Is Concierge Class on Celebrity Cruises worth the money? We break it down to help you decide
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.ค. 2024
- When booking a Celebrity Cruise have you wondered whether upgrading to Concierge Class was really worth the added cost? As we prepare for our next Celebrity Cruise on the Equinox, we wanted to explore the real and intangible value of the perks and benefits that come with Concierge Class. Is the pillow menu a valuable perk? What is the value of priority tendering or embarkation? We’ll discuss the value that we place on these perks and see if Concierge Class makes financial sense to help you choose the best Celebrity Cruise option for you!
Our intro video: • From Celebrity Beyond ...
Our Celebrity Equinox Cabin Tour: • Why We HAD to Switch C...
Want to read (and share) more about Celebrity Concierge Class on our blog? mjtreks.com/mj-blog/is-celebr...
Check out our full packing list: mjtreks.com/packing-list
Don't forget to like and subscribe to catch all of our upcoming content from the Celebrity Equinox (and yes, we're in Concierge Class again)!
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So, what do y'all think? What perks are most worth it to you?
Will let you know when we cruise on the Eclipse in November from LA to Puerto Vallarta
Correct me if Im wrong but I think you are using Nikon D850 therefore the focus hunting in this video. Try using manual focus in the future....
@@Marko-od7ebit's actually an iPhone 14 Pro. But I think we figured it out! Thanks for watching!
@@MJTreks
Of course. I am always interested how people experience Celebrity from the ‘outside’ . Being an ex crew member on Eclipse I have totally different view of the ships.
I'm sure you have some very interesting stories!
Great video. I booked CC for our next cruise for the points. It was $100 more for CC. FYI, we got 2 tote bags on our 6/8/24 Alaska cruise on the Edge in an inside cabin.
A very informative video and very rationally presented. Love your style. Happy cruising, guys!
We have concierge booked for the inaugural on Ascent ( pretty much was all that left lol) . I didn’t really think of it,after watching this video I’m pretty excited. Thank you!
We loved our time on the Ascent's sister ship, the Beyond. We hope you have an amazing time. Find your way to Eden and book lunch or dinner there in advance if you can! Thanks for watching!
Thank you for the detailed review! It help on making a decision and the cost effectiveness of Concierge status. Look forward to more insightful travel videos.
Glad you found it helpful! We hope to have time for more soon!
How do you know what time to board the ship? We have concierge cabin on Solstice in 3 weeks time. Never been on a cruise.
Thanks a lot! We are sailing our first Celebrity 12/1/23 and we booked concierge class. Your explanations were great!
We hope it's a great cruise!
This was very well laid-out thank you
We appreciate the feedback. Good news, the Celebrity Bag is back! Happy cruising!
“We are not bathrobe people” me neither, although that has more to do with them always being so dang small ! Thanks for an informative video, guys. Looking forward to more!
Yeah, places rarely have American sized bathrobes 😂
Adorable & well presented!
Hey guys! Nice style to your videos. Just discovered you. My wife and I are also big Celebrity Cruisers. Look forward to learning more from you!
That nice comment made our day. Thank you! We've got more in the works... If only our day jobs didn't take so much time 🤣
Ive just subscribed to your channel, nice to be onboard ❤❤ hi from Tasmania Australia :)
Welcome aboard from Down Under! We really appreciate that!
Thanks for the very good information. My partner and I cruised a great deal prior to COVID, mainly the Caribbean and Mex since we live in Texas. So convenient. We never sailed this line, but have friends who have and they liked it very much. I really have never thought about the value of certain higher price points and I think your process was legit, noting it is a personal preference. We have our first next year on Regent and I think everything is covered there. Thanks again
All included really makes the decisions easier! So many cruise lines are going the a la carte route like airlines and it really doesn’t seem like it’s very customer-centric nor easy to navigate. We hope you both have an amazing cruise on Regent!
