Why do you sail concierge?

[DCLDVC1]

Still confused, my family is cruising on the Magic next year 7 days out of N.Y. the first time have concierge level stateroom with verandah, do I have to upgrade to 1 bedroom suite if I wanted to bring dvd's, cd's etc. back from the lounge or can I do the same in the stateroom? Thanks to everyone.

The Magic currently doesn't have any Category V staterooms and 10 Category 4 staterooms (8024, 8044, 8050, 8076, 8082, 8084, 8524, 8544, 8550, 8584) are being converted by the beginning of October. We won't know for sure if DVD players will be included in the upgrade until then.

 

[phinz]

On both the Fantasy and Dream.

Interestingly enough, there was not one in 12004 the week after Thanksgiving, 2015. Perhaps it was removed for service, but it did not exist.

 

[John VN]

In room dining is exactly why we booked our next cruise in concierge. Can you please elaborate on the process for me. Did you let shoreside know this was the plan ahead of time, is your server from the MDR or a concierge staff member, did you tip every night or once at the end? Any other input is appreciated

The concierge in 2015 was a COMPLETE SURPRISE for me from DW. Not until we saw our cabin with the dining room did we even consider eating there. Went immediately back to lounge and informed CM we would be eating in cabin every night. Chose from menus available and requested time for eating. Our server was concierge assigned. Tipped every night cash unsure if next night would be same CM. DW will inform concierge before next cruise regarding dining in.

Please be aware even if you have dinner in your cabin that the MDR servers are the ones serving you at breakfast and lunch in the MDR or Cabanas. So unless you completely isolate yourself in Concierge and never leave it for ANY food at all, you are punishing servers by removing the standard MDR tips.

DW stopped auto-tip at GS once we decided to dine-in but still did some amount on paper last night.

 

[justme0729]

In addition to what has been said, concierge also allowed us to cancel our Remy reservation and mixology past the 24 hour ahead of time deadline. They never said no to anything!

 

[Sandbtwmytoes]

The concierge in 2015 was a COMPLETE SURPRISE for me from DW. Not until we saw our cabin with the dining room did we even consider eating there. Went immediately back to lounge and informed CM we would be eating in cabin every night. Chose from menus available and requested time for eating. Our server was concierge assigned. Tipped every night cash unsure if next night would be same CM. DW will inform concierge before next cruise regarding dining in.



DW stopped auto-tip at GS once we decided to dine-in but still did some amount on paper last night.

Thanks! I was thinking the same about tipping nightly in case we have a different server one night. We have a 7 night Eastern booked.

 

[jlemieu1]

Thanks! I was thinking the same about tipping nightly in case we have a different server one night. We have a 7 night Eastern booked.

Just an FYI, I believe they only do dining for Cat T and above. Which sounds correct if you have a dinner room.

 

[Sandbtwmytoes]

Just an FYI, I believe they only do dining for Cat T and above. Which sounds correct if you have a dinner room.

Thanks, we do have a cat T room.

 

[phinz]

In addition to what has been said, concierge also allowed us to cancel our Remy reservation and mixology past the 24 hour ahead of time deadline. They never said no to anything!

We canceled our cabana the day before Castaway Cay and found somebody else to take it. No charge to us.

 

[phinz]

Thanks! I was thinking the same about tipping nightly in case we have a different server one night. We have a 7 night Eastern booked.

For what it's worth, I've been told on a couple of different occasions that Concierge guests get the best of their servers and assistant servers in the MDRs, as well as their best head servers. We've always had wonderful service from our MDR servers.

 

[SLK1]

DH surprised us with a concierge suite on our trip to Alaska in June. It was for our 25th wedding anniversary and we had our four kids with us, two of whom are adults (21 and 23). This trip was absolutely perfect in every way. The hosts (Rodrigo and Joanna) could not have given us better service and there were surprises for us every day - truly magical. We felt it wasn't too bad of a value either because our older two kids enjoy drinking and drinks were included. They could make every appointment for us, excursion, anything we wanted at a moment's notice, and when our son got sick and was in the infirmary, we were fully refunded the costs of our excursions we missed (maybe they do that for everyone; not sure). Will we ever do concierge again? Probably not - on the Wonder in Alaska, it was amazing because there is a special deck for concierge guests which was so cool. It's something we will always remember and always appreciate, but certainly not a necessity to having an amazing trip.

 

[The Sasquatch]

we do both depending on who we are with. If its just us and our 10yo daughter, we will do concierge. In October we are with 18 people and we are staying with everyone else in a block of rooms. Both ways are amazing in their own way but conci just gives you that extra special trip. Its about connecting with the team, getting a cabana, the conci deck space, the extra room in a 1 bed, the lounge, the even more beautiful rooms. Someone said it best, its like choosing to fly first class. Is is necessary? no...but it sure is nice when you are there!

 

[The Sasquatch]

here is a little write up I did on our first conci cruise with a video...

https://www.disboards.com/threads/t...-concierge-and-cabanas.3505452/#post-55642206

 

[mhconley]

We have never sailed concierge but if we ever do the reason will be because we could afford it. As someone else said we'd also fly first class and stay at only the best hotels if we could afford it. Luckily we can afford verandah staterooms.

