Question about Bally's in Porter

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

Hopefully this isn't too off topic. I will do some research this weekend as well, but wanted to throw it out to you guys. I know that Bally's has a really terrible reputation (like many gyms), but I find myself injured and unable to run for a few weeks, maybe a month or two, and I need access to exercise machines and preferably a pool. What is the pool at Bally's like? Would I only be able to do laps? is there any possibility to do water running in it? If not, dose anyone happen to have a suggestion of where I could go to do water running?

Thanks!

Comments

[thekatiegirl.livejournal.com]

I don't know anything about bally's, but if you're looking for a pool, the Kennedy elementary school in Porter Square has a pool that's open for lap swimming at cergain hours, and if you snag a lane for yourself you could definitely do water running.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Note: The Kennedy lap pool goes to 10' deep, so if the water running depends upon contact with the bottom of the pool, those'll be some short laps. :-}

However, there is also a warm therapy pool right next to the lap pool. OTOH, that one goes from about 2'8" to 4' deep and is a lot shorter than the lap pool. But it's great for some mild water exercise while injured or otherwise incapacitated.

[jadelennox]

I've had to explain to the Kennedy school pool guy that I have an injury, because he has at times harrassed me for using the little pool. But he lets me, and the pool is awesome.

And Bally's doesn't deserve its bad rep. It isn't shiny, but it gets the job done, as long as you tell them to shove their hard sell. I'm not sure it's affordable without a contract, though.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

when i was part of bally's, the pool was drained/closed for almost a year before it opened for 2 weeks and was then shut down by the city for some sort of health violation (not sure if sanitary or just safety). I would be wary :)

Very expensive, but Wellbridge in Harvard has a number of water exercise classes and the such, and the facilities/staff are top notch. I was able to get a free week trial just by walking in, you might be able to buy a 2-month summer pass or some such thing?

[808.livejournal.com]

Wellbridge is expensive, but they have the advantage of no contract. So it may be worth it for this situation since it is temporary. They do have a student discount, too.

They doubled their floor space over the Winter and added new equipment. My experience with the pool, however, is that it is always booked with classes or family time. There is only one lane dedicated to laps and I've never used it in my 9 months of being a member.

If you have a car, or are okay with a long subway ride, the Boston Sports Club at Wellington Station is the best gym I've ever seen and has a huge and awesome pool.

[littlecitynames.livejournal.com]

The Somerville YMCA on Highland Ave also has a pool. The Y itself is never crowded, although when I was a member I never went to the pool.

[sekala.livejournal.com]

I currently go to the bally's in porter and have had absolutely no complaints. For a bally's it's pretty cheap too. $20 a month. I've never gone that there has not been a machine for me, the classes are decent though I wish there were more, and the pool though small like most gym pools has always been clean when I've used it, never overcrowded, and unlike school pools no kids. I understand that this bally's has a bad rep, but I get the impression that the last two years they really turned a lot around. Just my two cents, but I go to bally's 4-5 times a week with no issues.

[sekala.livejournal.com]

I should add that I it's a 19 yard pool like most of bally's pools

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

If you are looking for a couple of months, I can not stress strongly enough how horrid it would be to go to Bally's. I told them I needed it for 2 months, I paid for those months upfront, I did what they told me to do when I no longer needed the pool; they had told me that all I needed to do was to talk to the guy up front. Wrong. I talked to him, he told me he ended my account, and I still kept getting charged. I even spoke with the guy at the front desk a week later to make sure it the account ended; he checked and told me it was ll done. It wasn't. They kept charging my account. If they charged it at the beginning of the month and there was not enough money, they tried later, rather than contacting me (since that would be admitting what they were doing).

When I confronted them about it, I was told that the actual way out was in the fine print. The guy I spoke to was pretty clear that I wanted blood so, when he gave me "corporate's" #, he told me what extension to dial (in addition to the #) so that I spoke with a person who would disconnect me (since they apparently made it very tricky to actually get the right person) and when I called, I was told to do a massive amount of paperwork to document what happened and why, and I would be reimbursed. Took a fair bit for me to put it all together, but I did and mailed it and to this day have never heard back.

DON'T GO TO BALLY'S FOR SHORT TERM USAGE--they make it a SERIOUS pain in the neck to get off the list, like up and down, and do nothing when confronted except to tell you to do things that are a pain in the neck, and after you have done this, they STILL DO NOTHING to reimburse the $ they stole.

I recommend the YMCA on Highland. They let you do month to month (it's $40 a month, I think). Good luck.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

this is exactly my fear about Bally's. When i said that I've heard bad things, I it was about the contract experience, not the physical layout/equipment/whatever at the gym.

[sekala.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the one thing I'll say on that score, because I obviously haven't tried to quit or change since joining, is that they routinely mess up our bill. We have an unusual circumstance in that one of my two roommates is paying for all three of us (she's the only one with no utility in her name so it made sense) so quite often they will bill one or two of the payments, but not the second or third and then flag us down when we come into say we haven't paid. The people at the desk have been so used to us by now that they just wave us through. But, yeah. They aren't exactly on top of things with their billing.

I've had bad problems disentangling from bsc to. We ended up getting charged for 2 extra months we didn't use before we fully got out of it without reimbursement.

[ringrose.livejournal.com]

Consumerist has done a few articles oon Bally's. My advice is if you are considering leaving it, get a disposable credit card and change payment to that. When you cancel your subscription, cancel the card too so they can't keep charging you.

And when they send a bill check to see if it is actually a misleading renewal notice.

[ron_newman]

I tagged this as 'gym'. If you click on the tag you'll see some other posts about Bally's .... most notable oneagain's, whose experience would strongly deter me from joining.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

I have some very health-conscious, narcissistic friends who rave about bally's. It's the best for the price around if you are looking for more than planet fitness's cardio and sunshine facilities.