Concierge vs. non. Is it worth it?

[Southern Pirate]

Do they have aloe Vera gel on the sundeck too? I found a squeeze bottle of blue gel with a picture of Donald Duck on the tube and Disney Cruise Line but I don’t remember where we got it from.

yes

 

[serenitynow]

yes

Thank you!

 

[Shanti]

There are countless threads on this topic. 20 results for “concierge worth it”.

How rude.

 

[Shanti]

We have been going concierge for a while now, but only on the Dream and the Fantasy. The 2 ships are very different as to the service. In our opinion the Dream wins by a long shot. Danny and his team always treat every guest with first class service. The Fantasy team seems like a training team. They really don't work well together and a lot of things which come naturally on the Dream are left out on the Fantasy. The advantages on both ships start with the shore side team. They will help with anything, trust me, I call the several times a week after booking starts. The next part is not having to wait in long lines. When boarding starts you can board the ship at any time. (you are escorted on). Once on the ship, your state room is ready (it is ready at 11:30). You can drop your bags in your room before headed out to meet the concierge team. When you meet them, they go over your itinerary and make sure everything is right. At any time you can add or change anything and they usually find a way to make it happen. In the main dinning room, it is said that concierge guest get priority service but I have never pid attention to this because either we are having a great time or exhausted from having a great time. The first time we tried room service we could not find the number, my DW call the concierge desk to get the number and was told the request goes through them, 10mins later there was a knock on the door. If the boat is making a stop where there is tendering, you get priority on that. Also one of the team joins you on castaway cay for anything you might need while at the cabanas. There is one night that you get a private character meeting on the sundeck. All the soft drinks, water, coffee, hot chocolate and sun screen are free. As well as the popcorn and mickey bars. You are given a limited addition print (I have spent a fortune on getting them framed) before you leave. At the end of your cruise you are escorted off the ship, around everybody else and your luggage is always ways to find in the donald duck area. This has been our normal routine. As it stands right now we are booked non-concierge for our next cruise in 2019 but that my change. So is it worth it, on the Dream, Yes on the Fantasy, maybe.

Great description- thanks!

 

[southerngirl528]

We have been going concierge for a while now, but only on the Dream and the Fantasy. The 2 ships are very different as to the service. In our opinion the Dream wins by a long shot. Danny and his team always treat every guest with first class service. The Fantasy team seems like a training team.

I'm certainly no concierge pro having only done it one time, on the Fantasy and we just got off the ship 2 days ago. Both DH and I are in the guest service business and we found the 3 concierge hosts on our Fantasy sailing to be exemplary. We had Tawanda (our fave), Amanda and Michelle. If they so much as heard a whisper of something we needed or wanted it was done. They were very attentive to the guests in concierge in every respect. We found them super friendly, professional, warm and attentive without being gratuitous. And our 1 bedroom suite was spectacular!

 

[Trera]

I'm certainly no concierge pro having only done it one time, on the Fantasy and we just got off the ship 2 days ago. Both DH and I are in the guest service business and we found the 3 concierge hosts on our Fantasy sailing to be exemplary. We had Tawanda (our fave), Amanda and Michelle. If they so much as heard a whisper of something we needed or wanted it was done. They were very attentive to the guests in concierge in every respect. We found them super friendly, professional, warm and attentive without being gratuitous. And our 1 bedroom suite was spectacular!

We had Michelle on 2 occasions when she was on the Magic and she always took great care of our family.

 

[Southern Pirate]

I'm certainly no concierge pro having only done it one time, on the Fantasy and we just got off the ship 2 days ago. Both DH and I are in the guest service business and we found the 3 concierge hosts on our Fantasy sailing to be exemplary. We had Tawanda (our fave), Amanda and Michelle. If they so much as heard a whisper of something we needed or wanted it was done. They were very attentive to the guests in concierge in every respect. We found them super friendly, professional, warm and attentive without being gratuitous. And our 1 bedroom suite was spectacular!

I am not saying that that they aren't good but if you compare the Fantasy team to the Dream team, you can see a huge difference.

