Unusual Concierge Requests

[Namsupak]

On Wonder/Magic, are drinks offered gratis?

How do we tip the concierge -- same as a steward, with tip card and envelope?

Any word on special meet 'n' greets, back-room tours?

Reserved seating at any shows?

And the final question: What special service, such as getting a masseuse in-suite for a foot massage after pounding around our port of call all day, isn't mentioned but can be requested?

Bob

On the wonder/magic - We have not had gratis alcoholic drinks in-room, the only time is at the concierge reception.

Tips can be charged to the stateroom or cash in a tip envelope just like the dining room servers and stateroom host. Our concierge actually made the adjustments we needed so we did not have to go to guest services ourselves.

We never asked about the special seating or other reserved stuff but for things like tea with Alice and the Princess party we were reserved seats by our concierge, since we have a little girl I think he knew we wanted to go. Also we knew ahead of time on this WBTA cruise that Alice would not be at the tea party and so he changed our reservation to the next date when Alice would be there. He explained it to our daughter like this "Alice ate some cake that made her little and she won't be able to come to the party but in a few days she will be big again and then she can have tea with you."

Cool Namsupak! What is your native tongue if you don't mind me asking?

Ex Techie

No problem at all. We are Americans but our ethnicity is Thai. So we just like to practice Thai when we get a chance. Plus the servers really seem to be happy when they meet other Thai people. Twice we have been with MIL who is from Thailand but has been here for 35+ years. Once it was funny because the head server came over and said "I am so glad we could accommodate you because I saw that you have a guest who doesn't speak English." We all laughed and explained that we all speak English it is just nice nice for us to practice our language skills. Plus MIL always makes it a point to find all the Thai people on the ship so we can meet them, usually not many. Even the times when we have not had a server from Thailand, the head servers have asked Thai servers to at least come visit us. It really is just a nice thing that DCL does, not necessarily a concierge perk but just another request that they have helped with.

 

[Buckeye Goofy]

Most unusual concierge request.. hmmm... That would have to be when I requested a large knife. When a startled Lynda asked why, I responded that I wanted to sabrage a bottle of champagne when we were having friends come to our suite one night. While Lynda was unable to provide a large knife, she was able to obtain the service of Shawn, the beverage manager, to come to our suite at 11:00pm to do the honors.

 

[triptaker]

our request was for a phillips screwdriver..... We had some misting fans for the beach and the battery cover had a phillips head screw in it... No problem for them... One was produced very quickly

 

[Tami0220]

Most unusual concierge request.. hmmm... That would have to be when I requested a large knife. When a startled Lynda asked why, I responded that I wanted to sabrage a bottle of champagne when we were having friends come to our suite one night. While Lynda was unable to provide a large knife, she was able to obtain the service of Shawn, the beverage manager, to come to our suite at 11:00pm to do the honors.

While I've always been fasicinated with this procedure and LOVE champagne I would never have thought of that! Wow what a cool thing to do for you dont think I would ask for that tho

 

[scrapbookmomma74]

Our most unusual request on our recent Dream 3 night was the recipe for the Muesli. I absolutely LOVE it, and can't figure out what they do to it on the ships that makes it so absolutely delicious! lol
And, on our last night, I had a note from one of the chefs with the recipe enclosed!

 

[AlexandNessa]

I did think of one other thing we asked for and were accommodated: everyone on the WBTA 2010 got a special lithograph. I knew Ducky Williams was on board and I had wanted him to sign it. I asked the concierge when his meet and greet was, but I had missed it. The concierge went to our room to get our lithograph and had Ducky sign it for me. Then when we got the special concierge lithograph, without me asking, he presented it to me signed. I was so touched.

We don't drink soda at all, so I'm hoping they can substitute water for it.

You would think that that there would be consistency with concierge. Maybe there will be some changes by the time we sail next year. One can hope.

I am excited about our suite. We are in one with the murphy bed in the living area instead of the master.

Thank you for your reply.

First, you must be in a midship .. our favorite! You will totally enjoy it.

Second, the concierges are eager to please as they are now tipped positions. I am sure they will arrange a trade of sodas for waters for you.

Not sure what you mean by unusual but here are the things we requested on the WBTA.

- They usually bring treats everyday and we asked for a bowl of berries everyday for our daughter in addition
- Lunch and Dinner menus for the entire cruise
- 1 item to be signed by characters
- Corrections to the final bill, including canceling an internet package that we did not use
- A dining room server of a specific nationality
- One day we had a party and we asked for an assortment of treats, the concierge arranged for plates of treats to be brought at a certain time, nothing real special just cookies, cheese, and fruit
- Crib in our Cabana
- Last minute spa and excursion reservations as well as nursery times.
- hair appointments before dinner on formal night - including changing this automatically when formal night changed to a different day.
- booking private Palo room
- Extra Palo Dinner - which we ended up canceling - and he took care of this as well.

