Does anyone regret buying the weeklong Enclave pass?

[drwbrt]

My brother and I are looking at booking Enclave passes for our 7-day; we love a good schvitz.  Our only worry is the size of the Enclave; will we walk in the door and find it is too busy to stay?  I know it is capped, but how much do they "oversell" the Enclave?

[Auntiejo]

We have purchased Enclave passes for the duration of the cruise on every cruise we've taken on the Royal Class ships and it's been magnificent - we go multiple times each day and it's a real highlight for us and worth every penny in our opinion. 

 

However - we were on the Discovery for 10 days in Dec/Jan and it was way oversold and so insanely packed every time we went. People were reserving all the heated beds and there were several verbal altercations over it - it was like the hunger games. Every time we walked in, all the beds were reserved w/ people's personal items even though no one was laying in most of them. I've never seen this before in the Enclave on any other cruises. Usually there's multiple beds available at any given time because people are coming and going and not reserving. Some beds sat for an hour or more with no one actually laying on them but being held by their personal items

 

After the first 4 days we never went again. We deeply regret not demanding our money back - we should have. After this experience we've decided not to book the Enclave for our upcoming 10 day on Enchanted in December. This was our first cruise post-covid so I don't know if perhaps they've now thrown all caution to the wind as far as not over-selling to make all the money they can and this is just the way it is now? Or maybe what happened on the Discovery was a one-off? 

[Jilliebean28]

We have purchased the Enclave for our whole cruise multiple times in the past.  While we enjoyed it we found we were not using it enough to justify the cost.  So we will not be purchasing it going forward.

[DUCHESSRN]

I had same experience on Discovery , on sea days you had to sign up for a time slot of one hour.Staff did not able to enforce people to leave when their hour was up.

Royal at Christmas was slightly better but area was noisy .

[tml1230]

recently we took  a 21 day transatlantic and British isles cruise on the regal...we LOVED it!...and someone above said  , we used it several times a day....sometimes 3 times a day!

having said that we wouldn't do it on a port intensive cruise.

 

enjoy your cruise!

[freecruiser2]

On 6/29/2023 at 10:45 AM, Auntiejo said:

We have purchased Enclave passes for the duration of the cruise on every cruise we've taken on the Royal Class ships and it's been magnificent - we go multiple times each day and it's a real highlight for us and worth every penny in our opinion. 

 

However - we were on the Discovery for 10 days in Dec/Jan and it was way oversold and so insanely packed every time we went. People were reserving all the heated beds and there were several verbal altercations over it - it was like the hunger games. Every time we walked in, all the beds were reserved w/ people's personal items even though no one was laying in most of them. I've never seen this before in the Enclave on any other cruises. Usually there's multiple beds available at any given time because people are coming and going and not reserving. Some beds sat for an hour or more with no one actually laying on them but being held by their personal items

 

After the first 4 days we never went again. We deeply regret not demanding our money back - we should have. After this experience we've decided not to book the Enclave for our upcoming 10 day on Enchanted in December. This was our first cruise post-covid so I don't know if perhaps they've now thrown all caution to the wind as far as not over-selling to make all the money they can and this is just the way it is now? Or maybe what happened on the Discovery was a one-off? 

Not a one-off.  We had the same experience in Feb on the Discovery.  After days of complaints and complaining in my review after the cruise, we decided to protest and NOT book in April.  Not sure they noticed but it was the last straw after a few difficult scenarios.  I asked them to put up a sign over the beds, 20 min limit maybe?  They refused to tell the SLEEPING people for well over an hour to limit their time, or the people who put their items on the beds and then left them there while they went to other areas of the spa.  Can't believe people are so rude!  

And I know you can get your money back, because we did on the Royal after it was unbearably hot and they said they couldn't make it better.  One time on the Regal, I took the tour and just walked right back out when the Enclave was hot and steamy in the entire place vs just the steam room.  I have no idea what they are thinking?!  The spa used to be one of my favorite places on the ships, but after these experiences and the horrible upsell every time I have a massage, I just hesitate to do it.

[cruisequeen4ever]

We have very rarely found it to be busy, and we have never regretted getting it. The only downside I’ve experienced is that you feel compelled to use it every single day because you’ve spent so much money on it, when there are days that I would ideally prefer not to because we’re busy.

[suzyed]

8 hours ago, tml1230 said:

recently we took  a 21 day transatlantic and British isles cruise on the regal...we LOVED it!...and someone above said  , we used it several times a day....sometimes 3 times a day!

having said that we wouldn't do it on a port intensive cruise.

 

enjoy your cruise!

We have a 25 day cruise coming up....the British Isles and Europe portion is very port intensive but then we have the transatlantic portion.  When I looked up the cost of the Thermal Suite (is this the same thing?), the only offerings were 14 days for $299 or 10 day pass for $196.
Are they available to purchase once on board?  I would rather use some of my OBC for it rather than pre-paying.

Edited July 2, 2023 by suzyed

[tml1230]

on our May cruise on the regal this year you could purchase the plans on board. there seemed to be daily walk through tours (non intrusive and quick) with individual passengers,  

Yup, its called the thermal spa.