1. How do you tip the room staff? Is it required amount as the other rooms?
If we stay in the V we usually tip some beyond the suggested depending on the service. If we stay in a suite then we are more apt to tip more because of the increased square footage, obviously the service is key here as well. For example we stayed in the Royal and although nice the room host was probably not the best choice to take care of that suite, probably one of the worst stateroom hosts we had.
Tipping is paltry on the ship for the amount of work some of the people do. The recommended is $12 per person per day broken up into:
$4 for the server
$3 for the assistant server
$1 for the head server
$4 for the room host
i.e. 7 day cruise for 2 people = 7 days x 2 people x $12 = $168 for the entire cruise
2. Do you have the same kind of staff at the restaurant? Or are they the concierge as well? Same questions on tipping them if they are different.
The servers in the dining room serve all kids of guests from the cat 11 to the cat R rooms. The concierge team take care of you in all other aspects on the ship and they are basically your go to person for any needs. The head server will often try to put concierge guests at unshared tables, and will try to pick a serving team that has some experience. That doesn't mean that it will be the best serving team for you.
What we do is we make some dining requests. If the head server we usually have isn't there then we let our current head server know hey this is the kind of serving team we like, etc.
3. What kinds of perks are included? All it says on the website is that they are there for you. lol. What does that mean?
The perks are listed several places on the websites and in some of these forum posts
HERE is a link to one of the more recent posts I saw.
As a PP noted the perks are sometimes intangible. First off we like the extra room. If you are cruising on a newer ship even the V has more "room" because of the sun deck and the lounge that you will have access to. On the classics you will always be in a suite.
Also there is a lot of value for us in being able to relax and have things taken care of on vacation, the concierge CM helps to smooth all that out. If you have a question no waiting in line. Want to book something, they can print the tickets out for you in the lounge (on the newer ships) or have them delivered to your room. These things are hard to put a number on.
We have done concierge at WDW as well, that doesn't even compare. You feel like a celebrity cruising on DCL in any room, and then concierge kind of bumps that up more because even more of the little things are taken care of for you.
4. Where are the V class rooms located?
Deck 11 and 12 on the new ships
5. I understand you can wait in the concierge lounge at the port....what is there to do in there for kid-Os?
There isn't much reason to get to the port early to sit around, take advantage of concierge and get there after boarding starts and they will whisk you to the front of the line. A few times I remember crayons and coloring sheets but in the port terminal there isn't much of a "lounge"
6. Is it worth it?
To us it is, we travel concierge on the 7+ night cruises. On the shorter cruises we have done so as well but to be honest you don't have enough time to really get to know the CMs and to enjoy all the concierge benefits. We look at the price of a category 4 and then compare the price from there.
Hope that helps.
We are sailing concierge on the Magic. We have the cabana secured - is there anything else I should be request of shoreside concierge right now? Galley tours? show reservations?
This is our first Dis cruise, so we are total newbies with respect to what options are avail to us using concierge.
Just make sure to give the shoreside any reservations or requests for dining that you may have, that way they can note it on your reservation. When you get on the ship like a PP said you will be able to meet with the concierge and talk about any other questions. There are not always galley tours, it depends on each cruise, we actually haven't seen it on the activities since 2011 I think. If there are any princess teas, or tea with Alice/mad hatter they will often arrange that for you as well. Tawanda is one of the concierge CMs on the Magic now, fantastic guy.