Virginia the concierge

[Mr Robberts]

Has anyone felt with Virginia I hear she will be on our upcoming Gem sailing.

 

 

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[Nalagh]

She is one of the top on the fleet imho! :)

[david_sobe]

Virginia is the BEST. I had her on the Sky and she was over active in every way. Let me count the ways what she did:

She would visit us TWICE each day. Once at breakfast and one personal visit to the suite every night to ask what we were doing and if we needed anything. Never had a concierge do that before.

She gave us a bottle of wine at Cagneys one night. We never asked for it or complained about anything to get it. She just went out of her way to make us happy.

She is genuinely friendly and not just an act. So sweet too. Best concierge ever!

 

There was a thread about her here a few years ago. Lots of posts just raving about her. But one woman posted the best story. They were at port and lost their cruise card key, and passports. Virginia personally escorted them on the ship to her office to get the new key cards. She also was able to call ahead to the next port (that was in the US) and obtained temporary passports so there would not be any problems. There were other amazing stories but I forget them.... sorry.

She was by far the best concierge I have ever experienced on NCL. She is so good that it would influence my decision on booking cruises if I knew what ship she was on.

Edited July 27, 2014 by david_sobe

[biker@sea]

We love Virginia . :)

[Mr Robberts]

Has anyone felt with Virginia I hear she will be on our upcoming Gem sailing.

 

 

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Has anyone dealt with Virginia DAM autocorrect.

 

 

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[Mr Robberts]

Awesum looking forward to our trip.

 

 

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[Nalagh]

Awesum looking forward to our trip.

 

 

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I wish you a wonderful cruise. You are most definitely in very good hands!

[kcwingwalker]

Have always heard good things about Virginia past and present. We had her on our Jewel cruise and she is a very nice person. But I always felt that she had bigger fish to fry and was directing her attention elsewhere. We did not ask or receive anything extra or special.

 

We did keep to ourselves and had only one request for a dinner reservation and she was not able to help us and that was fine.

[Johnny Bananas]

We had her on Jewel as well.

 

While she was nice and friendly ay check-in we never really saw her or heard from her after that like we had w/ other concierges in the past. (breakfast/lunch at Cagney's, calls to see how we are etc)

 

The only thing we asked for was priority disembarkation in 3 of the 4 ports and she looked at us like we had 3 heads...

[kcwingwalker]

We had her on Jewel as well.

 

While she was nice and friendly ay check-in we never really saw her or heard from her after that like we had w/ other concierges in the past. (breakfast/lunch at Cagney's, calls to see how we are etc)

 

The only thing we asked for was priority disembarkation in 3 of the 4 ports and she looked at us like we had 3 heads...

 

Very much like our experience. Unfortunately for Virginia our tip was simply a token. And what we had planned on for Virginia we divided up between the butler and stewardess who were both exceptional.

 

Interesting because when I asked for a dinner reservation we had a similar reaction.

 

Everyone has a private life and sometimes it does effect our performance. I know Virginia has always had an excellent reputation.

[toyotaford]

We were with Virginia on the Jewel in May. She was leaving the ship for vacation after our cruise. We are going to be on the Gem and she told us she would be on that sailing with us.

[Johnny Bananas]

Very much like our experience. Unfortunately for Virginia our tip was simply a token. And what we had planned on for Virginia we divided up between the butler and stewardess who were both exceptional.

 

Interesting because when I asked for a dinner reservation we had a similar reaction.

 

Everyone has a private life and sometimes it does effect our performance. I know Virginia has always had an excellent reputation.

 

The butler, concierge, room steward etc do not make or break our cruise in the slightest. We enjoy any vacation, and this cruise was fabulous as always. It just was not what we expected after so many raved about her here.

[capp]

Virginia is an NCL Superhero. IMHO.

Edited July 28, 2014 by capp

[DaisyGoldberg]

We had Virginia on a back to back in an SJ suite on the Dawn last year. She was very nice and efficient and what little we asked she was happy to do for us. I felt very confident in her professionalism and ability to get things done, especially if we had needed special assistance with a lost passport or other extraordinary events. Sometimes you wonder just how effective certain people would be in a crisis -- you have no such hesitation about Virginia!

 

I suspect some of the super schmoozing (free wine, multiple daily visits) is probably directed at the highest suite levels. I have no problem with that as the service level should rise with the expense.

 

In an SJ we had no problem getting priority disembarkation or reservations (though frankly pretty much everything was always available anyway). The best feature of being in a suite aside from the space was the rapid fast lane passport check when returning to the U.S. -- we got to lounge in a lounge then go with Virginia to the front of the line, march past the immigration people with our passports, then be on our way back to our day while the line literally stretching around the ship had not moved one bit. (Note, this was the first US port coming back from Canada -- there wasn't any benefit to getting off the ship and going through customs at the final disembarkation)

[dexddd]

We had Virginia on the Dawn in 2012. I'd give her a "C". Either she didn't want to do something or she outright lied at one point. This was in regards to dinner reservations for later in the week at more than one restaurant that were all "full" but later the same day we asked the Cagney's hostess and she was able to make them no problem.

