Lotus Spa (Emerald)

[skid71]

Good afternoon

My wife and I are taking our first cruise in October (her bday & our belated honeymoon).

She made an appointment for the 2nd sea day at the Lotus Spa for a couples Swedish massage.

I've got a couple of questions.

We've never had a couples massage of any kind before. What can we look forward to?

On the cruise personalizer, it says to confirm the appointment with the Spa upon boarding. And it also says, Please bring your pre-reservation confirmation letter with you.

I cannot figure out how to print this letter. Is this a letter that should be in our cabin?

Really appreciate the help and look forward to reading some experiences of others on the massage.

Jeff

[skid71]

Bump

 

Quite surprised no one has anything to share.

 

Thanks again,

Jeff

[skid71]

I guess I'll toss this out one last time for anyone with some feedback.

Thanks

 

Jeff

[jeromep]

It might be the title you gave the thread that is causing folks to not be able to answer, but that is beside the point. This isn't really a specific topic to the Emerald. That doesn't matter, I'll answer the best way I can.

 

Just about everything you do in the cruise personalizer will be backed up by some action by the ship once you are on board. For example, we booked a shore excursion throught the cruise personalizer (and saved $10pp over the on board booking price) and the shore excursion tickets were delievered to our stateroom after dinner the evening of embarkation. I'm inclined to believe that the ship will provide you a confirmation letter or note from the Lotus Spa in the same manner.

 

Just a word of advice, on port days the Lotus Spa manager will run specials if their schedule looks like it isn't going to be particularly full. On our first port day, which wasn't the longest port day we had either, the spa did a masage and facial for $139 and my wife and I took advantage of it. It wasn't a couples masage, but it was still nice. We felt it was a pretty good deal, about $20 more expensive than in our home town, but a much better price than what those services usually cost on board.

 

And here is a word of warning. The Lotus Spa is run by an outside firm who contracts with Princess and has a vested interest in selling you product. So, after every spa treatment the therapist comes back and tries to sell you product that is supposed to cure every ill you have. The product is expensive and equivelant can be found on land at a fraction of the price. Depending on how forward you are, you can start you session by informing them you don't want to buy product, or you can just say no thank you at the end of your session. You might also want to be guarded in terms of the information you put down on the new "patient" form they collect. It is a typical standard form you'd seen in any spa, but there are a series of check boxes you mark if you have dry skin, pain, etc. Just don't check any of those and the poor therapist will have a hard time recommending any product to you.

 

I do want to make this clear, my wife and I received very good facials and massages and are very happy with the service provided by the Lotus Spa staff. Just be on the lookout for port day specials listed in the Patter that you may be interested in and be aware of the selling of product after your session.

[skid71]

Jeromep,

Sincere thanks for sharing your experiences.

Especially about the selling of product! I'm on vacation, I don't want to be hard-sold.

Thank you for taking the time.

Jeff

[jeromep]

Jeromep,

Sincere thanks for sharing your experiences.

Especially about the selling of product! I'm on vacation, I don't want to be hard-sold.

 

Thank you for taking the time.

Jeff

 

Well, Princess does offers a lot of stuff for sale on board, in addition to shore excursions, there is the speciality/brewed coffee punch card, the pop package, the Ultimate Kids Package (pop, smoothies, milkshakes, mocktails). They tend to try to sell these on embarkation day, especialy at the International Cafe. Don't avoid the IC (assuming that your ship has one), the food is wonderful and they are open 6am to 11pm. So much better than eating at the buffet.

 

Then there are the on board shops and duty free stores. On top of that there is an on-board "shopping host". The shopping host generates newsletter inserts about shopping in the ports and of course is always promoting the on board sales of jewlery and such. All of this is pretty easy to ignore. Most of the shopping host inserts that arrived with the daily Princess Patter were skimmed and tossed. We weren't on vacation to shop.

 

My wife and I purchased one coffee punch card that we shared, along with two UKP because we wanted to have easy access to pop, smoothies, etc. We did some math before and after the cruise and feel that we did pretty well on all of the beverage passes we purchased as compared to paying for beverages every time we wanted one. The coffee card is a particularly good value, especialy considering that it gets you unlimited brewed coffee and hot chocolate from the International Cafe so long as you have one punch left on the card.

 

But all of the above is really off topic. To be honest, I'm under the impression that the folks working in the spa are basically forced to always try to sell the products. It is part of their job expectation. We get the same thing at a high end spa in town, so you just have to learn to smile and say "no thank you." We were never asked by the same person twice to purchase product. Our experience was that once you said no, they left it at that. In fact, the therapist that performed my masage and facial actually invited me back on another port day for a hot stone massage that was about $30 less than the list price. Unfortunatly I ran out of time to take her up on that.

 

You are going to find selling on all the mainstream cruiselines. The only way to avoid it is to book with one of the luxe lines and they charge much more than any of the majors do.

 

I do highly recommend taking in diner at Sabatini's and the Crown Grill. It is $20pp and $25pp respectively and the food is excellent, well worth the cover charge. Also, be on the lookout in the Patter for the Pub Lunch. Pub lunch usually occurs on sea days and on the Golden it was in the Crown Grill. Excellent fish and chips and the bangers and mash were top notch. It is a heavy lunch, you might not even feel like having dinner later on.

 

My best advice is to always keep this in mind, your vacation is what you make of it, not what the cruiseline makes of it. I have no doubt that on our most recent cruise, one in which I have no complaints at all, in fact only praise, there was somebody else that thought that nothing went right. It is all about your attitude and your willingness to be flexible and even find the humor in the everyday.

 

I think you'll have a great time.

[patrickmoran]

A couples massage is very similar to a standard massage. You will be in a larger room with 2 massage tables and have 2 therapists. One will work on you while the other massages your wife. Sometimes the price is better than 2 single massages and some times not. It is pleasant spending the time with your wife in the setting.