clower5luvzdiz
DCL Cheer******!
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2005
- Messages
- 124
After finding out that we got upgraded from Cat 4 to Cat 3 and the bonus of conciege I came here to find out what that really meant... now back from our 3 night Wonder cruise I am here to share some facts that were fuzzy before and offer clarity to those deciding to go concierge or not when booking a cruise with DCL. This was my 4th Disney cruise so I thought I knew the DCL difference well enough... and with Concierge comes GOLD key to the world cards that make the Disney "Magic" a little more magical.
To start with... at the port you have a special place to sign in and with increased security measures DCL now takes your picture at the port before boarding... all guests stand in line to get this pic but as concierge we got this done at the desk... why can't they do this for everyone??? not sure why but after you get your key to the world you then otherwise stand in another line for pictures and another line to get kids set up for kids club... this is eliminated for concierge... after we got our keys to the world and pics we were personally escorted to the area we are logged onto the ship and then it is group picture time before we are announced as we entered the Wonder.
Once we were announced I asked one of the crew standing there where we went for our onboard Concierge meeting where we were told I could register my daughter for kids club and learn more about Concierge. The crew member personally escorted us to the Concierge meeting area where 1 of 2 Concierge team members (there are 22 concierge rooms on the ship) was assigned to us and met with us filling us in on the basic extas of Concierge.
Basically, you have DVD players with the tv's in your room and a list of DVD's to rent for free, you have bathrobes in your room (we found 2 adult and 1 child in our room) as well as slippers in plastic that were ready to open and wear... but we found no time or use for this little luxury... we had our Castaway Club return members gift and a bowl of fresh fruit that I think was only for the concierge rooms. There were 2 Diet Cokes, 2 Cokes, and 2 Sprites as well as 2 water bottles in the room gratis... so I poked them in the refrigerator that was a little larger than our previous regular room refrigerators. We did not ask about restocking as there are already free soft drinks on deck 9 aft which was just up 1 set of stairs from our room so very convenient.
One of our group was celebrating a birthday on the ship so we had told our Concierge Staff and he was wished happy birthday by many crew members on the ship even before we made it to dinner that night... so that was a perk.
Every day after that we had a plate of small sweets delivered to our room mid afternoon... this is only for concierge. And our dining room servers seemed more eager for our feedback and to make us happy than previous cruises... we found this almost annoying though as we wanted to just enjoy the trip and found the extra attention to our needs over what we saw happening with other families and previous cruise experiences kind of unnecessary. For example when we were asked what they could do to make the dining room experience better during dinner on the 2nd night we said more kids menu options and different options for them each night. The 3rd night the chef made my daughter her requested meal (breakfast) special and I doubt this would have happened if we didn't have the gold Keys to the World.
Overall, the extra I would pay for concierge was not worth it. The larger room was nice and I will post about room 8600 in another trip report so you can decide if an "upgrade" from Cat 4 to Cat 3 (if it happens to you) is really worth is as this was a handicapped accessible room that was not needed and thus the reason we were upgraded I believe.
Our Concierge... his name was Mike... was very nice and as for tipping... that was a fuzzy area on here... they do provide you with an envelope for this and leave the amount up to your discresion. So we tipped according to how much we used this service.
One perk we didn't use but would have been nice is choice seating times at Palo's, spa appointments, and shore excursions. You don't have to wait and you don't have to meet and wait with everyone else for the excursion but are taken to the excursion group once it has assembled making that part much nicer.
Please ask if you have more questions... I come here for info and hope I have provided you with answers to what concierge with DCL means.
To start with... at the port you have a special place to sign in and with increased security measures DCL now takes your picture at the port before boarding... all guests stand in line to get this pic but as concierge we got this done at the desk... why can't they do this for everyone??? not sure why but after you get your key to the world you then otherwise stand in another line for pictures and another line to get kids set up for kids club... this is eliminated for concierge... after we got our keys to the world and pics we were personally escorted to the area we are logged onto the ship and then it is group picture time before we are announced as we entered the Wonder.
Once we were announced I asked one of the crew standing there where we went for our onboard Concierge meeting where we were told I could register my daughter for kids club and learn more about Concierge. The crew member personally escorted us to the Concierge meeting area where 1 of 2 Concierge team members (there are 22 concierge rooms on the ship) was assigned to us and met with us filling us in on the basic extas of Concierge.
Basically, you have DVD players with the tv's in your room and a list of DVD's to rent for free, you have bathrobes in your room (we found 2 adult and 1 child in our room) as well as slippers in plastic that were ready to open and wear... but we found no time or use for this little luxury... we had our Castaway Club return members gift and a bowl of fresh fruit that I think was only for the concierge rooms. There were 2 Diet Cokes, 2 Cokes, and 2 Sprites as well as 2 water bottles in the room gratis... so I poked them in the refrigerator that was a little larger than our previous regular room refrigerators. We did not ask about restocking as there are already free soft drinks on deck 9 aft which was just up 1 set of stairs from our room so very convenient.
One of our group was celebrating a birthday on the ship so we had told our Concierge Staff and he was wished happy birthday by many crew members on the ship even before we made it to dinner that night... so that was a perk.
Every day after that we had a plate of small sweets delivered to our room mid afternoon... this is only for concierge. And our dining room servers seemed more eager for our feedback and to make us happy than previous cruises... we found this almost annoying though as we wanted to just enjoy the trip and found the extra attention to our needs over what we saw happening with other families and previous cruise experiences kind of unnecessary. For example when we were asked what they could do to make the dining room experience better during dinner on the 2nd night we said more kids menu options and different options for them each night. The 3rd night the chef made my daughter her requested meal (breakfast) special and I doubt this would have happened if we didn't have the gold Keys to the World.
Overall, the extra I would pay for concierge was not worth it. The larger room was nice and I will post about room 8600 in another trip report so you can decide if an "upgrade" from Cat 4 to Cat 3 (if it happens to you) is really worth is as this was a handicapped accessible room that was not needed and thus the reason we were upgraded I believe.
Our Concierge... his name was Mike... was very nice and as for tipping... that was a fuzzy area on here... they do provide you with an envelope for this and leave the amount up to your discresion. So we tipped according to how much we used this service.
One perk we didn't use but would have been nice is choice seating times at Palo's, spa appointments, and shore excursions. You don't have to wait and you don't have to meet and wait with everyone else for the excursion but are taken to the excursion group once it has assembled making that part much nicer.
Please ask if you have more questions... I come here for info and hope I have provided you with answers to what concierge with DCL means.