Martin

 

[justme0729]

We canceled our cabana the day before Castaway Cay and found somebody else to take it. No charge to us.

We actually cancelled our cabana too on embarkation day! I forgot about that!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I've sailed T's on the Magic twice before there was a concierge lounge), T's on Dream 3 times, and a V on Dream once.

Let me just share this: my husband "surprised" us for Christmas 2012 with a 1-bedroom upgrade on our January 2013. There was no lounge yet. My sons were 15 & 16 yrs old. We really loved our concierge host, Tawanda. Before there were lounges you were assigned a concierge & they brought the experience to you. We felt like Tawanda was family. Amazing fella. So, fast forward to this past May on Fantasy. My sons are now 19 & 21. Big fellas. I bet my youngest son is easily 3 feet taller than he was! The first night of our 3- night double dip on Fantasy we had dinner at Palo. Youngest son needed to step out to the men's room. He returned with a smile happily asking us, "Guess who I just bumped into when I walked out of the restaurant?" ???? "Tawanda! He saw me and called my name. I can't believe he recognized me AND remembered my name! He wants us to come up to the concierge lounge and see him. He wants to see everyone." WOW! That's impressive! But we weren't staying concierge and I couldn't really think of a way it'd be appropriate, ya know? Like I don't want to be where I shouldn't. I've been concierge. I respect that space & experience. I hoped we'd bump into him somehow. Such a short cruise, though, didn't seem so likely. ......... The story doesn't end here!

So the last morning (2nd Castaway stop) we were up early getting dressed to head out to the island for the day. It was like 7:30 in the morning. We heard a soft knock at our door. I looked out the peep-hole.....Tawanda! I flung the door open and hugs ensued! It was like long-lost family! He apologized (not necessary!) but said he was so afraid he'd miss us if he didn't get by to say hello. He actually stood outside the door contemplating knocking for several minutes before he heard us inside & went for the knock. LOL! Tawanda insisted we come up to the lounge that evening. I was very hesitant but he kept gushing and wouldn't hear "no". So, after I knew 2nd seating dinner had begun I called the concierge lounge to see if it was okay & let Tawanda know we were heading up. He was waiting to let us in. Pretty empty lounge. We sat together and had a lovely, lovely visit for the better part of 2 hours. If he needed to pause to take care of his guests that was fine. Shared pics of his children. Just an amazing visit. Truly a moment that we'll never forget.

Husband & I have been tossing around ideas for things to do in Sept 2018 for our 25th anniversary. We've looked at all sorts of out-there ideas. New things. Adventures. We were talking last week and both kind of arrived at the idea of sailing in a T on Fantasy. Have we been on that ship before? Yep. Have we sailed westerns before? Yep. Have we experienced Dream class concierge? Yep. It's not a new-exciting thing but it'd be an amazing, relaxing thing we'd both love. If Tawanda is still there (I'll find out, I have his email) it'll be all the better. Looks like this is what we'll do.

I can't put exactly to words why the upcharge to concierge is "worth it". It's everything yet nothing. It's a different experience. It's the awesome DCL experience but exponentially more. I've had other crew recognize us from past cruises but nothing ever like this. It speaks to the level of the experience for me.

And know this: this isn't the only time we've had this sort of experience with concierge hosts. They're just something entirely different.

 

[undertheradar]

We made a request for a deck of playing cards in our royal suite on the Wonder this December. According to the response received by our TA from shoreside, this is too much, a deck of cards should fit in our luggage! I can state that this is a failed response by DCL shoreside concierge! The castmember who sent the response should be embarrassed and retrained! Imagine that a $2.00 deck of cards would be too much of a request for concierge? Time for DCL to rethink what a proper response should be!

 

[waltsdouble]

Where do you draw the line? A two dollar deck of cards, a five dollar set of checkers. I think the concierge makes reservations and sees to it the services requested are granted. I don't think they should do your shopping as well. Just my opinion.

 

[GingerPilot]

We made a request for a deck of playing cards in our royal suite on the Wonder this December. According to the response received by our TA from shoreside, this is too much, a deck of cards should fit in our luggage! I can state that this is a failed response by DCL shoreside concierge! The castmember who sent the response should be embarrassed and retrained! Imagine that a $2.00 deck of cards would be too much of a request for concierge? Time for DCL to rethink what a proper response should be!

Ask once you're onboard. There are playing cards in the lounge along with board games. We took games to our room some nights (yahtzee in particular) and some nights played in the lounge. I am sure the hosts will be horrified to hear that Shoreside is not being accommodating.

 

[bbel]

Ask once you're onboard. There are playing cards in the lounge along with board games. We took games to our room some nights (yahtzee in particular) and some nights played in the lounge. I am sure the hosts will be horrified to hear that Shoreside is not being accommodating.

I was gonna say ask once your onboard.
The kids club alone are always sending playing cards, uno, craft supplies etc up there.

 

[Lovewinnie]

Today was my 120 day booking window. I woke up this morning with an email from concierge confirming all of my booking requests, including cabana! I had gotten a phone call day 130 to discuss plans and questions, I emailed requests at midnight day 125, received a follow up email around 10am, and then "poof" magic happened today. Very impressed so far!!