Is Concierge Level worth it?

[Leejnd4]

Experienced cruiser, first time Oceania, considering a Caribbean itinerary on Riviera.

 

Question: is it worth upgrading from a Veranda to a Concierge Level Veranda? The price differential for our cruise is $350 pp. Is what you get for that level worth it?

 

This is not a matter of pinching pennies -- I'm happy to pay it if the value is there. But I truly dislike throwing money away. :) We've already decided to go with a Veranda stateroom, as the next size up (Penthouse Suite) knocks it out of the budget for us. We will upgrade to Concierge if it's worth the extra $350.

 

Thoughts?

 

Thanks for your help! I have many other questions, as this is my first time on this line (most recent cruises were on PG, Crystal, Regent, Windstar) but this is my most pressing for now.

[Mura]

Try doing a search on this subject because this is a frequent question that comes up. Many people will say it isn't worth it, others will say it is.

 

It does depend on what you want.

 

We tend to book a PH, occasionally a higher suite, but usually a PH. We consider it well worth it. We've rarely been in a veranda concierge suite so I personally don't recall what you get there as opposed to non-concierge. I know others will chime in.

 

But since there have been many posts on this question, doing a search will get you more information more quickly.

 

Mura

[LHT28]

It depends

If you want to board early noonish usually, want to choose dining reservations early 60 days out

If you want access to the spa deck included

if you want a bottle of bubbly included

if you want 4 garments pressed for no charge

if you want the use of the Concierge lounge (on the O class ships)

If you want an Oceania tote bag

if you want the use of a lap blanket

then it is worth the extra $$

 

If none of that bothers you go for the B Category cabins

 

Enjoy your cruise

 

Lyn

[Leejnd4]

Try doing a search on this subject because this is a frequent question that comes up. Many people will say it isn't worth it, others will say it is.

 

It does depend on what you want.

 

We tend to book a PH, occasionally a higher suite, but usually a PH. We consider it well worth it. We've rarely been in a veranda concierge suite so I personally don't recall what you get there as opposed to non-concierge. I know others will chime in.

 

But since there have been many posts on this question, doing a search will get you more information more quickly.

 

Mura

 

I realize it's annoying when first-timers in any forum ask the same question over and over. ;)

 

I did do a search...the problem is that it can be hard to find a specific answer when doing a search on "concierge level", or "concierge veranda", or even just "concierge" brings up a bazillion threads that have nothing to do with my question, so it can be quite time consuming.

 

I've been a member of CC long enough to know that there are always helpful members of any forum willing to jump in and answer a quick, well-stated question. If that's not you, that's okay. :)

Edited February 14, 2015 by Leejnd4

[Leejnd4]

It depends

If you want to board early noonish usually, want to choose dining reservations early 60 days out

If you want access to the spa deck included

if you want a bottle of bubbly included

if you want 4 garments pressed for no charge

if you want the use of the Concierge lounge (on the O class ships)

If you want an Oceania tote bag

if you want the use of a lap blanket

then it is worth the extra $$

 

If none of that bothers you go for the B Category cabins

 

Enjoy your cruise

 

Lyn

 

Okay, now we're getting somewhere. Thanks!

 

So I'm probably fine without most of it, but I'm definitely curious about the spa deck and Concierge lounge. Can you tell me what they are? Is the spa deck something I could get access to by paying for it without Concierge level?

 

How about the Concierge lounge...what is it, and is it worth a couple hundred bucks to have it?

 

Without Concierge status, how far out can I reserve the specialty restaurants? Do they tend to fill up so that if I don't have Concierge I might miss out on an opportunity to try them?

 

Thanks so much for your help!

Edited February 14, 2015 by Leejnd4

[LHT28]

Okay, now we're getting somewhere. Thanks!

 

So I'm probably fine without most of it, but I'm definitely curious about the spa deck and Concierge lounge. Can you tell me what they are? Is the spa deck something I could get access to by paying for it without Concierge level?

The spa deck has loungers & the T-pool is there

You can buy a spa pass for the area or if you have a treatement you get 1 hr use of the deck before or after the treatment

 

How about the Concierge lounge...what is it, and is it worth a couple hundred bucks to have it?

It is a room with a TV, snacks beverages, computer terminal & a concierge on duty part of the day, nice chairs

 

Without Concierge status, how far out can I reserve the specialty restaurants? Do they tend to fill up so that if I don't have Concierge I might miss out on an opportunity to try them?

 

Thanks so much for your help!

Specialties for other Cat are 45 days out & you should have not problem getting a reservation

 

There should be some photos here of the concierge lounge & spa deck or maybe on the O website

Edited February 14, 2015 by LHT28

[LHT28]

spa deck

 

 

T-pool on Riviera

 

[Leejnd4]

Thanks! I'm reading all I can find on the O site, but I know that the reality of amenities is often quite different from the lovely, flowery write-up on the cruiseline website. :) And I can always trust the folks on Cruise Critic to give me the straight skinny.

