Best 'deals' for concierge cabins?

[bbn1122]

oops... I did book a Concierge trip that I had to move to 2026. It would have been DH and mine first since 2014. But we are waiting to move that to an Alaskan cruise in 2027, not sure if we will be able to keep concierge.

 

[MrMagoo]

The wife and I had the 2 bedroom suite on the Magic in February of last year.
It was stateroom 8516.
(I thought I booked a one bedroom suite at the time!!)
We were on a B2B out of New Orleans of 2, 4 night sailings each.
BIG surprise when we opened the stateroom door on our second sailing to see our room!!!!
It was HUGE!!!!!!!
It had NICE walk in showers!!!!!
We had a standard deluxe family concierge stateroom the first sailing and then jumped to this. WOW!!!!
And surprisingly the price was not that much different at the time between the 2 rooms.
The standard deluxe concierge does have the same bathroom setup as a normal deluxe family room,
just more upscale and elegant as bbn1122 has said.

This suite actually had 3 bathrooms.
It had a bathroom just for the main sitting room.
Then it had a bathroom and shower for each bedroom.

I am showing this just so you can see what the bathrooms are like in the bigger suites.

Here is the bathroom and shower for the master bedroom:




Master bath entry:




And here are photos of the second bedroom bathroom and shower:

 

[Electron_si]

We got off the Dream on Monday from a 4-night Caribbean sailing (family of 5). Originally booked a GTY family ocean view but decided we might do concierge if the price was reasonable.

Original cruise fare was roughly 4k, upgrade to concierge was only available for a 1 BR and was an additional 4k.

We politely declined and stuck to our original room. We were hoping for a standard family concierge room but they were sold out well before. We were BG 7 and arrived around 11:30 for check in.

 

[jimmymc]

DCL almost never runs concierge discounts. It's probably been 10 years since I've heard of one, and even that would've been for a narrow range of cruises and rooms. The placeholder discount excludes concierge.

I agree with showering in the spa or gym. For less than the price of concierge, you could even get spa passes for the week.

 

[mrkyyyle]

Just so you know the savings at the port for an upgrade to concierge are negligible now. At one time you could get a deal at the port but not any more.

Don't know if that is accurate, unless they changed something in the last 3 months?
We did a VGT on the Wish in late April '25 - were able to upgrade to a Concierge Family Stateroom at port for about $2,000 less than if we had booked the room as Concierge to start.

Discounting on Concierge rooms is basically never as many have mentioned.

We sailed on the Hurricane Sandy Fantasy cruise in Concierge and were able to use our 50% discount for future sailing on Concierge but it was a very specific circumstance obviously!

 

[Andrew96]

Yes - the four sailings since December 2024 that I upgraded to a Category 3B at the port all happened to be 4-night sailings. The concierge rate ahead of time for each of those started in the market of $7,200+ for two passengers for a Category 3B, which I would not do for a 4-night. Each of those cruises I booked VGT in the $2300-$2500 range. The cost to upgrade to a Category 3B for two passengers for each of those sailings fell in the range of mid $1800s to $1900s. For how I like to sail and what I plan for onboard spending, the savings of around ~$3000 by upgrading at the port vs. ahead of time for each of those was worth it to me, but might not be for everyone. You do miss out on the ahead of time perks, but that's not a deal breaker for me. I've been sailing DCL since 2004 (not that it matters), and only recently started inquirying about port upgrades.

 

[Andrew96]

Yes - the four sailings since December 2024 that I upgraded to a Category 3B at the port all happened to be 4-night sailings. The concierge rate ahead of time for each of those started in the market of $7,200+ for two passengers for a Category 3B, which I would not do for a 4-night. Each of those cruises I booked VGT in the $2300-$2500 range. The cost to upgrade to a Category 3B for two passengers for each of those sailings fell in the range of mid $1800s to $1900s. For how I like to sail and what I plan for onboard spending, the savings of around ~$3000 by upgrading at the port vs. ahead of time for each of those was worth it to me, but might not be for everyone. You do miss out on the ahead of time perks, but that's not a deal breaker for me. I've been sailing DCL since 2004 (not that it matters), and only recently started inquiring about port upgrades.

 

[Mommb]

It makes sense that the additional cost for Concierge up from a VGT booking is less than the cost difference of booking Concierge in advance. The difference at port is based on your booked room level, but may not take into account your original rate.

 

[insureman]

Don't know if that is accurate, unless they changed something in the last 3 months?
We did a VGT on the Wish in late April '25 - were able to upgrade to a Concierge Family Stateroom at port for about $2,000 less than if we had booked the room as Concierge to start.

Discounting on Concierge rooms is basically never as many have mentioned.

We sailed on the Hurricane Sandy Fantasy cruise in Concierge and were able to use our 50% discount for future sailing on Concierge but it was a very specific circumstance obviously!

The cost I use would be any concierge 1 bedroom and above , $1,000 or less difference with category stateroom I already had which would be a veranda.