Hi guys sounds great ❤❤ I was looking recently at the concierge class balcony cabin on the celebrity edge, compared to a normal state room and the concierge class was about $200pp cheaper than a normal cabin. I was really surprised to see this. ❤
That makes the choice very easy!
My wife and I have a concierge class Celebrity cruise coming up the end of March for our 50th wedding anniversary. Thank you for sharing all this valuable information, I especially like the 'premium economy' airline comparison. Good content and look forward to seeing what other videos you have shared via TH-cam.
Have fun!
Congratulations ❤ have fun
Very informative video, thank you.
Thank you! We really appreciate hearing that!
My points came to $450. Taking away the sparkling wine. Glad I stumbled on your vlogs
So glad you enjoyed it and thanks for watching. More coming soon!
We cruise a lot & had a short cruise with Celebrity in March from Sydney in Concierge class we are Elite & have cruised to Alaska & the South Pacific many times. Love the lunch on embarkation day we had wonderful service on the Eclipse a perfect getaway.
So glad it was a great experience!
I got the nice tote bag on my first celebrity cruise November 2023. I really like the bag it’s useful.
We love them
We just got off Celebrity last week, and we weren’t concierge class, but we still got the tote bags. Plus we had the binoculars and the umbrella etc.
Seems we were wrong about the tote bags. They are in many rooms and not a perk for Concierge Class. Interesting about the binoculars and umbrella. Celebrity isn't the most consistent with the perks and if a room changes class then they may just keep the items in the room as a bonus!
Thank you. You guys made me feel a little bit better purchasing the concierge class for this year. Was there any perks with laundry service?
So glad the video helped! The laundry perk still includes a charge...
Beautiful couple!
Great video guys! Lots of great content. I heard with concierge class now there is no priority embarkation is that true now what the heck? It’s now part of the X Pass???
I recently booked concierge class on apex for March 2024 and the cost difference was only $42. Seemed like a good deal and this video backed it up.
Great! We hope you have a wonderful cruise on the Apex!
Yes $42 is worth it. But on a 10 day European trip on the Ascent next June is $2,100 per couple. Definitely not worth it.
We just booked concierge class on the Equinox in September, because it gave us a better cabin than the standard veranda so it does not have the lifeboats blocking part of the ocean view. We went from deck 6 to 9. This will be our first cruise with Celebrity. Thanks for the video.
We hope it's a great experience. Just remember to be your own advocate to get the most out of the "perks"!
At best it might be a lunch on embarkation, and the concierge requires using the room phone and then checking messages. Entire process is an efficient, and in some respects is probably an intentional way to limit the volume demands on certain aspects of the ship and crew, and cut back on the availability of services without someone noticing it. Celebrity is mostly smoking mirrors. A high commitment to customer service and satisfaction does not seem to be present with current management. Anyone googling celebrity and cutbacks will find plenty.
Note to anyone wanting the lunch, you have to be on board to eat it. And if you're not in line early enough, you might not even make it. But you will have paid for it.
Thanks for your perspective. It's definitely a lot about personal preferences. We found it much better to stop by the Concierge desk when a problem arises and speak to them in person. Much less hassle and wait than at Guest Relations. I think you'll find many major cruise lines are cutting back in ways both big and small. And yet, we cruise on!
You shouldn't have to pay extra for this convenience. The solution is they increase customer relations staff, and try better to avoid problems and meet needs through hospitality instead of hostility towards their customers. @@MJTreks
I'm also a first timer, and a 16-voyage Elite level Celebrity cruiser. IMHO not worth it! The pillow menu yes, the concierge no. In fact, on our voyage, the concierge was a waste of our time, and the money that Celebrity paid her. Absolutely NO help at all! The delectable bites were something I wouldn't serve my dog. As an Elite member, I receive free laundry anyway, and a dedicated continental breakfast every AM in the Tuscan Restaurant. So, in short, I made a mistake paying extra for the "privilege." I did like the 5 point/NT aspect, brought me closer to Elite Plus. Only did it because the cruise was, thanks to covid, our first cruise in two and a half years. I do want to say that was perhaps the most comprehensive explanation of a cruise category I've seen. Keep up the good work. One last thought, a lot of money to pay for a fluffy robe!
