rockbock

I will be in a similar cabin on the Breeze but on the floor below, so it is a 4J and no spa access. I thought if you were offered some kind of upgrade to a spa cabin, you do not get free spa access, or is that just the people that end up there on a guarantee cabin. The next upgrade from a 4J is a 4S Spa Inside which might not work for us. And it looks like your cabin is the only spa Oceanview for 4, so chances of ending up there are small.

 

When we were on the Liberty we stayed on the spa deck in the family OV, which became a family balcony before sailing. I regularly used the accessible shower in the Spa area. If we are not in a Spa cabin, are there similar Spa showers available to the public?

People on CC love to thread crap and offer advice that they *think* is factual based on something that they read somewhere else. Before you know it, everybody believes what they've seen posted previously and the real truth is lost.

When I paid for this upgrade (the whole $3.60 lol), I knew I was entitled to spa access. I was very excited and posted here about it. People immediately started telling me that I didn't qualify for spa access because I was upgraded via my Early Saver rate. Even though I knew I was correct, it was still a little scary seeing so many people try to convince me I was wrong. So I called Carnival back to verify that I was entitled to spa privileges. The rep confirmed that the only time spa access is not included is if a spa cabin is assigned via a Guarantee rate. After more comments from CC know-it-alls, I called Carnival back again and made the rep make notes on my account that I would receive spa access. It's kind of crazy that I'm a TA and I knew I was right, but it's easy to let the CC know-it-alls make you second guess yourself.

You are almost correct about the Spa Oceanview cabins on the Dream. There are only four of them, so they sell out quickly. Two of them (11201 and 11202) are quads. The other two (11203 and 11204) are triples. The triples are slightly larger rooms than the quads, but all four of them are enormous.

Most of the 4J cabins on the Dream class ships are standard size cabins, but they have the window and semi-private deck access. A few of the 4J cabins are larger cabins like the one I was in. You need to look at the deck plans and it will be obvious which 4J cabins are the enormous ones versus the standard-size cabins.

I made it a point to shower in the Cloud 9 showers each day, and they were very nice. However, on one of our early port mornings I needed the shower before the Cloud 9 Spa opened at 8am. I went into the public locker room. The showers in there were nicer than the cabin showers, but not as nice as the Cloud 9 showers. The problem I experienced, however, is that the shower had NO hot water. It was dry when I got in there, so I was the first person to use the shower. I never got hot. I don't know if it was just a malfunctioning morning or if they were always that way.

Question, are there no more "free" saunas? Just wondering if there was another small sauna area that you could use without having to pay for it.

The public locker rooms (not the private ones in the Cloud 9 area), each have a small sauna. They are not co-ed...just one in the Men's locker room and one in the Ladies locker room. The public sauna was small and not at all attractive looking. It was turned off the one time I went into the locker room just to check it out. I assume you can turn it on/off yourself each time you want to use it? I would never use it.

More later...taking another break.

Is there a difference between a Thalasso pool and a regular hot tub?

(1) Size - The Thalasso Pool is almost the same size as one of the outdoor pools on the Dream. You can't really "swim" in it like a regular pool, because the lounger takes up a lot of space and it's very shallow, but it's HUGE.

(2) Temperature - On this ship, the ourdoor hot tubs were NOT hot. They were luke warm. This pool is supposed to be maintained at body temperature (slightly warmer than luke warm); however, it was maintained at about 101 degrees the entire week.

(3) As another poster mentioned, this pool is treated with minerals. It is supposed to be extra soothing and relaxing, particularly for arthritis patients. Personally, I didn't notice the minerals at all, but I'm sure they must have been there.

(4) Comfort - The lounger is so much more comfortable than a traditional hot tub, but only if the jets are off. As I mentioned earlier, the jets are too powerful and you have to really strain your body to not get pushed off of the lounger if the jets are on. I even saw some very large people getting pushed off of the lounger, so weight won't help you in this case.

(5) Cool Sprayers - Having the cool water showers in the tub was a nice feature. They seemed to be very popular among everyone using the Thalasso Pool.

I know from the two photos in the last post these showers look nice, but not really like anything special. That's why I didn't try them until the last day! One the last day of the cruise, I realized that there were a lot more knobs and controls than I thought were there, so I tested them out.