 

[Bethany10]

There are countless threads on this topic. 20 results for “concierge worth it”.
How rude.


and yet, not wrong. There are in fact countless threads on this topic. People get frustrated when someone doesn't even do a basic search for a topic before posting then asks a question that is easily found with a simple search. I see it every time i come here. There is so much good information here, so many people willing to help, why not be polite enough to do a little digging to see if your question has been answered before contributing?

 

[serenitynow]

From a practical standpoint, I am sure nearly every question that someone posts in the cruise forum has probably been asked and answered in the past. That shouldn’t inhibit new members to the forum from asking questions that may have been asked in the past. People are free to read any post that interests them. If a topic comes along that a reader isn’t interested in because it has been asked before, they have the ability to just skip that topic.

Should we be discouraging new posters from feeling free to ask questions until they use the search feature of the disboards to see if the question has been asked in the past? Sometimes posters are using a question simply to start a new conversation because they are excited about their upcoming cruise experience. Isn’t that what we want as members of the DCL Cruise forum?

 

[brentm77]

From a practical standpoint, I am sure nearly every question that someone posts in the cruise forum has probably been asked and answered in the past. That shouldn’t inhibit new members to the forum from asking questions that may have been asked in the past. People are free to read any post that interests them. If a topic comes along that a reader isn’t interested in because it has been asked before, they have the ability to just skip that topic.

Should we be discouraging new posters from feeling free to ask questions until they use the search feature of the disboards to see if the question has been asked in the past? Sometimes posters are using a question simply to start a new conversation because they are excited about their upcoming cruise experience. Isn’t that what we want as members of the DCL Cruise forum?

I agree with this. Sometimes I search and find some of what I want to know, but most often the results are missing some specific details that I am looking for. I also want to get fresh information and have more of a live conversation since I am excited to be cruising again. However, a polite reminder in a response that there is even more information if the poster searches, is appropropriate, since some posters may not realize that.

 

[Bethany10]

To me, the polite thing to do before asking a question is to look and see if it's already been answered. If you're missing specific details then ask for specific details, want to have a fresh conversation about a topic? then throw in that you're aware that this has been discussed, but you're looking to have a current conversation. Either of those things narrows down what you're looking for and indicates that yes, you did do a search but didn't find what you needed. I guess I don't understand someone who is coming here for information, but doesn't do a basic search for that information.

Was the post "handslapping" the OP rude? yes, it was but it was also making what I felt was a valid point.

I'm going to agree to disagree with you guys on this. As the person who took the post off topic in the first place I'll back out now and let the discussion resume.

 

[serenitynow]

Everyone can have a different opinion on what is polite. And that’s okay. Live and let live.

 

[All about me]

Another reason to ask a question that has already been asked and answered, even multiple times, is to get the most recent info on a subject as, these days, Disney changes things quite often.

 

[Bethany10]

Another reason to ask a question that has already been asked and answered, even multiple times, is to get the most recent info on a subject as, these days, Disney changes things quite often.

ok so maybe I'm not out. I completely agree, but again there are ways to frame that beyond a basic x or y question. For me, it comes down to time spent. If I'm going to ask someone to take the time to read and give me their experience, then it's the polite thing to do to frame my question in a way that's going to get me the best response to my individual need. Just asking is this worth it? implies that I have not spent the time to look for myself, but want others to spend their time answering. While I can't speak to the person who originally handslapped, this is what drives me nuts about these types of questions. There's no thought put into this type of statement, but others are being asked to take the time to put forth their opinion.

There was a thread on the Universal side not too long ago asking how many hotels were on property. A couple of posters got really upset and basically told the OP to look up the info themselves, it's readily available. Others took those who grumbled at the OP to task for being rude. I saw the grumblers point, there's a difference between saying what are the benefits to concierge, and I'm going on my honeymoon/firstcruise/younamethecelebtration and we want xyz type of experience will I get that with concierge? If you're going to partake of the wealth of information on this board, then at least be conscientious of the people who offer their time and energy in sharing their love of Disney cruising.

