At our beck and call

Shortly after I return to the Walt Disney Suite, our doorbell – yes, the Walt Disney Suite has a doorbell – rings. At the door are Lars and Thabi (pronounced like “Tabby”), our concierges. They make an interesting pair, standing next to each other. Lars, from Germany, is quite tall, while South African Thabi is, um… not. Both, however, are extraordinarily friendly.

They’ve come to invite us to the concierge reception tomorrow afternoon while we are docked in Nassau, and to give us information about our coming ports of call and events onboard the ship. We’re given a printed page with the DCL logo and personalized with our family names and suite, showing the weather forecast for the next day. They're really giving us the royal treatment!

We enjoy the information, but honestly admit to them that we might not get off the ship in Nassau. Heck, we might not even go to the stage show, Hercules, this evening. We’ve got this amazing Suite, a once in a lifetime kind of experience, and so, we tell them, we might just be in here relaxing and enjoying it!

Thabi is quick to respond, “I don’t blame you! I’d do that, too!”

Lars does give us one bit of bad news. Disney’s new luggage check-out, where they take your bags off the ship and give them directly to your airline, won’t work for us. To minimize the risk of bags not making your flight, they don’t do that when your flight leaves earlier than 11:25 a.m. Ours is scheduled for 11:15, just ten minutes too early. Oh, well – they’ll still take the bags off the ship, but we just have to claim them and take them through customs ourselves, then give them to the airline reps there at the port. It’s still not much of a hassle.

Bob brings up the single Castaway Club gift bag issue delicately, by asking them if they are familiar with the expression, “looking a gift horse in the mouth.” Thabi doesn’t know the phrase, but Lars says they have the same saying in German. They assure us that they’ll see “if they have any extras” and get a gift bag for Bob and Linda by the end of the voyage.

Lars and Thabi tell us how to contact them by phone, and urge us to call, day or night, someone will answer, and they love to help, so please call if we need anything! Thabi adds, “Even if you just want to know the time, call!”

Bob asks if they can adjust the weather. They laugh and say that it should be much nicer in Nassau tomorrow.

With a cheerful goodbye, Lars and Thabi depart, and for us it’s time for supper. Time to head back to Parrot Cay. I’m thankful that we have a reserved table this time.