Sorry for not getting back to this thread earlier, but I left the Disney Wish with the worst souvenir (I caught Covid on the ship).
This was our first time sailing concierge, and much as I loved it, I doubt I'd pay the premium again unless we really needed the perks or wanted a cabana.
The biggest advantage for us was the fact that having Concierge meant we were able to secure a Family Cabana on
Castaway Cay, which was just a wonderful (and spoiling!) experience. But my kids will soon be out of the nest, and until we have grandkids or are traveling with a group, I don't think we'll need the cabana, much as again, it was an amazing, spoiling experience.
We had a 1 Bedroom, and I had someone gotten confused that as a 1BR Concierge we would still get room service for breakfast on disembarkation day. This proved not to be the case, and was a big difference. I wish we had therefore taken advantage of hot breakfast room service on another morning, but my kids actually love going to the buffet for breakfast, so we did not.
The other big advantages of the concierge was:
(1) being able to board first, in front of everyone else, and not being set to a boarding time
(2) dedicated check-in line and lounge prior to embarkation
(3) rooms ready by 1pm
(4) going to the Concierge Desk with our requests once we were boarded. The Concierge team was able to secure us Hyperspace Lounge during family hours for the time we requested, and was able to get us Royal Gathering reservations for character photos. It basically meant that we told them what we wanted, and then we were free to have fun during the cruise and not worry about it.
(5) special lunch service in 1923 restaurant
(6) food/snacks and drinks throughout the day in the lounge. Not a huge variety, but it was a good offering
(7) stocked fridge in our room. This was perhaps the thing my kids loved most
(8) Concierge sun deck, which was a nice spot to escape from most of the crowds. I say most because with 77 concierge rooms, it still got crowded from time to time.
(9) Free popcorn during movies and shows
(10) Early seating at shows
(11) Express elevator during disemebarkation
Sadly during our cruise they were not doing any character meet and greets in the concierge lounge, and they didn't have a time frame as to when it might be offered again in the future.
I think the only disappointing thing for us was not directly related to the Concierge, though I do wish they could have helped us with the feedback. That is, we had booked a Hydration Suite Couples Massage Treatment in advance, and the suite was supposed to have these new hydration beds that mimicked laying in water. Instead, there were normal massage beds in the room. We paid the premium for the treatment as we wanted to try the beds, and absolutely no one at any step told us they weren't specialty beds. We discovered this when we were actually laying down in the beds for the massage and thus noticed they were normal massage beds. Had we known the beds weren't available, we would have either rebooked to the Zero Gravity beds or downgraded to a regular couples massage. When we brought this up, the spa was basically "sorry." We brought this up with Concierge, and they were sympathetic, but otherwise didn't do anything to help make it right. I admittedly didn't push the issue, and I'll just write a followup email to Disney Guest Services, but I would have expected Concierge to help address this issue for us.
There definitely weren't enough of the Concierge team available during busy periods, and so sometimes there was a wait to be able to speak to anyone in Concierge.
That said, they were all amazing and friendly and went out of their way to make it a wonderful experience for us overall. Enough so that I did look at the cruise just my husband and I are planning to take in April to see what it would cost to sail Concierge, but it's double what we're paying for a Verandah. If the upgrade cost wasn't so drastic, I'd consider it again, but I'd rather take two cruises in a Verandah for that price.
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