Hi all! (EDIT: i added another story at the bottom i forgot!)
Just off the Disney Wish, sailed concierge, and although there were issues in comparison to concierge on other DCL ships, I thought this would be a good time to compare my DCL vs Royal Caribbean experience especially concierge. (Spoiler alert: Royal Caribbean was HORRIBLE compare to Disney Cruise Line)
Background: DCL: we're platinum, have sailed on all 5 DCL ships, and concierge on Dream, Fantasy, and the Wish.
RC: we sailed on the Anthem of the Seas (quantum class), on a 5 night, one-bedroom suite with concierge (note not the "royal genie") so yes, my comparison will be to this one experience.
in short: our Royal Caribbean experience was horrible in comparison to DCL. In fact, even non-concierge DCL is so much better than RC concierge, not even in the same ball park.
In an attempt to be objective and fair, I would like to lay out factual comparisons: (in our experience)
PRECRUISE:
Disney: has shoreside concierge (yes there are other issues) who have emailed and called me in the past to set up reservations etc.
got luggage tags, cruise documents mailed to us automatically.
RC: non-existent shoreside concierge for suites. no concierge priority booking for activities etc. website is atrocious for making plans. no cruise documents. you have to pay to get luggage tags to print yourself.
CONCIERGE SERVICE:
DCL: 3 or 4 wonderful concierge hosts are there, exclusively for the concierge guests. you meet one on one when you board to go over plans and reservations and requests, and the hosts know you and your families names from Day 1. they go above and beyond with personalized service. many extra surprises you don't even ask for. almost all of our requests were met. (changing reservations, etc) no need to go to guest services.
RC: we had ONE guy in the lounge, whenever he was there, because he also split his time as he worked in other areas of the ship. was not friendly at all. made no attempt to know our names or our plans or requests. we had to line up to meet him and make simple requests which were not met (bottled water, help with wifi. i had to give him the number of IT, he didnt know). he was so unhelpful that we started going to guest services to get help.
ROOMS and LOUNGE:
DCL: staterooms are beautiful, split bathrooms etc. concierge is on a separate area on the ship, along with the convenient lounge in which the hosts are ever present, with a nice bar, wonderful bartenders, food and snacks and Evian water. our stateroom was always stocked with evian water
RC: stateroom was nice and big and comfortable, however concierge was sprinkled throughout, and not in one section, so our lounge was far from our room! 2 decks below and half the ship length.
lounge is large and spacious, with nice windows. however as above we rarely saw the ONE concierge host. never saw a bartender (maybe once or twice during the happy hours). AND they dont' have bottled water!! (really??) really, they told us the ship was running low on their no-name bottled water. (while DCL stocked our rooms with evian)
PRIORITY RESERVATIONS:
Disney: priority for concierge for adult only restaurants, cabanas, etc.
RC: could not even get us a reservation in their Concierge only restaurant!! (coastal kitchen).
could not get north star for everyone in party.
could not get reservations for everyone for shows, and we were told by concierge "we are saving spots for those who choose not to do ahead of time."
MAIN DINING ROOM:
Disney: classic brilliant rotational dining, and servers follow you and get to know you. dont need to make reservations and there's a table automatically reserved for you.
RC: had to make reservations ahead of time for MDR Mytime dining (really?) and when we got there night 1, *THEY LOST OUR RESERVATIONS*.
So instead of accommodating us, they had us enter all our information and staterooms etc in the computer!!!
AND they wouldn't seat us until our party was complete
DINING SERVICE:
DCL: servers are friendly, get to know you and your wants, and follow you on rotational dining. palo and remy and enchante service amazing as well. food is good!
RC: main dining servers were slow, not friendly, did not make ANY attempt to know our names. our first night in mytime dining was one of the WORST experiences i've had in any restaurant. among other things they changed an order for my son with allergies and only admitted to me later that they made a substitution because they ran out of ingredients, only after i told them. food was not good at all. grilled chicken and cold carrots for my first meal. coastal kitchen was ok but slow. specialty dining (with upcharge) was fine.
service was so slow we missed the shows!! this would never happen on MDR on DCL.
