What is included in Concierge Level Service on the Cruise Line?

rob0519

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We've never been on a cruise and are contemplating one this November. At this late date there are not many stateroom options left. I cannot find a description of Concierge Level service on the website or here in the forums.

Is there a different level of service and amenities like at the resorts or is it strictly the size of the staterooms? Thanks.
 

sweetpee_1993

Well-Known Member
It's definitely a different level of service. Even if you've never sailed with Disney before, if you're booked AND paid-in-full at 120 days prior to sailing you can begin booking activities and dining. Better yet, your shore-side concierge who you would've already been in touch with would be ready to make all your bookings for you. There is a lot to be said for the better booking window for things that are in high demand such as adults-only meals (ie. brunches) and the ever-elusive private cabanas on Castaway Cay. If you had never sailed with DCL before you wouldn't be able to start doing any of that until 75 days prior to sailing and paid-in-full. Concierge and Platinum level Castaway Club members get the best advantage. Not sure where Gold level's window opens. I know Silver is 90 days.

I'll try to think this thru from embarkation on. We were in a 1-bedroom in May (upgraded at the port). There's a different check-in desk at the terminal in Port Canaveral for Concierge & Platinum guests to check-in. Not sure if they set up a special one at other terminals. Also at Port Canaveral there's a different loungy waiting area for Concierge. Also, these guests have priority boarding which means they'll be the first folks to walk onboard ahead of all the other passengers waiting anxiously for their boarding group number to be called.

On the classic ships there is NOT a dedicated concierge lounge like you see at the resorts. On the 2 new ships there is. Currently I can only speak to the experience on the classic ships that don't have the lounge. When you board you go to a reception that has free drinks (adult beverages included) and a nice little spread of munchy items. Here your personal concierge will meet with you, spend some time getting to know you, explain their services, and get a list of things you may need them to take care of for you such as dining reservations or changes, booking tastings, and any other details that need to be attended to. We were able to make a set standing order for coffee and milk to be delivered to our stateroom every morning at 8:30. The tray always arrived perfect: coffee, skim milk, and Splenda. Our concierge also arranged to get us a 3rd Wave phone to have onboard which we never were upcharged for (normally there's a deposit/fee to rent extras). The level of personal service is amazing. Throughout our cruise if we needed anything or wanted to make changes our concierge was right there to handle the details. Each day our concierge would check in with us in person and we'd often find little surprises left for us when we returned to our room. The night we had a maintenance issue she was also right there making sure we were comfortable and ready to do whatever it took to ensure that we were happy. Also, during our cruise there was a planned private reception that had a lovely spread of finger foods, more of the complimentary beverages, and a character for a special meet with the attendees. That was really nice.

I'm not sure the rooms are always all that different in size. I think on the newer ships the 00V Family Oceanview w/Verandahs are about the same as the bigger cat. 4 Deluxe Family Oceanview w/Verandahs that don't have concierge. Maybe the decor is slightly different. Obviously the larger suites are bigger and have lots of extra amenities. Also on the newer ships the concierge rooms are all right there together whereas on the classic ships they're more scattered about.

I think some of the complimentary toiletries are a little different. Last year in the cat. 4 room we had on the Dream we got a small tube of the H20 Solar Gel in our stateroom. I thought all the staterooms got it but later found out it's only the higher category rooms. It was also in our 1-bedroom on the Magic.

I'm a little fuzzy on the details with this...I think maybe it's only the cat. 00T & 00R (1-bedroom & Royal suites) that can order from Palo and have it served in your stateroom. I know that doesn't seem like a big deal. I wish we'd thought about it more. Our sons aren't old enough to dine in Palo yet but they could've had the multi-course awesome food experience had we thought to take advantage of that perk. I'm not 100% sure if the cat. 00V (concierge family verandah room) can order from the main dining room menus and have it delivered to the stateroom. It was an option given to us in the 1-bedroom on the Magic but, again, we didn't take advantage of it.

There's lots of little perks with the Concierge level that really take the pampering to places I never would've dreamed. I'm not sure I'd recommend it for a first cruise because you may spoil yourself to ever cruising without it again. LOL! Then again, the guidance and extra assistance can go a long way when it's all still new to you and you don't know as much about all the little things yet.

We're really hoping to upgrade to Concierge later this month on the Dream to see how the services differ from the classic ships to the newer ships. I think the dedicated lounge in itself will be a big difference. Because there's a lounge with a concierge desk set up I don't think we'll get the in-depth person-to-person type service we did on the Magic like how our concierge came to our stateroom every day to check in with us. The Magic staff had to conduct their services that way because they didn't have an office or desk location we could go when we needed them. We had to call or wait until we next bumped into our concierge. So basically the service had to come to us vs. having to go to the service. If that makes sense. LOL!

