A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM 12/2 About This Page:

[chezp]

Saturday 5 September – part one: an indulgent early morning booking…

Today was the one day we had to be up early, and after being up late the night before too… great planning! Why? Well, that will become obvious shortly, as I think this may have been something I omitted to mention earlier in the trip report.

Anyway, the only thing open this early was Goofy’s Galley, so we headed up there, and it had a better selection than I was expecting.



As you can see, I didn’t do too badly…



The skies were distinctly darker today and it felt damp, with rain in the air, so eating out on deck nine just wasn’t an option. Instead, we headed back to our room for breakfast. The scenery outside was stunning…



Once we’d finished that, we didn’t have long, as we had a booking at 8:00am..... so we made our way over to the Vista Spa. Now a couple of days ago, we’d decided to book the couple’s choice spa villa treatment, which was a major indulgence, but something we’d both talked about doing, and liked the idea of. Let’s face it, you’re only 50 once, so why not?

We headed to the changing rooms, got changed, and were due to meet Sheila, who’d done my massage a couple of days ago, but I guess I must’ve been a bit quick for her, as she was nowhere to be seen. I headed into the Rainforest, as I thought maybe we’d agreed to meet there, but there was no sign of anyone in there, so I got a quick photo done…



… I came out, looked around again, and a minute later, found her. She took me through to the spa villa, and a moment later, Mark arrived as well. They went through what treatment we wanted. We hadn’t specified anything when we’d booked, and there did seem to be a bit of confusion over this, as we both knew what we wanted, the hot stones massage. Sheila did take me through something else, although I have no idea what it was called, but I told her I was good with hot stones.

Once we’d gone through that, we were taken through to the outer area, containing the Jacuzzi, and we were both given a foot and lower leg exfoliation, and we both commented how much better our feet and legs felt after that.

Once that was complete, Sheila and Neren, who’d be doing Mark’s treatment, left us alone, pulling down the blind, and no doubt getting the other room ready for our massages. We immediately headed into the hot tub, and it was a perfect temperature, nice and warm, as there was a bit of a breeze in there (one of the doors didn’t close 100% properly), but not too hot. It was just comfortable, and we soaked in there for a bit.



We had been warned that the Jacuzzi did have dips in it, and it certainly did. There was a section where water came in from a jet above, and trust me, you did drop down a fair bit in that. I was glad of the warning, shall we say?

Once the Jacuzzi shut off, we figured it wouldn’t be long before Sheila and Neren would be back, so we got off and dried off. Sure enough, not long afterwards, we got the knock on the door, and headed inside. Sheila and Neren headed outside to clear up, leaving us to get ready, which was a very nice way of doing things.



The massage was absolute heaven, although my legs and particularly my right knee are not in a good way, as that part of the massage wasn’t fun, it was pretty sore in places. 75 minutes later, we were both left to recuperate, and gingerly got to our feet.

Next: a captain’s approval for our excursion

[Poobah7206]

Sounds like a great way to start the day!

[Colexis Mom]

Such a beautiful spa area! Great start to the day!

[disney_duke]

Aaaaahhhhh, nice and relaxing. And the breakfast looked pretty darn good too!

[PrincessSharon]

Caught up again. Your cruise sounds absolutely amazing! Glad you got to finally see some whales even if Mark didn't get to see an orca. And what a meal at Palo!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by disney_duke

Aaaaahhhhh, nice and relaxing. And the breakfast looked pretty darn good too!

That wasn't bad, although the highlight was the spa, obviously!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by PrincessSharon

Caught up again. Your cruise sounds absolutely amazing! Glad you got to finally see some whales even if Mark didn't get to see an orca. And what a meal at Palo!

Hey, you too may get to see whales if you cruise to Alaska... Sorry, I couldn't resist!

[cubfancolleen]

That couples spa experience is really something, isn't it? We splurged on that for our 20th anniversary. Not something I can see doing every cruise (not that I woulnd't WANT to do it each time), but it does feel like something for only special occassions.
Although when we did it, the doors were wide open, if I remember correctly. And we were somewhere in the North Sea!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by cubfancolleen

That couples spa experience is really something, isn't it? We splurged on that for our 20th anniversary. Not something I can see doing every cruise (not that I woulnd't WANT to do it each time), but it does feel like something for only special occassions.

Yep, I hear you on that 100%. It's very pricey for starters, but I think if you did it every cruise, it really wouldn't be that special after a while.

Although when we did it, the doors were wide open, if I remember correctly. And we were somewhere in the North Sea!

Oh my goodness!

[Disneybine]

Oooooo, that spa villa looks amazing!!!

[SharonK0527]

A very nice way to start the day! Breakfast looked good too!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Disneybine

Oooooo, that spa villa looks amazing!!!

It was amazing, but then again, given the price we paid for it, it should've been.

[Cam22]

What an indulgent way to start a day even if it did mean getting up so early.

