We just got back from our first concierge experience on the Fantasy today. PJ, Kemisha, and Alice were awesome. We had upgraded from a standard verandah stateroom and enjoyed the extra space and the nicer finish in the room (extra big balcony was awesome). The upgraded bedding and pillow options were a nice touch too.
Where to start, we absolutely loved the services that the concierge team provided. We are pretty low key guests, and I don’t believe that we even scratched the surface of what they could do for us, but just having them there knowing that they would help if needed was a relief. The lounge was wonderful, between sitting and chatting with the staff and guests, grabbing food or coffee, or the cocktails during happy hour, it was nice to know we had a place to go and relax and feel welcome.
To those out there trying to figure out if it is worth it or not, for us it turned out to be a resounding yes. It wasn't anything big that stood out that said this is worth the extra coin we shelled out, it is all the little things that they do for you that make the difference. One example is we did a Palo brunch and DW loved a certain spreadable cheese they had. We asked Kemisha if it would be possible to have it in the lounge some night around supper. We not only had it in the lounge every night the rest of the cruise, she got us our own package with some crackers to keep in our room (we hubbies could learn a lot from them). The little perks like that really sold us on it.
The sun deck was nice too, DW used it when she was not in satellite falls, because there was not a lot of lounger space up near the falls. My DM will be sailing concierge next year and I see her using the sun deck a lot. At times she had to search for a good spot to sit, so that will be perfect for her.
We also found that we didn't spend as much money this cruise because we were happy sticking to what was offered in the Lounge. The only issue we ran into was what do we tip the concierge staff. If any frequent concierge guests read this, could you pm us with some recommendations, we were a couple of 2 that really didn't burden the team with a lot of needs. We are pretty sure we tipped fair, but we are curious what others do. We did have a couple of other couples ask us for advice too, so we weren't the only ones in that boat.
I guess my worst fear came true, that we would love it so much we would need to rebook a concierge room. We even adjusted our cruise date so that we could get side by side stateroom with DM and DD so that we could open up the balcony between the two rooms.
Have pictures if anyone is interested, and will post more later.
Cgolf
Where to start, we absolutely loved the services that the concierge team provided. We are pretty low key guests, and I don’t believe that we even scratched the surface of what they could do for us, but just having them there knowing that they would help if needed was a relief. The lounge was wonderful, between sitting and chatting with the staff and guests, grabbing food or coffee, or the cocktails during happy hour, it was nice to know we had a place to go and relax and feel welcome.
To those out there trying to figure out if it is worth it or not, for us it turned out to be a resounding yes. It wasn't anything big that stood out that said this is worth the extra coin we shelled out, it is all the little things that they do for you that make the difference. One example is we did a Palo brunch and DW loved a certain spreadable cheese they had. We asked Kemisha if it would be possible to have it in the lounge some night around supper. We not only had it in the lounge every night the rest of the cruise, she got us our own package with some crackers to keep in our room (we hubbies could learn a lot from them). The little perks like that really sold us on it.
The sun deck was nice too, DW used it when she was not in satellite falls, because there was not a lot of lounger space up near the falls. My DM will be sailing concierge next year and I see her using the sun deck a lot. At times she had to search for a good spot to sit, so that will be perfect for her.
We also found that we didn't spend as much money this cruise because we were happy sticking to what was offered in the Lounge. The only issue we ran into was what do we tip the concierge staff. If any frequent concierge guests read this, could you pm us with some recommendations, we were a couple of 2 that really didn't burden the team with a lot of needs. We are pretty sure we tipped fair, but we are curious what others do. We did have a couple of other couples ask us for advice too, so we weren't the only ones in that boat.
I guess my worst fear came true, that we would love it so much we would need to rebook a concierge room. We even adjusted our cruise date so that we could get side by side stateroom with DM and DD so that we could open up the balcony between the two rooms.
Have pictures if anyone is interested, and will post more later.
Cgolf
