How I Made Christmas At IOI Mall's Icescape Ice Rink And Caught Their #penguinsmania

"Skating taught me to set a goal and to block out other things and just focus on this one thing", said Katarina Witt.

I've never ice-skated in my life although I enjoyed watching ice-skating performances and watch how gracefully the ice skaters move across the ice.

So imagine my joy when I had the chance to experience ice-skating and have an introductory lesson on ice-skating courtesy of Icescape Ice Rink in IOI City Mall.

If not for the kind people of Icescape Ice Rink and IOI City Mall, I probably would still have not put on an ice-skating shoes let alone go gliding (well, in my case, it was hobbling along focusing hard not to fall on my butt) on the Biggest Ice Skating Rink in Malaysia and listed in the Malaysia Book of Records! BIGGEST ICE SKATING RINK in MALAYSIA with ice surface area of 1,800sq mtr (60m length x 30m width). IMPRESSIVE!

I was greeted by the Icescape Ice Rink's Penguin Family in front of the East Wing Entrance of IOI Mall after hubby dropped me off at the mall for my ice-skating session. They are soooooo cute, aren't they? ^^

At the Icescape Ice Rink ticket counter. Admission fee for weekdays is RM25 and RM35 for weekends, school holiday and public holidays. Prepare cash! (I hope the management will allow card payments soon, to make a more convenient payment system for those coming in a big group).

With a fellow blogger, Gme and the warm and friendly Ms Sheena Wong from IOI City Mall.

We were greeted with a welcome speech by the Icescape Ice Rink Manager, Mr Phua Hong Yee (in white t-shirt) and later, an ice-breaking session among the bloggers.

Mr Phua holds an impressive records and titles in ice-skating. He had performed in Disney On Ice (like Katarina Witt!), toured in more than 40 countries and won several medals in ice skating championships including a silver medal in ISI World Championship, USA.

And then, it's time to get our skating shoes for the ice-skating session! Skate rental is complimentary and we were provided with Risport Skates (made in Italy) rental ice-skating shoes. Very noiceeeeeeeee...

Checking out our correct ice-skating shoes size.

Mr Phua, helped by two of his staff (ice skating coaches) helped us noobs put on our ice skating shoes and taught us basic moves for falling down (should we lose our balance) and standing back up again. Important dei! I need to know how to get up!

Shoes with blades!

Mr Phua's tip : It is good to have a tight fit for the ice skate shoes so that it'll hold up our ankle.

Before I entered the ice rink, I stashed all my stuff in one of the lockers provided. RM2 per use.

And then...All fitted up and ready to go!

Old fogeys like me took awhile to get used to the ice rink, unlike many of the kids who were already there as early as the ice rink opens (at 10.00am) and were happily gliding and zooming on the ice. Gleefully falling too.

The ice rink sure is a popular spot. Not only with youngsters but families with small children too. And makciks-pakciks too, you know! So the place is a good place for a good family bonding. A plus is that we can bring in our own food to enjoy at the rest area. During weekends, Mr Phua told us that a food outlet do sell some snacks inside the rest area for the convenience of Icescape visitors.

As the biggest ice-skating rink in Malaysia, Icescape can hold more than 800 ice-skaters at one time and we still have space to move around without being cramped. That's good to know, especially if I visit Icescape during peak hours.

Anyways, we first learn how to move along and getting used to the ice skate shoes, by "walking" on the ice, holding onto the ledge. That wasn't as easy as I thought, at first.

Then, the coaches taught us how the "walk 4-steps and glide" move for us to get across the ice rink. The coaches; including Mr Phua were great and were very patient with us. Credit to them in ensuring all of us were very well taken care of, on the ice rink.

Some of us caught up with the lesson very fast but I was not one of them. I was looking enviously at little kiddos who were using a skating aid - in the form of a penguin and nicked one of them for a photo op. Hihihi

The penguin skating aid is available for rental for RM30/hour.

I was just happy I could be moving from one end to the other without falling.

Attempting to make a pirouette. Hahaha Berangan only lah, for photo op. Hihihi

After about 30 minutes of coaching session, we were allowed to move about freely and enjoy the ice rink and we certainly did and worked quite a sweat.

I think I need to find excuses and "kakis" to have more ice-skating sessions here! I love it!!!

Before the end of our great session, we had a group photo before we head out for lunch. After almost an hour ice skating, I certainly worked up an appetite!

We were later treated to a nice lunch at Tino's Pizza Cafe and nice refreshing iced honey grapefruit drink (I feel thin drinking this!) at dal.komm Coffee and a piping hot eggette from Eggette Lab.

Such a treat after burning all those calories at Icescape Ice Rink!

For those who wanted to experience Icescape Ice Rink themselves, head to IOI City Mall in IOI Resort City.

Admission fees and details.

Icescape also provides coaching sessions and birthday packages. Cool, eh?

For enquiries :
Icescape Ice Rinnk
AT-07 Level 1, IOI City Mall
Lebuh IRC, IOI Resort City
62502 Putrajaya, Malaysia
Tel : 603-83288880
Website : www.ioicitymall.com.my
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/icescapeicerink

Jom? We can go clad in Santa Claus /Santarina outfit and play pretend we're in North Pole during Christmas time.

You should totally check out IOI Mall's Christmas decoration and promo too. I think I'll write a special post about that soon. ^^

Wait, ah.