As it turns out, this shower didn't have just the rainfall shower head and the handheld sprayer. There were also powerful jets that sprayed water out of the side of the shower...but that's not all. These showers have an amazing "mister" too. When you turn on the mist, it feel kind of like you're standing under one of those mist machines that you frequently see at amusement parks to cool you off on a hot day. And these showers also have mood lighting, which is kind of a neat feature.

So yeah, we couldn't resist the temptation to take some more goofy photos when nobody was around to see. We turned on the mood lighting and turned off the camera flash. The result was some photos with very interesting lighting. We had to also turn off the mist while taking photos, because it clouded the camera. Here's what the lighting looks like:

That's the last of the goofy photos that I'll be posting lol.

But I can't stress enough that if you are a person who enjoys a good shower, you MUST try these out during your cruise. If I ever have the pleasure of staying in a spa cabin again, I'll be using these showers every morning.

Next, I want to show you the AMAZING walk-in open showers. My husband and I saw these showers the first day of the cruise, but we never used them because we didn't think they were anything special, and why bother using an "open" shower if you can use the private ones in the locker room or our cabin? Let's just say that all showers are not created equal and I WISH I had tried these showers on the first day of the cruise!

By choice, I chose to shower in the spa locker room every day. Despite having an oversized bathroom in my cabin, it was worth the few extra steps for me to shower in the spa locker room and enjoy a nice, comfortable shower. However, if I had tried one of these open showers on the first day of the cruise, I would have taken EVERY shower for the entire trip in my bathsuit, just so I could enjoy this shower. It has enough privacy that I could have easily found a way to discretely wash the parts of my body covered by my swimsuit.

Throughout the duration of the cruise, I NEVER saw another passenger using one of these showers. I guess we all really missed out on something amazing.

In the photo below, which was taken from the end of the hallway with the four rooms, you can see the entry to one of the two open showers. It's the area on the left with the purplish glow.

When you first enter one of the showers, it looks like the first photo below. Then the "room" kind of turns direction a bit and creates a semi-private area in the back of the shower, which you can see in the second photo below. The best way to describe it is that nobody who passes the shower when you are using it can actually see you showering; however, since it is open in the front, anybody who wanted to walk into it could see you. For that reason, you kind of need to wear a swimsuit in these showers.

Before I move on, I found a few more photos of the various rooms, taken from different angles:

Taking a short break, but still to come are the open showers, the relaxation room, and the locker room...

The last of the four rooms is the Laconium. This room is dry and was maintained at a fairly cool temperature, but not quite as cool as the Tepidarium. As with all of the rooms, the temperature and music level could be adjusted from outside of the room.

This room featured individual heated tile chairs, as well as heated tile loungers. It also had an amazing ocean view. There were cool-water sprayers in the room, but it was maintained at a cool enough temperature that I never saw anybody using them.

The Oriental Steam Bath was the room that my husband and I used the most during this week. We loved the fact that it was hot, but not super steamy. The cool sprayers were heavenly.

Earlier in the review I promised that there would be some goofy photos every once in a while. Well it's that time again! At once point, my husband and I were alone in the Oriental Steam Bath, so I joked around about how they should offer pole dancing classes in these rooms (since they all have poles). I am NOT a dancer, but I started goofing off and before I knew it, we had about 25 photos of me dancing around that pole lol.

The next room you'll come to is the Oriental Steam Bath. This is a wet room, but it isn't nearly as wet as the Aroma Steam Bath. The temperature and music level of this room can be adjusted from outside the room. The temperature can be set anywhere from very warm, to very hot. The room has individual heated tiled chairs, as well as a large heated tile table, which is wonderful for laying on and stretching out. There are cool-water sprayers in this room, as well as hot stones. Since it's not as wet or steamy as the Aroma Steam Bath, I was able to take better photos of this room. As noted previously, you can also access the Tepidarium from inside this room.

The room next to the Aroma Steam Bath is the Tepidarium. This room can be accessed from the main Cloud 9 Spa hallway (in the photo shown above), or you can access it from the steam rooms/saunas on either side of it. Here is the view from the main hallway:

And here is a photo of the door inside the Tepidarium which leads to the Aroma Steam Bath:

The door which leads from the Tepidarium into the Oriental Steam Bath (the next room) is a solid door, not glass like this one.

