South Shore YMCA At Mill Pond

Weird vitriol from other reviews, and I’m confused as to why.
«This gym is probably good for people with kids.» Uh, yeah — free babysitting (up to 75 mins a day), and multiple family-​based programs including activity nights, camps, and athletic class for the squirts.
«Employees making sure you sign up for treadmills.» I appreciate the 30 minute limit for high volume days, and the ability to sign up for a time block. Plus, their equipment is ultra-​modern. I was doing sudoku, before running a simulated trail, and watching 20 clear channels of cable. Oh, and it’s got Netflix!
«Overly crowded!» Emilson charges $ 115 for a family membership — that’s up to five people in a single household. They’ve got indoor and outdoor pools, a sauna and a steam room, a spin studio, basketball and volleyball drop-​ins, free group exercise programs, FREE BABYSITTING, a decent snack bar, a friggin’ Sky Trail (think a four-​story vertical obstacle course on a track), and more. These sort of amenities make for a huge draw, and subsequently, peak hour crowds.
«Someone was putting mascara on in the bathroom.» What can I say? Saturdays get crazy for me.
It’s no Equinox in amenities or exclusivity, but it’s near perfect for us.

I have been a member for 3 years. I have an adult membership, I also have a 2 year old son who comes with me and I pay $ 5 out of pocket each visit for their babysitting. I recently inquired about adding him to my membership which in response I got no problem, and extra $ 30 /​month for the 2 of us. I WAS NOT informed, however, that babysitting was NOT included in that price hike. For the 2 of us plus babysitting it would have cost us $ 150 for a «household» membership. Which makes no sense to me. We are not a household. I don’t get how a household of let’s say 6 and a household of 2 have to pay the same price! At $ 5/​hr for the babysitting I think it should be included in each type of membership. And not 1 employee there asked if they could help me or help me figure out a different membership package or some kind of assistance. They are all too busy standing around at the front desk chatting away. I feel like every time I go to pay for my hour of babysitting I get these looks like I am interrupting them. Will be looking for a more convenient place to give my money too.

I like the Y for all it has to offer, however, in order to justify paying that much money, I’d really have to take advantage of the gym, pool, classes, and tennis courts. It’s very expensive for an individual adult to go! I like all the space, but a lot of the people who work there aren’t very friendly. The people at the front desk tend to just keep talking amongst each other while they scan your card and the trainers look bored to tears when they aren’t training anyone, just sitting at the front desk or milling about looking if anyone needs help. All in all, a great place for a family to go together or if you have the money to spend and would like to take advantage of all it has to offer.

I have been a member here for only 4 months and I already hate it. I love spin and workout classes but I have been nothing but disappointed. The 6:00 am spin instructors are a joke and I should probably invest in my own spin bike for a better workout. They don’t have any drills to the classes it’s just simply put a ton of gears on the bike and ride so if you have bad knees don’t bother. There are no 5:00 pm classes so getting up early is my only option. I tried the kickboxing class and its ridiculously choreographed like every other free class. The schedule has either super early or super late classes which is inconvenient. I have even considered signing up for classes that cost money since the free ones are so bad but unless you are a stay at home mom they don’t work for anyone’s schedule unless you want to lose money.
My husband hates going as it’s so overly crowded and lacks any space to use weights. You would think they would take down some of the tennis area as there are probably more paying members for the gym anyways.
I really hope that the YMYCA does make drastic changes very soon, if not I am out like the rest. Great place and my work pays for my half of my membership, but I am not sure it’s worth paying anything anymore. Please change soon!!!

The gym is poorly put together. Lacks equipment. Overly crowded with people who have no gym etiquette. The pool is a joke. They make the parents lifeguard their own children. You must stay arms legnth distance from any child under 7 even if they can swim. They have to pass a super stringent test to get a green band before you can have them in the deep end. My children are always supervised but I have teenagers here watching over my shoulder telling me to get closer to my child. They have camp kids all over and the pool Is super crowned until 1.30. We are cancelling and not coming back. The hype over the ymca is just that, hype.