 

[DCLMP]

Thank you! Since all of our kids are grown now- we appreciate having to pay fares for just the two of us. The port upgrade would be doable for Alaska- we tried 4x a day to snag a cabana for the last two cruises- adult cabanas opened up- but no family ones. I wonder how likely it is for any Alaskan concierge to be available to upgrade at port- we are trying to sail early fall. Some of those cruises are already open to book.
Does anyone know if we can book concierge with award points on Capitol One or Sapphire/AmEx? We have saved a lot of award points and thought we could pay 1/2 with points and 1/2 with card. Just haven't looked it up
Thanks!!!!

You would have to go to Capital one website and see if you can book cruises. I would not expect more than a dollar for dollar credit. You would get the same thing booking through Dcl and then applying the credit. Chase Sapphire is going to give you a better point redemption if you can book through them.

 

[berniecase]

I'm currently on the Dream right now (8/16-8/21). Originally booked an Oceanview GTY for about $3900 (for 2 adults and 2 12 year olds), and was assigned a family Oceanview on deck 9 (cat 8). But, my wife and had discussed what our limit would be if we could get an upgrade to Concierge. We had discussed $3000. So, at the port we made a beeline for the supervisor desk. While in line, they came over with the price list and originally quoted $2800 for the upgrade to a Concierge Family Verandah (cat 3). When we got to the supervisor it was actually $3200 for the upgrade. We took it... and haven't regretted it one bit. It's our second time sailing concierge, but our kids' first, and it's been incredibly enjoyable.

 

[allashore]

I'm currently on the Dream right now (8/16-8/21). Originally booked an Oceanview GTY for about $3900 (for 2 adults and 2 12 year olds), and was assigned a family Oceanview on deck 9 (cat 8). But, my wife and had discussed what our limit would be if we could get an upgrade to Concierge. We had discussed $3000. So, at the port we made a beeline for the supervisor desk. While in line, they came over with the price list and originally quoted $2800 for the upgrade to a Concierge Family Verandah (cat 3). When we got to the supervisor it was actually $3200 for the upgrade. We took it... and haven't regretted it one bit. It's our second time sailing concierge, but our kids' first, and it's been incredibly enjoyable.

do you have an idea of what a cat 3 would have cost, if you booked originally?
also curious how many concierge cabins were available at the port?

 

[berniecase]

do you have an idea of what a cat 3 would have cost, if you booked originally?
also curious how many concierge cabins were available at the port?

The cost I saw online prior to the cruise was around $10,400 so the port upgrade was a 30%+ discount. But, it certainly helps to get to the port early, otherwise you may miss out.

I know that when we arrived they were originally going to put us on Deck 11, but when I mentioned a specific room number my wife and I sailed in on the Fantasy, they saw it was also available on the Dream. Other than that I'm afraid I don't know how many were still available at the port. I had been checking for days prior to the cruise to see what was still available, however, and it was somewhere around 10-15.

Slightly off topic - I'm glad we didn't pick one of the converted deck 10 concierge rooms on the Dream... I heard someone complaining to the Concierge staff about the deck 11 noise coming through into their cabin (dining/deck chairs are above). I would've been very grumpy to have had to put up with that.

 

[allashore]

The cost I saw online prior to the cruise was around $10,400 so the port upgrade was a 30%+ discount. But, it certainly helps to get to the port early, otherwise you may miss out.

I know that when we arrived they were originally going to put us on Deck 11, but when I mentioned a specific room number my wife and I sailed in on the Fantasy, they saw it was also available on the Dream. Other than that I'm afraid I don't know how many were still available at the port. I had been checking for days prior to the cruise to see what was still available, however, and it was somewhere around 10-15.

Slightly off topic - I'm glad we didn't pick one of the converted deck 10 concierge rooms on the Dream... I heard someone complaining to the Concierge staff about the deck 11 noise coming through into their cabin (dining/deck chairs are above). I would've been very grumpy to have had to put up with that.

thanks for all the info, was curious to know how many cabins were available b/c I would luv to know how they figure out price/discount for upgrade. if more avail bigger discount? vs less so more likely to fill at port
Back in Jan '25 we were on the Dream and upgraded on the 2nd leg of our B2B from a 3A to a 1Bdrm and it was just $10 less then if we had booked it ahead of time, there was only 2 1Bdrms avail and zero 3A

 

[Mommb]

thanks for all the info, was curious to know how many cabins were available b/c I would luv to know how they figure out price/discount for upgrade. if more avail bigger discount? vs less so more likely to fill at port

My understanding is that the upgrade desk in the terminal has a chart of port upgrade costs based on purchased cabin level, upgraded cabin level, and length of cruise. I don’t think the number of cabins remaining at each level affects the cost to upgrade at the port.

 

[allashore]

My understanding is that the upgrade desk in the terminal has a chart of port upgrade costs based on purchased cabin level, upgraded cabin level, and length of cruise. I don’t think the number of cabins remaining at each level affects the cost to upgrade at the port.

yes that is all true sometimes there is more of a discount then others