The Tepidarium is a dry room, maintained at a cool temperature. You can adjust the temperature or music level from outside the room. It is a nice transition to go from one of the warmer rooms into this one to cool off. The room is decorated with individual heated loungers and there is a beautiful ocean view. In the center of the room is a water feature with four sinks. Because of the cool temperature in this room, there are no water sprayers available. In the very last photo below, you'll see two doors. The door on the right is the one I photographed above, which leads into the Aroma Steam Bath. The door on the left, which you cannot see through, leads to the Oriental Steam Bath.

Using the photo above as a guideline, the very first room on your right is the Aroma Steam Bath. As you can see from the photo below, this room is very "wet." It is typically maintained at a very warm temperature. At times, it is heavily infused with an aroma similar to a Vick's Vapor Rub (menthol scent). Other times, the aroma is very subtle. You can control the temperature and music level using the controls outside the door.

Inside this room, you'll find long couch-like tiled loungers. The tiles on the loungers are heated. The "decor" is pots of hot stones. There are several hand-held sprayers, which you can use to cool yourself (or the loungers) off with cool water...very refreshing. You cannot wear glasses in this room, or they will steam up instantly. If you cannot see without your glasses, I would suggest wearing contact lenses in this room. Due to the level of moisture and steam in this room, I was unable to take "good" photos for this review. The camera steamed up almost as quickly as I would wipe it dry.

Now we'll move on to the four steam rooms/saunas...

I don't have a photo of the hallway you'll see when you leave the room with the Thalasso Pool, but if you exit the pool and walk straight ahead (past the spiral staircase and elevators on your left), you'll reach a dead-end in the hallway that looks like this:

Your options are to either unlock the door on the left, which leads into the steam rooms and saunas, or you can unlock the door straight ahead, which leads to the locker rooms and relaxation room. If you go through the door on your left, the hallway you'll see looks like this:

The four steam rooms and saunas can be accessed from the doors on your right. There are also two walk-in open showers, which are just heavenly. On your left, you can get clean towels. There are also receptacles for your dirty towels.

I'm a TA as well, did you get a chance to do a ship inspection? I put a request in with my BDM, but still awaiting a response.

I didn't even ask about it. There was a group called while I was waiting to embark after check-in, but I didn't want to spend the first few hours of my vacation doing an inspection lol.

That's all for now. Will finish this review either tonight or tomorrow morning...

FINAL THOUGHTS ON THE THALASSO POOL:

Very relaxing!

Great place for conversation, if you like to relax and talk at the same time.

The only real "negative" about the Thalasso Pool is that it overlooks the gym. This takes away from the relaxation aspect, but at the same time it was sometimes interesting to watch the people who were working out.

Towels are provided in this area. No need to bring one from your cabin.

There is a bench and plenty of space for your flip flops and other belongings.

There is a card holder where you can place your VIP Key while you're in the pool.

Some final photos of the Thalasso area:

The Thalasso Pool also has two showerheads in the circular section. The water which comes out of these showers is slightly cooler than the water in the pool. They were very refreshing and seemed to be quite popular among the Cloud 9 Spa guests.

My husband and I took several "goofy" posed photos in different parts of the spa when nobody else was around. Here are the first two goofy photos:

Ok, I decided to make a few more posts now, then I'll finish up either tonight or tomorrow morning.

The first room we'll visit is the Thalassotherapy Spa. I loooooooooooved this pool!

I'll start by saying that this is NOT a body-temperature pool, as it is described. It was always maintained at about 101 to 102 degrees, which was heavenly. It was like lounging in the world's largest hot tub (and a "real" hot tub...not like the luke-warm 92 degree outdoor hot tubs on this ship).

We used the pool every day except for one and there were never more than 8-10 people in it at once. Most of the time, there were 6 or fewer people in the pool. Several times, my husband and I were completely alone in it.

