Norwegian Escape adds a snow room to its cruise liner

The new Norwegian Cruise Line ship debuting this weekend in Europe is home to a super-chilled "snow room" that is the first of its kind on a mass-market cruise ship.

The frosty spa retreat on the Norwegian Escape is kept at a nippy minus 10 degrees Celsius and boasts flurries of powdery snow descending from the ceiling. It's part of a sprawling thermal suite within the ship's Mandara Spa.

"It's very good for aches and pains," says Courtney Neumann, the spa manager on the Norwegian Escape, who recommends lounging in the thermal suite's super-heated sauna before entering the snow room. "The idea is to go from hot to cold, which makes your blood vessels constrict and dilate, which is extremely good for your immune system and blood circulation."

In addition to a snow room and sauna, the adults-only thermal suite also offers an aromatic steam room, humidity-filled heated sanarium, thalassotherapy pool and a "salt room" - a colourful space infused with therapeutic salts. There also are 33 heated loungers shaped to conform to a human spine and dozens of traditional lounge chairs that look out over the ocean through floor-to-ceiling windows.

It's one of the largest thermal suites ever on a cruise ship.

The spa also has 24 treatment rooms including two for couples. In addition, a full service salon offers a wide-array of hair and nails services, and there's also a separate barber shop.

Access to the snow room and other thermal suite features is complimentary to passengers staying in Norwegian Escape's spa suites. The ship also sells a limited number of week-long passes to the thermal suite for $US199 per person.

The Norwegian Escape is the second purpose-built cruise ship with a snow room. New line Viking Cruises, which caters to an upscale market with relatively small ships, unveiled a snow room on its new Viking Star in April and plans another one for a ship coming in 2016. A Baltic cruise ferry that debuted in 2013 on a Finland-to-Sweden route, the 2,800-passenger Viking Grace, also features a snow room.

Scheduled to be christened on November 9 in Miami, Florida, US in a ceremony headlined by American rapper Pitbull, the 4,248-passenger Norwegian Escape is Norwegian's largest ship ever.

TNS