San Pablo City SM Mall opens first ice playground this summer

CALAMBA, Laguna – City residents and their kin can now enjoy and spend their coolest summer outing not in Laguna's refreshing waters and springs but right at the first ice playground at the SM City San Pablo.

Nina Wong-Rada, SM City San Pablo public relations manager, told PNA that the mall has featured for the first time in the city's history an ice skating rink, which opens this summer.

Rada said since the ice playground opening over the weekend, hundreds of mallers and shoppers had turned this into a favorite family-fun activity and cool spot.

She said the mall management conceptualized for this unique summer statement for "an icy cool summer" for the next three months for the clients wanting to beat the heat factor.

The SM City PR manager shared that "with recent blockbusters such as Disney's animated movie offering "Frozen", the concept of icy playground has been popularized."

She mused that children and adults alike could now feel the experience and the fun in ice skating with the same sense of magic and mystery that the movie has influenced.

Children from four years old and above are encouraged to bring their own jackets and socks although the skating shoes are part of the benefit of the ticket timed at a 15-minute fun or more with additional tickets.

Vince Mercado, the mall's marketing manager said that the skating rink, measuring some 100 square meters, took them almost a week to prepare, plus the machine that turned water to ice layer by layer.

He said that every after mall hours, the crew ensured that the "snow-filled rink" was suitably frozen and safe for the skaters to enjoy.

"Like a swimming pool where there are lifeguards to watch over people in the water, there are also trainers and personnel in the skating rink to look after the safety of the skaters," Mercado said.

There were also rubberized penguin that skaters could hold on to maintain balance, Mercado said. (PNA)