Wellness Village @ Pan Pacific Marina

I am finally going to finish up my package over at Wellness Village sited within Pan Pacific Hotel in the Marina area. I bought the package (14 sessions) since August 2006 as my workplace was nearby and I thought I would be able to finish it within two years max. How was I supposed to know that it would be so hard to secure an appointment? And the very reason why I signed up was because the opening hours were till 10pm or so and that they were open daily.

So I have about 4 sessions left and I hope to be able to finish them before the year is over. Currently I need to make my appointment 1 month in advance. I tried calling for an appointment with 1-2 weeks notice for weekdays (afternoons or mornings) and they were booked solid. Weekends? Don't even think about it.

I am beginning to suspect if they have a quota per day for package holders so that they can reserve some slots for the hotel guests. On my last visit on Friday night, I noticed many of the customers at 830pm were all hotel guests.

Their scheduling really needs more tweaking. My appointment was for 7pm. I was there around 620pm since I had some free time and did not mind waiting at the spa. My treatments were for a body massage and a foot massage.

At 650pm, I checked with them that my treatment would start on time and they assured me that it would since the therapist was available and they were just waiting for the room. That was fine with me. But it was 7:05pm when they told me to follow them.

I was led to the sitting area outside the treatment rooms since I was doing a foot massage. The first thought which came to my mind was "why did they need to wait for a room if they were going to do it outside?" Previously, the foot massage was done inside the room, together with the body massage. That was, an hour body massage with an extended 30 minutes on the foot.

But now, it seemed like they changed it again. 30 minutes of foot massage on a chair a la at a foot reflexology centre, before ushering me into the room for the one hour body massage. It just seemed like very poor planning on their part in their ability to juggle and manage the flow of customers.

The therapist (Jolene) was ok. I needed to get used to her. Initially she seemed very hesitant and unsure but she had the strength despite her very slim frame. I was tempted to request for a different therapist for the body massage but decided to just give it a try. Good thing I did, as after a while she did find her rhythm and I found my impatience slowly melting away. She did a fantastic head massage as she was not too hard on the scalp.

Wellness Village is only a place to try if you have cheap deals (easy to find since they always have promotions) and if you know your schedule one month in advance.