steam room
On Carnival Splendor the thermal suite doesn’t have just one entrance, but several doors along the same hallway that leads to the fitness center after passing by doorways to the spa treatment rooms. People who have either booked spa cabins or purchased the thermal suite package have access to the thermal suite areas for the entire cruise. Other people sometimes buy a one-day pass.
deck plan to the spa area
To get the access card that opens doors to the various thermal suite areas people check in at the spa desk and trade their room card for the spa card, trading back when they finish. There is also a beauty salon in the spa area, but neither it nor the treatment rooms are part of the thermal suite. We were in cabin 1114, a spa balcony cabin which was very handy to the spa and fitness area as well as having a door right out to the waterslides at the end of the very short hallway of rooms.
thermal suite pool
The pool is the highlight of the thermal suite to many people. Unfortunately on the Splendor the pool was never as warm as a thermal suite pool ought to be and the jets only lasted a few minutes before someone had to push the button again. The entrance also had some issues. It should just take one try with the spa card to unlock the door, but sometimes even multiple tries with many cards wouldn’t work. One day there were other people already trying to get in and their cards wouldn’t work so we all tried ours and none of them worked either. We had to get one of the employees to open it and even he had a hard time and took multiple tries before the door finally unlocked. Luckily it was not that difficult most days, though it normally took more than one try.
heated ceramic chairs
My favorite room in the thermal suite was the dry room with heated ceramic chairs. Normally that’s a tie with the pool, but since this one had problems the chairs were definitely better. There were about 9 chairs spaced around a room with floor to ceiling windows, though not many of them actually faced the view.
aromatherapy steam room
The spa also had two steam rooms, one aromatherapy with scent and one just with steam.
laconium
The closest thing to a dry sauna in the thermal suite was the room labeled laconium. They called it a sauna, but it did have steam. Google’s definition of a laconium is a dry warm room similar to a sauna where heat radiates from floors, walls, and benches with low humidity. It is a milder alternative to more intense hot rooms inspired by ancient Roman bathing culture and offers benefits like improved circulation and relaxation.
relaxation room
Relaxation areas in thermal suites on other ships we’ve sailed on generally have some sort of loungers or a combination of loungers and chairs, but on the Splendor it had a row of canopy beds and some chairs.
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