Hello Everyone,

We are planning a Maine vacation in August. Have never set foot in Maine and are really looking forward to getting away. Our travels will take us to Bar Harbor and then to the Portland area.

Can anyone recommend any rinks in these areas? It appears that there are several in and around Portland but no so sure about Bar Harbor. My daughter would like to get some ice time, while on vacation, to work on her program.

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

You can always try this to find one:
http://www.arenamaps.com/

Rob

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Sadly, there is zipola for skating in the Bar Harbor/Mount Desert/Ellsworth area. (The hockey zoning places all the kids from this area in Bangor.) The closest rink is Brewer--you would have to do the public skating, which during the week is primarily figure skaters (i.e., me and my students). The ice is variable (often marginal) depending on how much hockey there has been recently and the hours vary but you can check them here: http://www.penobscoticearena.com/

Falmouth Ice Arena and Portland Ice Arena are the two rinks in the Portland Area. Both have figure skating and public skating. I've never been to Portland's public skating but the public skating at Falmouth is often primarily figure skaters. Falmouth's public skating schedule can be found at:
http://www.familyice.org/

I've never had bad ice at Falmouth and it's substantially warmer than Brewer.

Portland's public skating schedule can be found here:
http://www.portlandicearena.com/
They set aside some of their times primarily for figure skaters.

USFS figure skating ice in Portland is through North Atlantic Figure Skating, which has hours on their website:
http://www.northatlanticfsc.org/

Best of luck to you!!

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Thank you for the info.

sk8lady, if you see a 9 year old girl with a St. Clair Shores FSC jacket, during the week of August 10th, please stop by and say hello.

We went to Maine last year on vacation and noticed the lack of rinks in the Bar Harbor/Acadia area. Not that we were looking for ice, but we are conditioned to check out every rink that we see ;-)

We found ice --- it was in the ocean ! I'm kidding, no actual ice but the water felt like it for the portion of my foot that went in it.

I vacation almost every year in Southern coastal Maine, and have found the rink in Biddeford very accomodating. It's a nice rink just off 95/Maine Turnpike, about 1/2-way between Kennebunkport and Portland.

I have emailed ahead in the past, and they have responded right away with times that I could skate freestyle during my stay. They even let me skate freestyle during an uncrowded group lesson session once.

Tim

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For our summer ice, we spend it mostly at Kennebec Ice Arena, which is in Hallowell just off 95 next to Augusta. They have Freestyle sessions every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 8:00 to 11:00 (I think - we usually do 8-10). The people in Portland are super friendly and the rink is warm, but it's a loooong way away for us.

Home ice for North Atlantic is NOT Portland but the Family Ice Center in Falmouth. Portland has plenty of freestyle ice in the afternoons and you do not have to be a USFS member. I work at Family Ice and also skate in Portland. I can attest that public skating this summer in both places has been lightly attended. I do freestyle in both places on public sessions. Falmouth is closing for a week at the end of the August, reopening the Sunday of Labor Day weekend.