Spa Entry - restricted numbers/how to book?

[geordie_jim]

On our last cruise with Viking Ocean, (August 2021) the maximum number of guests allowed within the spa area was six and there was a high demand to book for entry times, the time allowed within the spa was from memory restricted to 50 minutes e.g. 10 minutes cleaning time allocated for each hour.

 

What are the current rules / procedures to access the spa?

 

Jim

[CCWineLover]

53 minutes ago, geordie_jim said:

On our last cruise with Viking Ocean, (August 2021) the maximum number of guests allowed within the spa area was six and there was a high demand to book for entry times, the time allowed within the spa was from memory restricted to 50 minutes e.g. 10 minutes cleaning time allocated for each hour.

 

What are the current rules / procedures to access the spa?

 

Jim

There is no restricted entry now to the spa area on the Ocean Ships.  From our observation on several cruises this year, that has its pros and cons.

Pros - you don't have to plan for it by making a reservation and be restricted to just that.

Cons - sometimes we found there were so many people there, it wasn't fun.  People tend to get loud in the spa (like they do in hot tubs) - the chaos and cacophony is not relaxing.   Sometimes too there were not lockers available either due to the volume of people. There didn't seem to be a pattern on when they were busy.  Some cruises the early morning was packed, others it was after lunch.

[CDNPolar]

35 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

There is no restricted entry now to the spa area on the Ocean Ships.  From our observation on several cruises this year, that has its pros and cons.

Pros - you don't have to plan for it by making a reservation and be restricted to just that.

Cons - sometimes we found there were so many people there, it wasn't fun.  People tend to get loud in the spa (like they do in hot tubs) - the chaos and cacophony is not relaxing.   Sometimes too there were not lockers available either due to the volume of people. There didn't seem to be a pattern on when they were busy.  Some cruises the early morning was packed, others it was after lunch.

Interesting - we were the exact opposite on our recent Homelands Cruise in September.  The Spa was empty almost every day.  We tend to go in the mid-afternoon about 3pm'ish and at this time it was empty.  Maybe 1 or 2 people.

 

Probably very much the demographics based on the cruise destination and during the day, when the popular excursions get back.

[CCWineLover]

1 hour ago, CDNPolar said:

Interesting - we were the exact opposite on our recent Homelands Cruise in September.  The Spa was empty almost every day.  We tend to go in the mid-afternoon about 3pm'ish and at this time it was empty.  Maybe 1 or 2 people.

 

Probably very much the demographics based on the cruise destination and during the day, when the popular excursions get back.

You are probably correct.  It was crowded between 9 and 11 AM often and also 3-5 PM on sea days and 3-5 PM on excursion (port) days.  And it varies as to demographics you are correct.  These were observed on Panama Canal cruise and 2 cruises in/to Norway this year.