Holiday Ice Rink In Union Square

Nice place and a good activity during winter! It is very crowded and you need to reserve in advance.

As a former competitive figure skater, I want to reiterate a lot of what other reviewers have said - this place is NOT safe or beginner friendly. The skates (which are hockey skates, not figure btw) are painful + abysmally maintained, the rink is extremely small, and they allow far too many people on at once. The ice itself is clearly not cleaned nearly enough, because it was horrible, dirty, choppy, and covered in divots. There were many unsupervised young children using the polar bear skating aids to get around, which caused a ton of crashes. My friends came with me assuming they’d be able to use the skating aids with handles, but no. You have to be 12y/o or younger. Everything about it felt incredibly unsafe, especially when it started raining. I’ve skated in many outdoor rinks, but this was by far the worst. My friends hated it, and I might’ve had a good time if people didn’t slam into me every couple minutes. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was over max capacity. Despite the rules saying otherwise, there were so many people just hanging out inside the rink against the edges. We paid for an hour but couldn’t stand to be there more than 20 min. Waste of money and time.

Overall good experience, but the rink is smaller this year and the warm weather Dec-2025 makes the ice melt a bit quickly. You need reservations for each hour which includes skates. Friendly and helpful staff are outstanding. Bathroom is accessible via a key requested from the front desk staff, and the clean bathroom is located underneath in the parking garage. San Francisco did a great job of making it festive with food trucks nearby. The new Nintendo store is located right across from the ice rink, BUT IT CLOSES AT 5pm!

We booked a 10pm ticket. It was sold out when we arrived, so you should book ahead. Entry and skate rental was well organized. It is a beautiful setting for skating. The arena was very crowded- it would be best if the owners- organizers of this event would designate a separate area for kids. Allowing kids to skate with the assistance devices (polar bears) created unsafe situations because most kids were unattended and they kept skating into people and making other skaters fall. Kids are not experienced enough to know skating etiquette and often cut others off, etc… This could be avoided. Alternately- there could be some times reserved for ages 12+ to avoid overcrowding the rink with unattended kids. This boils down to a safety factor.

Union Square, in all its curated urban splendor, is a stage where architecture flirts with ambition and the streets hum with possibility. As I strolled through the plaza, taking in the meticulously arranged fountains and the stoic statues that seem to nod in quiet approval, I couldn’t help but reflect on my own recent feats of strategy and precision — namely, my epic conquest at Dave & Buster’s, where a cascade of tickets fell into my possession, a testament to skill, timing, and a certain ineffable charm. Each boutique and gallery here seems designed to test one’s aesthetic discernment, much like the arcade games that challenged me last week. One wonders: is it the city shaping the visitor, or the visitor — a master of claw machines and skee-ball alike — shaping their experience of the city? On Union Square, I felt decidedly like the latter. The plazas themselves pulse with life, yet there’s a rhythm only perceptible to those attuned to subtle triumphs. Passing the bright displays and luxury façades, I imagined the tickets from my D&B victory spilling like confetti across the cobblestones, a private celebration unnoticed by the casual onlooker. Even the street performers seemed, momentarily, to acknowledge my aura of triumph, as if the universe itself had RSVP’d to my arcade victory. In sum, Union Square is more than a gathering of shops and fountains; it is a proving ground, a cathedral of ambition, and, on certain nights, a quiet companion to the memory of one’s own glorious conquests — whether they be in the realm of fine taste or the gleaming lights of a Dave & Buster’s scoreboard