Concierge

[bobsuzla]

What, exactly does concierge service include? I am curious to know if it is worth the oppurtunity to upgrade from a 5 to a 3?

 

[mostyn17]

We are in a CAT 3 this september for the first time.....From what I understand, you can book PALO reservation before the cruise and when you get onboard they will book your spa/excursions for you. Also in a CAT. 1, 2, and 3 you can order from any of the restruants for room service including PALO's and the concierge will leave you special gifts/hordorves (sorry for spelling) every day in your room.

Most of the people on this board book those catagories for the extra room not the concierge service.......that is just an added benefit.


We have 5 in our room this time and thought with all our luggage and extra person, that we could use the extra space.

Hope this helps

Travis

 

[lookingforward]

We are in a cat 3 for our upcoming cruise in September. I did a search on these boards and got a lot of information. There are a great deal of advantages to booking a suite, the main one being that the rooms are amazing and about 3 times as big as a regular stateroom. We were going to book two connecting rooms with veranda and the Cat 3 was only $600 more so we went that way.

 

[TammiMcMan]

We've just returned from a category 3 on the Wonder. Before we even left on our trip, I was able to pre-book for Palo's and also request our dining rotation. At the terminal, there is a separate check-in area for concierge guests. We received gold room keys and were escorted to a waiting area where we could sit before the boarding began. A little before noon, a cm came over, checked all our room keys and then brought us right up to the front door. We got the all clear and were the first family on board. After lunch, we went to the Cadillac Lounge to meet our concierge team and they assisted us with any spa reservations, excursions and there was also someone available to handle the registration for the kids club. No standing in lines or having to do the "reservation rush". I was shocked when I saw the size of our category 3 stateroom. It was plenty big enough for the 5 of us and we consisted of 2 parents, 2 teens and an 8 year old. We popped some Josh Groban cd's into the Sony player and we were in heaven. The concierge team had already supplied us with a fruit basket, 2 bottles of water and 6 assorted sodas. On our second night, we were invited to a cocktail hour in the Cadillac Lounge. They had appetizers and complimentary drinks. Once again, the concierge team checked in with us to make sure we had everything we needed. That afternoon, they had delivered a plate full of desserts to our stateroom. On the final afternoon, we received an assortment of cookies and a beautiful photo of the Wonder. We were able to order a full breakfast from room service each morning (except for disembarking day) and had the menu's from all the restaurants available to us. They also stopped by on the final afternoon and dropped off a preview of our bill. I understand that you would normally get this delivered in the wee hours of the morning and if you had to settle up your account, or make any corrections you had to wait in line before disembarking (which was a pretty long line when we passed by).

Tammi

 

[confal1]

I also read that if you are in Cat. 1-2-3 you can get a massage right on your balcony instead of at the spa. I hope that is true. You may want to call DCL to see if there is a Cat. 3 available for your cruise date. They can sell out fast on certain cruises. Also there are a few cabins in Cat. 3 that are larger than others. We will be in 8032 for Nov. 6 Western cruise and this is one that is larger. The pull down bed is in the L.R. not the bedroom and it has a triple wide verandah. Have Fun.

 

[disneyholic family]

yes, there are 4 "large" cat 3 staterooms: 8032, 8034, 8532, 8534....
try for one of these...they are midship and laid out better than the other cat 3 staterooms...
we were in 8534 and it was gorgeous....the kids slept in the living room, we were in the bedroom....and there were 2 full bathrooms (one for the kids, one for us)..

we'll be in a cat 1 next month and i'm really looking forwards to it...my son, on the other hand, is terribly embarrassed......

as for concierge services, when we sailed 2 years ago, there really weren't any to speak of......but we're doing it for the room, rather than the service...
however, it's true that i've been able to make palo's reservations and to specify that we want a private table in the restaurant...
but even without that, we'd do it...the stateroom is worth it...for me anyway....everyone has their own list of what's important to them...