Have been going to this YMCA for almost a year now. I love it! Great classes, I prefer them over the YMCA in Quincy. Body pump, cardio kick boxing and Zumba are my favorites.
Lately I have been using the cardio machines, which most have TVs on them, and using the free weights/​lifting machines. They have a huge child care center, a new small café, outdoor center with one large pool and two smaller pools perfect for smaller kids and a baby pool (two grills and a snack bar outside, did I mention there is a huge gym for basketball and two tennis courts?
Prices are decent for what you can get year round at this gym. Sure the weight room is on the small side, but they are doing construction inside, my guess is that they are going to expand it.

This is a large, beautiful, clean facility that offers all manner of activities for people of all ages.
Things I love:
— Their childcare. Amazing. The ladies (and a couple teen guys) are just wonderful with the kids. My kids loved it. The childcare rooms are huge, well staffed, and there’s so much to do. And the walls are glass, so you can poke your head around and see how your kid is doing at any time.
— Nice, huge gym area. Large, clean locker rooms. I love that the pools lead directly to the locker rooms, so you don’t need to wander the hallways in your bathing suit.
— Their pools are nice, when you’re allowed to use them (see below)
— Lots and lots and lots of classes in a huge variety of subjects. I love their water aerobics particularly! I’m a lot younger than the average class member, but I started when I was pregnant and got hooked. Their instructor is great.
— The price is about $ 110 a month for a family, which is a good deal for the area.
Things I don’t love so much:
— The pools are often out of commission for lessons, parties, and summer camp. You can’t use the outdoor pools until 3 because of the summer camps, and the free swim time for the indoor pools is sparse.
— There aren’t enough weight machines. Everyone wants to use them, and there can be lines. This is a pretty major failing, IMO. There are duplicates for a couple machines, but not for the rowing and the abdominal ones, which are both very popular.
— No supervised childcare over age 7. But they do let the kids be «volunteers,» and the younger ones often get stationed to «help» in the childcare room. How big a downside this is really depends on your kids… mine were perfectly content playing in the rec room and never got into any trouble, but I can see this being a bad situation for some kids.
— My husband and I were both suddenly unemployed for a while a few years ago, and we tried to get financial aid to keep our Y membership, and it was a crazy process clearly designed to deter people from even applying. We applied for FA for a few places (including the private preschool our kids were at at the time), and never saw an application as thorough, impractical, and inane. It was basically insulting. We ended up just canceling our membership, and the experience left a really bad taste in my mouth about the Y and its claims of offering support. This was several years ago, and when things turned around we ended up joining the Weymouth Club, where overall we haven’t been thrilled. I’m ready to go back to the Y, but I definitely won’t be supporting any fundraising efforts. (And yes, I know that that broke people have better things to do than go to the gym, but that would have been a really nice time to have a gym as an outlet, not to mention to have the childcare to do phone interviews and work on applying to jobs. It just seems disingenuous that one of the missions of the YMCA is supposed to be charity, while making applying for charity difficult.)
Overall, I think that this is the best deal in the area, particularly the childcare.

As a community center or for those with kids, the Y is really good. They have a large variety of classes and programs that really fit most people’s comfort levels whether adolescent karate or a spin class or yoga.
The facilities themselves are always pretty clean and decently maintained. The biggest issues I saw in my years there were a water filter needed changing for a few days. Overall the equipment is nice and expensive and well taken care off.
As a fitness center overall I’d give the Y average to poor marks. Most of their weight training equipment are nautilus machines which are literally useless if you’re considering any real strength or fitness goals. They do have a decent amount of free weights as well as some benches and barbells with plates, but those are not the focus of their equipment. There is also a powerlifting platform if you feel like getting into deadlifts, snatches, cleans etc but dropping a bar is frowned upon it seems.
My real issue with the is the quality of the training staff. They really seem to either not care or not know how to effectively progress people. They never bother to correct those with poor form on the rowers or to offer a spot to someone lifting. Most of their clients seem somewhat plateaued.

the gym is so big and there are so many machines. it’s a good gym to get a membership to.

