Is Thermal Suite Pass Worth it?

[BayGirl22]

We were on the Jewel for 7 days to Alaska a few weeks ago and prepaid for the pass ($129 in advance). There were no drinks served other than tea and hot water available. People wore their swimsuits, even in the female-only area. I wore a cover up over my swimsuit to the spa or the pool, or I changed there. There are lockers with self-coded locks and robes available in the spa. I never saw anyone in the ship's hallways in a robe.

 

Since you have kids, one thing to think about is the no-kid areas and timing for the kids club. I assume you'll either be trading of with the other parent or your kids will go in the Splash Academy while you go to the spa. Our kids loved the Splash Academy but we weren't prepared for the hours - they close for 2 hours at every meal time. So your windows for the spa are 9-11:45, 2-4:45, and 7-close (open 9-12 but they tell you to pick up at 11:45). Somehow this led to a lot of rushing around for my husband and I when we went together - "we have 25 minutes until pickup, hurry up and relax!". I'm sure its possible to plan the time differently and get larger chunks of spa time, we just expected the kids club to be more of an always open drop in kind of thing. So something to be aware of.

 

All that said, we both went several times and did not regret passes at all. Being in a balcony room with 4 of us was stressful to me and that was the one place I could really escape. I would buy it again.

[claiream3]

I just added the thermal pass for Jade 14 nights - its not a great SPA by any manner of means - but at least has a very small thallostherapy pool and tiled loungers in the co-ed plus individual saunas etc in single sex areas. Even being limited facilities - I was more than happy to buy the online pass. Be warned you need to be quick. I was charged £131 GBP - pp. (14 nights) They go on sale 100 days before for suite guests - 90 days for others. Midnight USA time 90 days, I got up crack of dawn to buy - the ten days beforehand it showed as "These passes are no longer available for sale" - that is the message shown between 100 days and 90 days. At 90 days - I kept refreshing the page around 5am (our time) and bang - got them - they sold out pretty quickly....

We prefer an actual SPA cabin - had a SPA mini on Epic and loved it - have a SPA balcony on Getaway - Jade has no spa rooms so a pass it was.

Hope this helps.

 

This is really helpful Blondie008 - thank you so much. I have set my reminder for exactly 11 months time when its my 90 days before sail date to buy the passes! tick tock tick tock. ...!

Claire

[JetSet2B]

Doing a Mediterranean cruise and wondering if this pass would be worth it with the long days spent in port...

[hawkeyetlse]

The spa is open until 11pm (exact hours depend on the ship). So you would have a few hours to use it even if you spend the day in port. Or go in the morning before heading ashore for the day. Or both.

 

I have seen many suggestions that the price of the spa pass is lower on sailings with lots of port days vs sea days. I don't know whether that is true; it's still pretty pricey no matter what, so it only makes sense if you think you can make good use of it on most days, if not every day of your cruise.

[Tammyd549]

Haven't had a chance to read the previous responses but to answer the OP question .... YES !!! !! !!!!!!

[jotxl]

Have booked online approx. 50 Days in advance for ESCAPE (7 days): 176 € / 199 $ ...

 

Its the regulary Price on bord even higher ?

Edited September 5, 2016 by jotxl

[hawkeyetlse]

Its the regulary Price on bord even higher ?

$20 more on board.

[cruisencrazy]

Doing a Mediterranean cruise and wondering if this pass would be worth it with the long days spent in port...

 

We stayed in a Haven spa suite for our med cruise. To be honest, if it didn't come with our room, it would not be worth it. We had to make a point of going there. We left the ship early and came back late, so didn't use it as much as we would have liked. Only good thing was soaking our feet after walking all day. Enjoy your trip :)

[NH Cruisers]

If you had a few sea days perhaps. I personally like the sea day intensive cruises, so the Thermal Suite pass is a must have for me. Being in port every day? There are only so many hours in a day and a lot of stuff to see and do onboard.

