Finally got that cruise upgrade

We've sailed on 34 Disney cruises so far, and today they emailed to say that they wanted to upgrade us for free. It's a win, but not as impactful had it been a different cruise. We booked the next one late last year, and we booked a concierge room to celebrate our 19th "meetiversary." We met May 1, 2007. Had we gone from a regular room to concierge, that would have been a crazy upgrade value. Still, what we're getting is a 1-bedroom suite, which I don't image we would ever pay for on our own accord. It's essentially twice the normal size, with two bathrooms, a hard door between us and Simon, and a double-long verandah. Now the 2-story suites, that would have been epic!

Of those 34, we did concierge four times. The first was just our fourth cruise, as I recall there was some deal. It didn't blow us away, because back then the Dream had a small lounge, but the upgrade wasn't that expensive. We did it again, first one post-COVID, the 20th cruise, on the Dream. The elevated service was nice, but still the small lounge and expensive fare made it a questionable value. They had been holding a refund from a cancelled March 2020 cruise, so with that money gone I was content to just pay the 35% premium.

The Wish changed the math substantially. We did the inaugural in 2022 at half-price, because it was delayed. Then, for April, 2023, I found a concierge offer that was almost twice the fare of a regular room, but still almost half what that last Dream concierge cruise was. And regular rooms on the 3-night trips were cheap then. The Triton-class ships have at least twice as many concierge rooms, so I assume that's why it was less than the Dream. But they have an enormous lounge, an open bar every night, a large two-level pool deck with two hot tubs and "wet seat" pools. This feels more premium, end to end, and the snacks are ridiculous. At the time, I figured we wouldn't do it again because of the questionable value, but I caved.

We did it again in April, 2024, and the fare was worse. But I had a huge bonus that year, and I just decided, fuck it, we deserve it. We booked the next one in December, pre-layoff, but the fare was mercifully not higher, because placeholder reservation discounts started applying to concierge rooms. Again, coming off of a difficult year, I just felt like three nights of total self-care and people caring for me were worth it. It's what I call "flip-flop bougie," which is the kind of bougie I like. And with the room upgrade, even more worth it.

As I described in 2024, these are the easiest vacations to do with Simon, because he can be independent and food is a non-issue. When we don't have to parent, it's a true vacation. He's two years from graduation, so as hard as these years can be, I'm happy to do a happy place for all of us.