Ships, castles and spas – passing through southern England and Wales COMPLETED - Page 13 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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You're having a relaxing day and everyone else is working!
Pretty much!
Quote:
Sounds like you didn't wait 30 minutes after eating before going back in the water.... just kidding.
Nope... after being an avid swimmer for many years, I've pretty much come to the conclusion that's an old wives' tale, as I've always been fine swimming straight after eating - and this wasn't exactly swimming.
Cardiff Bay looked quite amazing and seems so clean with many shops and restaurants! Seems like they've done a good job with this area of the city! Glad you enjoyed Jurassic World and seems like a winner that I must see! A nice day in the spa and a good meal to go with it! Too bad there were no photos!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Friday 12 June – part three: what an amazing room!
We were both taken off at the same time, Mark for his hot stones Vichy massage, while I was having the bamboo massage. During the week, they offer spa packages, which is what we were here on. They’re not available at the weekend or Bank Holidays, as the spa is busy enough without needing to sell them. Now I’d always thought that the spa packages pretty much represented the entire range of treatments on offer, but earlier on we’d been reading their brochure, and not a bit of it. They do so much more, and for example, you can get a treatment of just a hot stones massage, but it’s just not offered as part of a spa package, which is a shame, as I think we’d both go for that. By the way, paying separately is much more expensive. A two-hour spa session is £32 on weekdays, the treatments we had were about £65 each, then you’d have had the lunch on top, which would’ve cost at least £20 per head, and the package we were on was just £99, and it included a four hour spa session, not a two hour one.
Anyway, my treatment was with Jasmin, and I absolutely loved her. I like to talk to whoever’s doing my treatment while I’m having them done. Some people are happy to do so, others not so much, but Jasmin was very happy to chat away, and I found we had a lot in common. She’d spent five years on the cruise ships, but Carnival, and when I told her about Disney, she was immediately enthusiastic, saying she’d always wanted to try a Disney cruise. When I told her about the adult only areas, she was sold! I explained that we were going back to Alaska with Disney, and she asked if she could come with us, and if so, I could have the treatment free today!
I also discovered that she’s a huge Doctor Who fan, as she was asking why my legs were so tight, and I was telling her about everything I’d done the day before, so we were well away chatting!
The massage itself was quite rough in places, particularly on the backs of my legs, which Jasmin had warned me about at the start, and on my arms. However, having said that, both really needed the work, and while it was a bit painful to have it done, I knew it would bring longer term benefits, if that makes sense? I thoroughly enjoyed it, and would definitely have another bamboo massage done again, although the hot stones do remain my number one favourite.
When I was done, I actually felt quite revived, which came as a pleasant surprise, as often I feel absolutely exhausted. I made my way over to the area that you chill out in once your treatments are done, and Mark was there, looking very zoned out! I really didn’t want to lounge around and chill, as I felt so revived, so I headed down to reception to see how much time we had left here, as I thought the time we’d spent in the restaurant didn’t count, and I was right. Somehow we still had until 5:30pm!
I headed back to tell Mark and we both agreed that we wouldn’t stay that long, as we’d both had the same de-stress muscle gel recommended to us by our therapists, and we wanted to get some from the shop, which was due to close at 5:30pm. It’s a bit of an odd arrangement, as the shop is across the road from the spa.
Anyway, once Mark felt a bit more alive again we headed back up to the rooftop pool. By now, the Minerva Pool was absolutely packed, and Jasmin had told me that Fridays get busier as the day goes on, which makes sense, as people obviously take half days to come here. She’d also told me that Bank Holidays are murder here as are Saturdays. We’re half thinking of bringing two of Mark’s sisters down here for their birthdays, and were thinking about a Saturday, but it would be at opening time (see what you learn from Disney? Always get there at opening ) and Jasmin told us it wouldn’t be that bad if we were that early. Food for thought…
The rooftop pool wasn’t too crowded, and the clientele had definitely changed from this morning. Gone were the women who were obsessed with not getting their hair wet, and pretty much all the women I saw had soaking hair, and many of them, like me, were happily dunking their hair in the water. I have to say there is something very relaxing about putting your hair into warm water. The pools are both kept at a constant warm temperature, which is pleasant, but we’re not talking hot tub temperatures here. According to the website, the temperature is 33 degrees Celsius or 92 degrees Fahrenheit.
