Thermal area pass- worth it?

[mom2hershey]

Has anyone purchased the Thermal Area Pass prior to boarding?  Was it worth it?  What's actually included?

[Até]

I would need to know which ship before commenting, there are large differences between the MSC fleet.

[perakcruiser]

Cleary this depends on the ship.

 

Anyway, for all ships I would answer DEFINITELY NOT, but thats because I don´t have much interest Spa things. So I can just say the Spa on Mera and Seeside class is what you expect from a modern spa, people seem to enjoy it. 

 

 

[sptrout]

One general comment that I can offer that is not ship, or even cruise line specific, is that if you purchase an all cruise pass then you "are all in". By that I mean that once you make the purchase then the money's gone and not refundable in case at some point in the cruise you are not able to visit the spa every day. For example (and this has happened three times for us, but luckily two of the times the cost of the passes were already included (YC)), you buy the passes (2 for a couple) then later for some medical or other issue you cannot visit the spa enough times to get your money's worth.

 

To continue with our real world examples, the last two cruises I discovered that I could not enjoy the spa because of medical issues that made going to the spa very uncomfortable (back and leg problems). My wife needed the spa's whirlpools to help her medical conditions, but did not want to go by herself and worry about falling (bad knee and other problems) and not having me there to help. (I know that there are others available to help but it is not the same has having a loved one nearby.)

 

Bottomline, if you buy a cruise spa pass make sure that you can get your monies worth. Besides unknown medical problems, how about actually being able to visit all your cruise days (packing day comes to mind, or overcrowding during sea days, etc.)? Anyway, just make sure that you are really able to commit to the entire cruise, or at least almost every day.

 

 

[Beardface]

Speaking of the Spa

 

Are there any couples massages available that don't include access to the Thermal Suite?  Was looking to book one for my wife and myself on our sailing, but it looks like they all come with the Thermal Suite Access.  We are booked in the YC, so that isn't actually of any value to me, so I'm wondering if there are any cheaper options for this for people who already have that access?

[mom2hershey]

1 hour ago, Até said:

I would need to know which ship before commenting, there are large differences between the MSC fleet.

Sorry, it's Seaside

[SteelCruisin]

We had the Thermal area pass as part of the perks for Aurea lvl ...that being said, my only regret about the thermal pass is that I did not go on the first day because I absolutely loved it...now you will get people that hog the heated tile chairs but other than that, never had a problem with the area being overcrowded.  I typically spent 1 to 1.5 hours a day in the thermal area... also the hot tub was never used on the deck and the chairs were always available there as well.Be careful of the geiser room as the water is soooo cold initially that it becomes difficult to finish the full circuit.

[Até]

I've had thermal spa access on Seaside three times now, but it came with the Yacht Club cabins.  I consider Seaside class to have the best thermal areas of the fleet, even better than Meraviglia class.  My only complaint is the lack of outside view from inside the thermal area, but there is a nice private sundeck and hot tub if you're willing to go out there.  Also I'm not much of a cold feature person and Seaside had more warm features than Meraviglia, but I found none of them were truly hot.  The hottest tubs are only around 37 Celsius, and likely less, so you get feeling cool after a while, the saunas were fine.  Seaside thermal spa passes are expensive and while I do enjoy the area I don't think I would pay the price separately.  On our three Seaside sailings we went to the thermal area once, only on the first sailing, and never returned.  Perhaps if we didn't have a nice quiet retreat in the Yacht Club we might have gone more.  But the same scenario played out on Meraviglia with us only going once in 21 days, not all in the Yacht Club.  We had access included on Divina, which has a vastly smaller thermal area, but we never used it at all nor would ever pay the $99 per person per week at the time for access. 

 

Try to figure out realistically how often you would use the area.  Sea days are going to be crowded, will that matter?  Would you use it on port days?  How far is it from your cabin, are you really going to want to walk there multiple times a day?  Seaside has a lot of good alternative outdoor areas, would that be an acceptable replacement?  I'm not totally sure about this and someone may be able to help me here, I think they have small saunas that can be accessed through the gym if that is what you are looking for.  If you decide you want to try it definitely purchase online before you sail because on board prices are much higher.  Cruise Critic has a pretty good ship photo section to help decide:

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/photos/ships/msc-seaside-994/msc-aurea-spa-405462/

Edited December 23, 2019 by Até