SafeSplash Swim School - Sacramento, Natomas

I have very mixed feelings about SafeSplash, which is probably why I waited so long to write a review.Let me start with the positive - my son's instructor, Hailey, is wonderful. She has a very difficult job, yet from what I can see she's always patient my my son and the other students. My son is autistic with severe ADHD, so not only is it imperative for him to learn to swim and be safe around water (drowning and/or accidents are the number 1 cause of death for special needs children), but he's also difficult to teach. Which is why his progress has been so slow (he's been taking lessons 5-6 months now). But he IS making progress, so we'll stick with it a few months longer. I don't blame his instructor at all for his slow progress, I think she's doing the best she can.That said - the lessons are over priced. There's another local facility that offers twice a week lessons for HALF of what SafeSplash charges. Half. But my son loves Hailey...so for now we'll stay.Part of the issues are with the facility itself. This place is such a cluster. Most of the time lessons are held in 1/3rd of the indoor pool. There were times over the height of the summer we'd arrive and find out lessons were being held outside. That would be fine if we received notice so I could apply sunscreen, but we never once were notified. Now I *totally* understand if there's a last minute "hygiene issue" with the indoor pool (happened at least once), but the other times we should have been notified.Where they have the check-in tablet is ridiculously awkward to get to...the far left corner. You have to weave around people just to check-in. A good percentage of the time the tablet doesn't work. There's almost never enough chairs for parents to sit.The facility is dirty, the changing rooms are disgusting and get worse each week. Hair all over the floor, garbage, half eaten pieces of fruit covered with ants, cockroaches, etc. If the rooms are cleaned once a day I'd be surprised.One time we had to wait FOREVER for an open changing room (there are only 2 that I know of), only to find out there was a couple having sex in one of the two. Classy.

The following is my experience of the Midtown location, but I imagine the mgmt problems remain as the owner appears to be the same:Don't go here. They cancel classes without notice. You don't get consistent swim instructors, so your child won't learn very well, and it's very expensive at $27 per 30-minute session which includes a total of 4 kids (which means that your kid is doing nothing for about half the session).I signed my kid up for swim lessons. They canceled 3 weekly lessons in 4 weeks. Two times, they did not notify me the instructor wasn't showing up until AFTER the class was supposed to begin. Another time, they sent an email 30 minutes prior to the start of class AFTER I was already in my car driving to the class. This is unacceptable. The first couple times, they did not provide an excuse, but the most recent instance, they claimed the instructor was sick. I'm unsure if their instructors are so irresponsible that they routinely no-call, no-show for work or if their management is so poor at communication that they fail to notify their customers when a class will be canceled.I spoke to other parents at the classes, and they agreed that 1) this is very expensive, and 2) there's a lack of consistency in instructors, so their kids were not progressing.And, of course, when all is said and done, they're refusing to give me my money back for these canceled classes. They just tell me to reschedule my kid for another class at a different time; however, this does not work for me. The other times are in the middle of the day in the middle of the week, and I have a job to work.

Based on my child's experience, the price does not match the services provided. Any parent considering signing up for swim lessons should read the fine print about withdrawing. SafeSplash will only reimburse you a max of 50% in some cases, and in others 25%- even if you withdraw at the beginning of the month.

Both of my daughters are attending the swimjam from Safesplash. It's their first time and their instructor is really patient and helpful. The pool they use at CalFit is the indoor pool and parts of it are sectioned off for the classes. This is my first experience with swim classes and so far everything seems to be going well. The signup and check in process was easy. Everyone is helpful and they start and end right on time. The only downside to the swimjams class is that there isn't any flexibility to cancel or reschedule. The times that are set is all that there is. But if you know that going in then its fine.