We cruised concierge class balcony on the Silhouette to the Norwegian Fjords and we definitely felt that it wasn't value for money. The delicacies were totally uninspiring and we ate few of them. The time we asked the concierge assistant (not our amazing room steward) for help we were told to do it ourselves. The supposed concierge area was a shoe box sized room with a desk and a couple of chairs, which were being used by the concierge assistant when we visited. Definitely not what was advertised. We had our cabin moved due to excessive noise next door, but we were moved to an obstructed verandah, just behind the jutting out navigation area. It was the first time we'd cruised Celebrity and we were expecting good things from all we'd heard. It ended up being the worst cruise that we've been on for all sorts of reasons, but the disappointment in the concierge "benefits" was part of it. We won't be cruising Celebrity again.
Sorry to hear that your experience was like this. We have not experienced this to such an extent. It’s never good when your first experience on a cruise line is so poor. I have similar feelings on another line which others seem to love-but I am reluctant to try again. What we can say from recent cruises is that the level of customer service onboard the older ships, like the Silhouette, sadly does not stack up to that of the newer Edge Class ships. One reason that we have found through interactions with experienced crew is that they are being moved to contracts on the new ships, leaving less seasoned crew on the older ones.
Hi@@MJTreks Thanks for the reply. I think that you are probably right regarding the staff on the Silhouettte. Many of the other issues we had with the ship were due to bad handling of situations by the crew or no consideration of better ways to do things. In their follow up survey I made suggestions on how things could have been handled better but have heard nothing and I'm pretty sure nothing will change as there were no indications of wanting to improve in my interactions with the problem areas at the time. I do not, by any means have problems with all the staff as we had a top notch cabin steward and most of the food wait staff were great. The bar staff, passenger services staff and those who organised the seating in the dining room, etc were another thing altogether. Many thanks for your informative and useful videos. Keridale
Simple trick for autofocus is to let the camera autofocus with one of you sitting there. Then when focused turn autofocus off. Works well for me.
Thanks! I was researching this for our next video! So many moving parts when trying to get through the recording!
First time cruiser here. Have 3 cruises booked with Celebrity and 2 are in concierge class and the other is solo cabin on the new Ascent. Looking to find out if the concierge class is worth it. Thanks guys for laying out the perks in such detail.
Thanks for the feedback. We love to hear that this was helpful. Each ship will have a very distinct experience and Concierge Class is really about convenience and nice to have perks. Just make sure you ask for any perks that you’re not seeing. Go to the Concierge and skip Guest Relations should you need anything and go to the special events that you will have invites left for you as your cruise unfolds. We had a special bingo event and a helipad sail away from Grand Cayman on our recent cruise. Most of all, enjoy your experience. More videos from our Equinox cruise on the way soon!
Thanks for the thorough breakdown, @MJTreks !
If someone is a dedicated Celebrity customer, is it fair to say the bump in points is far and away the biggest benefit? You are basically 'buying' 66% more points per day than non-concierge (3 x 166% = 5). Seems like a bargain assuming your goal is to get to 150 as fast/cheap as possible...?
We agree. After we reach our next tier, might not be such a draw. Hopefully Celebrity thinks of some new ways to incentivize Concierge Class...
Just arrived from an 8 night on the Equinox😉 i got the bag, used a thinner robe in my regular balcony room
Hope it was an amazing cruise! How was the A/C for you?
@@MJTreks all good 😁
Just got back from the Eclipse and had concierge class. Only real valuable perk was priority disembarkation from ship a couple of times, and the concierge desk help.
Did you surrender any of the Concierge Class events like a port sailaway?
We did Concierge class on our Alaska cruise in June. We did it only because few cabins were left and we could get a decent location. We would definitely NOT do it again because the perks are useless. The canapés were not that good and just cluttered up the room. The only thing I remember being used was the fake leather key card holder - that we had to ask for.
