First time cruiser impressions (concierge) (4 night Bahamanian cruise, Dream)

ChrisM

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jan 5, 2010
My wife and two tween children recently returned from a 4 night Bahamanian cruise, which was the first cruise we’ve ever taken. I wanted to keep our “first time” to a short cruise as both my wife and daughter have occasional motion sickness concerns, and the dates lined up well with our school’s spring break this year.

We were in a 1 bedroom concierge suite on the Dream (room 12020). Some general impressions follow:

I was prepared for a much longer boarding process, but as soon as we stepped into the terminal it was sort of like being swept into a river. Once through security we were at the check-in desk, having our picture taken, on the boat, and sitting down to the concierge lunch at Royal Palace – all before it seemed like we had a chance to catch our breath!

The concierge lunch was average but, once we eventually finished checking in at the concierge lounge, I’m glad they offer it. Having everyone immediately cramming into the lounge would be a nightmare, and free booze with lunch is a nice way to start the cruise.

Room was in great shape and the soft goods were spotless. I noticed when disembarking they were rolling pallets of replacement couch cushions from the service elevators into the halls and am guessing they offload and rotate/clean them all on a regular schedule. Do they do this for every cruise?

Concierge hosts were Mariana, Rodrigo, and Angeline. All were personable and very helpful; although we never had much of a need to utilize their services outside of asking basic questions on cruise logistics since we were cruising noobs. Rodrigo is a very chatty fellow.

Our servers were Binu and Jose, and Felice was our head waiter. Binu was fabulous. Jose was also great but had a heavy accent that was occasionally difficult for me to decipher (although part of this may have been my problem as I was fighting a sinus infection and my ears were clogged almost the entire trip). Felice was very engaging but only chatted with him briefly each night as he made the rounds.

Gerald was our stateroom host and was superb. I had a misplaced bias going in that this position would be one of the weaker members of the staff but I was completely wrong. He was engaging and on the ball.

I had no idea whether to choose a port (020) or starboard (520) side room and ended up choosing the port. In retrospect, the starboard may have been a little nicer, but we had great views of Nassau and Castaway Cay when arriving and before backing into the docks and were looking out onto the water when docked at Port Canaveral.

The lounge and concierge sundeck were fabulous. Always having snacks and drinks available was a huge benefit and it was almost never crowded. We ordered room service breakfast one morning, but otherwise just ate breakfast in the lounge every morning. Most of the items on offer were very good. A few misses here and there but not many. We had first seating for dinner and I always expected there might be a bit of a wait grabbing a drink during the “happy hour” prior to dinner but never had to wait at all. We skipped the “special character meet and greet” on the sundeck as it was Stitch (sorry, not a fan) when I assume it may have been a bit more crowded up there, but otherwise I never saw more than 6 other people on the sundeck at one time (and usually it was either empty or there were one or two other people).

Having only now experienced Castaway Cay with a cabana (we were fortunate to get a cabana on the family beach, Cabana #8), I don’t think I could ever be happy going back and not having a cabana. An absolute treat.

Embarkation day is sort of a whirlwind: board, lunch, lounge check-in, unpack, check out the kid’s clubs, muster drill, dinner, show – they all seem to happen in such quick succession I was exhausted and falling asleep halfway through the show. Speaking of which…

…the opening show was “The Golden Mickey’s”. Man, I thought this was terrible. It seemed like such a poor effort. We skipped “Believe” as the kids browbeat us into going to see “Ralph Breaks the Internet” instead, but I’m really glad we went to “Beauty and the Beast”. A great show with fabulous set design and production values!

We didn’t do any specialty dinners as it was a short cruise and we wanted to make sure we dined with our children at each of the dining rooms. Food at dinner was decent – wedding/event banquet quality is as good of a description as any, although some dishes were winners and some mediocre (as to be expected). Atmosphere at the main dining rooms always seemed to be at roughly the “dull roar” level but about as good as it could be given the huge numbers of people they are feeding and the number of children. I was actually impressed with how few tantrums I witnessed during dinner…maybe none? The noisiest dining experience was actually the concierge lunch on embarkation day as there was a huge table of 20 or so people all sailing together and they sat all the kids together on one end while the parents on the other end ignored them.