Edited July 28, 2014 by dexddd

[kylenyc]

Ditto. Virginia is great.

[PatJim]

Virginia just started on the Gem, while Carlos is on vacation. I understand he'll be back on the Gem in October.

Saw Carlos in May, looking forward to meeting Virginia in September.

[david_sobe]

We had Virginia on the Dawn in 2012. I'd give her a "C". Either she didn't want to do something or she outright lied at one point. This was in regards to dinner reservations for later in the week at more than one restaurant that were all "full" but later the same day we asked the Cagney's hostess and she was able to make them no problem.

What motivation would there be for a concierge to lie to people about restaurant reservations. It seems someone must have cancelled their reservations at Cagneys and when you later asked that is why there was room for your reservation.

This is fairly common. Sometimes if a restaurant is sold out like on Valentines day or a group sailing booked the restaurant, the concierge puts us on stand by.

[tonyd285]

We had a suite on the Jewel in February. Virginia was our concierge and we found her to be very accommodating. Always in touch to ask what we might need, comped us at a specialty restaurant for a birthday celebration including wine, and always with a smile and delightful attitude.

 

We ere on the Jade last year and were not nearly as impressed with the concierge on that ship.

 

You should look forward to your experience with Virginia IMHO.

[DCT61]

If she's the same "Virginia" that was the concierge on our last NORWEGIAN DAWN cruise, We thought she was great! Very professional and attentive. She met every expectation we had. Always greeted us by name every time we saw her. A+

[Barb Nahoumi]

Virginia was our concierge on the Dawn last year. She was very attentive, professional, and helpful with all that we asked of her.

[McDebbie]

I suspect some of the super schmoozing (free wine, multiple daily visits) is probably directed at the highest suite levels. I have no problem with that as the service level should rise with the expense.

 

I would have to agree with this. She was great when we were in the Owners Suite on Sky but not so attentive when we were in the SD on Dawn. And I did hear her speak rather sharply to one lady at disembarkation on the Dawn. And she always speaks to my husband more than me - like he's the one that's going to be tipping. hahaha I don't think he even knows how much I give them.

[Nalagh]

I would have to agree with this. She was great when we were in the Owners Suite on Sky but not so attentive when we were in the SD on Dawn. And I did hear her speak rather sharply to one lady at disembarkation on the Dawn. And she always speaks to my husband more than me - like he's the one that's going to be tipping. hahaha I don't think he even knows how much I give them.

 

I would agree that across the fleet the Concierge on each ship slants more attention to OS'S-GV's. However, I think to be fair a ship like the Sky has a lot less suites than the Dawn and is able to provide more personalized attention to everyone.

[kylenyc]

I was not in a suite but a wee ocean view on the Jewel but was organizing the Meet & Greet and a Sailaway Cocktail Party, and a Platinum guest so was extended access to the Concierge. Virginia was always very friendly and responsive when I did have requests to bring to her attention (which I tried to do sparingly), she even arranged for us to be seated with the best teppanyaki chef on her own initiative and even greeted and escorted us off the ship on the last day past everyone right up to luggage pick up which I never experienced before. :p :D I imagine people who pay upwards of $10k to $30k for their OS/GVs get proportionally more attention from the Concierge on any ship (and many of such guests probably demand it).

Edited July 30, 2014 by kylenyc

[donnabonna]

Just off the Gem. Carlos was our concierge until Florida and he was great. He made sure that all of my preconcierge requests were taken care of an stopped by our table at breakfast or lunch and our cabin to see if we needed anything. We ate breakfast and lunch in Cagneys almost every day and Virginia was never there and never ever checked in with us. She was never in the Star Bar when we were there. The one time I saw her in Cagneys was when I asked the hostess where she was. She only then came by and answered our question and we never saw her again. We did not really need her but it was unusual from our past experiences with concierges. I didwant to talk to her about my butlers coffee rationing issues but was torn as to what to do. After the 3rd day of the cruise I noticed that my butler did not replace mycoffee pods and when I asked for more he told me that he had to share one box with the all of the other butlers and was not authorizedto open another box. After that he brought me only one or sometimes two pods per day. He was so sweet and accomodating otherwise that I was afraid to complain for fear of getting him in trouble. I feel stupid now. I should have said something and probsbly would hwve mentioned it to Vkrginia had I seen her but... it certainly did not ruin my cruise. But seriously... coffee rationing?