Ymca- Northwest Branch Camp

The YMCA is NOT a family gym. We have been members for years and as our kids outgrew the kidzone it has become increasingly clear there are very few options for kids to actually use the facility. They are not even allowed upstairs with supervision until 8 years old (yes, there is kidzone but it is designed for babies and preschoolers). There is no space to exercise downstairs with your kids since you can bring them upstairs. We have tried bringing our kids to open gym where they keep all the basketball goals at 10 ft. There were less than 10 kids there and the six people at the front desk refused to lower one goal for our youngest. They proceeded to lie and tell us they didn’t have smaller goals when we know they do because we’ve seen them used for the youth basketball program we participate in. I have called the sports director and don’t get a response. This is a fine gym for adults. It is not a facility for kids.

Noah, one of the managers, stood out for all the right reasons. He was consistently professional, patient, and even managed to keep things light with humor when the process was getting frustrating. He made the interaction feel welcoming and human, and his customer service was genuinely 5-star. That said, the overall process has some clear friction points. There are QR codes for social media, large screens showing donation campaigns and totals, and tablets for digital waivers—yet signing up for certain programs is still stuck on paper forms. In 2026, that’s a miss. Writing down information only for Noah to re-enter the same details digitally is inefficient and slows everything down. That’s a system issue, not a people issue. Ratings: Customer service: 5/5 (credit to Noah) User experience: 3.5/5 Efficiency: 2/5 YMCA leadership: there’s real opportunity here to modernize the sign up flow and eliminate duplicate data entry. The staff is doing their part—now the process needs to catch up.

This YMCA needs to evaluate how “family friendly” they are. Their kid zone stops taking kids over 7, so obviously that means your kid has to tag along with you for your workout. I dropped my younger kids off and brought my 8 year old upstairs with me, barely made it to the top of the stairs without staff asking me to remove my headphones just to tell me that my daughter couldn’t be up there. Once I told them she was 8, they told me to keep her within arms reach and I went on my merry way (She is small for her age). I went to the free weights section so that we could be more out of the way of the treadmills/machines/etc. MIND YOU it is Sunday at 1pm so there was plenty of open space and not busy by any means. Not 10 mins into my workout the same worker came and told me that my daughter needed to stay away from the equipment because she could get hurt. I get it’s a safety thing but if that’s the case then why does the kid zone cutoff at 7 years old??? You can’t have it both ways. I’ve been a patron of the Y for over 10 years and thinking about cancelling our membership. We pay too much for a family membership with kid zone access, to be treated this way and still not be able to access the resources. Genesis goes up to age 12 and most YMCAs throughout the US have an age cutoff way higher than 8. Very disappointed.

Great place to workout. They seem to have everything you could need for any sort of workout. Great pools and hot-tub, everything seemed well maintained and clean when I was there.

Facility is nice but needs to do a better job of having a clean and healthy fitness floor! Can you wipe down and dust your machines once a week? Other wise good gym