I never once made it to Cabanas. I’m sort of embarrassed I never even found the time to survey what was on offer. My son grabbed some pizza at Luigi’s for lunch one day and we all grabbed some ice cream cones a few times, but other than hitting the AquaDuck we rarely ever made it out on the main pool deck. With our verandah, the lounge, and the sundeck, we just never needed to check it out.

Both my son and daughter were in the Edge club (they were happy to offer a waiver to my 10.5 year old son). My son loved it while my 12 year old daughter was lukewarm. We were doing a lot of things together as a family so there weren’t tons of opportunities to spend time there anyway, but they each logged a few hours. I think my son mostly liked it because of the video games.

None of us had any motion sickness issues! My daughter donned her sea bands a few times, but it was precautionary as she’s a bit of a nervous personality. The boat definitely moved significantly more than I expected but other than a bit of wobbliness at times, no problems whatsoever. I did wake up in the middle of the night the first night and the ship was seriously rocking. I was somewhat concerned I wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep, but ended up doing so promptly. Of all of the different anti-motion sickness remedies I brought on board, the only other thing we sampled was TummyDrops ginger candies. And that was only a few times due to the rich food and drink, and not because of any motion sickness.

Disembarking with the concierge staff was a breeze once I understood the process. But lines didn’t look too terrible for the non-concierge guests for disembarking. Lines at Guest Services and Shutters, however, looked like a giant pain in the a$$.

I wish the AquaDuck lines were shorter. :)

We had a great time. I’m not sure I’m completely in love with cruising but would absolutely do it again. A Castaway Cay double-dip sounds pretty freaking great right now…
 
Sounds like you had a great cruise! Sailing in concierge is definitely going to spoil you, I've done it twice and love it.

I was prepared for a much longer boarding process, but as soon as we stepped into the terminal it was sort of like being swept into a river.
This is the perks of being in concierge, you get the bypass all the long lines to get onboard.

it was Stitch
Did they tell you in advance? For future trips know it isn't always Stitch, on my last cruise it was Pluto.

We didn’t do any specialty dinners as it was a short cruise and we wanted to make sure we dined with our children at each of the dining rooms. Food at dinner was decent – wedding/event banquet quality is as good of a description as any, although some dishes were winners and some mediocre (as to be expected).
On your future cruises definitely try out Palo and Remy. The food there is really good, definitely way above the food served in the MDRs.

I would recommend a longer cruise next time. On the shorter cruises it's a bit more chaotic since people are rushing about to do everything in a short amount of time. On a 7 night people are more relaxed since they know they have time to do something later on.
 
Sounds like you had a great cruise! Sailing in concierge is definitely going to spoil you, I've done it twice and love it.

It was definitely a great time. The only "problem", really being that now the bar is set for what a cruise experience "should be" in my mind. I'm not sure sailing non-concierge in the future is even an option! (Which is mildly frightening.)

Did they tell you in advance? For future trips know it isn't always Stitch, on my last cruise it was Pluto.

I think they informed us the morning of; but yeah, I assumed they rotated.

On your future cruises definitely try out Palo and Remy. The food there is really good, definitely way above the food served in the MDRs.

Oh, for sure. If it were a longer cruise we would have absolutely done Remy. And I would definitely do a longer cruise next time!
 
So great that Rodrigo is now on the Dream! He is our favorite Concierge (He was on the Wonder for many years).

I know what you mean about Concierge! We only sailed that way for many years but after we just recently starting sailing 'regular.' We miss some of the benefits but have gotten pretty savvy about what we want to do so we were able to transition (so there may be hope for your wallet). It is still a great experience, though and the concierge hosts are great fun!
 


Just read your TR. we have a 1 bedroom Dream trip coming up in May! We also booked cabana #8 and are looking forward to our 1st DCL trip!

What time did you arrive at the terminal? We’re planning to arrive around 1030A and heard there usually is a long line to get into the terminal.

Did a CM come around the dining room on the embarkation day to go over your itinerary or did you have to go up to the lounge after lunch?

We have 3 kids (6,4, and almost 1) and they are used to sleeping with blackout curtains. Does the room get pretty dark when you close the curtains?

My kids go to bed early so I doubt they’ll be awake for the shows. I’ve heard that they show beauty and the beast multiple times on the sea day. Do you know if this is true?

