Best Ships for Spas

ruise-ship spas have evolved to the extent that some of the newest and biggest ships are now fitted with multi-level establishments with dozens of treatment rooms, offering the widest range of face and body treatments and massages, and elaborate, fully-equipped fitness centers with steam rooms, saunas, and hydrotherapy rooms.

Almost every ship can also offer traditional salon services for hair, nails, and skin. Some larger ships even have so-called "medi-spas" with certified staff offering Botox injections, teeth-whitening, and acupuncture. Others are intimate spaces that offer pampering on a smaller, albeit no less luxurious, scale.

Spa services don’t usually come cheap, though they are more or less equivalent to what you might pay in any resort spa. Expect to pay $120 for a one-hour Swedish massage, $119 to $169 for a facial, and $110-$120 for an hour of reflexology. Salon services are also equivalent to what you’d pay in a big-city salon: $35 to $59 for hair styling, $29 to $50 for a manicure, and $45 to $70 for a pedicure.

These are our favorite cruise ship spas.