shoreside concierge booking requests before the 120 window

[dnice416]

Just wondering how platinum members are dealing with the new policy of allowing concierge to "per book" cabana requests etc before the 120 day window. Personally as someone who has cruised with Disney only 2 times, first being non concierge, this time a one bedroom(sept. '13) and I was thrilled with this new policy. I truly feel as if the premium price I am paying should allow me to have certain requests guaranteed. But I do understand the issue with platinum members feeling as if their loyalty has been pushed to the wayside in some respects. Any opinions on this?

 

[dnice416]

Meant pre book not per

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Just wondering how platinum members are dealing with the new policy of allowing concierge to "per book" cabana requests etc before the 120 day window. Personally as someone who has cruised with Disney only 2 times, first being non concierge, this time a one bedroom(sept. '13) and I was thrilled with this new policy. I truly feel as if the premium price I am paying should allow me to have certain requests guaranteed. But I do understand the issue with platinum members feeling as if their loyalty has been pushed to the wayside in some respects. Any opinions on this?

I don't think Concierge actually gets to pre-book prior to midnight. Previously, both Concierge and Platinum had the same booking window, 120 days out.

Since the bookings opened at midnight it gave a little perk to those individuals who actually booked at midnight that night (either Concierge or Platinum). But the Concierge people complained that they couldn't have their Concierge team book at midnight for them also, since those people were only working regular day hours (starting at 8:00 am or so). So DCL has let the Concierge team now have access at midnight also.

It may feel like pre-booking, since you can put your request into your team before the 120 day window, but it still won't be booked until midnight at the 120 day mark.

That's my understanding of how it works now. If I'm wrong, I'm sure someone will correct me

 

[lbgraves]

There is no way that the concierge team can have all the requests processed so that they are already in place at midnight. They have to be entering these requests into the system prior to that point. Concierge guests do not have access to their information prior to that point, but people have reported logging into their reservation at midnight just to make sure that their requests have been taken care of because they doubted what they had been told of the new policy and reported that everything they submitted had already been confirmed.

Regarding how platinum CC members are dealing with it -- there really isn't anything we can do about it. Of course my family isn't interested in getting a cabana at CC, so that doesn't matter to me personally. That is really the only thing that I can see being affected by this additional benefit to concierge. There are still going to be a selection of Palo/Remy reservations available, as well as excursions at the 120 day mark. Once we are onboard, I have never felt like we have been treated any differently because we weren't in concierge. We are happy with our cat 8s. If someone is willing to pay for those suites, then they can have first dibs at the cabanas. Not a big deal IMO.

 

[FJS961]

Somehow I doubt the concierge shoreside team is now up at midnight making bookings. It's much more likely they are blocking things off ahead of time.

 

[lbgraves]

Somehow I doubt the concierge shoreside team is now up at midnight making bookings. It's much more likely they are blocking things off ahead of time.

This is also a great point. They don't have a large number of CMs in that office so it wouldn't be practical for them to be there during the day and then come back at night on the weekend.

 

[Tami0220]

I can personally reply to this question as it pertains to me. I was having surgery the day before my 120 date. I was able to call concierge and they very nicely took all my requests. They nicely informed me that they could not make any of the bookings until midnight of the 120th day. They could not guarantee me any of my requests but would do their best. As for dinner/brunch ressies, they took a window of times I would be interested in case they couldnt get the exact time I requested. I gave them a range of cabanas I would like. They selected the cabana.

They were most helpful and have continued to be helpful with every question I have asked. Some they did not know the answer, but searched out the answers. So they will take REQUESTS prior to your booking window, but they have someone making reservations at midnight just like you and I. You have no "jump on" or "head start" over the average person. You just dont have them telling you we cant do anything until we come in at 8:30 am.

 

[lbgraves]

It is not physically possible for them to do this at and after midnight. I'm not going to search for the posts from those who have logged in at midnight and all of their requests are already booked, but they are in various threads on this board. The system takes a couple minutes to process each booking with all the steps to confirm them.

 

[JoiseyMom]

I can personally reply to this question as it pertains to me. I was having surgery the day before my 120 date. I was able to call concierge and they very nicely took all my requests. They nicely informed me that they could not make any of the bookings until midnight of the 120th day. They could not guarantee me any of my requests but would do their best. As for dinner/brunch ressies, they took a window of times I would be interested in case they couldnt get the exact time I requested. I gave them a range of cabanas I would like. They selected the cabana.

They were most helpful and have continued to be helpful with every question I have asked. Some they did not know the answer, but searched out the answers. So they will take REQUESTS prior to your booking window, but they have someone making reservations at midnight just like you and I. You have no "jump on" or "head start" over the average person. You just dont have them telling you we cant do anything until we come in at 8:30 am.

Sorry, I don't buy this. It makes no sense to have 1 or 2 people working at midnight to make these reservations. It is not happening. Too many reservations to do at midnight. They have a list and I am sure do it in some sort of order, as in Royal first or when they receive them..not sure. But these are being done before midnight.

 

[lbgraves]

The system isn't live to guests until midnight, but that doesn't mean that DCL can't access it prior to that. If nothing else, they enter the requests in the system somehow to line them up to be approved at midnight on the booking window as it opens. That would be the only way they could simultaneously process every request. They work out the order and priority before inputting them into the system before leaving for work the day before the window. It would be really easy to process them this way.

