Anyone sailed in a Garden Villa lately?

[yucaipagal]

We have booked the GV on the Star for May this year and I have been reading all the posts I can- we are super excited! I just haven't found any recent reviews, so I was wondering if anyone has sailed in the GV recently and how it is now. I know that Simone is gone, but is it still as amazing of an experience and who is the concierge now? I also read that if you were 'liked' Simone would really take care of you (I know this also from a cruise in an AB cabin with her- she was indeed amazing!), but I have read with the other concierges that you have to be proactive and ask for things? What kind of things....my husband and I are taking our kids and our parents and want this to be a truly memorable experience for our parents, as they really deserve it! Any information would be helpful!

[Quithan]

We have booked the GV on the Star for May this year and I have been reading all the posts I can- we are super excited! I just haven't found any recent reviews, so I was wondering if anyone has sailed in the GV recently and how it is now. I know that Simone is gone, but is it still as amazing of an experience and who is the concierge now? I also read that if you were 'liked' Simone would really take care of you (I know this also from a cruise in an AB cabin with her- she was indeed amazing!), but I have read with the other concierges that you have to be proactive and ask for things? What kind of things....my husband and I are taking our kids and our parents and want this to be a truly memorable experience for our parents, as they really deserve it! Any information would be helpful!

 

It wasn't recently but we got an upsell on the Star to the GV in March 2009. It was the most amazing experience of our lives. I tell people all the time that you can't even imagine that there is a cabin like this on a ship. We were lucky enough to have Simone and I guess she liked us because she did everything we could have ever imagined a concierge could do. Plus, you just gotta LOVE that accent. Dillup was our butler and we still long for Dillup!!!! She was able to exchange our liquor for drink bracelets (or whatever you call them--smoothie cards or something) because we don't drink and just every little detail. She checked in in the morning every day, came by to get us for dinner every night. Escorted us EVERYWHERE. Printed our boarding passes the last day, got us in to dinner and made suggestions, decorated the cabin for 2 of the boys who turned 16 on the cruise (one was a friend). Dillup brought us food and set up the outdoor dining table one night when we were just too exhausted to step foot out of the cabin. It was a wonderful experience!!! You will LOVE it. If I knew how to post pictures of the room, I would. Maybe I can figure it out b4 you sail. I know you will have a GREAT time!!!!!!

[yucaipagal]

It sounds so wonderful! We are all so excited and feel so lucky that we are able to do this for our parents! Thank you for the suggestion about the bracelets, as a couple of our parents do not drink:) Hopefully our butler will be Dillup or someone similar. We got an upsell once to the 2 bedroom AB cabin and we had Putu- he was amazing, it was at least 2 years ago and we still miss him too:) I know he went on another ship... Thanks again for the info!!!

[yucaipagal]

I have just read some wonderful reviews about the current concierge and was thrilled. We also just booked a Thanksgiving cruise on the Star to try out the new suites on deck 12. Can you tell that we LOVE the Star! Hope for any recent sailing reviews and keep cruising;)