When will I hear from Shoreside Concierge?

[ATXleo]

The process is... a well guarded secret lol. Actually not but nor is it as easy and transparent as one might wish. I understand things were different in the past, but my cruising started post covid (always through a travel agent) and this has been my experience.

1) My travel agency (well known in these parts hint hint) said they could NOT do the bookings for me. Apparently they could in the past, because my actual agent was intially confused on this point, but not these days. I have no clue if other travel agents provide this service, but nope, its been for me to do.

2) You will get an email directly from Disney shoreside concierge services (whatever email address you provided) about 5 days give or take before the 130 day book window that outlines exactly when that window opens and what you can request. Note, they don't actually provide scheduled times for services like all those wonderful tasting sessions, you just tell them which ones you are interested in and what days, and they do the best to accommodate, but if a particular session is not available the day you request, they move it to another day. Make sense??

3) I have no reason to believe more than one letter is helpful. From all accounts they get a pile of emails and attack on a first come first serve basis. Two emails might confuse the matter. The caveat is the line starts promptly 12:00:00 midnight eastern, they disregard anything prior (and I believe them).

3) I cc myself on the e-mail to them so that I know it actually went through and did not get lost.

4) and because I am just that over wound, I pre-prepare the email, have it sitting waiting to send, and sit there on my computer watching time.gov on my browser. This is tied to the atomic time clock and gives the precise time down to the second. at 12:00:02 I hit send. and then check my inbox for the cc and validate the time stamp is 12:00, not 11:59. Then go to sleep. This can likely be automated. Note to self check email automation utlility.

5) Then you wait, and on the open booking window depending on your castaway status, check the app for 'my plans' to see what the magic fairies put into your account. I am only silver (gold on next cruise) but I have gotten a cabana 5 times out of 5 now using this strategy, the dream, the wish, and the magic, as well as everything I asked for, though as mentioned earlier some of the times get shuffled about. But I also have found that on the actual open booking window day very little besides the cabanas have fully booked so I can rearrange my tasting and spa schedule easily as I see fit to fine tune my plan. I did mention on the planning spectrum I tend to be very very detailed?

6) so how close to midnight do you need to be? dont know, have no clue how many use the atomic time clock for example, but once I actually fell asleep on the switch! at 12:15 I work up, swore, hit send then held my breath. Still got a cabana but not THE cabana I always request and have gotten at 12:00:02 (from research, I am team cabana 23 lol).

7) so again, to answer your actual question, one email is all I ever do. dont want to confuse them. first come first served. I trust the system. I do cc myself to make sure it went through.

hope this helps

The process is... a well guarded secret lol. Actually not but nor is it as easy and transparent as one might wish. I understand things were different in the past, but my cruising started post covid (always through a travel agent) and this has been my experience.

1) My travel agency (well known in these parts hint hint) said they could NOT do the bookings for me. Apparently they could in the past, because my actual agent was intially confused on this point, but not these days. I have no clue if other travel agents provide this service, but nope, its been for me to do.

2) You will get an email directly from Disney shoreside concierge services (whatever email address you provided) about 5 days give or take before the 130 day book window that outlines exactly when that window opens and what you can request. Note, they don't actually provide scheduled times for services like all those wonderful tasting sessions, you just tell them which ones you are interested in and what days, and they do the best to accommodate, but if a particular session is not available the day you request, they move it to another day. Make sense??

3) I have no reason to believe more than one letter is helpful. From all accounts they get a pile of emails and attack on a first come first serve basis. Two emails might confuse the matter. The caveat is the line starts promptly 12:00:00 midnight eastern, they disregard anything prior (and I believe them).

3) I cc myself on the e-mail to them so that I know it actually went through and did not get lost.

4) and because I am just that over wound, I pre-prepare the email, have it sitting waiting to send, and sit there on my computer watching time.gov on my browser. This is tied to the atomic time clock and gives the precise time down to the second. at 12:00:02 I hit send. and then check my inbox for the cc and validate the time stamp is 12:00, not 11:59. Then go to sleep. This can likely be automated. Note to self check email automation utlility.

5) Then you wait, and on the open booking window depending on your castaway status, check the app for 'my plans' to see what the magic fairies put into your account. I am only silver (gold on next cruise) but I have gotten a cabana 5 times out of 5 now using this strategy, the dream, the wish, and the magic, as well as everything I asked for, though as mentioned earlier some of the times get shuffled about. But I also have found that on the actual open booking window day very little besides the cabanas have fully booked so I can rearrange my tasting and spa schedule easily as I see fit to fine tune my plan. I did mention on the planning spectrum I tend to be very very detailed?

6) so how close to midnight do you need to be? dont know, have no clue how many use the atomic time clock for example, but once I actually fell asleep on the switch! at 12:15 I work up, swore, hit send then held my breath. Still got a cabana but not THE cabana I always request and have gotten at 12:00:02 (from research, I am team cabana 23 lol).

7) so again, to answer your actual question, one email is all I ever do. dont want to confuse them. first come first served. I trust the system. I do cc myself to make sure it went through.

hope this helps

So very helpful! Thank you!

 

[RedHead0186]

I am sailing with my niece and her family on the wish in October. Our date to submit requests is May 23. They have booked this trip through a travel agent, which I have never done before. As this is our first sailing with concierge, I am not familiar with the process. My question is, is there any advantage to sending more than one email with requests? Or, since we have engaged the travel agent is she the only one able to submit request? It seems to me that chances might increase of securing a cabana if more than one email is sent or is that not something we should do?

@Lucien Franciosa gave a great synopsis, so I don't have much to add. Ask your travel agent if they can send the email for you (assuming you would want them to). Some can, some can't or won't. I've always done it myself, even though we use a travel agent.

I don't think there's any advantage to sending more than one email. Put everyone in one email, label it clearly (I organize mine by day, but you could also do it by 'category.' Note if you have backups or alternate times (like, if you want Palo brunch on one day, but a second choice would be another day, or if a certain excursion is sold out/not available, you would do a different one). I know it can be a lot of work, but the clearer you can be, the easier it will be for them to accommodate your requests.

If you think of something later on, you can certainly send another email, but I don't see any benefit to deliberately splitting them into two. Since emails are processed in the order they are received, sending more than one won't increase your chances of getting a cabana.

 

[Pixie Dust Believer]

One thing to note, if you want specific beverage tastings, you should reach out to Shoreside concierge in the couple weeks prior to your 130 day mark. They have the list of tastings and other speciality events (ex. Remy dessert) broken out by the day and time. I find this info useful so that I don't accidentally end up with too much on one day and nothing on others.