Waves Leisure Centre

Negative experience: Pool water is tepid and the ventilation plant blows ice cold air in the changing rooms and toilets. Probably warmer swimming in the sea and getting changed in a mobile freezer

Positive experience: Alright swimming pool would definitely recommend

Fantastic experience: Credit where credits due! Miss Molly cut her toe tonight at the sen sesh and the 1st aider was EPIC!! Jacob was the most amazing guy ever and calmed her down. He spoke to her like she was a person and not to me. Bravo, mate! BRAVO!

Positive experience: Although this place has great potential, unfortunately the pool is too uncomfortably cold to return. My 5 yo daughter was shivering so much she didn't enjoy herself and asked to go home after the waves, but they took almost an hour to come on rather than being half-hourly as advised in the timetable, and were only put on after the lifeguards were asked several times. You can't use a coin for the locker and lose your token once it's been opened, so if you have young kids, take everything you need with you into the pool area storage (mine like to have a drink halfway through). The lifeguard was very dismissive of concerns raised about the water temperature (despite other reviews also raising this issue) but otherwise the receptionist was friendly and the showers were a good temperature. The kids enjoyed the waves when they were on. The pirate ship where young children/babies go to play was unfortunately also uncomfortably cold. The slides and shallower pool were closed while we were there.

Positive experience: Would be 5 stars except for the receptionist on the pay desk. The pool is great fun for kids and the facilities are very clean. Wave pool runs every 30 mins (or did when we were there). The drawbacks to this place are the staff. Unhelpful and rude on the reception desk - no understanding of customer service, and nobody smiling unless they were chatting with a colleague.

Fantastic experience: Its canny good here. Never really seems that busy and its reasonibly priced to get - under 10 quid for two kids. Waves come on every 20 mins or so and has a slide too. Not huge pool not really purposed for olympic swimmers or anything but if you want a bit of a laugh its good.

Fantastic experience: Great fun for young children and good value too

Positive experience: The kids love it. The time you get in the pool is probably perfect, not to long and not short, just enough to tire the kids a little. The water felt warmer than normal on the 4th of Oct 2024 so I'm hoping it'll stay like that as it has been a little chilly in the past. Staff are great life guards are always looking sharp doing their jobs. Only gets a 4 star because there could be more family changing rooms but it is what it is with the space they have

Fantastic experience: Awesome fun for kids

Fantastic experience: Great

Fantastic experience: Excellent revamp kid loved it

Fantastic experience: bairn loved the swimming bath, great for kids of all ages. seen alot of families there and everyone was happy.

Negative experience: Very poor to get in touch with. On/ off for 2 hours ringing easier to send carrier pigeon

Fantastic experience: Every body who works there are great you could not be happier with the stuff

Fantastic experience: very polite and helpful staff. kids absolutely loved it. great day out for the kids.

Fantastic experience: Very good value for money, Amy on reception was amazing and accommodated us really well! We got Such a good welcome and she made us feel really welcome. She’s the type of person you need front of house really made the difference! Pool was very spacious and had lanes for swimming, children small pool and children play area in the water as well as a play area outside the water, everywhere was clean and well kept and lifeguards are spaced out everywhere to keep children and adults safe!

Negative experience: On the website it said that the leisure centre was open and we travel 1 hour and a half to come swimming and when we get here it was closed you should be updating your website every time there is a change of something so this doesn’t happen to anyone else and there was also two girls that work in the leisure centre that walked past us and could of said something to us about it being closed but they didn’t and they just walked past us and started shutting gates on us which was very rude

Negative experience: don’t go here if your an adult . Me and my friends thought it would be fun for the slides but I’m 5’7 and the deepest part of the water went to my hip haha. Totally not worth £7 Also they close off a lot of things at really weird timings and don’t put any notice out about them. Great for kids tho…feel like they should change their whole leisure name to waves for kids…

Positive experience: Good pool for toddlers. The pirate ship slides were a hit with our little one. Some of the water features didn't workl. Lots of family changing areas and free hairdryers which was good.

Positive experience: Had a good time with my son and his 5 year old. However it was "Waves: without waves! The lady on the phone didn't tell me the wave machine was broken. A bit disappointing as my granddaughter was excited to see them

Fantastic experience: Great facilities and great area for the kids to use for the swimming pool, massive bonus is the free car park for 3 hours.

