| rev:text
| - This was the first place I tried in my Toronto Spa-Hopping Project (see my list).
I came here with my mom on my birthday because this place was highly recommended by a lot of people (including my former boss, who was raised knowing the finer things in life), and because we love going to spas and doing water therapies together. I'd wanted to get the 90 minute body mud or the hair/scalp renewal but my mom gets squicked out by strangers touching her (plus she wanted to keep costs down), so we just did the waters.
We went at about 1:30pm on a Saturday and as luck would have it, we didn't have to wait. We were originally wait-listed but as soon as we finished filling out our health forms, some people left and we could go in.
It was a nice environment and I liked how there were attendants constantly cleaning up in there but...it wasn't what I expected. It felt a bit like a (very lovely) gym changeroom because there were just SO many people milling about, and we had to line up for the showers because there were only 4 stalls. Most of all, it was very, very noisy, so it wasn't relaxing at all.
I quickly realized that I should have gone there expecting it to be more of a social experience (like a Japanese onsen or a Korean jjimjilbang, both of which we've enjoyed), because that was what it was. People were there with their friends/family, there was a bachelorette party in there...it's not a place where you go to relax. And I was surprised, because my boss had said she could take a book there and make a day of it. I wouldn't want to be reading in a room with 50? 70? people constantly milling about and the LOUD chatter that rang throughout the space. I wanted to do the waters and get right out - especially since you know there's probably a line of people waiting outside.
The house-brand toiletries were nice. The facilities were nice. I liked that they had a cold tub, warm salt pool, and a hot tub - a lot of places say that they have "water therapies" when they just have a swimming pool and a hot tub. We felt that the sauna wasn't hot enough and I think it would have been nice if it were scented with essential oils. The eucalyptus steam room we really enjoyed - the eucalyptus was very soothing for my sinuses! The sauna and the steam room were the only places that were actually silent, but even then, you could hear the din right outside the door.
I really appreciated that they had instructions everywhere on how to do a water cycle, and I think it would be really helpful if they had a large clock with a second hand/digital clock that displayed seconds by the cold pool so that people could keep track of when they could get out of the cold more easily (the clock they had only had a minute hand and an hour hand).
I realized upon leaving that all the esthetic services were done with their house brand skincare, which...I don't know. I don't know it very well, and part of the spa experience I want when I go to a spa is to have fancy, well-known, expensive products slathered on me. But I really liked their shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, and body lotion (though the body lotion was too light for my ultra dry skin), so I wouldn't mind returning and trying out some of the services.
One star off for the noise and another star off for the fact that, um, I saw some weird things floating in the warm salt pool. Like, they were probably emitted from a body - some kind of mucous-like substance. There wasn't a lot, and I only happened to see it because they have lights shining in the water at the waterfall wall, so it illuminated what was in there. So that wasn't very appealing. I mean, it's probably inevitable with so many people going in and out of the pool all the time, and I'm sure they constantly monitor the water quality to ensure that it's hygienic, but I wish I didn't see that. Also, I found that the front desk staff were a little cold. Polite enough, but cold.
All in all, it was an okay experience. My mom enjoyed it a lot more than I did because I think she went there expecting a social setting, and she can't wait to return. I wouldn't mind returning to try out the mud or scalp treatment but if my next experience doesn't impress me either, I probably wouldn't come back.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)