Waterlane Leisure Centre

Fantastic experience: Lovely staff lovely clean place loved it there

Positive experience: Looking online at the £2 family activities. Need more days .. soft play only on a Tuesday! Would come if it was on a different day aswell. £5.65 is expensive

Fantastic experience: Staff were very friendly and helpful. Got all the training for the gym from James, who was happy, friendly, informative and caring regarding our health problems. The centre was superbly clean and hygienic everywhere we went. There was adequate facilities for the disabled and excellent parking area. Lastly, their security was excellent. I recommend this facility to everyone from beginners to professionals.

Negative experience: Gym is nice but weekends close too early. People filming themselves in the gym for social media, this should be banned.

Negative experience: Short staffed on a Saturday afternoon at 5pm, tried to purchase a swimming costume for my 5 year old so we could go swimming but they refused as no one able to use the till, No signs anywhere and had to wait 15mins at reception to be told this. Very disappointing, never had this problem anywhere else.

Negative experience: Some instructors are great, others not so good. Too many kids to a group. In a 30 minutes session, each kids has no more than 5 mins of swimming. This review is probably specific to the group my child is in, but even still. I wouldn't recommend.

Negative experience: Wanted to join to go early morning swimming and decided it was more beneficial to get a membership rather than pay as you go. The changing rooms are not the cleanest. Discarded chewing gum on the floor and generally needs a good sweep and a mop out. Lots of locker keys are missing the wristband and lots are permanently locked. The pool itself is ok. A fair few leave water bottles, bags, locker keys etc on the side of the pool, especially around the steps. I went for the slow lane swim and on day one the comments from obvious regulars about newbies booking slots which meant less for them and their friends! Surely it’s first come first served! The majority swim one after the other which is great at a nice pace but there’s always those who are overtaking, cutting in to speak with their friends and those that are damn right rude. I did book the Public Swimming in the teaching pool for a 6am start. Great little pool but again, regulars take priority and you know about it. I’ve done a week and to be brutally honest, can’t take any more of feeling like you’re not welcome.

Negative experience: Changing rooms/showers stink of piss, hot tub out if use which is disappointing, steam room had absolutely no steam so was pointless, sauna not hot at all and broken bits of wood so dangerous. Will be cancelling my membership as not exactly cheap, complete rip of, also looks like it hasn't been cleaned in years. Shame that there's constantly swimming lessons going on so you can't swim at a reasonable time.

Negative experience: Was sat in waterlane cafe area after buying food and a drink with my friends like we do every day after college when we was approached by Izzy one of the staff members who was nothing but rude when she come over instead of asking if we had been spoken to about what we was doing there instead she came over with an attitude and accused us of ignoring them and saying we had already been told to leave which was false and proceeded to tell us we was lying. Very disappointed in the choice they have as never had an issue before.

Fantastic experience: Wow

Positive experience: Ok, clean. Friendly staff. Pool is arctic cold and sauna / steam room not hot enough some days. Booking system isn't particularly disability friendly / aware which can be daunting for new members. Again, staff are helpful and friendly enough :)

Negative experience: Can’t find an email address to contact for details on swimming

Fantastic experience: Very good service provided and the facilities are excellent.

Negative experience: They let college students enter the gym for free, so during the day it's like a youth centre in the gym...filled with a load of kids getting in for free, whilst as a full paying member I can't use half the stuff I want to when I have time in the day because its filled with kids getting in free of charge. So many people have complained and nothing has been done and they wonder why people are leaving for other gyms. Update 2 years later. Still the same, college kids walking round in work boots and jeans taking hp machine free of charge whilst regular members pay to use and then can't because of all the kids using the equipment. Good gym, let down by the free college kids agreement. I'm 35 and in the day I'm the oldest person by about 15years! Stop letting the college kids into the gym! No one wants them.

Negative experience: Great gym but the opening times are poor and it's extremely busy. I have never known a gym to close at 5pm on a weekend, 2pm during public holidays and 4pm on bank holidays, these are peak training days, yet it is open untill 10pm on a Monday and Tuesday, why can't it be 10pm Mon to Sat, please sort this out.... I'm sure they make enough money by how busy it is, to employ a few extra staff to cover the hours. I moan about this as evenings are the easiest times to train as I have kids and a job. If using the showers or spa wear slip on shoes as I caught ring worm from going bare foot, lesson learnt.

Negative experience: Great gym but the opening times are poor and it's extremely busy. I have never known a gym to close at 5pm on a weekend, 2pm during public holidays and 4pm on bank holidays, these are peak training days, yet it is open untill 10pm on a Monday and Tuesday, why can't it be 10pm Mon to Sat, please sort this out.... I'm sure they make enough money by how busy it is, to employ a few extra staff to cover the hours. I moan about this as evenings are the easiest times to train as I have kids and a job. If using the showers or spa wear slip on shoes as I caught ring worm from going bare foot, lesson learnt.