 

Good to know I should be able to get dinner reservations without paying extra for the earlier booking.

 

About that Concierge lounge -- at first glance it doesn't sound particularly enticing considering a) I have a TV in my room, b) beverages are already included, and c) snacks can be obtained elsewhere, but you mentioned they have a concierge -- what kind of help can that person give me?

 

Spa deck...hmmm...would love to hear from others if they find it to be a benefit to have open access to it, vs just when getting treatments. Also, any idea how much a day pass is?

 

Still looking for a good reason to put out that extra $700. :D

 

I do wish we could upgrade to Penthouse, but not for this trip. We just got back from a 3-week land tour of Bali so I've had to promise this next trip won't break the bank. Maybe next time.

[LHT28]

The website is new so things have moved or are hiding still ;)

At one time you could by a day pass for the spa deck for $25 pp

various other day passes for more $$

 

There is a Concierge on deck 5 for those in lower priced cabins ;)

I have only used the Concierge in the lounge to help me link dining reservations with our friend & to cancel one res we had

Maybe other will comment

 

Cabins are the same otherwise as the B Cat..some B cat cabins have the larger deck see the deck plan for the exact numbers

 

Lyn

[Leejnd4]

Thanks so much Lyn! I'm reading their website, and searching this forum, as I'm posting questions and getting answers, so I'm doing my best to absorb as much as possible. :D

 

I did manage to find a couple other threads on this very topic, which were quite illuminating. I'm thinking now that it's not worth it. The cost of the day pass is quite reasonable, and I will likely do that on our two sea days.

 

I'm VERY interested in learning more about these extended veranda cabins in B class! So now I'm off to see if I can find something out about them.

 

(Wouldn't want to post a question that's been asked a bazillion times...) ;)

[bitob]

A concierge is available to help everyone on board regardless of cabin assignment

 

If ur on a port intensive cruise you will not get much use of spa deck. Probably better to pay per use. There are no services on spa deck fyi

 

If ur on smaller ships there are only loungers for 8 people

[JMBobB]

On our first cruise we had a concierge A-3 stateroom. Thereafter we booked up to penthouse 1. The concierge cabin is tight for room and unsuitable for any real form of entertaining guests. The Penthouse bathroom and enclosed closet are worth the price of admission period. I can't speak knowledgeably about the lower classification other than to urge you to compare footage in the brochures. If all you plan on doing is sleeping in your cabin and otherwise out and about, and there is a lot of space on an O class ship to ramble around, that may be your best bang for the buck. :rolleyes:

JMBobB

[LHT28]

 

I'm VERY interested in learning more about these extended veranda cabins in B class! So now I'm off to see if I can find something out about them.

 

 

if you put 7111 & 7114 in the search feature on the main page for O forum it should bring up some photos of the extended balconies ;)

[Pirouette]

We are about to embark on our third O cruise-the second within 6 months. We have always chosen an Ocean View cabin because we like the location. Our first cruise was in the Baltics so a balcony was not that important to us. We accepted an upsell to an A2 cabin on our Med cruise in September, so we had the concierge experience. It was nice to be able to access the spa deck, but we used it maybe once in the whole 10 days. The itinerary was port intensive so we did not have a lot of time on the ship.

 

The concierge lounge is a large room with a seating area, newspapers, a TV, some travel info and a refrigerator case of snacks. There is also coffee and tea available. The concierge sits at a desk and, in theory, arranges dining reservations etc. We always found the snacks to be lacking, and sometimes stale. The cookies on O are terrible!

 

We were more successful at negotiating our own extra reservations once aboard. Our experience was that the concierge really did not do anything beyond what we were able to do ourselves. We were able to dine at specialty restaurants even on nights when he insisted that they were full. I saw him making travel and tour arrangements for some passengers and that may be a helpful service. He also sells laundry tokens.

 

We are in a similar quandry with our upcoming cruise. We have been offered two upsells over the last two days, from Ocean View to B1 but the cost is more than we paid for our upsell to A2 in September. We do not need another tote bag or lap blanket, but I do like the option of access to the spa deck as we have 3 sea days on this cruise. I do not think we would set out to book a concierge cabin, the value isn't there..... but if the price is right on an upsell, we would consider it again.

[StanandJim]

Putting the other Concierge amenities aside, in my humble opinion, whatever value rests in the Concierge Category resides in two specific benefits:

 

1) The ability to make pre-cruise Specialty Restaurant reservations at 60 days out, as opposed to 45 days out for a standard veranda cabin.

 

2) Use of the Concierge Lounge, which, whatever it's faults, is something that is unique to Oceania Cruises in that it is a dedicated lounge for passengers booked in non-suite accommodations.

