A relaxing spa treatment! I think not!

Have you ever been pressurised into buying the products from the spa whilst on a cruise ship?

Last year I took a cruise on the Royal Princess and decided to treat myself to a spa treatment. I booked myself in for an Elemis deep tissue massage which wasn’t cheap at the cost of $179 plus gratuity. What I wasn’t expecting was the hard sell that started as soon as the  Masseuse had finished her last few  strokes on my shoulders.

When I first entered the room I was asked to fill in a questionnaire to show me on a scale of 1 to 10 how stressed I was feeling at the time, I was then asked about my life and how busy I was  and if I had children  and did I get stressed easy.

My first impressions were how thorough they were in assessing my stress levels and also my medical needs however my first impressions soon turned to horror because at the end of the massage she brought out another questionnaire and then asked me how I was feeling now!  I had to be honest after having a stress level of maybe six or seven when I went in, I now had a stress level of 3-4.

She began to come up with a de-stressing structure plan that when tallied up was in excess of $300. I was in such a relaxed state and felt so embarrassed that I just signed the checks for the products. It was only afterwards that I felt coerced into buying something I didn’t want and I asked my husband to take it back.

I thought this was a one off but a recent forum showed that this was just the tip of the iceberg with the following comments.

• recently had a manicure on board at £40 and was then pressurised into buying hand cream at £50

• had a massage then the girl asked me to get dressed and once dressed showed me two plans at £120 or £220

Spa treatments are already 25-50% higher than on land so why do the Salon Managers set their staff such high targets that we the customer feel coerced and almost violated in their ruthless pursuit of a sale.

I for one will not be using the on board spa facilities on any cruise ever again and that’s a shame as I really enjoyed the actual treatments but I do not want to be ever put in such an awful situation again.

Have you had a similar experience?