Concierge Class vs Veranda stateroom?

[Elkins45]

My wife received a free cruise offer with several options. Some were listed as “Concierge Class Stateroom” and the others as Veranda Stateroom. Veranda is pretty clear: it’s a balcony room, right? But what is Concierge Class? Googling hasn’t really helped me understand what that means. Can an interior stateroom be Concierge Class or is it automatically a nicer version of a veranda room?

[kaysha2004]

Concierge class is only a class within the veranda category.  It's not for interior or ocean view rooms.  Excluding the suite categories, veranda (balcony) rooms are categorized as Veranda (good), Concierge (better), and Aqua Class (best).  Within each of those three categories are subcategories based on location on the ship (aft, middle, forward, and deck level).  There is no square footage difference or balcony size.  The difference is solely the amenities provided for the room category.  You can find those amenities on Celebrity's website.  If you have a free cruise, choose the highest of those three, if offered.

[cruisestitch]

Not quite true . On M class ships concierge percent bigger than standard veranda Staterooms

[prmssk]

It's a verandah stateroom with some extra amenities (and little more space on the smallest class of ships).  We like the embarkation day lunch in the dining room but don't make use of a lot of the other amenities.  

 

Here is Celebrity's page which describes concierge class and the amenities.

https://www.celebritycruises.com/things-to-do-onboard/staterooms/concierge-class-stateroom

 

 

[Dawnspring]

You also earn more captains club points. We are going concierge class for a 12 night TA as that gets us both to elite status.  The value of the happy hour drinks and elite breakfast on the next couple of one week cruises is greater than the small difference in cost between the cabins. 

[RichYak]

14 hours ago, Elkins45 said:

Veranda is pretty clear: it’s a balcony room, right?

Not always, no. Same with concierge class. It's ship dependent. On M- and S-class ships, ALL concierge class cabins have balconies. On E-class ships, NONE of the concierge class cabins have balconies.

[Tigerfnan23]

We've ended up in concierge on E class ships on a couple of move up offers and the only thing we've really enjoyed was having access to the upgraded pillow options.  Most of the rest of it was of little or no value to us but ymmv. 

Edited March 2 by Tigerfnan23

[Hoya2112]

If something goes wrong, the ship Concierge team can help a Concierge passenger resolve.  All other passengers except retreat have to go to Guest Relations and wait in line and have their issue addressed in order of priority.  We had an issue and ultimately the Head Concierge called Celebrity’s corporate IT or something to get it resolved while my wife was on the phone,

[jenp123]

A few extra ammenities which I personally did not find useful.   Concierge did not answer my call or return a message once and i tried myltiple attempts....

 

But what I booked it for was location.  It was in a very quiet spot on the ship and the other balconies were in a nosier location.  I would book it again for location only, but never for the "extras"

[Kalliegirl]

If you don't mind my asking, what cabin did you book?  We are sailing on 4/29/24 and have booked a regular Veranda, but am considering upgrading to Concierge or Aqua Class.

Thanks

 

[Cruise till you drop]

We’ve been on the Edge (E class ship) in a Sunset Verandah (which is not Concierge) and the Infinite Verandah cabins on the upper floors seemed to be what they classify as Concierge 

 

We also recently sailed on Equinox (Solstice class) in a Sunset Verandah.  On that ship, all the upper floor balconies including SV’s and side cabins are concierge 

[Miaminice]

6 hours ago, Kalliegirl said:

If you don't mind my asking, what cabin did you book?  We are sailing on 4/29/24 and have booked a regular Veranda, but am considering upgrading to Concierge or Aqua Class.

Thanks

 

don’t waste money on Concierge! Do Aqua! 👍

[Cruise till you drop]

6 hours ago, Miaminice said:

don’t waste money on Concierge! Do Aqua! 👍

Honestly I think both are a waste of money.  We recently did Concierge and agree you really don’t get much.

 

And friends of ours did Aqua on that same cruise and only went once to Blu and said they didn’t see anything on the menu they wanted (we ourselves looked at the published menu at the entrance and would agree with their take)

Edited March 8 by Cruise till you drop

[Miaminice]

26 minutes ago, Cruise till you drop said:

Honestly I think both are a waste of money.  We recently did Concierge and agree you really don’t get much.

