1- The night before the big day, freeze a large bottle of water in your freezer.
2- Go to bed.
3- Wake up and get some breakfast and coffee. There is no food or drink available for purchase at the pool and you don’t want your time cut short by hunger pangs.
4- Bring a gym lock. They will not let you in without one. There are no bags allowed on the pool deck. Everything is to be locked up.
5- If it’s the weekend, get over to the pool by 10AM. It opens at 11AM, and you want to be one of the first people in. Waiting an hour isn’t the end of the world. The line is mostly shady, but there are some sunny spots, so wear sunscreen.
6- 11AM! And you are about to walk in! Have your lock in your hand, and either your bathing suit on, or in your hand. This will speed up the whole line process.
7- When you get into the locker room, pull out your towel, your sunscreen, and your frozen water bottle. If you have a magazine, bring that too. No shirts unless it’s a “plain white tee” and no hats are allowed unless they are “all white.” That’s it. There are ABSOLUTELY NO CELL PHONES ALLOWED on the deck.
8- Next, you have to shower, but your hands are full of stuff so tell the shower attendant you are going to put all your stuff down outside the shower, smile, then shower. Pick all your stuff back up then head out to the pool area.
9- Where are you going to sit? Lots of the young people tend to hang out on the steps and in the back right corner, which is the best viewing area. Half the fun of the pool is the people watching. An extra bonus is this corner is farthest away from the kiddy pool.
10- Relax and enjoy yourself until 2:45 when they kick you out to “clean the pool.” And remember, no horseplay of any kind or you will get the whistle!
11- Go get some lunch!
12- Do not attempt to go back to the pool at 4PM. The line starts forming at 2PM, a 2-hour wait! This is when teenagers try to get in and there’s nothing worse than a pack of teenagers bunched up together, hot and anxious. Being smooshed in with the teens will ruin your day. They yell a lot. You’ve been warned.
You can wear a non-white hat for sun protection while on the pool deck, but not in the water.
I’ve worn my Yankees hat while on the pool deck before.
Good to know. I went opening weekend and they definitely were enforcing the “white hats only” rule. I thought it was a silly rule, and the explained to me they were worried about dyes staining the pool. Seems like they have come to the sensible conclusion. Hats are OK, Hats in the water are not.
Isn’t it “hunger pangs” not “hunger pains”?
I have been in pain from hunger!
Can you swim laps there? Is there a schedule? Do you still need to arrive a 10am weekdays for lap swimming?
http://bit.ly/MzbCQx Here is the schedule for Lap Swimming. You have to sign up at the Pool and give them your info.
Thank you for the clear, useful guide!
Doesn’t sound like much fun to me. I’ll pass.
Thank you so much for this. Mom of 6 and needed to know if you could bring frozen water bottles into the pool this was very helpful!