If you think of any questions definitely ask. I've done a lot of reading about concierge since we got back from the Magic so I'm hoping to be more on the up-n-up if we should have the opportunity to do it again.
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Sweetpee gave you an awesome review! She kind of liked her concierge experience, lol. I'll add that it's amazing and if you can swing it, do it!! :)
 

ChuckElias

Well-Known Member
What is the tipping protocol for the concierge? Is the tip included in the higher fare? Or do you tip at the end of the cruise, like we do with the room steward and dining room server, etc? If the tip is extra, what is the recommended tip?
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
What is the tipping protocol for the concierge? Is the tip included in the higher fare? Or do you tip at the end of the cruise, like we do with the room steward and dining room server, etc? If the tip is extra, what is the recommended tip?

The concierge used to not be a tipped position, but so many people felt like they should Disney now "allows" it. There's no set amount. I have heard people say that you should tip extra to your stateroom host because they seem to work a lot harder in concierge rooms.
 

sweetpee_1993

Well-Known Member
What is the tipping protocol for the concierge? Is the tip included in the higher fare? Or do you tip at the end of the cruise, like we do with the room steward and dining room server, etc? If the tip is extra, what is the recommended tip?

Like Tammy said, there's not a recommended tip amount like with your room steward or dining service team. I've read where folks argued that it's not necessary and others that said they base their tip on the amount spent on the cruise. Personally, I like to think I fall somewhere in between. The concierge really did a lot for us so we knew we were going to tip but having never done a trip where we had a particular person do so much for us above & beyond we really felt like we were guessing at what was appropriate. Some people say to base how much you tip the concierge by how much they do for you. If you required a lot of assistance then they should be compensated accordingly. I think that's pretty fair. I forget exactly how much we tipped our concierge. It may be tacky to put the dollar figure out there publicly but then how do you know what "enough" is for others so you can guage yourself appropriately? We truly were clueless what was expected. We even asked our concierge directly explaining that we'd never been in the situation, had no clue, and wanted to be sure we were doing the right thing for her. Of course she didn't answer with a number but was gracious. We looked at what the other tipped CMs got from us then tried to go from that. I wanna say we tipped like $60 or $80 or something like that. She really did do a lot of little things for us in addition to making us feel oober-pampered. We gave her cash which now I sorta wish we'd done it on the shipboard account because I've since read that a lot of the CMs prefer their tips via account so it rolls right into their paycheck. If they're on direct deposit or have their checks mailed home then it gets the money where they prefer for it to be.


Why? :confused: Because they feel like they're being watched more closely in those rooms?

Again, like Tammy said if the room is bigger it's more work for the room steward to take care of it. That's a good reason to tip that person extra. But, like on the newer ships where there's concierge rooms that are essentially the same size as their non-concierge counterparts, that's not necessarily the rule. Our first cruise we saw very little of our room steward (he was new) and didn't feel the crazy attentiveness we heard so many others rave about. We tipped a little extra on that one. Contrast that with our 2nd cruise which just happened to land us in a suite and the difference was night and day. I guess it's not necessarily because we were in a concierge room so much as our steward was very experienced and good at what he did. This time this CM was extremely helpful, did a lot of little extra things for us, was very friendly, and was always accessible. Anytime we mentioned something we liked or wished for he seemed to make it happen. I think I fell in love with his willingness to humor my crazy anti-bedspread self. Whenever he made our bed he always put my quilt back on so I could walk in and have that cozy-factor. I suppose it could be argued that he did a little extra with delivering/presenting each afternoon's goodies. Each afternoon when we came into our room not only was it impeccibly clean & tidy, we had a plate or tray of some sort of treat left on the dining table for us to enjoy. I recall a nice cheese plate, a handmade candy plate, fruit plate, and cookie plate. We didn't get anything like that in our non-concierge room on the Dream but we had a totally different level of room steward service then, too, so I can't say I know what is or is not the norm. You know? So for all the outstanding service we had I think we added like $50 or $60 to his envelope. He was truly just as integral a part of our amazing experience as the concierge was. Again, we had no idea going into it that we should tip extra. I didn't even think about the fact that our stateroom was twice as big. We just felt like it was deserved and the thing we should do.

Honestly, in hind-site, I think maybe we should've tipped a little more especially for the concierge and the room steward.
 

DISNEY FANTASY

Well-Known Member
I have just posted a link to my blog which included being in a concierge room for two weeks on the fantasy, it includeds my live postings from that cruise and use of the concierge lunge, the coffee and tea machine in there is worth the upgrade in itself, really it is for early drinsk at 7am and evening drinks at 10pm, the service differs ship to ship, and for people who have enquired about tips for concierge you should read my blog for the two extreams, you really will not beleive the tips some people give to them!! Per concierge, ie all three!!!
 

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