Magic concierge review

[John VN]

What cruise lines do you prefer and recommend for travel at concierge level?
Any special cruise itineraries you recommend?

DW and I are currently cruising MSC Yacht Club thanks to Price Point along with Perks = a no brainer for us (much more included than with DCL Concierge

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If it saw a Concierge room for 8-9k (at a time we could travel) I would be ready to jump on it—but the ones I’ve been looking at for 2024 are well above it.

A Verandah on WISH next Oct. @ $3,719

MSC Yacht Club next Oct @ $3,218

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

DW and I are currently cruising MSC Yacht Club thanks to Price Point along with Perks = a no brainer for us (much more included than with DCL Concierge



A Verandah on WISH next Oct. @ $3,719

MSC Yacht Club next Oct @ $3,218

Oh, I’m aware other lines can be cheaper. When our kids were too young for kids club, we traveled in suites (large multi room suites) on Celebrity that still went for less per day than DCL. Then we had a friend become an exec at Princess and mostly traveled on Friends and Family rates in 2 mini suites (which made DCL pricing a real shock!).

I’ve been curious about the MSC yacht club experience, but also thinking of trying NCL or Royal—my kids are now getting into the “thrills” that they see on other ships while docked in Nassau and Cozumel. You haven’t lived until your 8 year old tells you they’d rather be on the carnival ship across the way that costs less than 1/3 of what you’re paying for Disney.

 

[Flying Fish]

You haven’t lived until your 8 year old tells you they’d rather be on the carnival ship across the way that costs less than 1/3 of what you’re paying for Disney

Add me to the list of those who have "lived." If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right? We decided to give Royal a try, since we're only about an hour from Port Canaveral - why not. I have to admit it was not as bad as I thought it would be. We did hurry back to Disney for the next couple of cruises, but our next is actually on Royal this year. It's about what you would expect, but it wasn't too bad and the kids had a blast. It was much more like going to the parks than to a relaxing cruise, but it's fun for what it is. Last cruise was concierge on the Wonder - that is more my speed, though.

 

[Lillebelle]

But the part that is the hardest to quantify is that amazing concierge team. They truly made this the best vacation I’ve ever had in my life! As a mom, I take care of my family. In my work, I take care of actors. As head of my department, I make sure that they feel good and look good and that every concern they bring to us is handled. I’m not the only department handling them, by any means, but we do our best to make sure that they feel like they are taken care of by us and anything g we can’t handle directly, we make sure someone else handles.
I have never experienced what it feels like to be on the receiving end of that. As a kid, you really have no concept of everything your parents are doing to take care of you. And I’m definitely no celebrity, so I don’t have people waiting on me. This was like a dream. And not only did they make me feel taken care of, they made me feel like family. I didn’t feel like a burden, which is what I was afraid I would feel like. I get uncomfortable usually when people have to do too much for me. I tend to try to clean up the room as much as possible before the room steward comes in. I’m always trying to tidy up my table at restaurants. But somehow they made me feel like it was okay to relax and enjoy my time in there.

This, 1000x this. It's so much money but it's hard to put a price on being completely taken care of when you spend every other day of your life taking care of everyone else. Thank you for sharing your review. We recently booked a last minute trip on the Magic in concierge and now I'm even more excited!

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

Add me to the list of those who have "lived." If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right? We decided to give Royal a try, since we're only about an hour from Port Canaveral - why not. I have to admit it was not as bad as I thought it would be. We did hurry back to Disney for the next couple of cruises, but our next is actually on Royal this year. It's about what you would expect, but it wasn't too bad and the kids had a blast. It was much more like going to the parks than to a relaxing cruise, but it's fun for what it is. Last cruise was concierge on the Wonder - that is more my speed, though.

I appreciate the comparison. I actually think the experience on Royal could be more relaxing for me personally because I won’t want to do much beyond sit on my balcony and read (whereas with Disney I feel like we need to hit ALL the activities), I’m mostly concerned that on a giant ship there will be queues and waits everywhere, and mediocre dining options.

 

[Flying Fish]

I appreciate the comparison. I actually think the experience on Royal could be more relaxing for me personally because I won’t want to do much beyond sit on my balcony and read (whereas with Disney I feel like we need to hit ALL the activities), I’m mostly concerned that on a giant ship there will be queues and waits everywhere, and mediocre dining options.

I didn't mention dining on purpose...

I firmly believe DCL dining has declined in recent years, but I still think it is way above what we had on Royal. There were always things to eat, but we really had to pick and choose.

We have only been on the one, but it was the Wonder of the Seas. We did not really wait in any long lines, which was also a surprise to me.