Negative experience: I went in today (15/3/24) to cancel my daughters swimming lessons as she's gone as far as she wants to, only to discover that they're not going to return money I've already paid. Turns out that I will lose a month and a half that I have already paid for at £37.50/month. They won't refund it. So basically, unless YOU cancel your direct debit 2 months before you wish to finish your membership, they will screw you. I would avoid them altogether and look elsewhere.

Fantastic experience: My daughter had a swimming crash course here with Jo and it was superb! Jo was great and really takes time with the children. Highly recommend!

Fantastic experience: Great Leisure Centre, very kind and helpful staff that helped my daughter, who is fussy with food, when they had a brilliant event on this past weekend of Mauy Thai kickboxing that we attended.

Fantastic experience: We went to a birthday party here today in the soft play area... Everything was lovely. The place was clean. There was plenty of parking and wide automatic doors which is ideal for disabled people. The staff were friendly and helpful as well.

Fantastic experience: I love particularly how the kids were being taken care of ,the environment was kept neat at all times and very warm.

Fantastic experience: My cousin and her partner came to visit for a few days. We wanted to do something local that wasn't going to break the bank. So, I decided on a morning at waterlane. We used the courts there to play babmington and used the pool/spa facilities afterwards. Unfortunately, the virtual spinning started a bit too early for us, so we weren't able to take part in that. Enjoyed what we did do, though. Easy to get to, parking was easy, facilities were good, and the place is clean and bright. Staff friendly and helpful.

Fantastic experience: So friendly warm welcoming place

Positive experience: Gym it's self is lovely Good range of equipment ia grate love spa. Changing room not so good tho shower tern off really quickly the worst hairdryer I have ever uesd

Positive experience: Very interesting afternoon

Positive experience: Spa never works.. Or the steam room..

Fantastic experience: Clean and staff very helpful

Positive experience: Very cold in the main swimming pool

Positive experience: Excellent time. thank you

Fantastic experience: Great fun for all the family

Fantastic experience: Very good service, polite and helpful staff.

Fantastic experience: Had fun with my grandson and Daughter at the soft play

Fantastic experience: Very pleased with my time at water lane

Fantastic experience: rock climbing was good for the children nice staff very clean nice and warm

Fantastic experience: Always a pleasure to come here staff are very happy to hello recommend anyone to come along

Positive experience: Went to the inflatable session with the kids. Was good fun, but the pool was very cold.

Fantastic experience: A very good and well equipped and well run gym

Negative experience: States online it's open till 5pm on a Saturday yet when calling its saying the centre is actually closed

Fantastic experience: Fantastic leisure centre, lots on offer for the whole family!

Negative experience: Never answer the phone only 1 shower working in female swimming room

Fantastic experience: Had a great session rock climbing with the kids. The instructors were very knowledgeable and helpful

Positive experience: Large leisure centre, clean and well staffed. Website and app let the side down

Fantastic experience: Friendly staff, clean facilities and easy to book.

Positive experience: Very good facilities, everything new and clean. Bit pricey, though.

Fantastic experience: It's a good while since I've visited water lane, came to try out scuba diving, which was ace. The centre was bright, sparkly and welcoming.

Negative experience: No gym only membership which is what another of people want not all bells and whistles paying for things you will never use as a serious gym addict

Fantastic experience: Lovely gym with everything you want! Little bit small but not too bad

Fantastic experience: Clean and warm changing rooms and lots of them. Showers warm. The swimming pool is cold though. Friendly helpful employees.

Positive experience: Nice pool, nice cafe, clean changing rooms. Just don't like the fact you're limited to an hour where it never used to be

Fantastic experience: Very good atmosphere really hot though inside we went rock climbing and the kids was dripping in sweat when they was done!

Positive experience: My wife attended for a massage and facial. She enjoyed the massage and plenty of creams were used for the facial, leaving her face feeling smooth. Good choice.

Positive experience: Everyone Active has taken over the Lowestoft sports Centre but do not promote Racket sports memberships. This is a step backwards for Lowestoft. When it was previously managed by Sentinel there was a very active squash membership but the players were not allowed to re-join when it reopened after the pandemic under the new owners Everyone Active. Instead they are having to pay and play which is expensive especially if you play twice a week in the local league.

