i have been to many spas in florida and this place is awesome. the service was perfect and the staff friendly, prices reasonable and they went over the top to take care of me. i expect a lot and i got a lot. A+ in my book the other location is amazingly beautiful too.
Brittney W.
Place rating: 1 Lake Buena Vista, FL
My mom and I had been planning a spa day for months. We wanted to go to a nice, relaxing place to get primped and pampered. A reliable family friend told us about a good experience she had here, however; what one considers to be a good experience can be totally different to another. The spa is two stories. The first floor is the lobby, designer sunglasses shop, and beachwear. A friendly young woman at the counter greeted us and gave us a review of the service we would be getting: Swedish massage for me and Swedish massage, mani/pedi, and facial for mom. What surprised us was the fact that the spa collects the money BEFOREHAND, PLUS they charge 20% for EACH service not the total price. That should have been a huge red flag for us especially since the woman i spoke to over the phone never explained this when we went over the prices the day before. And the website simply states: «A 20% service charge will be added upon check in.» But we’d been planning this outing for awhile and we definitely deserved it so we paid and took the elevator upstairs. Once off the elevator, another young lady showed us the locker room area where we changed into our robes and waited for our masseuses. My mom’s lady came first and with her she brought germs. Her allergies were acting up and she was hacking up a storm. I mean violent whopping coughs that never seemed to end. She took my mom and I waited for my lady to arrive. While waiting i decided to check out the locker room. For the Hard Rock i expected it to be a lot better. The bathrooms were like sardine cans and there’s nowhere to hang a purse, let alone clothes for changing. Some of the light fixtures in the place had that annoying Kmart blinky light thing, and the old magazines gracing the tables irked my nerves so i couldn’t wait to get out of there and get my pampering started. until i saw my masseuse. My very, pregnant masseuse. Ok. I know some women work right up until they get to the maternity ward but come on! she had one of those«any day now» stomachs and frankly, i was a little creeped out that i was gonna feel her stomach which she was massaging me. yuck! but i didn’t feel it. and she did an okay job… SHE who never introduced herself. After my 60 min., «she» took me around to the steam room and the sauna then left me with an encouragement about drinking lots of water for the rest of the day.(very good advice, that) i decided to unwind for a bit in the wet steam room… the best part of the whole day. It felt so good that i felt myself getting a little sleepy and knew it was time to get out. i knew i still had awhile to wait for my mom so i went back to the locker room to take a shower and wash my hair. first shower, handle was broken. Second shower, no shampoo. Went back to the first shower to grab the shampoo and went back to the second shower. good thing i was the only one in the locker room since there were only 3 showers.(the third shower was strictly for the handicapped) my masseuse had told me earlier that a shower after a massage would help me relax and she was right. it felt amazing and i was totally relaxed but since the bottle marked ‘shampoo’ and the bottle marked ‘body wash’ had the same exact liquid in it, my relaxation went away. i guess it was a little silly to worry whether or not washing my body with shampoo would make body hair grow insanely but I’m a worry wart like that. i was also worried my dreadlocks would fall out — but i digress. After my shower, i dried my hair and went to the lounge to have water and pretzels. Now, the entire day, i had compared this experience to the very nice one i had at the Disney Grand Floridian spa(i know, those shoes are almost impossible to fill, but still!) At the Disney resort, i got a massage and was constantly encouraged to stay as long as i want and spend the rest of the day using the facilities. so i was a little miffed when the people at Contour kept asking me what i was waiting around in the lounge for. I wasn’t about to give the rest of my money to the casino so sue me if i have to wait for my mom while reading your December ’09 magazines. Finally my mom was finished and we left. She told me how her masseuse talked her ears off during the massage. During her time to relax! She even talked to my mom about religion! suppose we weren’t christian! Bottom line, you don’t talk religion or politics with strangers especially not customers! My mom also told me she had really bad pains from the massage which her masseuse explained she was«getting all the knots out» and continued with the torture. Also, her fingernails was 4 shades lighter than her toe nails and it was the same color! The woman also gave my mom the ok that her nails were dry but when we got to the car, some of her nails were messed up from not being under the nail dryer longer. After two days, my mom is still having back pains. Never again! I’m treating her to the Biltmore spa once she feels better.