in here one night with a friend that lived in the area. The facility said that they would not provide towels for the showers. The fairly run-​down Royal Oak facility provides all the towels you need!
The second time I came to this facility I got hasseled by the membership lady who argued with me about the fact that my guest passes were electronically recorded in the system and weren’t in actual paper form. Hmmm… I guess computers are too much for them to figure out.
Last night I was once again in the area visiting family and I thought I’d stop by to take a swim. Although the facility has family locker rooms, they do not enforce their use. There were two ladies in the locker rooms with male children well above the age of three. Nothing like having little Johnny stare at you while you’re trying to get unchanged.
Given the level of service at this lovely facility… I think I’ll just think twice about stopping in for a swim or workout.

Having never joined a gym before, I was unsure of what I should be looking for in the facilities. I opted for the YMCA because it was close to home, and had a decent sized pool.
After joining though I realilzed I made a great choice. The place is amazing. Their staff helped us through the joining process, and continue to provide the best service for me and my girlfriend.
As for the facilities, we couldn’t ask for much more. Their gym is perfect with tons of machines in the cardio section, a big intimidating section of workout machines and a nice little section for free weights. The walking track that circles the gym and basketball court is great for a warm up or cool down walk, or for the runners who like to actually put down real miles instead of hitting treadmill. Their pool is large with a section for competetive swim training, a section for the kiddies, and hot tub for the afterwork out relax session.
The locker rooms are clean and well attended, and house a suana and a cool little machine that wrings out your swimming trunks. The one downside to the suana is it can get over crowded and people don’t understand that it is not right to wear chlorine soaked trunks into it. Who wants to relax to a fresh breathe of… chlorine!!!
Aside from the suana situation and the overly packed monday nights (guilty weekend binge eaters I would guess), I have been nothing but thrilled with my experience here, and my girlfriend seems to like it too.