Two Chicks at the Same Time

My PCA package includes a $1000 folio for charging expenses to the room, and unlike the last time I was here, when I pocketed more than $500, it’s not refundable. Because I brought my own food, I found myself this morning with $750 to spend in two days. Wheeeee!

There was no way I was going to spend it on food and drink, so I assessed my other options. The snorkeling here is really hokey, because it’s just in one of Atlantis’ fake bodies of water. I’ve heard good things about swimming with the dolphins, but I have some serious ethical objections to keeping dolphins in captivity. Then I remembered Lawrence from Office Space‘s famous answer to the question of what he would do with a million dollars.

Mandara, the spa at PCA, offers a treatment called the Four Hands Massage: “Two therapists working on you simultaneously in synchronicity – and serene silence.” There was a realistic chance this was just an excuse to charge twice as much for a massage, but I figured I’d never have another chance to try it, so I made an appointment and came away impressed.

I began lying face-down with four hands pressing motionless into my back. A voice told me to take three deep breaths, and as I exhaled the third time, they were off. The whole thing was clearly choreographed and rehearsed and felt pretty awesome. First, one of the therapists worked on my back and shoulders while the other mirrored her movements on my legs. Later they worked in parallel, one on the left side and one on the right. It almost didn’t feel like hands at all, since there was so much happening at once.

I still can’t say that it was worth the asking price ($288 including the mandatory 20% gratuity), but I took a bottle of water with me when I left, and here at Atlantis that’s like a $5 value right there.