Considering the price they charge for concierge, I would expect that they would give them some sort of benefit like this. I expect that they received many complaints from concierge guests regarding not being able to get the bookings they wanted and not wanting to stay up until midnight to try to do so. If I was paying over $25k for a week on the ship I would complain about that as well. This is a way for DCL to appease their concierge guests. I know that the MV was an exception as far as the huge amount of platinum guests onboard. Things were booked within minutes of the 120 day window opening with all of those, along with the concierge cruisers logging in at midnight. There have been other cruises where even at the gold window everything was booked for Palo within a few minutes of me logging in at midnight.

 

[MTmomma]

Its most likely an automatic batch reservation change that is pre-programmed to run at midnight, IF it is in fact done at the 120 day mark. Not a huge deal to edit a reservation program to do this, as the hotel I work at has a program within our reservation software that COULD do this once certain parameters are outlined.

 

[MAYNARDS99]

I asked my travel agent for the shoreside concierge email address and sent three reservation requests three weeks, before my 120 day mark. I received an email asking to modify by fifteen minutes our Palo dinner reservation.

Just checked my itinerary online and everything is booked!

Very easy to do! Now if I can just get them to book dinner at Be Our Guest at WDW...

 

[lilpooh108]

Very easy to do! Now if I can just get them to book dinner at Be Our Guest at WDW...

This is OT but we had booked AKL concierge for December. Many of ADRs were wrong (wrong date, wrong # of people), we did NOT get Be our Guest and some of my ADRs weren't even booked on the day of 180 + 10 by the concierge. We went back & forth and finally decided to cancel the reservation and stay elsewhere. The whole experience was frustrating.

Sounds like DCL concierge are on top of their stuff.

 

[MacII]

To answer the OP's question, I'm only Silver but I'm 1 cruise away from Gold and to be honest, I've got no incentive to go to Gold or let alone Platinum. It seems that the way to ensure you get what you want is to do Concierge. Personally I don't like it. I want what I want at minimal expense however I suppose this is just how the world works and there is little point trying to fight the system. The worst part (personally) is that we had a Cabana on our last cruise and now that we know how amazing it is, I want it again but getting that is highly unlikely.

 

[kendzee94]

This is OT but we had booked AKL concierge for December. Many of ADRs were wrong (wrong date, wrong # of people), we did NOT get Be our Guest and some of my ADRs weren't even booked on the day of 180 + 10 by the concierge. We went back & forth and finally decided to cancel the reservation and stay elsewhere. The whole experience was frustrating.

Sounds like DCL concierge are on top of their stuff.

I agree 100%....AKL Concierge did not book at my 180 day mark, and I ended up with an 8:50 Ohana dinner time when I got my confirmation from them at my 176 day mark. I believe that they will make the reservations at your 180 day mark.

Shoreside concierge on the other hand, I do believe, must put the info into the computer before hand so that it is in effect as of 12:00am.

(I was worried too due to my prior experience at AKL. Shoreside assured me I did not have to stay up until midnight because when I wake up in the morning it would be there.)

I stayed up until midnight, logged on and sure enough there were my reservations. Yes, I had to give them my request as to which time and Cabana I wanted (1st, 2nd, 3rd choice in case someone had already requested the one I wanted). If they were putting the information in the system manually at midnight, there is NO way concierge guest would get the cabanas they want. By 12:05, after I checked all my info, and looked, there was only 1 family and 2 adult cabanas left. There is NO way they could get everyone's info in there that quickly if they didn't have it sync at midnight. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Bonniec]

I am concierge and when I was asked I was told I did not have to wait up until midnight. I specifically wanted 2 cabanas on a DD with #17, the furthest out possible. I logged in right at midnight anyway and it was done. As were my palo brunch reservations. I got cabana #15 both days because I was told that was the furthest out I could book due to weddings and if none were booked they would move me. Which they did end up doing eventually, so now I have #17.

I have no doubt it was set up automated. They guaranteed nothing, but told me not to wait to worry and to let them take care of me. And they did.

 

[tracyaem]

I'm sailing concierge in November and can confirm that CMs are not waiting up til midnight and frantically logging in with all of our requests

A week or so prior to the 120 day mark, I emailed back and forth with shoreside concierge (super helpful and nice!!!). For Palo or spa treatments, they gave me very specific times they could and couldn't do - which makes me believe they do pre-book things or at least have a tally going of which concierge requests have already been made. The day before the 120 day mark I logged on and viewed my itinerary - all reservations showed up including times and the specific cabana number we received. So they were obviously booked prior to midnight. I could not book anything (those sections were grayed out) but the activities still showed up on my reservation.

This will be our first DCL cruise and so far I am very pleasantly suprised with the concierge service.

 

[TheRatPack]

If we are booked through a travel agent, we can still access Shoreside Concierge after our trip is paid in full, correct?

 

[kaseyC]

If we are booked through a travel agent, we can still access Shoreside Concierge after our trip is paid in full, correct?

Yes, you can.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[kathi]

I'm platinum and cruising for the first time in years not in concierge. I assumed because we were now platinum I had a fighting chance of logging on at midnight and getting a cabana.

I logged on exactly at midnight a few days ago and ALL CABANAS were gone on the Family Beach and only 2 were left on the adult beach (we need family beach).

I understand that concierge guests pay a lot of money for their rooms, but I'm scratching my head as to the overwhelming benfit of being platinum if all of the most desired stuff is already gone at the 120 window.