 

And friends of ours did Aqua on that same cruise and only went once to Blu and said they didn’t see anything on the menu they wanted 

Personally I would only speak of experiences I made myself and not of friend´s etc.
For over 10 years we almost exclusively cruise in Aqua - because of Blu. On the rare exception cruise without Blu, we miss Blu a lot. 

We do like the menu but it´s not our main draw. The real benefit for us is the smaller dining room with a nicer ambiance. Not as loud, no rush and way more personal service. That´s why we book Aqua. And if we don´t like anything on the menu, we can still order from the MDR menu (on most ships).

Edited March 8 by Miaminice

[Provence55always]

44 minutes ago, Miaminice said:

The real benefit for us is the smaller dining room with a nicer ambiance. Not as loud, no rush and way more personal service. That´s why we book Aqua. And if we don´t like anything on the menu, we can still order from the MDR menu (on most ships).

We 100% with the above, never had a bad experience in Aqua. Definitely not a waste of money for us. Concierge definitely a waste of money! 

[riredsox]

On 3/1/2024 at 7:35 PM, kaysha2004 said:

Concierge class is only a class within the veranda category.  It's not for interior or ocean view rooms.  Excluding the suite categories, veranda (balcony) rooms are categorized as Veranda (good), Concierge (better), and Aqua Class (best).  Within each of those three categories are subcategories based on location on the ship (aft, middle, forward, and deck level).  There is no square footage difference or balcony size.  The difference is solely the amenities provided for the room category.  You can find those amenities on Celebrity's website.  If you have a free cruise, choose the highest of those three, if offered.

Concierge cabins aren’t necessarily in the best location anymore.  I had one that was far from everything.  It was the last Concierge I did.  It was a $25 dollar bid up but I should have stayed in my original veranda.   

[Cruise till you drop]

1 hour ago, Miaminice said:

Personally I would only speak of experiences I made myself and not of friend´s etc.

As I stated, we also looked at their menu on a few of the days and just couldn’t get excited by any of the dishes being offered.  But to each their own.

[Veinless]

How do you even access this concierge?

[Miaminice]

1 hour ago, Cruise till you drop said:

As I stated, we also looked at their menu on a few of the days and just couldn’t get excited by any of the dishes being offered.  But to each their own.

Sure! But the dishes are not the whole picture 😉 It´s how and where they are served. And you can always get dishes from the MDR if they sound better.

Like I said, we miss BLU every time we are in the big and hectic MDR.
The exception is E class. The smaller MDRs are really nice. Not booking Aqua and having Blu on E class is OK for us.

 

[Cruise till you drop]

21 hours ago, Veinless said:

How do you even access this concierge?

 Concierge is a status with special perks, not a place on the ship.

 

Its a perk that arguably costs an extra $300 pp but it’s also a perk that I think helps sell IV cabins on the upper floors on E class ships (IMHO)

[blueslily]

On newer, E class ships, is it really worth the added money? I can see some possible benefit on the older ships. 

 

I think the value depends on the ship. 

Edited March 9 by blueslily

[Veinless]

37 minutes ago, Cruise till you drop said:

 Concierge is a status with special perks, not a place on the ship.

 

Its a perk that arguably costs an extra $300 pp but it’s also a perk that I think helps sell IV cabins on the upper floors on E class ships (IMHO)

Right, but where do you find this specific concierge?

[Cruise till you drop]

7 minutes ago, Veinless said:

Right, but where do you find this specific concierge?

Again it’s not a place on the ship but a status. When you price out a cruise, you will be asked which class to book (Inside, Ocean View, Balcony, Aqua, etc)

 

And one of them is Concierge.  It’s usually a balcony or IV on a upper level floor.

 

One of the perks is a special lunch on Embark day, stuff like that

[RichYak]

55 minutes ago, Veinless said:

Right, but where do you find this specific concierge?

Via phone from your stateroom and I think they might have a station near guest services with limited hours.