There are a lot of wealthy people in the world that can easily afford concierge. If it's pocket change for you then why not. Most of us posting on here probably don't have that kind of wealth. If you are going to take out a loan at least do something exotic like an African safari or an Antarctica cruise. I can't wrap my brain around paying concierge prices for a Disney cruise if it stretches your budget or causes you to go into debt.
The wealthy aren't going to waste money on sub par experiences. They expect value for their money. So why would the wealthy pay for concierge when , according to this discussion, the greater value is outside of concierge?
We need to distinguish between “concierge [standard balcony] verandah” and concierge suites with 1 or more bedrooms distinct from the living room/couch. On Disney, there is no option for suites without Concierge. My husband would happily pay for the 1bedroom to have more privacy but that means we take 1-2 Disney cruises a year instead of 3-4 (depending on length, seasonal premiums, etc)— for that matter, he would much rather be back on Regent or Seabourn, but his wife and kids like the fact that Disney entertainment is factored around family. Just like dining quality (or Virgin Voyage crowd and music mix) “value” and “benefits” are strongly in the eye of the beholder.
that's what celebrity did...they raised daily grats to 18/day for regular cabins, more for suites. We still tip our room steward extra if they're good. They work incredibly hard and those auto grats have to be shared amongst so many different employees.
So, are you recommending concierge standard balcony? If so, since I’m definitely no DCL expert, what are the benefits?
The lowest Concierge cabin on DCL, the balcony, is where you really get little return on your investment. Not only is it very similar to a non-Concierge balcony in size, you do not get a fold-out double sofa sleeper instead of the sofa-back twin + upper berth.
Yes, sounds like concierge offers considerably more benefits on other cruise lines. And, in my opinion, RCC’s CoCo Cay offers so much more fun and activities than Castaway Cay.
Sorry, I wasn’t clearer. I’d say “probably not if you have any budgetary restrictions whatsoever?” We do full suites on Celebrity (love Luminae dining room) but just haven’t felt DCL offers as much for the Concierge dollar— but we haven’t actually done it yet, we will be trying it for my birthday this year, husband is hoping it will allow me to relax more and wants to have a better chance to get a cabana on CC.
We love Celebrity and their restaurants, both Blu and Luminae, but only rarely book full suites, so with the aqua class that we usually book its mostly Blu. Our mistake with DCL was just assuming that DCL was an upper mid level line equivalent to Celebrity, where the food and buffet would be similar or perhaps even superior in quality. Of course everyone is indeed entitled to their own point of view, but we felt that DCL was a big miss in that department. Had we known that for the high cost of our DCL cruise we were paying pretty much exclusively for Disney theming, we would have reconsidered our booking, even though we're big fans of Disney.
I think if you had kids you might feel differently. It is a great cruise line for kids. Celebrity really is not. I'm not saying DCL is worth the price over Carnival or Royal if you have children, but it does have it's place if you are a Disney fan. Disney was a pioneer in the family market and other cruise lines have upped their game. I give DCL all the credit for that. I still think they are the most family friendly line out there.
I’m sure you’re right, but we don’t have kids. We’re still Disney fans, though, and were really looking forward to the cruise. It of course totally delivered on all of the fun Disney stuff, but, for us, on all other fronts, did not come close to matching the standards we’ve come to expect from the other lines on which we’ve sailed. And my guess is that DCL knows they don’t have to, as long as they deliver on the characters, shows and fireworks. It’s a smart, very successful business model, considering their popularity!
It does change as life changes. We still love DCL, but find ourselves branching out more now that DD is close to finishing college. While we have a cruise coming up later this Summer on the Magic to check out Lighthouse Point, the other 3 cruises that we have booked in the next year are 2 Virgin Voyages cruises and a Northern European Capitals cruise on Princess.
Sounds fun! We were booked on a Lighthouse Point cruise on the Magic as well, until we sailed on the Dream and realized DCL wasn’t for us. We replaced it with a much longer cruise in October on RCC from Honolulu to Sydney. The ship, Ovation Of The Seas, looks spectacular.
I will say, the classic ships (Magic and Wonder) have a VERY different feel than the larger ships IMHO. We really like them. The rooms are larger, there is less people and the adult areas are much better thought out.
In the case of our upcoming RCC cruise, we did buy a specialty dining package, and actually love going to their buffet, which is pretty good.
Ah. Thank you for this additional info. It does strike me as weird that regular buffet dinner service is not a standard feature with DCL, as it is on every other cruise line we’ve ever booked.
DCL used to use the sit-down dinner format in the dining room as a training venue for new servers.
