Spa on Norwegian Jade disappointing vs. co-ed Cloud 9 spa on Carnival Dream?

[mikeerdas]

My wife and I bought a cruise-long spa pass to Cloud 9 on the Carnival Dream. We'd never done anything like this before. But had thought about going to a spa in Vegas one time--finding that the most interesting ones were not co-ed. We weren't interested in treatments, but spending lots of time in general spa rooms together relaxing.

 

I think it was around $250 (or less) for a spa pass to Cloud 9 on the Dream. And that was the best money I'd ever spent. Early on the cruise, just for kicks, we decided to take a tour of the spa. We were both blown away and were hooked.

 

We visited nearly every day, sometimes twice a day, enjoying the Aroma eucalyptus-scented steam room, the thassalo pool, heated recliner room (there were two of them), another steam room (Oriental), the cold/color lighted mist showers, and a reading room having tea and coffee. Fantastic. Never booked a single treatment but looked forward to spending time there every day. There was a dry sauna I believe, somewhere outside of the spa's main doors. But we're not hot/dry sauna people (where it's so hot it hurts to breathe in).

 

Evidently you can buy a spa pass to the Jade's spa. Can someone describe what co-ed options there are and how much it costs? From what I think I remember reading, it being a Mandara-chain spa, it is more focused on expensive treatments versus having lots of free-use co-ed spa rooms. On the Carnival Dream, I believe all the treatment rooms were on the second floor, it being a two-story spa.

 

I also believe I read somewhere that the only co-ed option, aside from scheduled and expensive treatments we're not interested in, was perhaps one hot tub / thassalo spa. In that case, it seems like it would not at all be worth the money to have access to a lesser used hot tub. In Cloud 9, we had a blast hopping from one room to another. And when we used it in the early to late evening, it never seemed very crowded. Was always sedate and peaceful.

 

Since this is a Norwegian forum, do any of her ships have a co-ed type spa, with many general/free use co-ed rooms? What about ships on other mid-market lines like Royal Caribbean or Holland America?

 

Would some day like to experience again something as amazing as Cloud 9 on the Dream. Very happy to be sailing on the Jade again with its port-intensive Greek Isles itinerary. But believe we'll really miss that type of spa experience. We couldn't even find anything like this on shore when we researched a trip for Las Vegas. There was a neat spa at Caesar's Palace that had rooms like this, with snowflakes falling in one--just sounded very cool. But it was not co-ed. And so not for us.

[CruisingGiants]

My husband and I LOVED the spa on the Carnival Dream -- best money we spent. Never been on the NCL Jade though -- looking forward to hear some reviews. If anyone has some info on the Spirit spa, we'd love to hear more about that one too as we're booked at the end of June :)

[valleyvillage]

I believe the Spirit, like the Sun, does not have a full-on SPA like some other ships. For that reason, there is no spa pass to purchase. The changing rooms have showers, sauna and steam.

[fabnfortysomething]

My husband and I LOVED the spa on the Carnival Dream -- best money we spent. Never been on the NCL Jade though -- looking forward to hear some reviews. If anyone has some info on the Spirit spa, we'd love to hear more about that one too as we're booked at the end of June :)

 

the Jade spa is really more suitable for same sex couples as the area open to men and women consists of a hot pool and several tile loungers

 

there is a hot pool sauna and padded loungers in the womens area and I imagine will be the same in the mens-but you wont be able to spent time together to enjoy those facilities

 

the spirit is a smaller facility and more geared towards the expensive treatments referred to[in fact I don't think it has a spa pass]

 

If you want an NCL ship with more areas open to both sexes you need to look at the Epic[and probably the Breakaway/Getaway]

[mikeerdas]

the Jade spa is really more suitable for same sex couples as the area open to men and women consists of a hot pool and several tile loungers

 

there is a hot pool sauna and padded loungers in the womens area and I imagine will be the same in the mens-but you wont be able to spent time together to enjoy those facilities

 

the spirit is a smaller facility and more geared towards the expensive treatments referred to[in fact I don't think it has a spa pass]

 

If you want an NCL ship with more areas open to both sexes you need to look at the Epic[and probably the Breakaway/Getaway]

 

Thanks to all.

 

@Fab, very glad for same sex couples. But we'd want more male/female ("co-ed") accessible areas for a spa pass on the Jade to be worth the cost. Will have to check out the Epic/Breakaway/Getaway's offerings some time.

 

The only problem with the largest ships in NCL's fleet is that the ports they call on must be necessarily limited due to docks not being large enough--either that or there must be a lot more tender ports. The converse of that is European river cruises that actually dock at many city centers / or directly in areas of interest, in the middle of the action. They also seem prohibitively expensive (thinking of Viking in particular) from my perspective--being an Inside Cabin type of person, e.g. just get me to the best ports of interest. And I'll take advantage / research ship amenities later as a bonus.

 

We choose cruises by itinerary first. Amenities like a great co-ed spa are a secondary consideration--something we research after we've selected a port-intensive itinerary calling at places we're most interested in.

 

The Carnival Dream and its Cloud 9 spa was something special for us. We'd never done a Western Carib itinerary. And the ship we selected that had that itinerary, at a price we were willing to pay, just happened to have a mind-blowing spa. We'd sail the Dream again and buy a spa pass, no question. But only if it was sailing at other ports we'd not been to before, e.g. perhaps if it repositions to Europe.