Positive experience: Gym is excellent always clean and machines well maintained. Only issues are the Sauna, jacuzzi and Steam room. They are constantly broken and always take weeks to fix

Negative experience: NO POOLSIDE HAIRDRYERS. They have the very wide lanes for swimming, thus there are people who don't pace themselves, rush up and down for 4 or 5 lengths overtaking you, making waves and then they stop, out of breath ... not great for swimmers who get in and swim for their whole session.

Positive experience: Good leisure centre with sports halls with hire (although you have to bring your own equipment), large swimming pool with a deep end, gym, soft play and sauna area. Also a limited cafe at the front.

Negative experience: I had a 7day pass to this Lowestoft centre. Each touch point became a disappointment and I would not choose to join this centre. I wanted to share on here the good and the bad: Pros: Clean facilities New facilities Good shower controls in spa area Cons: Ongoing POOR communication and customer service My name was put in wrong into the system (probably because staff member couldn't spell it but didn't want to ask???) Told misinformation more than 3x (broken trust or confidence in staff) I was booked to use spa by membership office, no communication- I turned up, changed and went in to find it had PLANNED maintenance! Teenagers from the college use this site and are obviously not given any orientation about the boundaries of using a public spa, a group of teenage lads dominated the hot tub while playing clips and music from their phone as if it was their own private party. Expect a lot of teenagers at this centre due to it being on a college campus. Duty manager was supposed to get back to me when I did complain about some of my experiences but no one did.

Positive experience: Asked a question on their Facebook page and nobody got back. Attended a swimming gala that evening... we're talking perhaps sixty swimmers ONE lifeguard. Fortunately there were no incidents but they were definitely short staffed. On the whole, a great atmosphere, if you're applying for work I'd encourage it! To answer the question (as of Sat 15th April 2023) I posted on Facebook: LOCKERS TAKE £1 COINS and THESE ARE RETURNED TO YOU.

Positive experience: Good and clean facilities. I only ever used the pool with a swimming membership, last time I was upstairs in the gym was before COVID and I guess it has changed since. The Changing rooms are clean and spacious, shower water temperature is a bit too warm for my liking but still ok. There are plenty of changing cubicles available for the pool area in various sizes to accommodate for families, too. Lockers in this area require a 1 pound coin to be locked. The changing area for the gym has plenty of cupboard to be locker with your own padlock. I can only give 3 stars at this point because of the recent price rise for swimmers only while all other memberships have stayed the same. It is very difficult for me to find a suitable timeslot to go swimming during the week for me and when I am able to book a 'family swim' in the afternoon it seems that half the pool is blocked by swimming classes and the like.

Negative experience: My honest opinion of this place is that it's ok. But could be much better if the gym equipment upstairs was exchanged. Some of the equipment is uncomfortable to use. The leather padding is ripped on a few machines. They never have the televisions on. I heard they can't be bothered to have the ariel fixed? If it was inspected by the council in the near future? I'm sure things will change. Update: not only do they answer the phone and put it straight back down on you (after you have been waiting over half an hour for someone to answer) they also answer and don't say anything. Just stay silent. What is wrong with these people?

Positive experience: As a establishment it's fine. Good facilities. However, the swim classes we joined are now over stacking classes. Packing 12 kids in with one teacher. Kids don't get enough coaching..coaches cannot keep an eye on kids ability or safety. As I watch now, the kids don't have enough space in the designated area. Accident waiting to happen. Shame

Fantastic experience: Amazing facility, staff are amazing and accommodating to my situation as I was only visiting for a few days. Perfect for family. Every where us clean and well kept. Beautiful changing rooms and gym

Positive experience: It's been kinda cold in the pool these days. Also, during my time there I couldn't imagine a lifeguard being more bored... He didn't even pay attention to the people swimming in there along with a parent and her young child staying in the lane swim pool? A notice for the family pool would have been nice yet it seems the lifeguard couldn't be bothered at all. Please do like your job more as life's are at stake. Thank you!

Fantastic experience: Nice reception staff, great classes. I frequently get to enjoy Zumba, AquaFit, Curcuits, Kettlebells and Spin class all of which have lovely instructors. Pool is great too, I appreciate that they rope of some of the pool for Lane swimming even in busy public or family sessions. It's a shame they don't run adult classes for swimming in the evening though. Gym itself is fully packed with machines and weights, lots more to do than Bannatyne. Overall happy with my membership :)

Positive experience: Soft play is good for 0 years plus. Mine was 7 years old and loved it. Only issue was reception team not knowing when events in the establishment were due to start, which I think is essential information reception should know.

Fantastic experience: Very nice facilities,nice staff helpful.

