Concierge class? Is it worth the extra cost?

We are considering the Equinox for Dec 9th...and were wondering whether to just get a Verandah cabin or upgrade to the Concierge Class...The cost is about $200 more per person

Any thoughts would be appreciated

Laurie

In my opinion it is not. The useful (or useful-to-me) benefits are:

- footrest on the balcony

- bottle of sparkling in the room

- lunch on embarcation day

- MORE LOYALTY POINTS

If you are really close to the next loyalty level, maybe go for it. Aside from that, use your 200/pp to go to specialty restaurants, buy a drink, or save for the next cruise! The rooms and balconies (on the S-class ships anyway) are the same. If you are on one of the M-class ships, then maybe it is worth it for larger rooms and you spend time in your rooms.

Just my $0.02

We went for the earlier embarkation and separate line. It remains to be seen if this turns out to be a real perk, I've read differing opinions!

Last year we were on RCCL out of San Juan and we had a junior suite with separate embarkation and it was wonderful - it was hot and crowded in the terminal and we moved through the chaos much faster - we were with a group of 8 and we know how much longer it took them! Because of that experience and the early arrival, DH thought it would be worth it, we will see.

In my opinion it is not. The useful (or useful-to-me) benefits are:

- footrest on the balcony

- bottle of sparkling in the room

- lunch on embarcation day

- MORE LOYALTY POINTS

 

If you are really close to the next loyalty level, maybe go for it. Aside from that, use your 200/pp to go to specialty restaurants, buy a drink, or save for the next cruise! The rooms and balconies (on the S-class ships anyway) are the same. If you are on one of the M-class ships, then maybe it is worth it for larger rooms and you spend time in your rooms.

 

Just my $0.02

Agree, not a fan of CC on S class ships since the cabins and Veranda's are basically the same for veranda and Concierge cabins. The previous posters list of perks are really the only ones that are decent although I can't for the life of me figure out why people would choose a cabin based on footrests on the veranda. Have seen people on this board actually mention it . Don't be fooled by other perks like priority embarkation which are really fluff or available to everyone on the ship.

My 2cents is save the money, get a veranda and use the extra funds to purchase Specialty restaurants. Also, be proactive and check prices on Aqua Class which is really an upgrade due to Blu.

I would probably say no even thou my last cruise and next are both inn c.f. but got at same price as balcony just my opinion we also got to go to helipad for sailaway plus 30 discount on first night specialty

C.c.

Agree with the others; the perks are worth very little (but worth slightly more for a C3 or C2 on M-Class since the staterooms are slightly larger - and a lot more for a C1 on M-Class as the balconies are massive). On S-Class I'd only consider it if I really needed the extra Captain's Club points (i.e. was working towards another level) and the price difference wasn't more than about $100 per/person per/week. The embarkation lunch is worth a few bucks IMHO, the footstools also worth a few bucks and that's it. The priority embarkation is pretty meaningless (separate line - but on some cruises 75% of cruisers have priority embarkation, so the line may even be longer than the general boarding line). The sparkling wine is super cheap quality wine - not something I'd drink. Pretty much all the other perks have no actual value (i.e. are just marketing attempts to entice people to pay more than they should).

Agree with the others; the perks are worth very little (but worth slightly more for a C3 or C2 on M-Class since the staterooms are slightly larger - and a lot more for a C1 on M-Class as the balconies are massive). On S-Class I'd only consider it if I really needed the extra Captain's Club points (i.e. was working towards another level) and the price difference wasn't more than about $100 per/person per/week. The embarkation lunch is worth a few bucks IMHO, the footstools also worth a few bucks and that's it. The priority embarkation is pretty meaningless (separate line - but on some cruises 75% of cruisers have priority embarkation, so the line may even be longer than the general boarding line). The sparkling wine is super cheap quality wine - not something I'd drink. Pretty much all the other perks have no actual value (i.e. are just marketing attempts to entice people to pay more than they should).

Do the Concierge showers have hand-held shower heads? Or the Aqua Class? That might do it for me...

If you are close and need the extra points to reach for example Elite status and the difference is under $100 pp, I would suggest you go for it.

You will get some perks- Lunch boarding day in MDR which is sometimes better then the crowded buffet, priority boarding, snacks delivered to your stateroom at about 4:00 daily, perhaps a preferred cabin location- and a few other perks- As other posters say, really not worth a lot- again, IMO it is all about the cost.

We are considering the Equinox for Dec 9th...and were wondering whether to just get a Verandah cabin or upgrade to the Concierge Class...The cost is about $200 more per person

Any thoughts would be appreciated

Laurie

We booked Concierge Class for our upcoming 4Feb2018 cruise on Eclipse not for the additional benefits(?), but for the location: we like the SV cabins and the Concierge Class cabins were the only ones available other than on the lowest deck of SV cabins, which we did not want.

We had a veranda cabin scheduled for our cruise on the Silhouette in a few weeks and there was a price drop after final payment but our TA was able to get us an upgrade to a CC1 cabin. The biggest reason we took it is now we have an aft facing cabin on deck 9. The rest of the perks are just okay but I really like sitting on my balcony watching the wake of the ship. And I do realize that a lot of the balcony can be seen from above but no big deal to me.

