I recently had a spa treatment onboard the Disney Wonder. I am wondering how often people on this board use the spa while cruising. What kind of treatments and their experience. I enjoyed my treatment, but felt pressured into buying some spa items that at home I will probably never use. My husband too. He got a massage and felt pressured into buying some oils. Anyone have this experience too? How did you handle it. I am wondering if it is just me ;)

I recently had a spa treatment onboard the Disney Wonder. I am wondering how often people on this board use the spa while cruising. What kind of treatments and their experience. I enjoyed my treatment, but felt pressured into buying some spa items that at home I will probably never use. My husband too. He got a massage and felt pressured into buying some oils. Anyone have this experience too? How did you handle it. I am wondering if it is just me ;)

Yeah, I felt pressured to buy their products, too, but I just said "let me think about it, since that's a lot of money. If I want them, I'll come back before the end of the cruise". I knew it was stuff I would never use and the prices made me gasp!

Why can't you just say No.

Sometimes I do say no, and in everyday life I don't have a problem saying no, but on a cruise or at a spa, my feeling is because they've worked so hard in giving you a nice treatment and the fact that they make money on the commission, I don't want to out right say no. If I heard that, it would feel like an insult and that perhaps the client didn't enjoy the treatment I'd just given them as much as they said they did.

Personally, I think a nice sized tip shows them your appreciation. I just wouldn't have any trouble saying no to this.

Mrs.GusMan and I did the spa session where we gave each other massages by ourselves. When we signed up, they gave us a questionnaire to fill out and as a result they layed out a large assortment of spa items that would best suit our needs. It included massage oils, cleansers, exfoliating rubs and the like. The session was an hour long and well worth it. (Will do this again in a heartbeat! )

While we did all the "work" we did tip our hostess very well as we thought what she arranged for us was perfect and made the experience very enjoyable one.

She did talk to us afterwards about each of the items that we used afterwards but I would not call it a hard sell. We said no thank you to many items presented with no pressure in return. She also demonstrated other items that she thought we would like. We did end up buying some of the massage oil because we really liked it. The cost was rather steep but after looking at that companies website, it was not all that much more that if I got it locally. (Heck, the extra would have been what it would have cost me in gas money to get to the local retailer in the first place.)

Keep in mind that those working at the spa are contractors, not full-time DCL cast members. Part of their role is to make sure that your memories carry on through the use of their products while at the same time trying to make a commission on the sale as well. At the same time, I still need to be a wise consumer and not purchase items based on anything other than my personal needs.

After MANY spa days at sea... here's my tip: when you fill out that form that asks you about stress and allergies and whatnot -- just fill out that you are fine, nothing is wrong and if they ask, tell them you are just pampering yourself. They read those sheets and try and sell you products that will help whatever condition you have.
For the massage you should still say where they should focus on.
I have bought some stuff in the past (but only the items I really wanted). Like others have said, tell them you will think about it, you know where the spa is and you'll be back. :)