So let me preface with I’ve been to lots of spas/saunas/steam rooms at various places and in different cities. To name a few big ones, Mandalay Bay in Vegas, Spa Castle in Dallas, Steamworks/Sweatlodge/King Spa here in Chicago, and various YMCAs and gyms over the country. I know most of these places cater more to gay men and are known for cruising or just hooking up, but I’ve also been to “regular” spas and saunas like at fancy hotels when traveling or cruise ships where you just relax and the point it not hooking up. I like all of these venues and vibes depending on the mood I’m in.
That being said, I went to King Spa with an open mind and not too many expectations. I was happy for it to go either way after reading all about it on here.
The locker room set up wasn’t bad but one of the first things I noticed was that the spa part of the facility was quite small in my opinion. Maybe I just like larger places bc you have somewhere to go take a break or just be on your own for a minute when you don’t want to be in the main areas. Well at KS there was only one big room that I will call the main room.
Also when I went it was dead silent. I get this is a Korean spa but is light background relaxing music not a thing to set the vibe? It just felt so awkward to me bc there’s no talking obviously and with no music the dead silence seemed weird.
As far as cruising goes, you could tell some guys were looking, which is totally fine. Especially in the little steam room (that’s clear glass so it’s see-through - that was also weird to me) with the door in the corner. However, since everything is non-verbal communication and there’s no noise coming from anywhere it just made me extra uncomfortable for some reason.
Then there’s the staff or what I’m gonna refer to as the guards bc that’s what they felt like to me. The entire time I was there they had their eyes on everyone like the secret service was watching the president. I get that they are there to stop people from cruising which is fine! But this constant supervision of hawkish guards made it impossible for me to relax one bit. I also got reprimanded for not showering right before entering the main pool. My fault, fine, but maybe put up some signage like other places to help folks. They had a bunch of other messaging around the place but none to indicate what I got yelled at for by one of the guards.
When I did finally get to sit in the main pool it was just me and a few guys sitting and staring at each other. Dead silence, no spa music, awkward staring, no talking, and the water was lukewarm at best. Is this the ambiance people like??
Lastly, the physical location of KS is kind of far away and to me was not worth the drive. Maybe I went on a wrong day or something but I just did not enjoy my time there at all.
Has anyone else had a not great experience at KS? Or was it just me??
