actually, this time (for our 7-day) we had a concierge contact us about 4 weeks before we sailed to book our palos brunch and dinners, our excursions and our wine tasting (which i don't think he was supposed to do). i honestly don't know if we got this service because we were booked into the walt suite or if it was because we were concierge level (in order words, i don't know if all concierge level guests receive this or just those in the royal suites) or even for that matter if it is only on the 7-day that they do this (as we were in the walt suite for the 3-day over thanksgiving and didn't get a pre-booking call).
anyway, once on board, we happened by the spa desk as we were heading for the concierge and since it was empty, we booked the surial on our own. then we headed to the concierge meeting where we were able to book our tea with wendy, confirm our wine tasting and fill out the paperwork for the kids' clubs (they had one of the counselors at the concierge meeting to help and distribute the pagers). the concierge was also able to get friends of ours seated with us (one long table of 11) at our dinners and book us on an excursion (the golden eagle catamaran....i highly recommend it) on st. maarten in spite of the fact that disney states a 5 year old age limit and we have a 3 year old (there was also a 2 year old on board, so i have learned to question those disney-imposed age limits).
is it easier than doing the scramble? absolutely! and, yes, they have days/times set aside at each of the venues for concierge guests. we got everything we wanted without standing in a single line.
now, this is in marked contrast to our Jan 2000 cruise when we were in a 1br (cat 3) for the 4 day. the concierge at that point in time came around to see each of the guests in their staterooms rather than have the concierge guests come to sessions as they do now. and, on that trip, the concierge informed us that she had "pre-booked" us (without consulting us) into palos for that very first night....of course, she didn't consider the fact that the kids clubs didn't do dinner for the kids that first night, nor did we have any way of knowing if our then 14 mo would have a spot at flounders. when we asked her to change it to another day, she came back with "they are all booked now." fortunately, my dh was able to book what we wanted on his own, so we found the concierge staff to be fairly useless.
feel free to ask any other questions...we've stayed in a cat 4, a cat 3, a cat 1 (twice) and a cat 6 (i think).