[chezp]

Saturday 5 September – part two: a captain’s approval for our excursion

We headed into the outside area of our spa villa after our treatment was done, and then Sheila and Neren came back with tea for us, along with fresh fruit. I have to say the fruit tasted heavenly, and the tea wasn’t bad. I really did need it, as now it felt freezing in the outdoor area. They gave me an extra towel, then an extra blanket on top of my dressing gown, I was feeling the cold so much, but it didn’t do that much good, so we retreated into the inner room and its relative warmth.


At this point, we were again left to enjoy our tea, and that’s what we did, before heading out to meet them in reception to settle up the check. I have to say this was not a cheap experience. The one we selected was the couple’s choice, which cost $237.50 each, plus tax and auto gratuity.

You can also select from the romantic hideaway, which is slightly cheaper at $224.50/person, which gives you a 50 minute spa treatment of your choice. You can choose from La Therapie HydraLift facial, the Elemis Pro-Collagen marine facial, the Elemis deep tissue muscle massage, a Swedish massage, the Elemis exotic lime and ginger salt glow with a half body massage and you get a total of 120 minutes in the villa.

There’s also the ultimate indulgence, which gives you 150 minutes in total in the villa, and you get the Elemis pro-collagen marine facial and the Elemis deep tissue muscle massage, which is usually 100 minutes in total. That would set you back $294.50/person.

Our option, the couple’s choice, comes with a 75 minute treatment and you get a total of 130 minutes in the villa, which is a bit frustrating, as you get less villa time (55 minutes as opposed to 70 minutes with the romantic hideaway option), whereas I’d rather have had more. However, none of the options in the romantic hideaway really appealed to us. With the couple’s choice, you can choose from the Elemis Aroma stone therapy, Elemic Cellutox aroma spa ocean wrap, Elemis musclease aroma spa ocean wrap, Elemis exotic lime and ginger salt glow with a half body massage, the exotic Frangipani body nourish wrap with half body massage and exotic coconut rub and milk ritual wrap with half body massage.

So was ours worth what we paid for it? Well, it was $237.50 each, plus tax and auto gratuity, and a 75 minute hot stone massage would cost $190, so really the additional $47.50 each is what you pay to have the spa villas to yourself, which I think is pretty reasonable. However, having said that, I would have preferred a bit longer in there, perhaps half an hour at the beginning, rather than 20 minutes, and maybe an extra 20 minutes at the end to warm up in the Jacuzzi again. Perhaps a 60 minute treatment would be better in the whole two hours, but that’s just me.

With that, we headed into the Rainforest, and sadly we didn’t have it to ourselves. I was able to shower and wash my hair, as once again, my hair was very greasy with the scalp massage I’d had as part of the hot stones treatment. That done, we headed to the hot stone chairs, but we knew it would not be peace and quiet, given that we could hear the two older women in the mild steam room, and that was saying something, as that thing does hiss a bit. It continued when they came out and took showers, and we both breathed a huge sigh of relief when they left.

They were quite funny, as I got the distinct impression that neither of them had been to a spa before, and let’s just say one was very inappropriately dressed. She was in fitness gear, and having been in a steam room, and shower, that was a little see-through now. Trust me, you need swimming gear to use either of those things and maintain your dignity. That woman left moaning that she wished she’d taken up the offer of a dressing gown…

We stayed put for a bit longer, then I went into the sauna to dry off a bit more, and to help my hair dry, as I didn’t want to go out into a colder and damp day with wet hair. Eventually, after I’d finished cooking myself, we headed back to the room. Here’s the view that awaited us…



Yes, we were now docked in Ketchikan, our final destination of this trip, and perhaps the most visually pleasing one, certainly from the ship’s dock anyway. Our next mission was to get something to eat, as although our tour included a crab feast, we knew it would be later on, and we wanted something to keep us going in the meantime. We headed up to deck nine, and I went to Pinocchio’s Pizzeria and got a couple of slices of pizza, one mushroom, and appropriately enough, given we were in the salmon capital of the world (according to the signs here ), one salmon.



I was happy with my choice, so headed back to the room, and bumped into Captain Robert on the way. We’d been commenting that he’d been very conspicuous by his absence, particularly since the fire incident earlier in the cruise, and it was nice to finally see him. He asked what excursion we were taking today, I told him, and he said that was one of his favourites, and he hoped we’d enjoy it as much as he has in the past. He’s a very charming man, but perhaps a bit understated, but then again, I find that with a lot of the Disney Cruise Line captains. I think it comes from most of them being Scandinavian.

We made our way down to the Walt Disney Theatre at the appointed time to meet up for our shore excursion…



… and the irritating Kristine from Wales was there. Quite a few people started to comment about how annoying she was, especially when she started to tell jokes to our group. The other tours set off relatively quickly, but there was a delay with ours. I suspect the bus wasn’t there yet, as when we finally got off, we still had a wait for it. Given we were all adults, we were fine waiting, but she had to carry on. Eventually, she got the feeling that she should just give up, and let us all go back to watching Peter Pan, which we all much preferred.

Next: who knew Alaska had so much of this?

[Colexis Mom]

What a great morning at the spa! Sorry the excursion is off to an annoying start with Kristine!