This YMCA seems to be a great place to go if you have young children. They only get one star because they don’t appear to value paying adult members. If you want a reliable place to swim, this is NOT the place. The lifeguards are all teenagers who don’t pay attention, and I am just hopeful that no one gets hurts. I was hurt at the pool when a woman jumped in my lane and started swimming right towards me, which could have been prevented if the lifeguards were paying attention. They also schedule random things that take up half the pool at random points throughout the day. Do you need half the pool for a group of 5 ladies doing water aerobics. The pool is not always reliably clean. There is often dirt, hair, band aids lurking near the bottom. I can’t speak for the gym side, but the pool is not impressive… not worth the money.

Beware all members at the Y in Hanover. While I was in a water aerobics class today someone stole everything out of my locker including: North Face jacket with a credit card, car keys and leather gloves in the pockets. In addition they took my gym bag with new cords, pink cashmere sweater, towel, underwear, shoes and socks. As I stood there dripping wet and in total disbelief, other members came to my rescue with clothing and conducting a search of all lockers 3 or 4 times. They were amazingly helpful. The staff, not so much. They acted pretty nonchalant about the whole issue, like it was an every day occurrence. Fortunately my car was still in the parking lot. It’s so old they probably didn’t want it. My good friend drove me home to get my spare keys. When I got back to my car the first thing I looked for was my registration and guess what? Of course it was gone. Thankfully my house key was not with the car keys. Now I have all these losses and can’t use my remote starter as the thief has it.
Now you would think that was the end of this, but tonight I was with some friends at a business meeting and they told me they know three other people this has happened to in the last few weeks. I want to know what steps the Y staff is doing to prevent this from continuing to happen. Perhaps an alert monitor in the locker room? I don’t have the answers, that’s their job, but they had better take some positive action to put an end to this. I’m just waiting to see if someone attempts identity fraud or steals my car out of my driveway some night. I’m angry and scared and very upset to think the Y is not taking any positive action to put an end to this. Yes, I am at fault for not using a lock on my locker, but I’ve been there almost a year and until recently it felt like a safe place to be.
¹²⁄₁₃ addendum
Under strangely suspicious circumstances, the Hanover Police were able to retrieve all my belongings. The staff said they found them in a locker, must have been in the basement. Curious why they never called me yet the officer was able to get them. Would have been common courtesy to contact me and express their concern at some point!

It’s a great Y and for the price, you can’t go wrong. It’s big, clean, staff is great and best of all, they offer free daycare (with membership) while you work out! That alone is the main reason why we joined. I like the classes I’ve taken (mostly yoga but I’ve tired body pump and pilates too) but no matter how many they offer I can never seem to find one that is timed in a way that fits in with my day.

I am a member of the Y in Easton since it is close to where I work, but I would use the Y in Hanover when I didn’t feel like driving all the way back out to Easton.
This particular location is huge and extremely clean. The locker rooms are massive and very up-​to-​date. You can go online and view the calendar of classes that are sure to meet just about everyone’s needs. They offer yoga, pilates, step aerobics, Body Pump, etc.
However, I stopped coming here for a few reasons. First, the front desk staff is beyond rude. When I would come in and say I was a member of the Y in Easton, they would look at me as if I was from a third world country. «Oh? Easton?» I had to look at myself and make sure I didn’t have leprosy. Next is the physical space. There are just so many people when it is busy trying to use only so few machines, it’s a total cluster-​you-​know-​what trying to move around people in the free weight area and around the machines. I appreciate the «reservation» system to use the cardio machines, but to the Gym Warden (for lack of better words) who barked at me for using a treadmill at 6 a.m. when there was virtually no one else there without a reservation is just ridiculous. «You’re supposed to sign-​up to use the treadmill. You can only use it for half an hour.» There was only 12 other people in the gym at that particular moment and if there was a sudden rush of suburbanite moms flooding through the door to drop off their spawn and go for a jog on the treadmill, I would have gladly made other arrangements.
But my biggest complaint? The other members. Is this a gym or is it a place to be seen? On my first visit, there was a woman applying eyeliner and mascara in the locker room and then walked out to treadmills. And ladies, if you’re not wearing Lululemon, be prepared to get glares from other members. «Oh, you’re wearing that?» And be prepared to see women stuffed into Lululemon gear that, well… shouldn’t be.
No thanks, I’ll drive back to Easton on the weekends to go to the gym where the staff and other members are friendly.