Was Danny your concierge by any chance? We had him as our concierge on the Magic last year and loved him.

Thanks, everyone, for all the information. DW and I have been thinking about consierge service for an upcoming cruise. We often bring a bit of our own wine for the cabin, and I didn't see any clear mention of wine or cocktails being offered at no charge in the consierge cabins -- only regarding happy hour in the Dream's lounge.

On Wonder/Magic, are drinks offered gratis?

How do we tip the concierge -- same as a steward, with tip card and envelope?

Any word on special meet 'n' greets, back-room tours?

Reserved seating at any shows? (Wouldn't it be great to walk into Wavelengths, or whatever the venue will be, less than 30 minutes early for a comedian show for adults, and have a killer table reserved for us? Yes, it would!)

And the final question: What special service, such as getting a masseuse in-suite for a foot massage after pounding around our port of call all day, isn't mentioned but can be requested?

Bob

Magic and Wonder tend to be stingy on free drinks. I do think some consistency in concierge offerings between ships is in order.

As far as reserved seatings, this would certainly be a nice perk, but sadly not one that is currently offered. Write it on your comment card though; who knows if they may include it in the future.

I have never requested an in-room massage. And I don't think that this is something that DCL currently offers. The concierge though would be able to make any appointments for you.

You will have the concierge position included on your tip sheet, should you choose to charge your room tips. There is no recommended amount to tip them, which makes things tricky. We really had no idea how much to tip and took a guess. If you choose to charge your tips to the room, the concierge will take care of that for you, which also makes it a bit odd .. the concierge will charge his own tip for you, and then give you the envelope with which to tip him. I didn't want to do that to him, so I went down to guest services myself to charge his tip as we were running short on cash. Turns out, he called the room while I was at guest services, and hubby told him where I was, and he came out from behind the GS desk as I was charging his tip. Awkward. Next time I will set aside concierge tips before we even leave.

To be honest, we book concierge on the "classic" (which is the official word Disney uses for the Magic/Wonder as opposed to "legacy" or "old") more for 2 bathrooms and one stop shopping than anything else. By one stop shopping I mean, you don't have to stand in line at guest services and the shorex desk, the concierge will do it all.

 

[jlemieu1]

In a couple weeks I'm going to try to ask for chocolate cover strawberries as a special treat for my wife.

 

[jilljill]

In a couple weeks I'm going to try to ask for chocolate cover strawberries as a special treat for my wife.

On our April Dream cruise we were able to find chocolate covered strawberries at the Vista Cafe on deck 4. Sometimes they could be found late evening in the nightclub area on deck 4.
DD & I would go to Vista cafe a couple of times a day to get a few.

That shouldn't be a problem requesting them for your DW.

 

[Namsupak]

Was Danny your concierge by any chance? We had him as our concierge on the Magic last year and loved him.

Our concierge was Rodrigo, we heard he will be moving to the Dream again when he comes back from vacation. We did see Danny because he was the other concierge guy on our cruise. We didn't talk to Danny too much as Rodrigo was our main guy but he did seem very nice. The other guests were very happy with him and I think as a team it was a great cruise for concierge guests.

...If you choose to charge your tips to the room, the concierge will take care of that for you, which also makes it a bit odd .. the concierge will charge his own tip for you, and then give you the envelope with which to tip him.

This happened to us also when we had to make changes, but I bet they get that all the time, still awkward. We were not sure how much to tip either but we decided that he took care of us just as much as our servers did, if not more. So we tipped him like our server.

...we book concierge on the "classic" (which is the official word Disney uses for the Magic/Wonder as opposed to "legacy" or "old") more for 2 bathrooms and one stop shopping than anything else. By one stop shopping I mean, you don't have to stand in line at guest services and the shorex desk, the concierge will do it all.

The concierge on the classic ships is a good deal. And I agree it is nice for the one stop shopping and in addition we don't have to worry about fighting for a cabana.

 

[Iceman93]

Yes, Namsupak, Rodrigo is going to the Dream--that's what he told us when on the same cruise as you. And I agree that he and Danny seemed to make a great team!

Regarding tipping the concierge, that was the one thing I went to the guest services desk all cruise to take care of. The girl there was like, "You could just have your concierge take care of this; why are you here?" and didn't seem to understand when I said I felt it was awkward to have my concierge do the work to charge his own tip. But she did it anyway, and I agree that Rodrigo earned his money!