At least you received 5x points for Captains Club (if loyalty points matter for you). As we said, most perks require you to request them or seek them out and they really only matter based on personal preferences. Anecdotally it seems Concierge Class cabins are in better locations, but again, cabin location is very subjective. Hopefully you had a great cruise, nonetheless!
Thanks for the video and breakdown of concierge perks. I did aqua last year and am doing concierge next January, does aqua get all the concierge perks and more? BTW you are a cute couple.
We just did Aqua Class and they definitely aren't the same list of perks... No welcome lunch but you get Blu, Persion Gardens but no canapés. We didn't feel Aqua Class was worth the extra money
@@MJTreks I liked Blu but only got to go for breakfast and diner once. My friend agrees that Aqua wasn't worth it, I do like the Aqua deck but it is NOT mid-ship, looking forward to that in the concierge cabin for Jan 2025 cruise. We got cabin 1058 on Reflections so that is almost the same as yours in one of your videos (where you had to move).
I'm wondering if the bathrobe is a 1 size fits all? If you're a plus sized person would they have a plus sized robe? Most cruise lines have different pillow options available you just have to ask your room attendant. Again this will go smooth if you grease the wheels at the beginning of your cruise. If they had like a concierge class room like Disney offers where there's a bar and snacks, nice comfy furniture a great view and less people that would be a huge plus otherwise it just seems like a way for the cruise line to suck more money out of your pocket.
I'm not sure about the robe, but if they have them your cabin steward will be able to exchange for you.
A whole £30 difference between an interior accessible cabin and a concierge accessible cabin…. I’ll drink fizzy wine and eat lunch for that!
The additional events that vary by ship can also add to the value!
Do they still serve the canapés? We were just on the Silhouette in Aqua class and did not get the canapés or sparkling wine.
Aqua class has different perks than Concierge Class. Always best to check on the Celebrity website and speak with your room steward
I travel Retreat status. That s where Celebrity excels🎉🎉
Maybe one day! Not really attainable when you work at a nonprofit!
They are eliminating OBC, and for sky suites eliminated butlers.
The only reason we have booked, hardly anything more in cost than balcony. We liked the enhanced breakfast room service menu and the sail away party on the heli-pad. But now, there is a cost for room service, so scrap that, and the last sailaway on the heli-pad was poorly run, not like before the shut down. Appetizers in the room, were not special at all. Oh yes, we loved the pillow selection. But that alone would not be worth the money. Oh, and one last reason, sometimes you get balcony rooms in a location that you prefer.
Thanks for your comment and view. Good points! We have found that the value of the perks are dependent upon personal preferences and the quality of the perks is dependent on the crew and individual ships. On our most recent trip-the ship was riddled with problems overall, but the Concierge Class events were fab and well run.
Is there still an enhanced room service menu for concierge class?
This seems to have been removed from the perks
Hey, this was great! I have my first Celebrity Cruise booked for February out of Tampa. I am Platinum on Royal, so have Elite Status on Celebrity already. I am hoping for the upgrade availability as I get closer. This was great info!!
Fingers crossed for you! We hope you love your first cruise on Celebrity!
Platinum on Royal Caribbean only gets you Select level on Celebrity, not Elite. You have to be Diamond or above on Royal Caribbean to be Elite on Celebrity.
@@norberteng9496 you are correct, sorry, i misread the celebrity website there. lol
Do the wine bottles come open or closed? If they're closed I'd be tempted to order as often as I could and take home what I couldn't drink.
Lol. You only get one complimentary bottle of Sparkling wine.
@@MJTreks Oh man, what a bummer.