The pool has a large built-in lounger, which looks like it should be soooooooo comfortable. It actually is very comfortable; however, the pressure of the jets forces your body off of it (regardless of how much you might weigh), so you can't relax comfortably unless the jets are turned off. When the jets are turned off, the lounger is great. And although it doesn't look like it in the photos, there is plenty of room to relax directly across from the loungers, on the opposite side of the pool.

There's also a giant circular section, which is like a large hot tub. Many people can fit in that section of the tub.

It really puts my mind at ease that there will be sufficient space in the room for her chair and we won't be bumping into furniture all the time.

Don't let it just "put your mind at ease." You should be seriously EXCITED about this. The photos do these cabins no justice. If you've ever seen what a typical cruise cabin looks like, your jaw will just drop when you walk into 11203.

I can tell you with complete honesty, that if somebody offered me a free upgrade to my choice of either one of these Spa OV cabins or a Grand Suite (which I did tour during our cabin crawl), I would choose the Spa OV without even hesitating. It's the same size (maybe even slightly larger), the location is better (soooooo quiet), the views from the Panorama deck were amazing, and spa access is included. I'd take that over fancy decorating, priority embarkation, and a tiny private balcony any day! Obviously, that's just my opinion and many would likely disagree with me, but I really did love this room.

Ok folks, I need a break. I might post some more in a little while if I feel up to it, but if you don't see any new posts from me within the next two hours, then it's going to be later tonight before I get to it. I won't be home from 2:30pm until 6:00pm.

The next thing I'll explain is the process for getting access to the spa area. The first time you walk up to the spa, you will approach the spa desk (straight ahead and on your right in the last photo posted above). You give them your Sign & Sail card and they will verify that you have a spa cabin. Once they verify that you have a spa cabin, they will give you a white wristband/bracelet to wear for the week, which will be your "quick" verification of having spa access for the rest of the week. If you aren't wearing that band, they will check your S&S card again to verify.

Each time you access the spa, you will show them your wrist band and they will take (and hold) your S&S card. You will be given a white VIP card instead. This VIP card will unlock the doors to all of the areas marked "Private." Any area marked "private" is meant for use by Cloud 9 Spa guests only. You can hold this VIP card as long as you want for the day, but your S&S card won't be returned until you give them back the VIP card. The VIP card will NOT open your cabin door.

If you plan to be with your "spa partner" all day, you can kind of hold the key for long periods of time without having to keep exchanging cards. At your option, a "pair" of Cloud 9 Spa guests with white wristbands can share one VIP card for the day (meaning that they can hold onto one of their S&S cards). This makes it a bit easier to leave the spa and return later. However, it only works if you can get by with sharing a single S&S card all day.

The process is a little different for weekly or daily Cloud 9 Spa passes. These guests will be given a new paper wristband each day with the "color of the day." They pretty much need to wear this wristband all day long, since it isn't reusable like the white bands given to guests in spa cabins. I believe the process of exchanging the S&S card for the VIP key is the same for these guests, except that two guests can't share one VIP key.

Thank you for your review. Your videos have just about sold me on purchasing a spa pass for the week. Does anyone know what the price is, and can they be purchased for a day or only for the week?

You can pay $249/week for a couple, $149/week for an individual, or $35 per day, per person. The daily rate is only available if they don't "sell out" all of their weekly passes. If there are passes available to sell for daily access, it is first-come, first served. Only a limited number of passes are sold to people who don't have spa cabins, because part of the benefit of this area is that it is quiet and never crowded.

And this is the view looking straight ahead, once you reach the top of the staircase to the 12th floor.

This is the view if you turn to your right (Thalasso Pool)

And this is the view if you turn to your left:

(hmmmmm...I seem to have lost my photo of that view, sorry).

Let's walk from my cabin to the Cloud 9 Spa. If you recall, I posted this photo earlier, which showed my cabin door, along with the Spa access door next to it:

When you walk through that door, the photo below will be your next view. The door on the left is crew access only. The door straight ahead leads to the odd-numbered spa cabins. The open area on the right leads to the Private staircase and elevator leading up to the spa deck.

If you turn right and enter the spa access area, this is your view of the glass elevator and spiral staircase. You need to walk around to the other side to enter the elevator or stairs.

After walking to the other side, here are views of the front of the both the elevator and the staircase: