I Love Cruise Spas… Until the Sales Pitch Starts
If you're booking a spa treatment on Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Carnival, or MSC, expect upselling from commission-based OneSpaWorld therapists and consider setting a firm "no" in advance. For relaxation without the sales pitch, seek out the thermal suite instead, especially on Norwegian, MSC, or Viking Ocean ships, or Carnival's Cloud 9 Spas on Excel-class ships like Jubilee and Celebration. If cost is a concern, a massage booked in port can run less than half the shipboard price.
My read: this is less a scandal than a structural quirk of how cruise spas are staffed. OneSpaWorld runs the spas on most major lines, and its therapists work on commission, so the upsell isn't incidental, it's the business model. That explains why a $3,750 laser pitch can follow a massage that just melted your shoulders. Guests win by knowing the game going in; therapists are just working the incentive structure they're given. Thermal suites are the workaround since they're mostly commission-free, and the article's tip on Norwegian, MSC, and Viking Ocean backs that up, as does the Cloud 9 Spa praise for Carnival's Jubilee and Celebration. If I were booking, I'd budget my spa time for the thermal suite and get my massage in port instead, at less than half the shipboard cost.