I have never tried Curves although they do seem readily available and I have never heard any thing "bad" about them myself. I have belonged to gyms and to the YWCA in the past.
There have been so many good points mentioned here that I won't repeat those. What I would like to add is that when you are thinking about working out just don't limit yourself to that 30 minutes or so at the gym. Start building activity in your life period. I used to ask my husband to share in our household chores. Now that I am seriously dieting, I don't! The more I do the more fat I burn.
Besides, working out I also have increased my overall activity level throughout my day. I have also chosen to finish a lot of the unfinished projects that I have in my life as I am sure you do as well. How about deciding to clean out and organize the garage one Saturday? Raking the leaves now that it is fall? Washing the car? Start looking around for physical things to do and before you know it you will using the other muscles that your work out didn't use.
Good luck!

