Maybe overkill, but the first time we cruised in a Royal, we either ate at Palo or had Palo delivered every night. We never set foot into a MDR during the entire cruise. Our kids still remind us that they will never let us do that again!
DWF
Honestly, we might have done that if we'd ever been on the ship before. But I actually wanted to see the dining rooms, since I was curious about the rotational dining. Now, that said, we ate one brunch in Palo, had one brunch from Palo delivered, and had at least partial dinner or dessert from Palo 5 nights out of 7. My mother's main complaint about the MDR was the lack of good fresh veggies, so she had spinach, asparagus, and avocado delivered from Palo pretty much nightly. She tried the MDR for dinner twice, and was done with it.
Honestly, I think the ability to order room service from Palo is the reason my Mom loved the trip as much as she did, and the reason she is never going to accompany us if we aren't doing a royal suite.
Let me also add that our concierge Alice was absolutely wonderful, and handled everything from simple questions, to more complicated requests, to a lost iphone (found and returned to us!) with good humor and grace. We've sailed concierge level on RCCL multiple times, and always enjoyed it, but we thought Alice really went above and beyond for us.
For all that we loved the concierge perks on the Magic, I will say, there are 3 things RCCL does a little better that we sort of missed. The first is the concierge lounge - I know, the newer ships have it, and I believe it is on the list for the refurbs of the classic ships, isn't it? We got a lot of (admittedly machine made) coffee drinks in the RCCL lounge, and we missed that at least as much as the happy hours... which we also missed. The second is the reserved seating at shows. RCCL doesn't reserve the best seating for concierge guests, but it does reserve seating, and we used it all the time because we really don't like to camp out for seats 30+ minutes before the show, particularly not with a cranky toddler/young child. Admittedly, there was always seating when we showed up for a show this trip, but I understand that is not always the case. The third thing we missed is that on our last RCCL trip (in February, so not that long ago), one of the concierges escorted
everyone who wanted to in concierge class off the ship first so they got porters fast and didn't have to wait in long customs lines. Again, our wait getting off the Magic this morning wasn't TOO bad (particularly not compared to some we've done over the years), but it would have been nice to get priority disembarkation. In all honesty, we noticed these three things because we had them earlier in the year, but I do hope DCL keeps paying attention to what other lines are offering for their concierge guests.
I know "concierge class," and the perks that go with it, have been changing substantially over the years. There are a lot more perks on many lines for concierge guests than there used to be. And, I will say, I'm really glad to see it. We're not willing to cruise on the true luxury lines (like Crystal) because we cruise with young children. We're consistently looking for vacations that will provide a real level of comfort, a variety of entertainment, and a minimum of hassle. We were very happy with DCL. We really are just trying to figure out when we'll try to book a royal suite again. It was completely worth it to us.
Oh, and no, we didn't find the furniture seemed particularly beaten up. Yes, I will admit, there were a few spots where the finishes were less than perfect, and a few faint stains, but really, the rooms looked like the pictures. It was actually pretty funny, we have a not quite 2 year old, so the first thing I generally do in decorated spaces we'll be staying in is sweep through and remove all breakables. I tried to remove the fragile looking beautiful objects around the living room, only to discover they were all glued in their places. The only things not glued down were the books, several of which we actually enjoyed. It's a beautiful suite.