Positive experience: Came here today with family members including 3 kids, they all thoroughly enjoyed the waves and play area, we didn’t attempt the slides but would return and have a go, the pirate ship area wasn’t fully working and I found it a bit dirty, there were used plasters, orange peel, false nails and other bits of grime around the side of the play area which makes me think cleaning is a bit neglected, I wasn’t fussed on the showers having no privacy and the hair dryers were terrible. You also need 20p for the lockers which we weren’t aware of til we’d got changed, I think overall the place could do with a bit of updating and a good clean, but I would return.

Positive experience: Granddaughter (7) and I went swimming there today .. not too crowded, so a thumbs up from both of us. the waves were fun .. wish I had taken my surf board :)

Positive experience: Sure the water is fresh from the sea...freeeeezing

Negative experience: The staff is very nice & attentive. They have the most draconian rules I've ever heard of. You can't swim with a scuba mask: claimed it's a safety issue because it might affect their ability to do resuscitate you. Interesting that literally all professional divers use them & not goggles. Also fins aren't allowed because they might hurt if someone is hit by them. Might I mention that arms & legs hurt worse but are not against the rules. I get that the staff don't make the rules but I was just trying to swim a few laps & get in shape. Leaving this nanny state pool for one where I will be left alone to swim in peace at my leisure.

Negative experience: Tried ringing for advice numerous times -different days -staff dont pick up

Negative experience: Second time we've talked to Waves and been told by the staff that the wave machine is broken. Despite calling 45mins earlier to ask about availability, the staff didn't mention the wave machine wasn't working. It's the entire point of using that swimming facility! No reduced price offered either. Won't bother going back for a third time.

Positive experience: Great gym and pool

Fantastic experience: Lovely swimming pool. Area for toddlers, wave machine and very well run. Lifeguards are very observant too.

Positive experience: Gym staff are very friendly, helpful and knowledgeable . Lots of equipment but bikes, cross trainers and running machines are now quite old and often ‘out of order’ causing frustration for users. Needs some new machines. Well attended and a nice, bright gym.

Fantastic experience: It's super fun and you can play on slides with family and there is 3 kinda pools and !!THE WAVES ARE BACK ON!!!!!!!!!! with the time to enter when I come I have to wait different times every week

Fantastic experience: I love the slides and the baby arias the best part is the hair dryer’s

Fantastic experience: Good fun few hours

Negative experience: I wonder how many people they are legally allowed inside that swimming pool. It was so crowded most adults had to remain stood in the kids area and I struggle to imagine someone in danger being easily spotted. How on earth they manage customer safety I have no idea. Might look into the conditions of the licence. Nice staff, though.

Negative experience: Were in there half an hour than the session ended. We weren't told it would be ending so soon and was finished early

Negative experience: We visited this place with our son and it felt like there was an inch of water in the kids area, the pool was also freezing. We do not recommend visiting.

Negative experience: Pool is ok but the staff on reception and in the cafe are very rude and hostile. I've raised this with waves before but don't get any reply or acknowledgement. There are far nicer pools in the area with polite, attentive staff.

Fantastic experience: Great facilities. Recently completed a functional training class. Will be back, very good.

Fantastic experience: My son goes swimming on Wednesday and Sunday evenings and absolutely loves it.

Fantastic experience: Brill

Fantastic experience: Good facilities, good classes, friendly staff.

Fantastic experience: It's got waves, slides, pirate ship and small swimming pool for the toddlers. Price is reasonable. Plenty parking. My kids love it. Excellent

Positive experience: Waves weren't working today but still lots of fun had.

Negative experience: Nice looking Swimming pool for the kids. They wanted to go as there was a pirate ship and a wave machine. However, after we got changed and went into the pool we found the wave machine was not working, the water cannons on the pirate ship were not working and the animals that sprayed water was also not working. The reason we went to Waves was for for the wave machine so that was a disappointment. They should have confirmed this before we paid to go in. They still had a good time though.

Positive experience: Visited with my 3 sons. Was dissapointed pool was cold and pool had paper bands floating all over. Pool area was unclean and changing area smelt. waves not working and some of the other pool spray things off too. Dissapointed

Positive experience: Very disappointing to find the machine to create the waves has been broken for a significant period so therefore would not be on. No warningsl given when purchasing tickets and no info displayed anywhere. Only informed on questioning the lifeguards. Needs to be renamed No Waves and information given up front so pmvisitors can make an informed decision. Prices need to reflect this as not getting what you pay for.