We managed to make our way over to the only seated area in the rooftop pool. I feel they could do with more of these, as obviously this was very popular. We arrived just as the Jacuzzi element of it was finishing, so of course people were leaving. We sat it out, determined to wait for the next set of Jacuzzi jets to come to life, but we had quite a long wait. Still, it didn’t matter. We were happy enough there. While we were there, it started to rain, nothing too heavy, and actually it felt quite nice, although it was a little on the surreal side to be sitting in a pool being rained on!
After probably another hour in there, we headed back down to the aromatic steam rooms, and just spent a bit of time in the eucalyptus menthol and lemongrass and ginger ones, until we felt that our sinuses were fully cleared out again.
From there, we headed outside on to the terrace again. On a day like today, which was pleasantly warm, although a little wet at times, it was a nice shock to the system to head outside after spending time in the steam rooms, as it allowed your body the opportunity to cool down.
Once we were done there, we made our way back down to the changing rooms, and picked up shampoo and conditioner, and then headed up to the showers. We literally just washed our hair, as I don’t think either of us felt overly confident or comfortable having a full shower, and then walking around in the dressing gowns they provide with nothing underneath, as they were a little see through, shall we say? We then headed back upstairs (see how annoying this all is? ) to get changed, and for me to dry my hair a little bit.
We headed out, paying our £5 for our extra item at the restaurant and gawped at the size of the line to get in now. Look at it…
Yes, this is out of the door! Jasmin had told me that once, before she’d worked at the spa, she’d come here in the summer and had waited two hours to get in! I can’t begin to imagine doing that. Don’t get me wrong, I love this place, but I’d be so stressed after a two hour wait that I don’t think anything would then relax me!
We made our way over to the shop, and found the muscle gel, along with something that Mark’s therapist had recommended to him to help him sleep, and I also got a swimming bag, as sadly my London 2012 bag is already on its last legs – one of the sets of straps has broken on it, and I’m sure it won’t be long before the other goes too.
That done, we headed back to the car, stopping to browse in a couple of shops along the way.
We headed out of the car park, and made our way over to the bed and breakfast place we were spending the night at. It’s called Cranleigh, and it looked like a lovely place from the outside…
We were immediately greeted by a very friendly guy, and it turned out that he’d worked as cabin crew on British Airways, flying long haul for 10 years, before coming to this. I can’t imagine doing a job like that for that long, as all those time zones must mess your body up.
He showed us around, and the breakfast area was currently home to cakes, which apparently they had every afternoon. They also had an honesty bar, and then you pay for whatever drinks you take when you leave. I never cease to be amazed by how many little extras bed and breakfast places provide, compared to hotels. Mind you, I guess they have to to compete with them.
We were shown to our room, which was helpfully on the ground level. Look at this!
We were amazed, and we were told that, although we’d booked a superior room, this was “a slight upgrade”. Well, we’ll take it!
The view outside was pretty cool as well…
A few minutes later, Mark spotted these two cute guys playing on the lawn!
What a lovely afternoon! All relaxed at the spa and then your place for the nights looks like a great find.
The line out the door is crazy though. Wow. I can't imagine waiting in line for the spa.
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Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
That's quite a crowd waiting to get in! What time does the spa close?
Love the look of your B&B! I'm so looking forward to my DH and I getting to return to staying at B&B's when we're back to the 2 of us and the kids are off in college.
Seems like quite a relaxing afternoon at the spa! I can't believe those lines as if I saw that I'd turn away. Always good to have a reservation to avoid that situation!
Your room looks absolutely stunning and very Victorianesque in its' appointments. I noticed the bottle of wine on the night table and hope you and Mark put that to good use!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
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Seems like they've done a good job with this area of the city! Glad you enjoyed Jurassic World and seems like a winner that I must see! 
They do so much more, and for example, you can get a treatment of just a hot stones massage, but it’s just not offered as part of a spa package, which is a shame, as I think we’d both go for that. By the way, paying separately is much more expensive. A two-hour spa session is £32 on weekdays, the treatments we had were about £65 each, then you’d have had the lunch on top, which would’ve cost at least £20 per head, and the package we were on was just £99, and it included a four hour spa session, not a two hour one. 
as are Saturdays. We’re half thinking of bringing two of Mark’s sisters down here for their birthdays, and were thinking about a Saturday, but it would be at opening time (see what you learn from Disney? Always get there at opening 
We then headed back upstairs (see how annoying this all is? 
) to get changed, and for me to dry my hair a little bit. 
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