GYM:
DCL: theyre small and ok except for the wish
RC: pretty nice on the anthem admittedly
ENTERTAINMENT:
DCL: world class, broadway style, amazing performers and singers
RC: WE MISSED ALL THE SHOWS BECAUSE SERVICE DURING DINNER WAS SLOW. no exaggeration.
BARS:
ok, other than the Wish, i admit RC wins this one
UPCHARGES:
DCL: extra charge for palo/remy/enchante, cove cafe, alcohol, a few others (and more on the wish). soda free, room service free, towels freel, kids club open late and included.
RC: nickel and diming everywhere: sodas, character meals, even *cranberry juice* was extra charge in the character meal because if was a "premium juice." fee for room service. fee for towels, really?? fee for using kids club after 10pm, extra fee if your picture group is large. goes on and on.
there were so many other things, other intangibles, everything was cumbersome on RC. even just getting bottled water at any bar!! impossible, as they said they were running low so we went from place to place, finally finding one and they gave us ONE bottle of no name water for our party.
I don't ask for a lot, and I dont' make over the top requests. but simple things RC couldn't handle. DCL would go above and beyond.
Now, all the harshness aside, I don't mean to dispense with all of Royal Caribbean as this was just our experience. I did tell a head server about the issues we had, and in fairness she was apologetic and made it up to us with a nice meal one night. The concierge host I couldn't do much about, and we just made our other requests at guest services (and still couldn't get the reservations, but oh well). We still had a nice time because of our company. And I wouldn't say no to another Royal Caribbean cruise, but I really really really appreciate the service and magic that DCL has.
EDIT: I forgot our final story about disembarkation, you have to hear about this:
on royal caribbean, we were being led out by the "express concierge debarkation" hoping to get off the ship early.
so the first crew member was leading us out, BUT at the exit he found he FORGOT HIS ID! so we waited there while he left to get it.
he never came back.
so after waiting longer, another crew member came down and he was leading us out he was stopped at the exit because there was a problem with HIS id, he even said something about immigration! i can't make this up. so with all the waiting we just left with the rest of the passengers during normal disembarkation.
Just off the Disney Wish, sailed concierge, and although there were issues in comparison to concierge on other DCL ships, I thought this would be a good time to compare my DCL vs Royal Caribbean experience especially concierge. (Spoiler alert: Royal Caribbean was HORRIBLE compare to Disney Cruise Line)
Background: DCL: we're platinum, have sailed on all 5 DCL ships, and concierge on Dream, Fantasy, and the Wish.
RC: we sailed on the Anthem of the Seas (quantum class), on a 5 night, one-bedroom suite with concierge (note not the "royal genie") so yes, my comparison will be to this one experience.
in short: our Royal Caribbean experience was horrible in comparison to DCL. In fact, even non-concierge DCL is so much better than RC concierge, not even in the same ball park.
In an attempt to be objective and fair, I would like to lay out factual comparisons: (in our experience)
PRECRUISE:
Disney: has shoreside concierge (yes there are other issues) who have emailed and called me in the past to set up reservations etc.
got luggage tags, cruise documents mailed to us automatically.
RC: non-existent shoreside concierge for suites. no concierge priority booking for activities etc. website is atrocious for making plans. no cruise documents. you have to pay to get luggage tags to print yourself.
CONCIERGE SERVICE:
DCL: 3 or 4 wonderful concierge hosts are there, exclusively for the concierge guests. you meet one on one when you board to go over plans and reservations and requests, and the hosts know you and your families names from Day 1. they go above and beyond with personalized service. many extra surprises you don't even ask for. almost all of our requests were met. (changing reservations, etc) no need to go to guest services.
RC: we had ONE guy in the lounge, whenever he was there, because he also split his time as he worked in other areas of the ship. was not friendly at all. made no attempt to know our names or our plans or requests. we had to line up to meet him and make simple requests which were not met (bottled water, help with wifi. i had to give him the number of IT, he didnt know). he was so unhelpful that we started going to guest services to get help.