 

[cadien]

Asking for a number (Universal hotels) and a subjective opinion are two very different things though. And really, it's not effort for most people to share their opinions. It's fun. That's one of the main reasons message boards exist.

 

[Minnie & Daisy]

This thread was started 6 months ago. Obviously, someone brought it back up to the front.

 

[Stratus22]

Just my 2 cents but what else is there really to do on these boards except ask questions and post experiences? Isn't that what these boards are for? OK, off to read more posts.

 

[southerngirl528]

This thread was started 6 months ago. Obviously, someone brought it back up to the front.

If you want to see something funny, but proof a newbie did a search first, check out the age on the thread that just came up asking about Stateroom 2608!!!

And I have to agree, that forums ARE about Q & A's. I agree it is always good if someone does a search before starting a new thread, but having done lots of searches myself, I often cannot either find recent info or not quite the answer I was looking for. I just never want to scold a newbie who comes here to get help.

As for the topic of this thread, DH and I were on our very first concierge sailing this time last week on the Fantasy and stayed in a Cat T. It was AMAZING. Service, the quiet respite of the lounge and sundeck, and our room was spectacular. Whether it was worth thousands more than what I had originally booked in a Gtd Cat 5C or not, I'm not sure I can even answer that for myself. For us it was very possibly a once in a lifetime thing. Truly an outstanding experience from start to finish, and one we will never, ever forget. But having sailed 10 times previous to last week's cruise on DCL, the service is so excellent onboard regardless of what category room one books. And the ships are so gorgeous with more things to do than one can get done in one cruise.

Like someone else has said, don't do concierge if you really cannot afford it. Don't hock the farm, don't be paying for it on a cc at those ridiculous rates. And don't feel a BIT badly if you never do concierge! My first DCL cruise was on the Magic in '99. And it was 20 years later before I decided to go for concierge. And I will be a very happy DCL cruiser if I never do that again. DCL is an awesome experience no matter what category you book! JMHO......

 

[ajwaspooh]

We sailed 15 regular cruises before booking a Concierge 1 Bedroom suite. If you want to try it, go to a travel agent site that lists all the cruise dates and rates (all seas travel) and find the least expensive concierge for your category. I agree that you should do a 1 Bedroom over Concierge Family state room. It was the 1 bedroom that really makes the difference. However, I don't think we would do it again any time soon. It is really expensive and truly not a good "value". It's a splurge. Glad we did it and happy to go back to our 2 verandah cabins for future sailings.

 

[ladyofthetramp]

If you want to see something funny, but proof a newbie did a search first, check out the age on the thread that just came up asking about Stateroom 2608!!!

And I have to agree, that forums ARE about Q & A's. I agree it is always good if someone does a search before starting a new thread, but having done lots of searches myself, I often cannot either find recent info or not quite the answer I was looking for. I just never want to scold a newbie who comes here to get help.

As for the topic of this thread, DH and I were on our very first concierge sailing this time last week on the Fantasy and stayed in a Cat T. It was AMAZING. Service, the quiet respite of the lounge and sundeck, and our room was spectacular. Whether it was worth thousands more than what I had originally booked in a Gtd Cat 5C or not, I'm not sure I can even answer that for myself. For us it was very possibly a once in a lifetime thing. Truly an outstanding experience from start to finish, and one we will never, ever forget. But having sailed 10 times previous to last week's cruise on DCL, the service is so excellent onboard regardless of what category room one books. And the ships are so gorgeous with more things to do than one can get done in one cruise.

Like someone else has said, don't do concierge if you really cannot afford it. Don't hock the farm, don't be paying for it on a cc at those ridiculous rates. And don't feel a BIT badly if you never do concierge! My first DCL cruise was on the Magic in '99. And it was 20 years later before I decided to go for concierge. And I will be a very happy DCL cruiser if I never do that again. DCL is an awesome experience no matter what category you book! JMHO......

ah southerngirl528- you had an amazing time! happy to hear it! Concierge is the best. Not sure when or if I will get to do it again either, but we had absolutely the best time when we did.