Spa in the afternoon, show at night: does the timing work?

Start with the fixed points. Check-in is at 4 p.m. Amerispa opens at 10 a.m. from Monday to Thursday and at 9 a.m. from Friday to Sunday. The theatre's Dinner & Show asks guests to arrive at Arôme between 5 and 5:30 p.m. And Arôme gives each table two hours from the reservation time.

Work backwards from 5 p.m. A two-hour spa package — Serenity or Indulgence — finishing at 3:30 p.m. leaves half an hour in the whirlpool or the steam bath, and an hour to get to the room, which may or may not be ready before 4. That is tight but fine. A three-hour package, such as Remineralizing, wants a start at 11:30 a.m. or noon. Anything later and you will be eating dinner with damp hair.

The alternative is to split the day the other way: show on the first night, spa on the second morning before check-out at 11 a.m. — the spa opens early enough at the weekend. It is calmer, but you lose the best part of a spa afternoon, which is going upstairs to sleep straight afterwards.

Our pick: on a Thursday or Friday arrival, book a two-hour package at 1:30 p.m., ask for an early room, and take the 5 p.m. table. On a Saturday, when the hotel is busiest, move the spa to Sunday morning.

One last detail. Every room in the complex except the hotel itself and Arôme is 18+, the theatre included, and the operator asks for original photo ID. Put it in your spa bag, not in the car.