Spa on The Ascent

[cleobella]

Does anyone know how much a Day Pass to the Thermal Suite on the Ascent will cost? We would love to book a week pass but at $300 CAN pp, it is too expensive for two of us.  I don't suppose it's possible to share a pass with someone, lol?  

[paulh84]

There are no day passes available on my seven night cruise. I don't remember ever seeing day passes on E class ships. It might make more sense to submit a MoveUp bid. 

[hcat]

never heard of a share pass. maybe there will be an on board special.. 

 

We are booked into AQ Class with thermal suite access included.  Truthfully.. we much prefer the thermal suite area on S Class....nicer heated lounge space.. with window views to the sea. Nicer  room layouts and offerings . Salt room  and hanging chairs on E are wasted space....just our taste..

 

The locker room  on E is very nice!

Edited October 30, 2023 by hcat

[TourDeCruise]

10 hours ago, hcat said:

never heard of a share pass. maybe there will be an on board special.. 

 

We are booked into AQ Class with thermal suite access included.  Truthfully.. we much prefer the thermal suite area on S Class....nicer heated lounge space.. with window views to the sea. Nicer  room layouts and offerings . Salt room  and hanging chairs on E are wasted space....just our taste..

 

The locker room  on E is very nice!

 

The salt room on the Apex worked in November 2021 but the salt room on the Beyond did nothing as far as the salt. It was just a room that was slightly warm with no features except benches to sit on and have a bit of privacy as no one was in there because it didn't work. Have you seen the salt room work on any of the E class ships?

Edited October 31, 2023 by TourDeCruise

[lv2cruisgrl]

12 hours ago, cleobella said:

Does anyone know how much a Day Pass to the Thermal Suite on the Ascent will cost? We would love to book a week pass but at $300 CAN pp, it is too expensive for two of us.  I don't suppose it's possible to share a pass with someone, lol?  

$219 per person is what it shows for my April Ascent cruise. So I don't believe you can share it.

[blueslily]

18 hours ago, hcat said:

never heard of a share pass. maybe there will be an on board special.. 

 

We are booked into AQ Class with thermal suite access included.  Truthfully.. we much prefer the thermal suite area on S Class....nicer heated lounge space.. with window views to the sea. Nicer  room layouts and offerings . Salt room  and hanging chairs on E are wasted space....just our taste..

 

The locker room  on E is very nice!

 

Yes. I was really surprised by the sparseness of the thermal suite area on E class. I'm passing on it on my upcoming Ascent cruise.  

[kwokpot]

On 10/30/2023 at 11:38 AM, cleobella said:

I don't suppose it's possible to share a pass with someone, lol?  

I don't know of any cruiseline or hotel that allows sharing of a thermal suite pass.

[miched]

Not impressed with the Thermal Suite on the E class.   the loungers aren’t as comfortable.   They are under a slanted window with sun shining on the loungers, naturally depending on where the sun is.  
 

Those rooms are boring.   Sit in a room with a salt block or crystal?   The rain showers would be like walking thru a car wash.  It is a corridor with the shower heads above.   Not individual stalls.  
 

The swing chair is for design and not function 
 

We like the Persian Gardens on the S class

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[hcat]

On 10/30/2023 at 10:54 PM, TourDeCruise said:

 

The salt room on the Apex worked in November 2021 but the salt room on the Beyond did nothing as far as the salt. It was just a room that was slightly warm with no features except benches to sit on and have a bit of privacy as no one was in there because it didn't work. Have you seen the salt room work on any of the E class ships?

we did not stay  in long enough on EDGE.. better at local spa at  home.

[JoseAL]

Hello. I will be taking a 14-night cruise, in the balcony suite, from RIO DE JANEIRO TO CAPE LIBERTY, on the Celebrity Eclipse.

They sell a 14-day package to Jardim Persa, where there is aromatic steam, tropical rain showers, and the heat of the sauna. But they say the duration is only 15 minutes.

So I only have 15 minutes to take a sauna and then I have to get out of there?

I think there is very little time.

Does anyone know this Spa package and can explain it to me.

Thank you very much!

[cleobella]

In answer to my own question:  The day pass would cost $89 as per the girl at the Spa desk.  I ended up opting for the week pass, even though I resented the gratuity charge.  There's really no service in the Thermal Spa, just towels being restocked and robes being put in empty lockers which seems like basic service necessary to a basic spa function. I never saw staff in cleaning the rooms or mopping up the water on the floor, but it was clean so I'm sure that's done at night.  It is OK in there, with a hot infrared sauna, two hot mist rooms, a salt room (but it just has one panel of salt, it's not like a salt cave) and a crystalarium (really just a white marble room with a couple of small crystals mounted).  No one ever used this room so I found it good for meditation!  The thermal beds were plentiful, but if you go on a sunny day, it gets very hot and people where covering their eyes and heads. In the infrared sauna folks would put a towel at the door, or else it never got warm enough to break a sweat.    Over all, I'm glad I tried it, since it's a new ship, but unless you've booked Aqua Class I'm not sure it's worth the money to do a week pass.  Next time I'll just book a service, also expensive, but it's easier to justify the 20% gratuity when someone is actually tending to you personally, IMHO.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

37 minutes ago, cleobella said:

In the infrared sauna folks would put a towel at the door, or else it never got warm enough to break a sweat

 

The room is not supposed to be overly hot.