Yeah. 🤣
What about the shoe shine service
Oh yeah, that's a thing. We didn't utilize this, but could be a helpful perk for some
We are loyal Celebrity Cruisers and usually we book Veranda cabins. However, we did cruise in Concierge class on our TA cruise on Reflection only because the price dropped below our original booking price. There were just too many hiccups which I will not get into, however , main concierge did apologize and sent us a bottle of wine and chocolate covered strawberries. The canapés were never fresh, they looked like they were sitting for hours before they brought them to our room. Getting extra Captains club points is the only thing I liked which got us to Elite faster 😊 Pillow menu ? Meh, we always ask for extra pillows and that has worked great. Welcome lunch at embarkation is good only if you get to ship really early. Also we get umbrellas in standard Veranda rooms and on some ships even binoculars.
Would I book Concierge again? No, unless the difference in price is within $50.
If you have Concierge Class again, definitely ask for cookies or something different with your cabin steward. We love the extra Captains Club points on on our most recent cruise we loved the special port sailaway event on the heliport. Thanks for watching!
Y'all sure are cute guys. best of luck in your pursuits!
No bag? We loved the bag..
Was your assigned dollar value per person or per cabin?
Per cabin for sure!
What about the enhanced room service breakfast?
We didn't find the enhancement to be a noticeable perk... It's still just continental breakfast and anything else incurs a charge
Used to get more points also
Comparing Veranda to Concierge, Ascent, next June 10 day Europe.
$1,050 more for Concierge. That’s $2,100 per couple. Definitely not worth it in my opinion. Especially when you already have Elite status.
How's the location differential? At the price, if not much different then totally agree. If it's the difference of a prime deck midship versus far aft or forward or under a noisy location, might be a different calculus.
@@MJTreks o location will be worth $2,100
I've never done Concierge Class because I don't get it. I've done Aqua several times and I've been in Sky Suites a couple of times. I love the perks of both of those. Concierge? I don't understand how the perks are worth the extra $$$.
Thanks for the comment. We hope the video helped explain our thinking on how to personally evaluate whether the benefits are worth it to you.
@@MJTreks definitely did. Thanks for making it.
Is there priority embarkation and a welcome lunch for concierge class?
Yes to both. You'll generally get an earlier slot for embarkation, which is needed to make it to the Welcome Lunch. That concludes a few hours before sail away. It's not the most expansive menu, but it's a nice way to ease into your first few hours on the Ship!
How do you know what time to board please
Nope, tried it and not worth the extra. Aqua Class is definitely worth it. Retreat the jury is out, but 10k for a cruise ouch !
All the cruises we’re looking at coming up only have Aqua Class available, so looks like we’ll get to compare that soon! And yes, Retreat is so dang expensive…
Hi MJTreks! We just discovered your channel. We love Celebrity Cruises. We found a huge value sweet-spot (for us) with Aquaclass over Concierge. Blu (and to a lesser extent Spa access) is a deal-breaker in a good way. We're working on Elite Plus, so Elite status gives us a few perks that overlap concierge benefits. We'd be interested in your view of the value of Aquaclass!
We're going to try for Aqua class on an upcoming cruise. I think we'll be much the same as you describe... All about Blu and not as excited about the spa. We'll report back. Thanks for watching!
The difference for us here in Oz on concierge class is over $2500 AUD. Not worth it.
Wow! Yeah, that's an easy choice for sure!
"not necessarily to eat"? 🤣🤣😂
Great info! However, you don't have any energy.😊
Thanks for the feedback Katherine. Where were you when we were filming and editing??? 😂😂😂. We’ll do our best to energize our next video 😊
You don’t want to pay for your cruises. You want to play and get comped. Casino offers far exceed classes and loyalty perks.
We aren't huge gamblers and don't spend more than maybe an hour in the Casino on any given cruise, so if you can work that, great. But definitely not a universal option.
@@MJTreks Sure, my boyfriend and I enjoy our time in the Casino. We win some times and lose some times. We have learnt ways to maximize our points and we’ve been on 3 cruises this year so far and we’re going to do 3 more before the year ends, all of them for free. We also get free play and get treated to dinning, drinks, spa, etc. To us, it’s worth it.