 

Other Lines offer Lounges for their loyalty Clubs or their Full Suite Passengers, but for the Passenger who simply wants to experience what these Lounges are all about, access to a "Lounge Class" is not available anywhere else, at anywhere near this price point.

 

Please note that this reply is specific to the O Class vessels (Marina & Riviera) as no Concierge Lounge exists on the smaller ships.

Edited February 14, 2015 by StanandJim

[kuldalai]

If you fish around on the R class boats you can get the same size cabin as Verandah category without paying $ 300 for daily fruit and champagne on arrival . we never saw an actual conceirge . Bit of a rip off really .

[ricki]

I really have no idea of the function of the "Concierge" in the Concierge Lounge. She did absolutely nothing! When we requested something, we received the same response twice: "I am unable to do that."

 

Our requests were not unique, we simply asked her to make an extra reservation for us in a specialty restaurant on a 14 day cruise. We were successful by just making those requests of the designated person in the reception area.

 

IMO, either opt for a B1, 2 or 3, or spend the money and choose a penthouse.

 

Ricki

[hypercafe]

We sailed once in a A1 concierge cabin and once in a B1 veranda cabin. The cabins are the same except for position on the ship. For us the B1 was just as good, we used the spa deck 2 or 3 times in two weeks and never went to the lounge. When we made our reservations at 45 days there was no problem getting what we wanted. After doing both I would say no, its not worth the price but for a first time cruiser on Oceania it might be fun to see for yourself.

[computerworks]

For me... the Concierge class is the absolute best fit... and worth the extra few bucks.

 

We use the Spa Terrace daily... the Lounge convenience and amenities daily... and the deck location is perfect. The actual Concierge, as a perk, in my experience is irrelevant.

 

The answer depends on what you like in your own situation.

[buggins0402]

Correct me if I'm wrong....but when they have a free Wifi perk on a cruise now, isn't it available only to concierge and above?

[LHT28]

Correct me if I'm wrong....but when they have a free Wifi perk on a cruise now, isn't it available only to concierge and above?

 

I think it depends on how the free wifi deal is worded

For some it is included for Veranda cabins & up if it is a perk on that specific cruise

For those without the specific deal it is for concierge & above but I think there is a limit to the time for each cat

 

Found it ;)

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/experience/value/internet-packages/

Edited February 14, 2015 by LHT28

[LHT28]

If you fish around on the R class boats you can get the same size cabin as Verandah category without paying $ 300 for daily fruit and champagne on arrival . we never saw an actual conceirge . Bit of a rip off really .

 

On the R ships most of the A to D cabins are the same size (some exceptions apply)

But never seen anyone getting daily fruit unless this is new feature

Yes the A cabins get a bottle of bubbly

 

On the R-ships the concierge is on deck 4

Edited February 14, 2015 by LHT28

[MVPinBoynton]

Here are some Concierge Lounge pics.

 

 

 

 

The Spa Terrace did look like a nice place to hang out, especially with an itinerary with lots of sea days.

 

 

[Toranut97]

Regarding the internet benefit, for the time being Concierge gets a specific price break. That also varies based on your O Club level (number of past cruises). With the Winter 2015-16 cruises, free internet is getting started, I believe. (Bummer for us who are traveling in the immediate future, but such is life.)

 

I am sad to see such negative statements about the Concierge lounge on the O ships. We enjoyed it a lot. I did not find the cookies stale, as they were refreshed several times daily. You could grab a continental style breakfast there if you wanted. Or get hot beverages, or little sandwiches. Didn't fuss about it as our issue is avoiding all the food, not eating more of it!!! It was nice for reading newspapers, too.

 

The Concierge in the lounge may SEEM useless, but situationally she/he can be most helpful. Aside from the usual stuff - port info, etc. -- we had an instance on a cruise when we had to miss a port (it happens). Actually, we anchored in a slightly different location. The concierge was really helping folks who had private tours booked to get arrangements altered. This seemed pretty nice to me, as these were not ship's excursions and O did not owe anyone any help in these situations.

 

The Spa Terrace has been useless to us. We tried to use it but it was always filled up and dominated by chair hogs of the worst variety.

 

We like Concierge, like the earlier restaurant reservations and boarding, just kind of always land there. But I can see that it could make sense to trim the budget a bit by going with B.

 

Just IMHO.

 

Donna

Edited February 14, 2015 by Toranut97

[Queen of DaNile]

IMHO it really depends on the itinerary and what benefits you might enjoy. We took an upsell to concierge on a Baltic cruise because it was a modest amount to move up from Oceanview so for us it was worth it. We were so busy in ports that I never even saw the lounge (DH did once) and we used the spa terrace a few times, which was nice but too windy to enjoy on our one sea day.