Fantastic experience: Good leisure centre, good facilities

Positive experience: Great venue and the staff too

Fantastic experience: Love this place

Positive experience: Great place, lots to do swimming, gym ect

Fantastic experience: Great centre, lovely staff and reasonably priced

Positive experience: Issue trying to book but nice pool. Very clean

Positive experience: Seemed like a decent leisure based on the short amount of time I spent there

Positive experience: Looks good, clean and modern. Not a huge pool, but does get deep.

Positive experience: Nice pool, changing rooms are good. Pity they removed the hairdryers from them though!

Positive experience: I was disappointed with the way the lesson went for swimming I go to watch my grandson swim I could not believe there was 10 children in the lesson far to many, to think the parents pay a lot of money for the children's lessons for 30 mins I think these people need to get there act together & lesson the amount of children in the lesson.

Positive experience: Good place to get fit. It's basic but that's what you get. If you want top facilities then expect to pay way more. I love the aqua fit and spa.

Positive experience: The only facility I have used here is the squash courts. The courts are in quite good condition now after a long struggle by squash club members to get adequate heating and lighting. The male changing room is clean and large but could use more benches. The showers are on a timed button that frequently shuts off the water, also there are no mixer taps so the water temp. is whatever is set by the centre.

Negative experience: Really upset, wanted a relaxed calm evening after a hard day to escape the world then got told I couldn’t swim till 8 o’clock because of swimming lessons, the lady told me and my boyfriend to come back at 8’oclock, so that’s what we did, we walked back to waterlane for 8 and then we got told by a more polite member of staff that Students of the college aren’t allowed to use there passes after 7, so the original lady didn’t just cause me to have a panic attack by embarrassing me with loads of questions like when my birthday was, what I was doing, and if I was with anyone older than 18 but then corrected herself by saying 16, but she also made me walk all the way back to the centre and get embarrassed again. (Didn’t even want to put 1 star rating at this place, but the second lady was very nice)

Positive experience: The learner pool was a pretty cool temperature for hanging out with non swimmers. The changing situation wasn't ideal due to roof works and I wasn't keen on walking through the reception area to go from the changing rooms to the pool. Helpful friendly staff at reception when our booking didn't show up on the system despite having paid.

Fantastic experience: I come here for squash. It has the best off peak prices I could find. I literally leave norfolk to come here. Staff helpful I bring my own rackets but they have lots of balls. The facility is clean and I hope to check out the gym soon

Fantastic experience: I come here for squash. It has the best off peak prices I could find. I literally leave norfolk to come here. Staff helpful I bring my own rackets but they have lots of balls. The facility is clean and I hope to check out the gym soon

Fantastic experience: This is a nice centre to visit. A lot of different activities available; I only visit to play squash though. There are 4 squash courts from what I could see. Rackets and balls are available on sight. There's also swimming, a gym for workouts, cycling, rock climbing and a soft play area for kids. I travel from Great Yarmouth which only takes 18-19 minutes drive. No need for a membership in order to use the facilities. I would definitely recommend.

Fantastic experience: Great pool for a relaxing swim or have fun with the family. Good gym. Staff always polite and helpful. Well run centre.

Fantastic experience: Nice small pool kids would not get out‍♀️

Fantastic experience: Essential facility helping to keep the town healthy. Join here and get access to many more facilities across the region! Staff professional and so helpful too!

Fantastic experience: Friendly staff, clean and tidy with a wide range of facilities.

Fantastic experience: water is cold, need to be warmer, I take a disabled person to do some water physio, when doing physio not moving to much, she feels the cold and makes physio difficult.

Fantastic experience: Awesome pool. Have a climbing wall and badminton .

Fantastic experience: What great staff. I have recently joined the PAYG and booked to swim with one of my grandchildren and everyone was lovely. Love the snack boxes for children with a sandwich in. The young man who explained the booking system on the climbing wall was lovely too. Clean too. Water could have been a bit warmer esp as a teaching pool but definitely returning.

Fantastic experience: Kids dragged me there for a swim session. Had to register on arrival as a new user went through to changing rooms, which were clean and plenty of lockers available. Pool wasnt too busy, and was so relaxing to just swim a few lengths. Hope to go again soon.

Fantastic experience: Great activity centre for all things sports related

Fantastic experience: Absolutely brill...go on give it a try! Fab Staff and venue

Fantastic experience: Great time there. Very clean and tidy.

Fantastic experience: Take my child for swimming lessons who thinks the instructor is great.

Fantastic experience: Good pool, has a very much sauna around a hot tub.

Fantastic experience: Lots of stuff there pool gym rock wall tennis court Spa soft play

Fantastic experience: Very good & excellent staff.

Fantastic experience: Good badminton courts

Fantastic experience: Nice center. Well equipped. Great soft play area for young children.

Fantastic experience: Perfect, clean and very friendly staff!