Surial Baths

[antnee]

anybody have any new info on this or done it lately? I hear it is a very relaxing experience as far as armomatherapy goes

 

[gassmandy]

Did it a year ago................very relaxing in many ways!

 

[ducklite]

Eh. We tried it. It was OK, but didn't live up to our expectations. We won't bother to do it again.

BTW--I have asthma, and couldn't tolerate the steam room. We also ran into problems getting hot water for the shower if the hot water was on in the steam room.

There are so many other things I'd rather do and spend my money on.

Anne

 

[my3kids]

I did it. The steam didn't work at all until the last couple of minutes of the hour. No hot water either. Hated it. Anything but relaxing.

 

[emmak]

Definitely did not live up to our expectations. The shower was not working (no water) so the plumbers came to "fix" it while we stood in our robes!!! Well they couldn't repair the shower so they told us to use the showers in the bathroom when we were done. Excuse me...they wanted us to walk from the surial to the locker room showers covered in mud and oil?! We rinsed off in the steam room with the hoses and then took showers back at our room.
Needless to say, we did not enjoy the experience but they did refund us half of the cost. IMHO they should have refunded the entire amount because we couldn't enjoy the experience because we were too worried about how we were going to get cleaned off.

 

[Buckaroo's Dad]

Hi emmak.

they should have refunded the entire amount because we couldn't enjoy the experience because we were too worried about how we were going to get cleaned off.

Reminds me of that old Woody Allen line:

"Is sex dirty?"
"Only if you're doing it right."...

 

[emmak]

Hahaha Buckaroo's Dad!
Are you kidding? We were afraid to get mud in the room never mind any other substances!!!!

 

[inkkognito]

We enjoy the surial very much. I have some details on my website at www.castawayclub.com
Barb

 

[Buckaroo's Dad]

Hey emmak.

We were afraid to get mud in the room never mind any other substances!!!!

I don't know. Mud. Humm, to me it sounds creatively erotic (or is that erotically creative?)...

Also, I noticed you're from Enfield, Connecticut. Do you happen to work for Lego? "Buckaroo" is hoping to visit there sometime this summer and work for the company after he recieves his degrees in architecture and art. He is soon graduating 4th grade... lol.

 

[clarabelle]

We liked it. We enjoyed all the products they had for us to try.In addition to the mud and salt scrub there were shampoos and massage oils with different scents.
I think we mainly liked being locked in a room together for an hour! With small children we rarely get that much time alone!
The steam got a little too hot for us so we let it shut off for a while and let the room cool down.
I would do it again- mostly just because it was a special time with my husband.
There was a sales pitch at the end I could have done without.
She also talked to us about the "health benefits" of the products.
DH is a physician and I am an RN and she was giving us a load of BS(At least in my opinion). But we were feeling so mellow that we just nodded and smiled.

 

[emmak]

Hi Buckaroo's Dad.
Sorry to say that I do not work for Lego, although it is only a few miles from my home. It is located across the street from the CT Correctional Facilities so you could also visit some of Connecticut's "finest" while you're here!!!lol

 

[FloridaFlame]

We'd heard so many wonderful things about the Surial Bath, and were so excited when we booked it this cruise (we'd been unable to get a booking when we last sailed in 2000). We finally got to try it on the 9/13 Western itinerary.

Sadly, I would not recommend this spa experience to anyone. You are paying $60 to be in a cold, clinical tiled room for an hour with a bunch of spa products. We thought this would be sexy-- but we knew the minute she shut the door that there would be no Disney "magic" happening for us that hour!

There are NO muds to put on-- just a small dab of avocado facial mask and some eye cream. And there's the sea salt (or what us former Yankees call rock salt!), which just hurt when you tried to rub it on your skin. The sea salt shares a dish with the creams, and inevitably gets mixed up with them when you try to scoop it out. The bottles have no directions or indications on them-- and there are about 15 of them-- so if you don't remember what the attendant tells you at the start of the experience, good luck! We probably managed to put de-celluite toner on our faces or something.

A word about the steam room and shower. As other posters experienced, there was no hot water in the shower UNTIL the steam room had been running for about 20 minutes. The steam room was way, way too hot so we had to keep the floor hoses running constantly, which flooded out both rooms because the floor drains were slow! The shower equipment in the steam room side was mostly broken, too.

You have no sense of time. We didn't get an hourglass, which I saw other posters mentioned, nor is there a clock in the rooms. You feel rushed. So you can imagine, we're slapping sea salt on each other ("OW! Stop that honey, that hurts!") and then the facial mask, and then rinsing it off as fast as you can (with no washclothes!) and hurridly trying to shower all the gook off.