Fantastic experience: Great experience with our 8 month old daughter. Great change facilities, very clean, big freeform pool with separate children’s pirate ship. Super friendly staff, thank you to Theo and Julie who went above and beyond. Both are a credit to the Waves Team. We’ll definitely be back!

Positive experience: Doesn’t show private bookings so it may be closed when it appears not on the website. Good Gym though.

Negative experience: Maintenance works 17th to 23rd Today arrived to be told waiting on decision at 10.00 if pool open yet swimming and excercise is classes are on and still no waves or slides Not good management nothing on website about todays delays

Fantastic experience: Went with my granddaughter it was amazing.

Fantastic experience: Cliare tennet this lady is such a professional person. So helpful. NTC you have a special person working for you. Thanks Claire

Fantastic experience: In the area for a holiday and looking for a local gym, able to do a day pass or a weekly pass.

Positive experience: Lovely little place. Not too expensive. Clean & tidy. Kids want to go back already.

Positive experience: Kids loved but too cold in there

Fantastic experience: My friend and I decided to take our kids here and we all had an absolute blast. Even though they'd had a technical issue and the pool was cooler than normal it was still a decent temperature. The pool and surrounding areas were all clean. Lifeguards very attentive. Nicely laid out and lots of room for lockers and changing. Parking seems ample. Female Toilets on pool side smelled like a hamster cage however. They were probably the only downside. There is a soft play area there too next to the cafe and a small seating area on a balcony over looking the pool as well as one by the soft play. All in all we had a great time and will be back.

Fantastic experience: Great swimming pool a little cold on this occasion. Good for kids parties and the waves are fun. This week the waves were rubbish but the pool was warmer than normal

Positive experience: Amazing swimming pool & most staff are willing to help you although this can be good for your mental health and just being fit.

Positive experience: Excellent for kids and toddlers .

Fantastic experience: Witnessed first hand today the vigilance and quick actions of one of the lifeguards jumping in to the pool to assist a little girl who had been struggling and slipped below the surface. Well done that lad keep up the good work

Fantastic experience: Wave machine, water slides, play floats. Kids love it. Great fun for the whole family & the showers are nice & warm too

Fantastic experience: Took the little one swimming here. They have an awesome little play area pool which has a pirate ship with slides on it aswell as other activities for infants. The main slides are still fast and fun. They have a nice little cafe there which has very reasonable prices. There is also a small soft play that costs 50p with an ease card.

Fantastic experience: Nice clean spacey gym. Miss the health suite tho

Positive experience: my 3yo loves it, the only downfall today was that the little pool was shut for swimming classes, I recommend checking for during the week, to make sure apart from that it's great

Fantastic experience: Good aquafit session at Waves today

Fantastic experience: Very pleasant staff, Good value for money Clean,warm,had a great time

Fantastic experience: Popped in here a couple of times while on holiday. I thought it was pretty good value and you got a decent amount of time for a council pool. It's obviously not massive but plenty to keep kids occupied for an hour and half.

Positive experience: We had a great time although the slides weren't on. It was quite busy which i was surprised at considering we're recovering from a pandemic.

Negative experience: Most of the toys in kids area weren't working, not sure if they were turned off or broken. Slides were broken. There was a lot of people and there is no actual space for adults to swim. One pool is not for public use.

Fantastic experience: Great gym and pool. The spa area is closed at the moment. The staff are friendly and helpful.

Fantastic experience: This is a great place for the whole family. The waves are great fun and the slide is a great place for a little bit of friendly competition!

Fantastic experience: Great fun for the kids! Slides for the young ones and an adult slide (or for older kids) in the main pool. The waves in the main pool were also fun although quite irratic! Lively place and attentive staff :)

Fantastic experience: Great for the kids

Positive experience: Cool place. Disabled access seems ok. Cafe has some nice cakes and coffee. Pool is spot on. Changing areas are good. Parking is good.

Fantastic experience: Our first visit with grandchildren, 10, 8 and 4. All enjoyed the visit. Very clean, 4 lifeguards doing a good job, friendly reception staff. Will definitely visit again with our other grandkids. Thank you to all concerned.

