Insane concierge prices - not worth it?

[Laundress]

We have been fortunate to sail on the Wonder in the Roy a few times. The value for us is time spent with cousins who travel from different states and have a blast together. My mom is 75 and she loves being spoiled. I appreciate that she is comfortable and well taken care of. That is all i need to validate my choice. My point seems to be there are many reasons a family would choose concierge, not just the financial value.

 

[DCLDVC1]

On our next cruise, our Cat V is around $75/day/person more than a Cat 4 room. Money well spent! It's been about the same for a Cat T on the Magic or Wonder.

 

[jlemieu1]

We are spoiled I guess because we only cruise concierge. To keep our cost down we cruise off peak which make our Cat T cheaper than a Cat 4A in the peak summer or holiday time. Another measure to keep cost down is we only cruise 2A no kids.
Our reasons we like concierge are.
We enjoy the extra service that the concierge staff gives us. Also we enjoy the less crowded spaces of the lounge and deck. We also like the extra help booking hard to get excursions that we missed due to late bookings. We also enjoy the ability the dine in cabin with MDR (or Palo in the Cat R) going along with the privacy thing. Beating the crowds with express walk off when the concierge staff puts you at the front on the line.

 

[Carrie in AZ]

It is no surprise to me that many guests sail concierge and will continue to do so no matter the price. Just like flying in premium cabins....once you fly up front, it is very, very difficult to go back to flying in coach.

I know someone who had a one bedroom booked on the Fantasy a few years ago. They were accustomed to staying in large suites and concierge whenever they traveled. They fell on some difficult financial times and instead of canceling what they could ill afford and losing their deposit or asking to downgrade to a regular cabin, they borrowed money to continue on with their cruise. For them it was concierge and a suite or nothing.

Anyway, all this to say that some people sail concierge because that is just how they roll! Our family loves club level hotels and upgrades but I am fairly certain we will never sail DCL concierge unless we win the lottery!

 

[Trera]

We love it too. It seem like just about every time we cruise, we find another little reason that we enjoy concierge...............and that is what keeps us coming back.

 

[cgolf]

We sailed concierge twice on the fantasy and the rest of our trips have been the 2 different veranda rooms, and a majority have been and will continue to be inside rooms, except we may finally try an oceanview. For us the value just wasn't there, but we are not used to that level of travel, and actually shunned some of the attention. I definitely understand how some would really enjoy it and find it as the only way to travel. it was just not for us.

 

[Quellman]

If the cost of concierge was ONLY twice the cost of an insider room.... I'd never cruise anywhere else on principle. I usually see costs for concierge at a minimum 3x more than my cat 5-4 rooms. My last cruises have been 2 in February and 1 in October.

 

[MUN]

I STILL cannot get over the concierge room pricing which is often twice the inside stateroom price. I just don't think it's worth it for that price. We cruised concierge on the Disney Dream in a Family Verandah room in February 2015 (4 days Bahamas cruise). We paid a LOT for that room, and while it was pricey it was not nearly as exorbitantly priced as concierge rooms have been on opening day the last few times prices have come out. They are almost always about 50% more than we paid for the same itinerary and often hover around twice the cost of inside rooms.

For 2018, I'm leaning towards trying to book an intinerary that excludes CC. We could get a deluxe inside room for 1/2 the price, and see if we can pay to upgrade at the port. Concierge service was great, but I'm not really high maintenance and I'm just not sure it's worth the cost. Curious what others think.

If you can afford concierge, I think you should book it.

 

[jlemieu1]

Anyway, all this to say that some people sail concierge because that is just how they roll! Our family loves club level hotels and upgrades but I am fairly certain we will never sail DCL concierge unless we win the lottery!

Exactly, I would base your decision on how you Roll on a cruise. Your example is prefect. Everyone Rolls differently in different locations. We sail concierge to just lounge around. But at the parks we only use the room to sleep so we have never done Club level at the parks.

 

[Karin1984]

Probably the Goldilocks principle. If the lowest cabin is $2,000, the middle $2,500 and the highest $8,000, the additional $500 on the middle cabin doesnt seem a lot next to the highest, while it's still 25% more expensive than the lowest. It helps boosting sales in the middle category.

 

[Mitura]

This is a good thread. We've been on Several Disney cruises and after reading these posts I now have 2 question I never thought of before.

1) What is it meant by "Upgrading at port?" When we check in is it possible to upgrade my cabin? We usually book a verandah suite but if I can get a better cabin for a little price it may be worth to ask. (I always ask when I check into hotels but never thought about it with my cruise).

2) I have heard of concierge getting dinner served in their cabin but can regular state room get their dinner delivered to the stateroom (not the standard menu items)? We are thinking of skipping dinner when it is in the Enchanted Garden and doing Cabanas for dinner, as something different. But If I can get my Enchanted Garden dinner delivered (not served, we can do that) that may also be a cool experience. Eating on our balcony. We can make do with just our little deck chairs and such for dinner.

Thank you for your reply in advance.