[spanishguy1970]

I have to admit is worth it but it depends on the spa and the ship. We were on the Jade last year, i don't think we would every buy the spa pass for that ship again, no quiet areas, last year specially there was one loud gentleman, " attention seeker" who sat around telling his life story to everyone and having inappropriate conversations..He was a funeral director from Canada. :D. Like someone else said here for us the spa pass is a must..we usually book an inside cabin or if is the right price a balcony.

[FM]

 

...

 

 

Aye - cannae mess wi' a Scotswoman during 40 winks time - we need our energy for partying!

 

OI! ... LOVE IT - rotfl :)

[CruzinR2]

I was on the Escape in July with my mom and sister and we weren't sure about the Thermal Spa either. Once we boarded, we decided to check it out and got a tour. We were told it would be $200 for the week and that they limited the number of people that were allowed to book it --- to keep it from being over crowded. It was one of the best things we did on the ship!

 

Each morning we started the day with a workout in the gym which was right outside the Spa. So from the gym, we went into the Spa and changed into a swimsuit - they provided towels and robes. In the Spa, we had a choice of icey orange water or a variety of hot teas - and oranges to eat.

 

The travertine mosaic lounge chairs were heated and positioned all around the front of the ship with great views out the floor to ceiling windows - and they had oil diffusers going with various scents each day. We decided to stay here as we left the Port of Miami. It was calm, quiet and so serene. A wonderful start to our cruise!

 

We enjoyed the large therapy pool with waterfall to soothe our back and shoulder muscles, the hydro jets and bubble pool along with the hot tub! Then we made the rounds going from the Saunas, to the Steam room with menthol aroma, to the Salt bath with frankincense, to the snow room! (brrrr) It was a great relaxing way to truly unwind and begin our day. Even on the sea days, it was never very crowded or loud.

 

I would highly recommend it and am dreaming about the days I will return to this blissful place!

[AdoraBelle]

It's terrible, not worth it, no one else should buy passes for it. ;)

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[JetSet2B]

I was on the Escape in July with my mom and sister and we weren't sure about the Thermal Spa either. Once we boarded, we decided to check it out and got a tour. We were told it would be $200 for the week and that they limited the number of people that were allowed to book it --- to keep it from being over crowded. It was one of the best things we did on the ship!

 

Each morning we started the day with a workout in the gym which was right outside the Spa. So from the gym, we went into the Spa and changed into a swimsuit - they provided towels and robes. In the Spa, we had a choice of icey orange water or a variety of hot teas - and oranges to eat.

 

The travertine mosaic lounge chairs were heated and positioned all around the front of the ship with great views out the floor to ceiling windows - and they had oil diffusers going with various scents each day. We decided to stay here as we left the Port of Miami. It was calm, quiet and so serene. A wonderful start to our cruise!

 

We enjoyed the large therapy pool with waterfall to soothe our back and shoulder muscles, the hydro jets and bubble pool along with the hot tub! Then we made the rounds going from the Saunas, to the Steam room with menthol aroma, to the Salt bath with frankincense, to the snow room! (brrrr) It was a great relaxing way to truly unwind and begin our day. Even on the sea days, it was never very crowded or loud.

 

I would highly recommend it and am dreaming about the days I will return to this blissful place!

 

Sounds awesome! I booked this for my upcoming cruise. It's a Med cruise with only 1 sea day but I will try to get in there after port days for at least an hour to rest and recuperate. Will definitely be getting this on my upcoming Bermuda cruise which will be way less scheduled than that Med cruise.

[Trufflelovescruising]

Hi everyone:

 

For those that have used the Thermal Spa, can you tell me which areas are for co-ed? My husband and I would like to do this together but only if we can actually be together. Don't really appreciate sitting in a steam room by myself.

 

We are sailing on the Dawn the end of April for 14 days.

 

Worthwhile??