We are big spa fans and should add that, in general, the spa looked nice. Staff was friendly, too. We just wish we'd plunked that change down on other treatments, and will do that next time.

Wish we'd read these other reviews BEFORE we went!

 

[ThreeCircles]

We tried the Surial Chamber for the first time on our cruise in August and enjoyed it very much!

The combination of the muds (which you do get), steam, and spa products really left me feeling very refreshed and clean. I was quite surprised, as I'm not one to be a "spa" type of person. And, what makes it great, is that I felt this way all day!

 

[dzneprincess]

Oh thats very disappointing news. I was really hoping to do this with my DH on our cruise. But I really don't want to waste money on this if we don't enjoy it. To those of you who have had a negative experience, did you bring these issues up with the spa staff?

 

[FloridaFlame]

Hi there,
We are planning to follow up with a letter to the Spa operators, Steiner. Will post again if we get a reply.
FF

 

[FloridaFlame]

ThreeCircles, I think you are luckier than us. No mud to be had in our surial bath, unless you count the small amount of avocado mask.

 

[lucillemcg]

My husband and I tried the Surial last year and loved it! We hadn't researched it and didn't know what to expect, but we definitely were not disappointed. They had lots of muds, salts, shampoos, face creams, face masks, etc. to try. All of the products were great and we had fun sampling everything at least once. The steam part was too hot sometimes, but all you have to do is turn it off for a minute if you feel like cooling down.
We would bring a watch next time! The lady told us she'd knock on the door when there was 10 minutes left. We heard her knock only one time and when we left she said she had given us the "10-minute warning" knock, but we never heard it. She didn't give us any product speech afterwards at all. In fact, I had a manicure and massage and never got any speech about products.
I think it's something everyone should try at least once!

 

[Tiiiigergirl]

We've done it three times. The first two times were great or of course we would not have gone back. The third was a disaster! Pretty much if it could go wrong it did. The outside shower was cold but we figured what the heck at least the steam would warm us up. Nope, no steam to be had. So there we were. Two nekid adults covered in mud that just dried on us because we kept thinking the steam would start. The water in the steam chamber was cold too. So then we used the towels dipped in the cold water and scraped the mud off. My teeth were chattering. It took the entire time to scrape the mud off. When we got out I politely asked to speak with a manager. The attendant told us he wasn't available. I said that was fine but that I was not going to sign the check until we spoke with him. I mean they knew where I was going to be for the next 4 days. They could come find me! We went into to get dressed and my husband got out before I did. He is not big on confrontation and she approached him alone and coerced him into signing the check. She guilted him into it which is pretty easy to do. Unless it is really important and in the grand scheme of things a hundred dollar bill is not THAT important he just goes with the flow. He is a middle child and the peacekeeper.

I left there and I'm sure flames were shooting out of my hair! One of our tablemates saw me leave and said she'd never seen anyone look so mad. She said the spa attendant looked a little frightened. I went immediately to guest services and advised them that this needed to be addressed, NOW. They had me go to the cabin and have the spa manager call me. He did within 20 minutes as I'd told guest services that I did not want to spend my vacation trying to deal with this. I don't yell, swear or get abusive but I let them know that I could overlook the faulty equipment much more easily than I could the behavior of the CM who TRIED to do an end run around me. I knew that the equipment has some problems and occasionally does not work. Mechanical problems happen but there really was not excuse for the behavior of the CM in my opinion.

The spa manager apologized for the behavior of the staff. Offered us a chance to repeat the treatment. We declined. He removed the entire charge and then gave us rainforest passes. In the end it was resolved satisfactorally (sp?) however I wasn't quite as happy with the spa as I was in years past. Will I still use it? Yes. Would I do the surial again? No, but I think everyone ought to try it at least once.

 

[webray]

We just tried it for the first time this past week on the Magic. It was not at all what we expected...not relaxing at all. Not sure if we would try it again or not. The steam room is extremely hot, the showers take forever to warm up. Not really as romantic as we expected.

 

[ThreeCircles]

I don't know if the Surial Chamber is really "technically" supposed to be "romantic." I know, or at least I've heard discussion on the Dis Boards and elsewhere, that people use it for a "romantic" excursion of sorts. But I think the main idea behind the treatment is relaxation and, to some extent, a refreshing feeling. Of course, this is only my interpretation!

By the way, did you guys ever notice that the description for the Surial Chamber states that it is enjoyable for a "couple or a party of three"? Hmmm... I didn't know Disney got into that side of things!