 

"Unlike a traditional sauna, infrared saunas don’t heat the air around you. Instead, they use infrared lamps (that use electromagnetic radiation) to warm your body directly.

“These saunas use infrared panels instead of conventional heat to easily penetrate human tissue, heating up your body before heating up the air,” explains physical therapist, Vivian Eisenstadt, MAPT, CPT, MASP.

An infrared sauna can operate at a lower temperature (usually between 120˚F and 140˚F) than a traditional sauna, which is typically between 150˚F and 180˚F.

Manufacturers claim that in an infrared sauna, only about 20 percent of the heat goes to heat the air and the other 80 percent directly heats your body."

[kwokpot]

1 hour ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

 

The room is not supposed to be overly hot.

 

"Unlike a traditional sauna, infrared saunas don’t heat the air around you. Instead, they use infrared lamps (that use electromagnetic radiation) to warm your body directly.

“These saunas use infrared panels instead of conventional heat to easily penetrate human tissue, heating up your body before heating up the air,” explains physical therapist, Vivian Eisenstadt, MAPT, CPT, MASP.

An infrared sauna can operate at a lower temperature (usually between 120˚F and 140˚F) than a traditional sauna, which is typically between 150˚F and 180˚F.

Manufacturers claim that in an infrared sauna, only about 20 percent of the heat goes to heat the air and the other 80 percent directly heats your body."

You have to sit DIRECTLY in front of the infrared panels so the heat radiates onto your back and THEN throughout your body. Most people don't know how to use an Infrared sauna. 

[acrane]

@cleobella can you tell us more about the hammam room? Is there like a scrub provided or anything?

[cleobella]

Good information about the infrared sauna, thank you.   This is the kind of information that would be helpful to have in the Spa. If there was an attendant around advising people or even an informative sign then guests would not be putting down towels to try to trap heat in the room. This kind of info should be given when they tour you around the spa.   Regarding the Hammam question there is no scrub provided. It's just heavy mist.  I enquired, and you can buy some there, I think the cost was about $60.  When we used the NCL spa they used to give you scrubs that they made up in the spa for free when you bought a pass. Maybe that has changed now, but the $60 charge on the Ascent was crazy considering how cheap salt and sugar scrubs are to make. 

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

2 minutes ago, cleobella said:

Good information about the infrared sauna, thank you.   This is the kind of information that would be helpful to have in the Spa. If there was an attendant around advising people or even an informative sign then guests would not be putting down towels to try to trap heat in the room. This kind of info should be given when they tour you around the spa.   Regarding the Hammam question there is no scrub provided. It's just heavy mist.  I enquired, and you can buy some there, I think the cost was about $60.  When we used the NCL spa they used to give you scrubs that they made up in the spa for free when you bought a pass. Maybe that has changed now, but the $60 charge on the Ascent was crazy considering how cheap salt and sugar scrubs are to make. 

 

While yes, they should probably give that information, people could also take the initiative to go and ask if it's broken and say why they think it is rather than just assuming and blocking the door with towels and such. My guess since they reportedly don't have any signs up, they have no clue that people aren't understanding how to use it. (I have not been there yet...I have Aqua booked for the Beyond in July.)

[keesar]

On the first day when you board, they were offering guided tours of the facilities of the spa.  The sequence of using the rooms of the Thermal Suite  was explained.  It was well worth the time to gain a better understanding of all of the rooms.

Edited March 17 by keesar

[cleobella]

We always take the spa tour and did so this time, but it was not a great tour.  Actually, very little was explained to us.  The guide seemed mostly interested in having us book with her specifically for a massage.  We've been to lots of spas and ended up figuring out most of it on our own.  

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

23 minutes ago, cleobella said:

We always take the spa tour and did so this time, but it was not a great tour.  Actually, very little was explained to us.  The guide seemed mostly interested in having us book with her specifically for a massage.  We've been to lots of spas and ended up figuring out most of it on our own.  

 

Sounds like when I was in Aqua on Summit this past summer. I went to the Fitness Center to sign up for my included classes, and the guy actually walked away from me when I said - after his increasing pressure - that I did not want to sign up for more than that at that time. (What made that even worse for them is that had I liked the experience in the classes I was interested in, I might well have signed up for more. As it was I stuck to the ellipticals and walking on the walking track for exercise.)