It all just depends on what is important to you. If you don't have a suite then the embarkation lunch is much better than the crazy crowded buffet. Our experiences with the priority lines have been excellent - we practically just walked on board. Someone mentioned it was crazy, but you appreciate the balcony footrests if you're on your balcony a lot. We really appreciate the afternoon apps ( we just ask for cheese and crackers and not the customary ones). The loyalty points can start to add up too.

Our biggest benefits were on our NZ/AUS sailing. The CC guests were invited to the helipad to sail through one of the fjords - quite amazing! And we were invited to have dinner with the staff captain one night! That was extremely interesting! Those two perks alone made that upgrade to CC worth it to us.

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It all just depends on what is important to you. If you don't have a suite then the embarkation lunch is much better than the crazy crowded buffet. Our experiences with the priority lines have been excellent - we practically just walked on board. Someone mentioned it was crazy, but you appreciate the balcony footrests if you're on your balcony a lot. We really appreciate the afternoon apps ( we just ask for cheese and crackers and not the customary ones). The loyalty points can start to add up too.

 

Our biggest benefits were on our NZ/AUS sailing. The CC guests were invited to the helipad to sail through one of the fjords - quite amazing! And we were invited to have dinner with the staff captain one night! That was extremely interesting! Those two perks alone made that upgrade to CC worth it to us.

 

 

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Those two perks are not listed perks and there is no guarantee or expectation you will get them.

I agree. My point was that we wouldn't have had them if we weren't CC (according to our Concierge on board). And we were just Classic Captain's Club at the time of that cruise. Which reminds me - we did take advantage of the Concierge and she was able to get us on excursions that were closed, as well as to get us the Suite Class toiletries by just asking her!

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We are considering the Equinox for Dec 9th...and were wondering whether to just get a Verandah cabin or upgrade to the Concierge Class...The cost is about $200 more per person

 

Any thoughts would be appreciated

 

Laurie

Short answer is absolutely not, unless you are trying to get to achieve Elite level for perks.

This question has been asked many times before. It's really up to the person as to whether upgrading to CC (& at what cost over just a veranda) is worth it. Also it may be worth it if location of the cabin is important to you.

First time on X and I reserved CC because of the location of the cabin. I really didn't know about any perks at the time. Going in 17 days so I guess we will see. My next X I upgraded to CC because there was an aft available. Never had an aft and heard they were great. The other perks might not be worth the $$ but will be a nice addition for our 33rd anniversary cruise.

On M-class ships there is a reason to go concierge...the cabins are larger. On S-class all cabins are the same. Other than the embarcation lunch and perhaps a footstool on your balcony, there's no reason to upgrade to CC other than the points towards elite/zenith or whatever. The exception is when the perks are better on concierge. We are in a C2 at C3 price (captain's club) on our next cruise because we got the better package with 2 perks vs a regular balcony which only got one perks. The extra perk was worth $150pp to us and that was more than the difference in price on the C3 vs 1B (we book 1A's at 1B price).

We prefer 1A's for their larger balconies....and they are often slightly less expensive than C3's.

Our last four cruises were in concierge class, three on M-class ships. We chose it because the rooms are larger on M-class ships than regular verandahs and we were on longer itineraries. The last cruise in concierge class was an S class, which we chose since our TA offered significantly more perks and it was cost effective (perks were worth way more than the price differential). The extra captains club points (2 more per night) are nice. All that being said, for $400 more, I'd book a verandah unless there was a significantly better offer and use the money for specialty dining, especially on an S-class ship where the rooms are the same size. The extra amenities concierge class offers for $400 more would not be worth it to me. I would pay that much more for Aqua class and Blue however.

Thanks for all the help...think we will bypass Concierge Class..

Laurie

Don’t give up on Concierge we upgraded from 1A cabin to C3 and saved over $750 on our March 18 Eclipse cruise.

We are new to Celebrity. Just got off our first Celebrity cruise on Nov 7th.....It was wonderful. We had a regular balcony - it was obstructed but not an issue at all to us.

Booked another cruise while on the ship. Wanted a balcony but the Celebrity Rep said he could book us mid ship - C2 Concierge - for $100 LESS than a regular non obstructed balcony. We snatched it up!!

We are new to Celebrity. Just got off our first Celebrity cruise on Nov 7th.....It was wonderful. We had a regular balcony - it was obstructed but not an issue at all to us.

 

Booked another cruise while on the ship. Wanted a balcony but the Celebrity Rep said he could book us mid ship - C2 Concierge - for $100 LESS than a regular non obstructed balcony. We snatched it up!!

That's wonderful! Make sure to call and get a Captain's Club number now that you've gotten bitten by the Celebrity bug.

Since it's so close to the trip and inside final payment, I'd skip it unless, like other have said, you need the points. I got an amazing deal myself, though, because I'm always looking for price drops. I booked an inside on a thanksgiving cruise on the Infinity for 2018. Already cheap to start with (5 nights for $900 total), but I checked last week and upgraded me and my son all the way to a concierge c3 for only $40 more and they added a $300 OBC. WOW. Still scratching my head as to why a holiday cruise like this one is so inexpensive!

When we started sailing on Celebrity, you could get Elite on 4 cruises. It was worth it! Now, not so much.