Bloc Indoor Climbing Wall Reviews Summary

Facilities

Pros:

• "It's huge and light and airy."
• "Great venue, nice and clean, friendly and helpful staff, and great coffee."
• "They open earlier than they used to which means I can climb in a quiet centre which is less overwhelming."
• "A great place to climb and to bring the kids - it's safe, the kids get to burn off loads of energy and the cafe is excellent."
• "Cool bouldering centre with great, spacious atmosphere."
• "Good selection of walls to climb with a simple harness connection and safety belay system, so most kids were able to clip themselves in and climb without much adult help."
• "The hall is huge, very open, and full of natural light."

Cons:

• "£17 is not, in my eye’s, reasonable for a single entry."
• "Cost: very expensive. As you also have to pay about £11 for 'registration'."
• "It's crazy busy most evenings. Way too busy. Sometimes so busy it feels unsafe."
• "Unfortunately most of the 6-7 year olds in the group were too short (125cm min) to jump the leap of faith."
• "The shop consists of a small locker with a couple of phyche chalk bags and brushes, pretty underwhelming."
• "Male changing room/toilets could use some updating."
• "Many where so caked in chalk you couldn't see the colour, they were completely smooth and polished."

Staff and Service

Pros:

• "The staff are all really nice."
• "Everyone we came across at the front desk too was super friendly, bubbly and accommodating."
• "Staff have only ever been super friendly with me..."
• "All staff I encountered were super friendly and helpful."
• "Staff were fantastic, Mishka (hope I’ve spelt her name right!) was patient and a great coach."
• "Staff are super nice and made us feel so welcome."
• "Staff were patient and welcoming, despite me being very anxious."

Cons:

• "Overall a really unfriendly and rude introduction to a climbing gym."
• "Staff just left us for 20 minutes after giving us forms."
• "I'm not 100% sure the staff are welcoming/accommodating for the casual user."
• "The staff member who was available didn't seem to know how to do the registration process."
• "The staff are incredibly rude. What is their deal?"
• "The staff was totally incapable to deal with the situation in a way that would have made me feel welcome."
• "The customer service is terrible. You sometimes queue for ages while the staff stand around chatting."

Value for Money

Pros:

• "Its £12.50 which is fair for a brilliant wall with fun climbs at lots of grades + some awesome comp climbs."
• "Good pricing."
• "Facilities are great and reasonably priced!"
• "Membership was only £2."

Cons:

• "£10 compolsery registration fee is a joke."
• "11 pounds just for the honour of registering."
• "Strangely high price to sign up. £11 for registration."
• "The downside is that it's pricey, the £10 registration fee means that a one off visit costs you £20 pounds."
• "They charge full peak price even when a third of the walls are down for resetting/painting."
• "Would be 5 stars were it not for the bizarrely high cost of registration (£11!!)."
• "Prices at this gym are crazy, it's not worth it and I feel slightly extorted ngl."

Climbing Experience

Pros:

• "I'm now hooked."
• "It also has Banana Fingers on site which is genius as you can try shoes on some harder routes in the centre to ensure you pick right."
• "Saturday and Sunday mornings offer nice, quiet climbs."
• "Most routes were really interesting - even the V1-V2 range of boulders were still interesting climbs."
• "Good routesetting, chill vibe, nice cafe."
• "Some great setting across a range of grades, weekly resets, nice vibes and good music."
• "The routes themselves are expertly set."

Cons:

• "The grading seemed a bit rushed."
• "The cave's underhanging routes often had multiple of the same colour that were hard to differentiate between."
• "Never have I been in any bouldering center where you're not actually allowed to sit down!"
• "After a ten pound non optional registration fee my entry for a student was a total of 15 pounds for a boiling warehouse, busy as hell and boring sets that weren't worth repeating."
• "Route setting, which is repetitive and pretty boring."
• "The routes are just standard and are only interesting when Jack comes in to set."
• "Today seemed fairly poor, reasonable range of problems but seems like they haven't resent in a while or don't clean their holds frequently."

Accessibility and Convenience

Pros:

• "Really good location for access from outside of Bristol too."
• "The walls are HIGH, meaning long, challenging routes that let you get involved."
• "The grading used is very user-friendly (Green, black, orange, red, blue etc.)."
• "There is even a circuit designed for shorter climbers, which is a nice touch."
• "Nice atmosphere, staff generally are helpful and the routes are intresting."
• "Lots of high quality problems."
• "Great wall. I will commute a fair way to get there."

Cons:

• "I found the website a bit confusing and hard to navigate to get the information required."
• "I am beyond disappointed with my recent experience booking an activity for my group of three on the website."
• "My only criticism is the lack of parking and how badly people park and also people not using the lockers, and instead leaving their clothes strewn across the cafeteria area."
• "You need better extraction fans. It's like breathing straight out of a chalk bag."
• "I am reluctant to go by myself because of the £11 registration fee."
• "The locker can open if the padlock is too small."
• "My only criticism is the lack of showers which was quite surprising."