Hi, VA-DC skaters, I was wondering if you could tell me--

how are the Sunday 12-3 public sessions at Fairfax Ice Arena at this time of year? Do they cone off an area in the middle? Is it usually packed with birthday parties?

I will be there this Sunday before I go to pickup my wedding dress from the seamstress (she lives 5 minutes from there).

How does it work, do you get to skate the entire 3 hours for the admission fee, or do you only get to go on for 1 or 2 hours during the 12-3 time slot?

Thanks for any info you can give me. Say hi if you see me there--I'm short (5'1") with black hair that will probably be in a ponytail. I usually wear grey stretch pants. I'll be working on my #$%^ back crossovers

Sorry, I skate at Reston on Sunday, from 3-5 and it's anybody guess how crowded they will be, with birthday parties and etc. I skate at Fairfax on Wednesday nights from 8:30-10 and I just pay once, so my guess is you don't pay hourly but by the session, Reston is the same way. You can always call Fairfax Arena, they'r pretty helpful on the phone. If you've never been there let me warn you, it's no frills, some vending machines and that's it. It's also really HOT in the area outside of the ice. They have lockers to put your stuff in they're 50 cents. The one plus is that generally the "circle" is respected. :-) Meaning that you can spin or jump in peace and not worry about a little hockey kid crashing into you.

mikawendy,

You pay one price for the entire public session. I think the fall and winter session might go from 12 4. I haven't been to a public session at Fairfax in years, but I remembered that the first hour and usually the last hour aren't too bad. I would try to be ready to get on the ice before 12 and then you should have at least a decent 1/2 - 1 hour of skating time before the mad crowd appears. It's still early fall so the crowd probably hasn't gotten bad yet.

Thanks everyone, for the advice! I went last Sunday and skated for about an hour and fifteen minutes. It was somewhat crowded but not bad. The middle was crowded with figure skaters (some of who were doing camel spins near traffic or shoot the duck and back spirals into the stream of skaters going around the rink) but I got some good practice time in.