Negative experience: We booked waves for a toddler soft play party with room hire back in April. Unfortunately, the whole process and on the day experience was stressful. Upon checking Facebook one evening, I came across a post which appeared to be offering out the soft play to the public for an Easter event during the time we had paid for the soft play party. I rang up immediately was told someone would call us back. When called back there was no apology and instead they asked if there was any chance we could change the time of our party, baring in mind there was just over a week until the party, all invites had already been sent out and replied to. This seemed like a very poor response to something they had messed up on and double booked! When we arrived on the day there were queues out of the door which made it really hard to bring our decorations, food and cake etc. into the building. We felt like the soft play area was barricaded off as they had screens up for the event in front of the soft play and guests weren’t able to find us easily and meant we had to keep leaving the soft play area to find guests. When we arrived we were advised we could leave our decorations, food etc. in the room and had to interrupt a course that was on at the time. We didn’t think anything of this at the time and assumed the room would be free to use in good time as we were told that we would be able to have this around an hour beforehand. We kept checking to see if the room was still in use multiple times and asked reception each time to see if we could go in to decorate, each time told they would ask but nobody seemed to leave the desk or go on the telephone and instead joked that the more we pestered looking into the room might make the tutor finish the course earlier. 50 mins passed and after asking the reception staff (who weren’t very helpful at all) several more times about what time we could go into the room, we were still left unsure on what was happening. Finally, 10 mins before the children were meant to come off the soft play, we were told we could enter which meant we barely got to decorate the room and wasted a lot of decorations and felt very stressed due to the little time to get prepared! After all of this hassle, at the end we were given an apology, told we shouldn’t have been promised the room so far in advance and told half an hour is what we should have been told (baring in mind we had 10 minutes before the children were expected to come off the soft play is still no where near that time!) and a balloon dog to compensate. Also, someone advised that the children could have a little longer on the soft play due to the lateness but because of the Easter event, this was interrupted by members of the public entering and children much too old to be on the soft play ruining the play time! Because of all of this negativity we will not be returning or booking anything in future!

Fantastic experience: Great for kids, big slide and wave machine. Separate small pool with little slides. My daughter had a great time. Then went to the adjacent soft play, which is small but she still had fun

Positive experience: Pool is good but in the kids area only the slides work. The other features haven't worked for a long time.

Fantastic experience: Great changing facilities for 4 month old, slight issue with pram being too big for locker but staff were very helpful in storing safely. Great baby and kids section and well manned with lifeguards

Fantastic experience: Amazing

Negative experience: Pool wasnt heated enough, my 1 year old was shivering. Prefer Haven Point as slides are better, pool is warmer, cleaner and updated.

Positive experience: Swimming pool is OK, but the shutting of the health suite is disappointing.gym equipment has all been recently updated. Pool is ok but for serious swimming tynemouth is better.

Negative experience: Good but not great. When you first arrive there is a medium size car park wich is great for normal time use but not for when kids are out of school as you have to wait around 30 mins to get a space, if you have a booking and u waste half and hour finding a space you will only have 30 mins left in the pool. Pool:The pool floor is clean(ish) scatterd chippings of stones and tiles. Hair floating around etc. the slides are a moderate, the light that are ment to flash red to green don’t work. My experience today on the slides made me and my friends fear them as one of my friends got ingerd on the finger. Staff: cheeky staff-again with the finger all they done is made us get out the pool and they just put a plaster on talking to her but just put the plaster on rubbish the young man made me and my other friend go in the pool and not comfort her (we found that rude) Changing rooms: there clean but smelly with people walking around with trainers on making the place muddy. The lockers are a reasonable price of 20p as they are non returnable, the downside is that when you need to get something out locker mid session you cannot put another 20p only if u have a purse on the other hand if ur with parents/grandparents/cares that are spectating you have to actually exit the pool area. ……………… …………….. In my opinion I will not be returning for a while Untill these become of notice and I will be sharing this with others- take note

Fantastic experience: Clean modern building with family and lane swimming as well as a modern gym and fitness classes. The staff couldn’t be better or more helpful. Membership is great value through North Tyneside Council.

Positive experience: Pool was far too cold, my little ones lips when a dark shade apart from that it’s great for the kids.. just the pool temperature is just unbearably cold!!

Negative experience: Cool waves, but cold water. Place felt dirty and smelly. Will be sticking with Haven Point in South Shields from now on.

Negative experience: We used the spa facilities a few days back paying full price but not been made aware by staff its a building site inside! Spa room door droken on arrival! Out of 7 features only 2 work but just working! wet room door doesn't lock so steam is escaping! Dry room is under temperature lucky if it 70c when it should be around 90-100c. My advise either fully close it until repairs are made or offer a greater discount until fixed I'd happily pay between £12-15 if I know everything is working.