TammiMcMan -- it's interesting that you had a special area to sit before boarding...this was one of the things we suggested to them 2 years ago, as there wasn't a special area....however, we did get to board first.....we sat right up to boarding, while the regular passengers had been waiting in a very long line....
right before boarding, the concierge passengers formed a separate line right at the front, with the passengers with disabilities going on right before us...i think we were about the 5th or 6th family to board.....

 

[TammiMcMan]

Beth,

It's nice to hear that DCL pays attention to the feedback that passengers give to them. The sitting area is to the right of the boarding doors and consisted of a large U shaped, 2-sided couch. The cm with us explained that guests needing assistance were allowed to board first, followed by concierge, so that procedure is still the same.

I've already faxed my request for one of the midship category 3's for our next cruise. We were very comfortable in the standard cat 3, so I wouldn't be disappointed if we had that room again. The only problem was not being able to get out onto the verandah in the morning as the pull out sofa in the living room and the murphy bed in the bedroom blocked the doors. Having nearly 3 bathrooms was a huge convenience. I was able to take a shower in the master bathroom, while my youngest daughter took a jacuzzi bath and my oldest daughter took a shower in the other bathroom.

I don't know about the massage on your verandah. Honestly, our time went by so fast that I didn't get to read half of the literature that was delivered to our room. Oh, we did receive a personal itinerary outlining all of our excursions and reservations. Tickets were delivered to our room, so no need to stop by guest services for anything. They also left us personalized stationary (I don't know if this exclusive to concierge).

Tammi

 

[disneyholic family]

there were nice toiletries in the bathrooms, but perhaps everyone gets those...
the shampoo and conditioner were incredible...
but i don't know if they still put that in the room or not...i hope so...

TammiMcMan- in the midship cat 3 rooms, the murphy bed is in the living room....and the parents get the bedroom all to themselves....my DD was on the pullout sofa,my DS on the murphy bed....
so you could get out to the verandah no problem...
plus the verandah in those rooms is so long...triple the length of a regular verandah...
but still, with all that, i'm greedy and wanted a bigger room...so now we'll have two bedrooms....i didn't like having my living room taken up by the sleeping arrangements....
this should be better...(the kids will be in the 2nd bedroom, we'll be all the way on the other side of the stateroom in our bedroom...hmmm....all that privacy.....sounds interesting.... )....

 

[mostyn17]

We are in 8534 this september! CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!
Travis

 

[TammiMcMan]

Oh Beth. You reminded me of that DCL commercial. The one where the woman is pushing a stroller and her older daughter is explaining to other adults that the baby is a "little souvenier" from their last Disney Cruise

The toiletries smelled heavenly, they were eucalyptus, but they came in those small individual containers that you had to tear open at the top. We did get toothbrushes and toothpaste also.

I didn't realize that the verandah was a triple wide. I'm going to try extra hard then for that style cat 3. I actually didn't mind the sleeping arrangements being right in the living room. Our kids are aged 18, 14 and 8, so most of the nights, we were in bed before them anyway. As soon as they got up in the morning, I was fixing the bed and closing it up into the sofa again. With all the storage and the two closets, they kept the room remarkably clean also. Having all that extra space does sound nice though. Maybe I will check out the price difference between the two. I've got what, 28 months to save up for it, hmmmm......

 

[disneyholic family]

i wouldn't describe it as triple wide, but rather triple long...like you have 3 regular rooms side by side....
the verandah was wonderful because of it...i spent a lot of time out there....
it's because of the way the room is laid out....
in the regular cat 3 staterooms, the verandah is like two rooms side by side...but in the midship ones, the living room is along the verandah, giving you one more room's verandah...well...i'm not explaining it well , but if you look at a deck plan for deck 8 you'll see it...i studied those plans carefully before i booked the first time around...and noticed that the 4 midship cat 3 rooms have more square footage....at least it seemed that way....and indeed they do....

as for storage space...yes....tons and tons and tons and tons....and tons....really an amazing amount of space...at least in the cat 3.....

as for the baby....that's very funny.....(and a bit racey for disney...)