 

Penny

Edited September 28, 2016 by Trufflelovescruising

[PhillyTravelBug]

We got an offer on the getaway on day 5....$79.99 for the rest of the cruise. It was worth every cent. Wish I got it in the beginning.

[BirdTravels]

Hi everyone:

 

For those that have used the Thermal Spa, can you tell me which areas are for co-ed? My husband and I would like to do this together but only if we can actually be together. Don't really appreciate sitting in a steam room by myself.

 

We are sailing on the Dawn the end of April for 14 days.

 

Worthwhile??

 

Penny

 

Penny,

We're just off the Dawn. I posted the information you're asking about and some photos on thread http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2404052

[gma_pat]

Hi everyone:

 

For those that have used the Thermal Spa, can you tell me which areas are for co-ed? My husband and I would like to do this together but only if we can actually be together. Don't really appreciate sitting in a steam room by myself.

 

We are sailing on the Dawn the end of April for 14 days.

 

Worthwhile??

 

Penny

 

On the Dawn the sauna and steam rooms are in the male/female only areas. The lap pool hot tub and thalo pools are coed along with loungers (unless they have changed that recently)

 

We actually enjoyed that. I was able to do some deep hair a facial conditioning while in the sauna without worry and hubby liked the cold plunge pool on the men's side

 

Enough to do together but some alone "me" time was good too

[Mike D.]

We were on the Jewel last week and loved the spa. We didn't make it there until halfway through our cruise and wish we had gone earlier.

 

Thanks for the review. You convinced me to purchase the pass for the April 23 Jewel/Mexican Riviera Cruise. I've never darkened the tour of the spa before except to peer into it as I leave the gym in the morning.

[Robinola]

It's sad to say but there are loud yackers sometimes that can ruin the entire relaxation aspect of it. These are the same people who are on every cruise who have to tell you where they are from, the wonderful things available in their city and of course they must detail every cruise they have ever been on. If you are fortunate and avoid those folks, you just may get some well deserved rejuvenation! Best wishes!

[Love.II.Cruise]

We love thermal suites - not just on NCL. ;) We always book them... our goal is to relax on a cruise. However, if we have a port intensive cruise, we use it less. On a more sea day cruise, we use it a lot more.

 

We've only experienced the Epic Thermal Suites on NCL and highly recommend them. We will be booking it on our next cruise.

 

I do agree with another poster... if the sell out all the passes, you won't be able to get a daily pass. This happened when we booked for the entire cruise and people traveling with us did not book it and they could not get a daily pass.

[ctnurse]

How many passes do they sell? How crowded does it get? I just bought DH and I passes for the Jade this summer and wanted to get an idea of how busy, or not, it will be.

[hawkeyetlse]

For a ship like the Jade, I believe they say that they sell at most 80 passes total. I don't know if there are separate limits for men and women (40 + 40) or if they just assume it'll naturally be half and half, or close enough.

 

How busy it will be is really unpredictable, depends on the itinerary, the season, the time of day, the weather, etc. etc. If all 80 people show up at the same time, they can't all go in at the same time. The maximum capacity of the facilities is maybe about half that, I don't know. Occasionally it does feel like there are too many people in there, but in our experience, that's rare.

[$hip$hape]

How many passes do they sell? How crowded does it get?

I just bought DH and I passes for the Jade this summer and wanted to get an idea of how busy, or not, it will be.

 

Crowded? Depends on when you go. You have to figure when no one else will be there.:)

After having passes on our last two cruises,

WE decided to go back on our next cruise; booked a Spa Balcony.

 

"Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." - Yogi Berra

[luckyinpa]

How many passes do they sell? How crowded does it get? I just bought DH and I passes for the Jade this summer and wanted to get an idea of how busy, or not, it will be.

 

on the BA we got there around 9 and did the pool and a few things. but by time we got out of pool and sauna all the tiled loungers were taken so we never got to try them

 

but there were ample loungers with great views out the front of the ship