Emler Swim School of Kansas City - Northland

★★★★★Tabitha webb

We have greatltenjoyed the emler family while my 3 kids learn an important tool in life-swimming! My oldest is now in competetative swimming with Ms Ravin. My younger swimmers started at 6 months and have loved all their teachers since then- Amber, Isabelle, Ethan, Reagan, Teagen, Makayla, and all the others. They do an amazing job watching over the pool and helping me keep track of my full of life kids- especially Jake

★★Jennifer Keyes

As the costs of these swim courses increase (several times a year), the pay off tends to make a lot less sense. If your kid is in a full class (four kids) they are only getting about 6.5 minutes of active practice. So over the course of a month, that's a whopping 26 minutes that you're paying well over $150 for. Does that make much sense? Not to me. I agree that swimming ability is so important for kids to learn but this doesn't seem like the best way to achieve it any longer.

★★J B

We’ve had a very frustrating experience with Emler, despite the staff being generally friendly. To start, when my wife called to schedule, she specifically requested an appointment at the Northland (Barry Road) location. However, the appointment was mistakenly scheduled at a different location. When she arrived, she was told she was in the wrong place. She made it clear she would not have agreed to another location, so this was an error on their end. Fortunately, they were able to fit her in, and the evaluation itself went well. The issues continued from there. At my child’s first lesson, I arrived 5–10 minutes early and checked in at the front desk. I was told check-in wasn’t necessary and to just have a seat. As a first-time parent at this facility, I expected someone would come get us or clearly call her name. Instead, we sat waiting while the lesson time started. After several minutes, I realized the instructor had been holding up a sign—but it displayed the instructor’s name, not my child’s. This was never explained, and since I didn’t know the instructor’s name, there was no way for me to know that sign was for us. By the time I figured it out, we were already 4–5 minutes into a very expensive one-on-one lesson. To make matters worse, once we got started, additional time was wasted while staff searched for the evaluation. They claimed they couldn’t access it because it was done at another location—which is incorrect. While there may have been a scheduling error initially, the evaluation itself was completed at the Barry Road location, as we had requested all along. The lesson then ended about 2 minutes early. For the price of these private lessons, I expect my child to be in the water on time and to receive the full 30 minutes. When you’re paying what amounts to roughly $3 per minute, losing several minutes each session—whether at the beginning or end—is not insignificant. There also seems to be a consistent lack of organization. After the initial evaluation, we were told they would follow up with scheduling options, but after several days of no communication, my wife had to reach out herself. Additionally, I’ve had to request a receipt multiple times, with the understanding it would be sent via email. I asked again as recently as this afternoon, and it still has not arrived. Scheduling flexibility has also been an issue. When trying to arrange makeup lessons, we were told Saturday availability existed, but back-to-back lessons were not allowed. The options presented were impractical—either wait around for 30 minutes between sessions or leave and come back. Neither option works well for a busy family, and it feels like a policy lacking common-sense flexibility. That said, we did finally speak with a gentleman who was very helpful. After explaining that we will be out of town for at least two Saturdays and that the cancellation and makeup policies were difficult for us to work around, he allowed us to make the Saturday prior to our trip our final lesson. At this point, we will be looking for a more organized and flexible option, which we believe we may have found at the Gladstone Community Center. Overall, while the staff is kind, the operation feels disorganized and poorly managed. For a premium-priced service, I expect a much higher level of professionalism, communication, and respect for our time.

★★★★★Rachel Ziegler

My 3 year old has had such a great experience learning to swim with Ms. Mia! She’s wonderful with her kiddos and keeps them excited, comfortable, and entertained during the lesson. Ms. Olivia is another great instructor who has worked with our kiddo. We are very impressed with the program all around and highly recommend!

★★★★★Eric Bales

We have really enjoyed Emler for the last year. It is fun watching our daughter get more comfortable in the pool and look forward to swim lessons. Riley is the best instructor by the way!