Get spoiled at sea with bath butlers who ensure there’s champagne next to your soap, charcoal saunas, and al fresco massages.
Few places are more therapeutic than the sea. Oceans help the mind to unwind, and gazing at them from the deck of a cruise ship can feel like pure meditation.
Or opt for the Otium Balcony Experience: In cold climates, you get warmed cashmere blankets and hot chocolate set up on your balcony; in tropical destinations, it’s refreshing body mist and ice-cold cocktails.The premium, formerly Greek-owned Celebrity Cruises boasts cruising’s most considered wellness concept, providing not only expansive spa spaces on most of its 15 ships, but many other opportunities to invigorate the body and soothe the soul.
Edge-class ships have the SEA Thermal Suite with eight treatment rooms, including a Turkish hammam, infrared sauna and meditation float room.Then there’s The Spa, a huge multi-storey space that provides more than 120 treatment options, from massage and acupuncture to pain-management sessions. A 50-minute Swedish massage costs $US215.
You can book paid treatments too: a 50-minute, deep-tissue Swedish Mindful Massage costs $US139. If none of that sounds like you, forget the spa and go sit in the stylish infinity pool at the back of the ship, where you gaze over the ocean while sipping champagne.This Regent Suite bathroom on the Seven Seas Grandeur is lavishly designed for a personal spa experience.
Don’t want to share the spa space? Book the 413-square-metre Regent Suite overlooking the bow of Explorer, Splendor or Grandeur for about $13,000 a night. The two-bedroom suite is among the most expensive at sea, and comes with its own sauna, steam room, spa – plus unlimited complimentary in-room spa services.
There are elegant if austere steam, ice, infrared and salt rooms as well. Other things to make you go “ooh, ahh” are the zero-gravity massages, and the Experiential Showers with multiple jets and lighting effects. A 75-minute Ocean Spa Wave Massage on a water-filled cushion includes a therapeutic wrap and deep-cleansing seaweed mask.