I hopped over to the Y after being a dedicated member of a private gym in my hometown of Marshfield — and I can honestly say it was a great decision for myself. This facility is incredibly clean and a vast majority of the machinery is up-​to-​date. The treadmills have TV’s that you can watch TV on, play games, or listen to your iPod through. The staff at the front desk are friendly, as well as the trainers on the floor. Gym members are very diverse and you never have to worry about people being TOO full of themselves. Everyone does their own thing and leaves it at that. The membership rates are affordable too. There’s childcare for those with kids. And MANY classes to try out. The only thing I would really change about this place is their opening hours. They open up at 5 on the weekdays. 4am would accommodate a lot better with certain people’s work schedules. My old gym had «key-​less entries» which were for un-​staffed hours and that seemed to work out nicely for the early bird’s schedules. Aside from that, I really love coming here. Definitely check it out if you’re looking for a new gym!

This gym has everything you could ever want. It has indoor and outdoor pools that are always available. Classes, although I would love to see more Yoga/​Pilates classes offered at night and on weekends. But, it is huge, clean, state of the art machines– that you can plug your headphones into to watch your own TV or listen to your own music. Love it!

After a ton of years as a member @ this facility I just cancelled my membership. The free weight area is too cluttered & they dont keep up with the equipment. The place is packed with obstacles.
They accumulated so much equipment in the weight area the layout is horrible. Its to the point where if there is a line to use anything but cardio you cant stand aside without being in the way of someone. If you’re using the free weights someone or something is right on top of you. After following the proper process for suggestions then talking with the person who manages the layout confirm that the small change that I suggested is a good idea — 3 months went by with no action.
The bosu balls are never fully inflated and the few replacements of full balls they’ve purchased in the last year or so have been crap.
They added TV’s to the locker rooms and split the lockers (that were never full to begin with) in half. If you bring work clothes you’ll need 2 lockers and good luck if you wear a suit. People stand there and watch TV while you try to get in & out at any time of the day is a pain in the butt.
I’ll miss the aquatics team — they’re squared away. I look forward to signing up a another facility thats half the size and double the rate and further away from my house.

This location is very big. They have their own parking spaces, pool, basketball court, gym, and more

Love this Y. Coming from Hull we could go to Quincy or Hanover, but I will chose Hanover any day. Compared to Quincy, it’s a country club. Locker rooms are clean, there is plenty of equipment, and classes (esp. yoga and pilates) are taught by first-​rate teachers. I’ve been bringing my twins since they were infants and the childcare staff is wonderful. Since you get 2 hours childcare once the kids turn 1, I often work out for an hour and then get work done in the café area since they have free wi-​fi. We had the kids in gymnastics, swimming lessons and a few sessions of summer camp this past year– all fantastic, fun for the kids, and affordable. My only complaint is the lack of diversity at this Y.

Love, love, love this place. The childcare is fabulous and everyone is so nice there. Everything is so clean… you really can’t beat this place for a family gym.

I used this YMCA facility at Mill Pond while summering in Marshfield. It’s worth the drive. I loved the options and he friendly staff here. The price is right for and if you’re a student (college or high school) you can get a discounted rate.
This is by far the cleanest YMCA I have ever stepped foot in. This spacious facility has tons of up to date equipment, plenty of indoor and outdoor pools, sauna, hot tub, slide & shallow pool for the kids, gymnastic area, game room as well as plenty of fitness rooms that are used for aerobics and specialty classes.
I highly recommend it!