 

[PoopDeckPappy]

I've sailed concierge on the Wonder and I've also had verandah 3 times and my most recent trip was an inside cabin. I don't think it is worth the cost to stay in concierge, especially with kids, for me. I'll be doing inside rooms from now on with the kids unless it's a very small increase pp to do a verandah. I stay in the Haven when I cruise NCL and no other big ship line can compare to their suite offerings. I'd imagine the 2 new Disney ships offer a better concierge experience than the Magic or Wonder but it's still not enough for me to justify the much higher price. Not having a butler is a big strike against it, imo.

 

[coloradocutie]

You've got it, Mitura. If you have a suite, there is a dining table in it. You can order your meal off of any of the main dining room menus and have the meal delivered to your room. The concierge hosts place the order for you. It is WONDERFUL!!!! You can have your enchanted garden dinner delivered and you can dine in the peace and quiet of your own balcony, at your leisure.

 

[Bear3412]

.... can regular state room get their dinner delivered to the stateroom (not the standard menu items)? ....

No

 

[Julylady]

We upgraded to a 1-bedroom suite on our 3rd or 4th cruise out of 11 cruises. Concierge was one and done for us. I guess we are a family that just likes doing things for ourselves. I think our hosts really struggled to try to find something to do for us! We also enjoy the Main Dining rooms experience and have no desire to eat by ourselves in our room. We prefer to pick out our own snacks from the Cove or Cabanas rather than the host leaving us a plate. However, we prefer to cruise in a family stateroom with veranda because we do like the extra space (even when its just the two of us). One thing to remember, in addition to the increased costs for the concierge room, there is also another set of tips to pay. We did pay the expected tip for our one and only concierge experience because it wasn't the hosts fault we didn't need them to do anything.

 

[Quellman]

This is a good thread. We've been on Several Disney cruises and after reading these posts I now have 2 question I never thought of before.

1) What is it meant by "Upgrading at port?" When we check in is it possible to upgrade my cabin? We usually book a verandah suite but if I can get a better cabin for a little price it may be worth to ask. (I always ask when I check into hotels but never thought about it with my cruise).

1. Upgrading at port. If you want to upgrade you first check in to your room. Then you go to the supervisors desk. At Port Canaveral it is the last desk on the left hand side closest to the boarding Mickey funnel. You can ask about any upgrades available. Sometimes they have them sometimes there aren't. There isn't a set price for the upgrade but there is a tracking thread located HERE. The cost to upgrade is cheaper than if you were to have booked that room in advance.

 

[disneyholic family]

we used to only cruise concierge - mainly to get the really big rooms, rather than having anything to do with the service (which there wasn't much way back when)...
more recently i took my mom and sister on the disney dream in a 1 bedroom suite....we again very much enjoyed the room...as well as the perks..

however, since then, DH and i have sailed several times in regular verandah rooms for much less money and enjoyed it just as much...

and DD and her husband sailed on the magic last month in an oceanview room with the big porthole...
she was very nervous about sailing for the first time without a verandah....
but the savings were just too great....she saved $1300 by giving up on the verandah......
as it turned out, she absolutely ADORED her porthole room on deck 2 and will be booking the same area again in the future...and with the money saved, she'll be able to go on more cruises...

 

[Tasmen]

I get that it isn't worth it to some folks. We should all spend our vacation money in a way that we find most gratifying. For us? This includes concierge. I will happily pay extra to not stand in lines. We also thoroughly enjoyed our time in our cabana. Granted we had the grand cabana and were splitting the cost 3 ways, but still, made our day at CC so amazing.

 

[disneyholic family]

in truth i was very disappointed with one aspect of concierge...
i asked for help with my legally blind mom...
i requested that they either let us into the theater early or reserve a seat for her in the front row (the only row from where she can see anything at all)..
they claimed they would and then they did nothing at all..
my poor mother was so disappointed she gave up going to the theater at all...
it wasn't that big a request....
and there was no way i could maneuver my legally blind mom and my very mobile challenged sister (with ovarian cancer)..
concierge was useless and didn't even apologize...

compare that to royal caribbean - i took my mom to alaska on radiance of the seas...we were in just a regular old verandah room...not even concierge..
the crew bent over backwards helping my mom...it was totally amazing..including reserving a seat for her in the front row of the theater every single night...it was such a relief for her to be able to see - albeit still just a little....but at least that...

and again, that was just standard service on the radiance..

whereas on the Dream - the concierge did nothing even when i begged them to help....
and i assure you i wasn't obnoxious.....i'm personally quite low maintenance...this was just a request to help someone who is officially legally blind...(and is obviously very low vision when you see her)..
anyway...

it was very disappointing...
i also had the feeling that the concierge hosts were being saccharine sweet in their pursuit of tips..

back when we first started with DCL, the concierge hosts were a non-tipping position....i enjoyed it much better then as i didnt' have a feeling that the hosts were focused on that one goal...

 

[NZMUM]

We have sailed concierge once, after upgrading at the port. Loved, loved, loved the suite. But we didn't really use any of the services. We're very low maintenance. I don't drink & DH drinks very little. We got some snacks in the lounge & asked once for extra bottles of water. We ate in the MDRs every night & never ordered breakfast for our room.
It confirmed to me that extra cost of booking concierge is not worth it for our family - I always check the pricing when booking but it is well over what I consider reasonable. Our next cruise we have 2 cabins so will get the separate bedroom & 2 bathrooms that way.
However I would definitely consider upgrading at the port again.