 

[AlexandNessa]

I know that Julia who is currently on the Dream will be moving over to the Fantasy to start her up. She will be leaving some pretty big shoes to fill, and it sounds like Rodrigo is a great replacement. Not that there was anything wrong with Thomas and Eddy on the Dream, but you could just tell that Julia was "the" person in the lounge, KWIM?

We are really hoping to see Danny again on our B2B cruise in NY, but I'm sure that's wishful thinking.

RE: chocolate covered strawberries. I seem to remember getting them a few times as our daily treat, so just tell your concierge that you'd like them whenever they can be arranged. I'm sure the concierge will be happy to oblige.

 

[cruiselightupmylife]

We are sailing on the exact two cruises you are!!!! We're celebrating our Wedding Anniversary on the April 28th one and my husband's birthday on the second one and like you said the end of the world, my husband's quote to that was "what a way to go".

 

[mindelmouse]

Most unusual request for us was that my son requested croissants at 8 pm...when I found out about it, I told Rodrigo not to worry about it, but he got them any way. I've had Rodrigo and Danny (when he was in training) but we had Mike on the Wonder on our last cruise and all I can say is outstanding...we asked him to change out our regular soda for diet and he brought us 2 cases. We asked to buy a case of water and he brought us a bunch of bottles. I've never had a concierge that i was unhappy about....treat them with respect and you'll get it back!

 

[zellda]

Just off the Magic in concierge. No daily treats were delivered. Only the welcome aboard fruit basket, 3 bottles of water, 3 diet Cokes, 3 Sprites, 3 Cokes. Last concierge cruise on the Wonder - we received treats every day, as well as twice a day calls from concierge asking if we needed anything. A little disappointed in concierge service this cruise, never asked if we needed anything, and no treats. We had the boarding reception and the concierge reception, no other complimentary wine/beer/cocktails. Seems that there is a great difference in service depending on the ship, and the concierge you have assigned to you.

 

[kcashner]

No daily treats? That is different. They were definitely doing the daily treats on the Magic in June.

True that the ship makes a huge difference--the Magic and Wonder aren't set up with the lounge as the newer ships are/will be.

For what the suites cost, there is no excuse not to have a daily "check in" with the guest at the very least!

 

[SingleFather]

If I was going concierge, I would ask for a reserved section of the beach and carpet put on the beach and path leading to our reserved section so we wouldn't have to get sand on our feet.

 

[ACDSNY]

So Tami are you going to request a visit from Chip & Dale?

All kidding aside I hope you have a great cruise in 2013.

 

[AlexandNessa]

Just off the Magic in concierge. No daily treats were delivered. Only the welcome aboard fruit basket, 3 bottles of water, 3 diet Cokes, 3 Sprites, 3 Cokes. Last concierge cruise on the Wonder - we received treats every day, as well as twice a day calls from concierge asking if we needed anything. A little disappointed in concierge service this cruise, never asked if we needed anything, and no treats. We had the boarding reception and the concierge reception, no other complimentary wine/beer/cocktails. Seems that there is a great difference in service depending on the ship, and the concierge you have assigned to you.

The Magic needs to step up its game now that the Dream is sailing with a concierge lounge and happy hour cocktails. Not water down its offerings. No daily treat is a bit disappointing to hear. I wonder if your concierge was new or if they took this perk away? I hope you consider writing about your disappointment with concierge services to DCL, and be sure to cc your TA if you used one.

 

[taswira]

Just off the Magic in concierge. No daily treats were delivered. Only the welcome aboard fruit basket, 3 bottles of water, 3 diet Cokes, 3 Sprites, 3 Cokes. Last concierge cruise on the Wonder - we received treats every day, as well as twice a day calls from concierge asking if we needed anything. A little disappointed in concierge service this cruise, never asked if we needed anything, and no treats. We had the boarding reception and the concierge reception, no other complimentary wine/beer/cocktails. Seems that there is a great difference in service depending on the ship, and the concierge you have assigned to you.

I would definitely complain to DCL about it because on their website it still says the following for Concierge on the Magic: Special Treats Delivered - While staying in a Concierge Suite, you benefit from daily delights delivered to your door, such as canapés, fruit and cookies.

Oddly, I could no longer find that anywhere on their site in the description of Concierge on the Dream or Fantasy. They seem to be directing everyone to the Concierge Lounge. I'm not necessarily complaining, just sayin'.

They may be deciding to stop because the treats were going to waste (not consumed), but even if that's the case, I think Concierge guests on the classic ships, where there is no Lounge alternative, should at least be asked before being cut off from the treats.

 

[melonz]

I was a cat 9d on the WBTA and I had a fruit bowl on arrival and I had treats delivered EVERY DAY

It seems that this is not normal practice but it made for a very special first cruise