Lillebelle: you'll love your Magic concierge cruise. That is our second favorite ship, and you'll hopefully be in one of the updated rooms. They are lovely. Much less of the dark wood. You still don't get as much as some lines, and it is really over priced. BUT, it's still worth it. It's a respite of peace and quiet on the ship with people to help you do anything you want/need.

 

[Mathmagicland]

We are now inside the 90 day booking window for almost all of them, so it would be hard to justify spending 10k for a cruise where I’m grouchy we can’t do most of the onboard stuff I like.

I can’t speak to all onboard activities, but sometimes concierge can book “sold out” things from the pool of bookings held for embarkation day. Once we decided to go to Palo just threw weeks before sailing, when Palo was fully booked. I emailed shoreside Concierge team to ask if I should go to Concierge or to the onboard location to try for a late booking. They replied with a confirmed reservation. No embarkation day stress!

They cannot get yiu into a sold out port adventure, as spots may be limited to seats in a bus or location capacity. I’ve never tried for tastings, so don’t know how those might work when sold out.

 

[Mathmagicland]

Sharing a few other Concierge perks/benefits we’ve experienced that I don’t think have been shared yet -

There is a private sundeck. Some ships there is also a whirlpool. They also have complimentary sunscreen.

If you are Platinum or Pearl, you can order your onboard gift through them. Any room key issues, ie key not working, they can replace the key for you so no going to guest service. If your cabin has any maintenance issues, you can report to Concierge team and they will work to get maintenance out very quickly to get it fixed. Basically they are your own private Guest services.

Also, for those who are pin collectors, there is a unique fleet-wide concierge pin available in the gift shop. It will be on display in a case somewhere in the lounge; you show your room key in the shop to purchase one. On some ships, there may be other concierge merch - the Wish recently also had hats with the concierge keys logo and a Wish ship’s bell ornament.

In ports where there is tendering, concierge can get priority for the tender boats, or tender tickets without having to go to the theatre.

If you want to adjust any of your standard non-prepaid gratuities, increase any Prepaid, or add additional gratuities, the Concierge team can help with that. Speaking of gratuities, any standard or prepaid gratuities do not include the concierge team, so those need to be added separately when you are onboard.

And the debarkation day perks are huge -

Concierge cabins all have the same character luggage tags and those are offloaded to the port first, if sending luggage off the night before is your preference.

Whether sending luggage off or doing walk-off with your own bags, head to the concierge lounge to wait. When you are ready to disembark, the Concierge hosts have a keycard that overrides the elevators. It calls one to their deck and then will take you (and your luggage if walk-off) down without stopping. The concierge host who escorts you down will hand you off to another concierge host In the atrium where you get front of the line/next in line access to exit the ship. They unclip the velvet rope and away you go!

If you are doing a back to back, whether or not your next cruise is concierge, you can wait in the lounge until it is time to report to the onboard location. They may not have snacks and hosts available the entire time, ie the last hour as the team needs to get ready for the next cruise, but it is a very quiet, uncrowded place to wait.

 

[ladyofthetramp]

I can’t speak to all onboard activities, but sometimes concierge can book “sold out” things from the pool of bookings held for embarkation day. Once we decided to go to Palo just threw weeks before sailing, when Palo was fully booked. I emailed shoreside Concierge team to ask if I should go to Concierge or to the onboard location to try for a late booking. They replied with a confirmed reservation. No embarkation day stress!

They cannot get yiu into a sold out port adventure, as spots may be limited to seats in a bus or location capacity. I’ve never tried for tastings, so don’t know how those might work when sold out.

They do try and get you where you want, if possible. On our Eastern in May we wanted a last minute switch on the night we were in Palo for dinner. They made it happen. One call. We ended up sitting at the table usually reserved for the captain if he should decide to dine in Palo. It was pretty fantastic. Now if the captain was dinning that night, we might not have been so lucky!

 

[CampbellzSoup]

I thoroughly enjoyed your enthusiasm and joy! However, I can't quite justify spending that much money on this particular service. While I can afford it, I'm uncertain about the value beyond cocktails and canned Coke products.

I'm the type who prefers to do things independently, and during our previous cruise on the Magic, the lounge was often empty, and guests from the concierge level joined us in the adults-only section because they found our group fun! You could always spot them with their fancy glass water bottles.

Additionally, I'm inclined to spend most of my time enjoying the ship's shows, character interactions, trivia, and production shows, so I wonder how much time I'd actually spend in my room or the designated concierge areas.

To those who enjoy it, I'm genuinely happy for you; I just don't grasp the significant premium relative to what's offered.