So you’ve booked a cruise with a Concierge level stateroom. What exactly does this mean?

My husband and I went on our first cruise since 2013 earlier this month. We booked a last minute (ie. less than 3 months ahead of sailing) cruise when a window opened for us to travel without kids and concerns at home.

As a travel consultant, I had all the cruise lines available to choose from and in this option, dates were our first priority. Itinerary was lower on the list of priorities when booking. I narrowed it down to 2 or 3 cruise itineraries/lines and we picked our favourite from there. Intially, our plan was to choose a shorter cruise and fill in the days around it to make it a 7 day vacation.

Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) was our choice – then we had to decide on a stateroom. Now we have only cruised once before on Princess with a balcony. We knew we really liked the balcony and our stateroom was in the back 1/3 of the ship and we enjoyed the location and we didn’t suffer any motion sickness – we had also found we were drawn to watching the wake at the back of the ship…. so when I saw that an “Aft-Facing Penthouse with Balcony” was available, I jumped on it as the price was within our budget. It was only after I booked the sailing that I realized what I had just booked!

On NCL, the Aft-Facing Penthouse with Balcony is included in the Concierge service level. What does that mean?

These stylish Penthouses feature exceptional accommodations for up to three guests. They have one queen-size bed (I’m sorry – it was closer to a KING!) or two lower beds that convert to a queen, plus a single sofabed, luxury bath and shower, and include concierge and butler service in most. Some also feature living and dining rooms. And since they’re aft-facing, the views from your balcony are simply spectacular.

Not only that, when we arrived at the port, we were treated like VIPs. We were ushered through the Haven entrance – escorted to a table & chairs in the VIP lounge. There was coffee/tea, orange juice and water to choose from and a small selection of what I would call tea sandwiches and cookies to whet our appetite while we waited to board. All guests in the VIP were escorted first on the ship and we were delivered straight to Cagney’s Steakhouse for our embarkation lunch. This was unexpected to say the least!

We were greeted by the Concierge, Nashira F, who was absolutely lovely! We learned over our lunch that not only did we get a special embarkation lunch but exclusive breakfast & lunch daily were available daily in Moderno (breakfast) and Cagney’s (lunch). Each day, we were greeted by Nashira and her team and by mid-day on the first day, she knew most if not all guests in the Haven/Concierge class by name.

She helped us make dinner reservations in the Main Dining Room & Le Bistro for the days when we didn’t have plans already set. I had some mild internet issues and she made sure to help me get them sorted out. When we asked about a day pass for the Thermal Spa, she got us all set up (it wasn’t her fault we missed that the spa closed early on the final night of the cruise).

We also had a Butler in our stateroom. Vipin was wonderful to work with. He made sure we always had a full ice bucket, cold water in the fridge, he replenished our Nespresso pods daily (did I say that we had our own coffee maker in our stateroom??), brought us cans of Coke for happy hour, etc.

We did not want for anything in our stateroom and on our cruise. We were also spoiled – we had a dedicated elevator from breakfast to disembark at our two ports of call. Was it necessary? No – but was it nice to have? Yes!!

Now – I have to say that NCL spoiled us rotten. I’m not sure how we will cruise without the extra spoiling!! 😉 We did disembark our NCL cruise and we immediately embarked on a Celebrity Cruise in Concierge. As with everything, all cruise lines offer different levels of service. We thought we would be treated in a similar manner. We weren’t but that’s ok!! ONCE we figured out it was a different level of service, we learned the differences between Celebrity & NCL’s service levels and we were good to go!

No VIP embarkation on Celebrity however their process is so smooth that it wasn’t really a big deal. We dropped our bags in our stateroom and headed off to the Main Dining Room, Opus, for a special embarkation lunch which is included in your Concierge level room.

To give you an idea of the number of staterooms on Celebrity vs NCL in this level of service – I believe I hear d there were 150-odd staterooms where on NCL, 150 odd people were in the Concierge level which helped me understand one dedicated Concierge on NCL vs three on Celebrity. Our experience was slightly affected as we received a voice mail blast to all Concierge guests that evening (we were at the 7pm show in the theatre) stating that we should have received a welcome letter in our stateroom (nope). We called the concierge service and advised we hadn’t received anything. We had a rough idea of what to expect as Guest Relations gave us an overview note mid-afternoon but our note didn’t say anything about “by request”. We had read that we would receive a bottle of sparkling wine, a tote bag, etc. So on day 2, we sought out the Concierge to find out more details and items were in our stateroom later that day when we re-boarded after our day in Key West. They did assist us with moving our table in the main dining room for the balance of the cruise – we didn’t realize that a 3 day cruise was going to be more of a “party” cruise. Our first dinner on board was not enjoyable – the main dining room has sub rooms and we were seated with 4 tables of 8 folks who were all together and having a very good time. If we had been in a similar mind set it would have been fine but we were 2 wanting a romantic dinner (or a slightly more relaxed experience). The concierge put in a note and for night #2 & 3, we were in a quiet corner with like-minded folks.

Now don’t get me wrong; we really enjoyed our Celebrity Cruise!! It was just a different experience and now we know it’s more a “come see us if you need help” experience vs. a personalized concierge experience. The folks in Aqua Class and the Retreat have that sort of experience and that’s great!

THIS is why we travel and experience different cruise lines, etc. I will be travelling on the Celebrity Reflection again this upcoming weekend (our 3 day cruise was truly a last minute add-on about 5 weeks before sailing). I am looking forward to my Seminar at Sea with the Field Sales Manager where I will learn more about the ins and outs of Celebrity Cruises so that I can help you choose the best cruise experience for you! It is a 6 night cruise sailing out of Fort Lauderdale so it should have a different vibe to our 3 day experience. And to be honest, I am looking forward to the dining again – we had nothing but amazing food in Opus (main dining room) and even at the buffet for lunch (I found turkey on the carving station – it was like Thanksgiving came early!).