One last question. I know the concierge sundeck and the cabanas have sunscreens we can use. Do you know if we can take them for our personal use or are they only to be used at the sundeck and CC? Trying to decide if we need to pack extra sunscreens. Thanks!!
 
We had our first concierge stay in March, I completely agree with you about not making it to several areas of the ship. We spent most of our time on the concierge sundeck,the lounge and satellite falls.
 
What time did you arrive at the terminal? We’re planning to arrive around 1030A and heard there usually is a long line to get into the terminal.

Did a CM come around the dining room on the embarkation day to go over your itinerary or did you have to go up to the lounge after lunch?
Not the original poster, but can answer these questions. I arrived shortly after 10:30am for both my concierge cruises. There is a little bit of a line of cars getting in, but it wasn't anything too terrible. There's a huge crowd of people once inside, but you just need to walk through this to the concierge check in and they'll walk you onto the cruise if the ship is open for boarding then. You'll be given an option of going to eat lunch or going to the lounge. You will need to go to the lounge eventually to check in and go over your plans. We had no one stop by our table while eating lunch and I didn't see anyone else dining there visited by anyone. But breaking up the people into two spots made the lounge not so crowded and it wasn't bad meeting in there.
 


Not the original poster, but can answer these questions. I arrived shortly after 10:30am for both my concierge cruises. There is a little bit of a line of cars getting in, but it wasn't anything too terrible. There's a huge crowd of people once inside, but you just need to walk through this to the concierge check in and they'll walk you onto the cruise if the ship is open for boarding then. You'll be given an option of going to eat lunch or going to the lounge. You will need to go to the lounge eventually to check in and go over your plans. We had no one stop by our table while eating lunch and I didn't see anyone else dining there visited by anyone. But breaking up the people into two spots made the lounge not so crowded and it wasn't bad meeting in there.

Thanks! I really enjoyed your TR!
 
Just read your TR. we have a 1 bedroom Dream trip coming up in May! We also booked cabana #8 and are looking forward to our 1st DCL trip!

What time did you arrive at the terminal? We’re planning to arrive around 1030A and heard there usually is a long line to get into the terminal.

Did a CM come around the dining room on the embarkation day to go over your itinerary or did you have to go up to the lounge after lunch?

We have 3 kids (6,4, and almost 1) and they are used to sleeping with blackout curtains. Does the room get pretty dark when you close the curtains?

My kids go to bed early so I doubt they’ll be awake for the shows. I’ve heard that they show beauty and the beast multiple times on the sea day. Do you know if this is true?

One last question. I know the concierge sundeck and the cabanas have sunscreens we can use. Do you know if we can take them for our personal use or are they only to be used at the sundeck and CC? Trying to decide if we need to pack extra sunscreens. Thanks!!

I'll chime in with my thoughts even though FSU Girl already gave you some solid answers:

We didn't arrive at the port until around 12:30pm and pretty much breezed in.

The concierge lunch wasn't really presented to us as optional (even though I'm sure it is). They pretty much just whisked us straight into Royal Palace. No one came by to discuss our itinerary, so we stopped at the concierge lounge after lunch. It was still a bit chaotic in the lounge and it wasn't at all clear what the heck we were supposed to do. Check in? No one was at the desk. Were we being marked upon entry and they'd find us where we sat down? After a good 20 minutes a concierge host finally sat down at the desk and I asked what the deal was - in short, grab a host anywhere they are running around and tell them you're ready to review your itinerary. You may need to be aggressive.

I felt our room got very dark - blackout curtain dark.

They did do a matinee showing of Beauty and the Beast. I want to think it was at 1pm?

I believe you can take the sunscreen, but I never officially asked nor did we have the need to take a bottle. The attendants on the sundeck only appeared infrequently, so there's no one really there to stop you. Note that it was all spray on, no lotion.

And Cabana #8 is primo! A great spot on the beach and about halfway between the entrance to the cabana area and the restrooms. Man, I was in love. The only bummer about the Castaway cabana experience is that it goes by far, far too fast. I definitely recommend just walking your lunch back and eating in the cabana.
 
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You may take the sun lotion. In the Cabanas, the sunscreen is a coppertone spray and a coppertone kids whipped sunscreen. I really liked that one.
 

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