Negative experience: Avoid! Our pool session was limited to an hour today, with zero mention of time limits at all on the website or Facebook page, and no warning when we arrived either. We arrived at around 3.50, were given green wristbands, got in the pool at 4, and at 4.55 were told that everyone with a green wristband had to leave. It's also somewhat cheeky that the lockers don't return your coins, so if you need to access your locker multiple times (as is the case for most people with young children!) you have to carry a stack of coins. There are plenty of other leisure centres in/near Newcastle that aren't a rip-off (£7 each for 55 minutes in the water!) so we'll be going to those in future.

Positive experience: It does get very busy. But it is good. Glad we went while we were over the waves were only on twice in our time slot which was an hour and a half or just under.... Would of been better if on every 20 mins as I feel most people come for the waves. The kids loved the slide. We didn't go in the other 2 sections as they are for much younger children. All the staff were pleasent and did their jobs properly.

Fantastic experience: Nice clean pool and facilities. The gym is basic but functions. The health suite is very good.

Fantastic experience: We go for swimming Pool with my baby per week. She is 2 and half years old and we have so much fun togetherThe water of the pool is heated and the prices are very affordable, they have sufficient equipment and my daughter is having a great time in the soft play next to the pool.

Fantastic experience: Lovely swimming baths,I've been there afew times and I can't wait to visit again

Negative experience: Very bad service , all services machines were out of order , water in pool cold , my kids were frozen , no tissues in change room , hair dryer is broken , no toilets rolls. Absolutely I don't recommend it.

Fantastic experience: Attended a baby class today. Ample changing facilities. Very clean changing rooms. Standard locker, non returnable 20p. Pram locker, non returnable £1. Baby pool a little cooler than I expected. Staff were lovely at the desk and in the pool. Wave machine, slides, good waterfall type machine. Really happy.

Negative experience: We used to visit Waves at least once a week but stopped as the water was always so cold in the winter and the changing rooms freezing. We gave it another go this week bad our regular pool was closed and the place has gone down in standards. It was expensive at almost double the price of our regular pool, the staff were extremely grumpy, the pool had way too many people admitted, the water was really cold and very dirty with lots of bits floating in the water, plasters, bits of arm bands etc.

Negative experience: I have tried so many times to get through to the reception and they must always be on a break i have tried from 10am til 16.30pm to speak to someone and no one can be bothered to answer the phone any other north tyneside leisure centre picks up why is it sorhard to get an answer hard for some

Negative experience: Rang up on the day to check to see if the pool was open to the public that evening, only to arrive and find out it’s closed for a private session.

Positive experience: Rocked up about 10:30 on 31st August - the end of bookings day and got in after a short queue. Decent facilities, clean and plenty of lockers. A slide and extra stuff for the little ones. Waves as expected. Be warned lockers need a 20p! And you don't get it back so don't forget to out everything in first time ‍♂️

Negative experience: Can only book on the phone. Only problem is they don't actually answer the phone

Negative experience: This pool has not learnt from others in terms of booking. Making it impossible to book a swim with children unless you actually turn up at the desk ... Because they are limiting footfall into the centre.... Cue hugely disappointed children because the sessions are already booked. Alternative offered: book by phone. Same story as all the other Google reviews here! I am not one of the lucky, chosen few it seems as nearly 400 phone calls (I've counted them all) and not one even rang, let alone got answered. I understand covid has put pressure on the staff but be proactive when you KNOW it isn't working rather than plodding on and causing disappointment. Travelling 200 miles down south to get a swim at billing aquadrome feels so much easier than booking a swim at our local pool. Disappointingly it seems it is who you know that gets you a swim as the inconsistency in booking is also rife!

Negative experience: Have called over 100 times this morning! (Have screen shot proof!) Once it rang and someone must have pressed cancel so it went to engaged again. One time it actually rang; no one picked up and then the tone went dead. Please tell me what I am meant to do to book. Feeling thoroughly let down and disappointed! Post after response from Waves: Just wanted to say we did eventually get to go by driving the ten miles to Waves and booking there. The reception staff were lovely and the pool staff were so friendly. The place was really clean. From reading the website it implied you could only go via calling first. However, there were other visitors who said the same thing as us- called hundreds of time and then turned up and got in. Was a great session. Thank you.