ROOMS and LOUNGE:
DCL: staterooms are beautiful, split bathrooms etc. concierge is on a separate area on the ship, along with the convenient lounge in which the hosts are ever present, with a nice bar, wonderful bartenders, food and snacks and Evian water. our stateroom was always stocked with evian water
RC: stateroom was nice and big and comfortable, however concierge was sprinkled throughout, and not in one section, so our lounge was far from our room! 2 decks below and half the ship length.
lounge is large and spacious, with nice windows. however as above we rarely saw the ONE concierge host. never saw a bartender (maybe once or twice during the happy hours). AND they dont' have bottled water!! (really??) really, they told us the ship was running low on their no-name bottled water. (while DCL stocked our rooms with evian)
PRIORITY RESERVATIONS:
Disney: priority for concierge for adult only restaurants, cabanas, etc.
RC: could not even get us a reservation in their Concierge only restaurant!! (coastal kitchen).
could not get north star for everyone in party.
could not get reservations for everyone for shows, and we were told by concierge "we are saving spots for those who choose not to do ahead of time."
MAIN DINING ROOM:
Disney: classic brilliant rotational dining, and servers follow you and get to know you. dont need to make reservations and there's a table automatically reserved for you.
RC: had to make reservations ahead of time for MDR Mytime dining (really?) and when we got there night 1, *THEY LOST OUR RESERVATIONS*.
So instead of accommodating us, they had us enter all our information and staterooms etc in the computer!!!
AND they wouldn't seat us until our party was complete
DINING SERVICE:
DCL: servers are friendly, get to know you and your wants, and follow you on rotational dining. palo and remy and enchante service amazing as well. food is good!
RC: main dining servers were slow, not friendly, did not make ANY attempt to know our names. our first night in mytime dining was one of the WORST experiences i've had in any restaurant. among other things they changed an order for my son with allergies and only admitted to me later that they made a substitution because they ran out of ingredients, only after i told them. food was not good at all. grilled chicken and cold carrots for my first meal. coastal kitchen was ok but slow. specialty dining (with upcharge) was fine.
service was so slow we missed the shows!! this would never happen on MDR on DCL.
GYM:
DCL: theyre small and ok except for the wish
RC: pretty nice on the anthem admittedly
ENTERTAINMENT:
DCL: world class, broadway style, amazing performers and singers
RC: WE MISSED ALL THE SHOWS BECAUSE SERVICE DURING DINNER WAS SLOW. no exaggeration.
BARS:
ok, other than the Wish, i admit RC wins this one
UPCHARGES:
DCL: extra charge for palo/remy/enchante, cove cafe, alcohol, a few others (and more on the wish). soda free, room service free, towels freel, kids club open late and included.
RC: nickel and diming everywhere: sodas, character meals, even *cranberry juice* was extra charge in the character meal because if was a "premium juice." fee for room service. fee for towels, really?? fee for using kids club after 10pm, extra fee if your picture group is large. goes on and on.
there were so many other things, other intangibles, everything was cumbersome on RC. even just getting bottled water at any bar!! impossible, as they said they were running low so we went from place to place, finally finding one and they gave us ONE bottle of no name water for our party.
I don't ask for a lot, and I dont' make over the top requests. but simple things RC couldn't handle. DCL would go above and beyond.
Now, all the harshness aside, I don't mean to dispense with all of Royal Caribbean as this was just our experience. I did tell a head server about the issues we had, and in fairness she was apologetic and made it up to us with a nice meal one night. The concierge host I couldn't do much about, and we just made our other requests at guest services (and still couldn't get the reservations, but oh well). We still had a nice time because of our company. And I wouldn't say no to another Royal Caribbean cruise, but I really really really appreciate the service and magic that DCL has.
EDIT: I forgot our final story about disembarkation, you have to hear about this:
on royal caribbean, we were being led out by the "express concierge debarkation" hoping to get off the ship early.
so the first crew member was leading us out, BUT at the exit he found he FORGOT HIS ID! so we waited there while he left to get it.
he never came back.
so after waiting longer, another crew member came down and he was leading us out he was stopped at the exit because there was a problem with HIS id, he even said something about immigration! i can't make this up. so with all the waiting we just left with the rest of the passengers during normal disembarkation.
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