On the gem. in a suite. plusses and minuses.

[camasidaho]

The room is fabulous traveling with 2 teens. We splurged and this week will be nice to have the 2nd bed and bath. The gem is wonderful also.

 

Here is thr hang ups. Got to NY port about 1045. Told 3 people we were in a suite but not haven. They sent us in the long latitude line. After check in we were taken to the via lobby then up to the ship. We missed out on the snacks there because maybe the directed us to wrong line?

We were escorted first on the ship. Nice. Had a nice but slow lunch at cagneys when we were done there was no one really around so we asked a worker if we could go to our room. She called someone and was told yes. No escort. We just found our way.

 

We walked around the ship and about an hour later noticed our bags by our door. So we put them inside. Again with a suite we thought they might at least put them in.

 

It's 326 and getting ready for the muster drill and we finally got to meet our butler - steward and had to ask for ice. To his credit he did barely deliver fruit and snacks. Maybe reading too much cc set my service expectations a bit too high. Idk. Room and food good. Just expected paying triple of an inside room we would have not had to wait 3 1/2 hours for ice and then have to ask for it.

 

I guess my message is this. Go. Have fun. But just because 1 person was escorted to their room don't think everyone is. Just cause the brochure says thr butler will unpack your clothes don't count that you suitcases will even be brought in to your room don't expect ice early.

 

Again we are having a blast and love the room. But don't take all the writings in cruise critic as gospel or what you will experience. Thanks.

[All-ready2cruise]

The room is fabulous traveling with 2 teens. We splurged and this week will be nice to have the 2nd bed and bath. The gem is wonderful also.

 

Here is thr hang ups. Got to NY port about 1045. Told 3 people we were in a suite but not haven. They sent us in the long latitude line. After check in we were taken to the via lobby then up to the ship. We missed out on the snacks there because maybe the directed us to wrong line?

We were escorted first on the ship. Nice. Had a nice but slow lunch at cagneys when we were done there was no one really around so we asked a worker if we could go to our room. She called someone and was told yes. No escort. We just found our way.

 

We walked around the ship and about an hour later noticed our bags by our door. So we put them inside. Again with a suite we thought they might at least put them in.

 

It's 326 and getting ready for the muster drill and we finally got to meet our butler - steward and had to ask for ice. To his credit he did barely deliver fruit and snacks. Maybe reading too much cc set my service expectations a bit too high. Idk. Room and food good. Just expected paying triple of an inside room we would have not had to wait 3 1/2 hours for ice and then have to ask for it.

 

I guess my message is this. Go. Have fun. But just because 1 person was escorted to their room don't think everyone is. Just cause the brochure says thr butler will unpack your clothes don't count that you suitcases will even be brought in to your room don't expect ice early.

 

Again we are having a blast and love the room. But don't take all the writings in cruise critic as gospel or what you will experience. Thanks.

 

You are so right about some things not being as said on CC. One thing to clarify though, you do know you steward and butler are 2 different crew members, right? I know on here sometimes it sounds as though they are one and the same. The steward always brought our ice and if we had wine in the ice bucket he always made sure to fill it for us.

 

As far as getting escorts... we were taken to Cagney's for lunch then, found our way to our cabin and our luggage had been placed inside by our steward. We barely saw or had contact with our concierge but that was ok since we had no real need for assistance.

 

Have a wonderful cruise and if you need anything just call your butler (anything inside your cabin except the cleaning which the steward will look after) or reservations of any kind which your concierge will be happy to take care of.

 

Cheers.

[meatball_nyc]

Must have been a very busy day in port with 4 ships there!

Have a great cruise. Will be watching your sailaway.

P.S. I would have sent the teenagers up to the buffet with the ice bucket to get ice. It only takes a few minutes. Did just that in July. There's no way I could wait for ice for my wine!!

Happy Sailing!

 

 

~Robin

Every Day at Sea is a Great Day

[punkincc]

Relax and stop expecting perfection. Butlers and room stewards are super busy on Embarkation day. Sometimes we find our luggage in our cabin, suite or not. Sometimes we find it in the hall before the crew gets around to it.

 

No way a butler is going to routinely open your bags and unpack for you without your specific instructions to do so. Can you imagine the hullabaloo when Aunt Sadie walks in and finds the butler "going through her things"? And if you make the request, be prepared to wait until they have time to take care of it. Personally, I know where I want my things and would prefer to handle that myself.

 

As far as ice, we generally just let the steward know that we like ice available in the afternoon and again at turn down. Just let both the butler and steward know of your desires and expectations. Every cruiser is different, and they cannot read minds.

[jjikids]

Love the suite life. Just know the butler has many cabins. If you need him, you have his direct number and you will get things brought to you. We never expected him to escort us or unpack for us. We ate at Cagneys and then just left for our cabin. Stewards have many rooms to take care of. They also are on call early in the day and then later in the afternoon. Then they are off in the middle of the day. Just make sure your steward knows what you expect daily and they will take dare of it. Ask the butler for any specific snacks you want daily or just be surprised with what they bring. Since you wanted ice when embarked that is why it took so long. The suggestion to run up to the buffet was excellent.

Enjoy your cruise.

[Fishbait17]

Relax and stop expecting perfection. Butlers and room stewards are super busy on Embarkation day. Sometimes we find our luggage in our cabin, suite or not. Sometimes we find it in the hall before the crew gets around to it.

 

No way a butler is going to routinely open your bags and unpack for you without your specific instructions to do so. Can you imagine the hullabaloo when Aunt Sadie walks in and finds the butler "going through her things"? And if you make the request, be prepared to wait until they have time to take care of it. Personally, I know where I want my things and would prefer to handle that myself.

 

As far as ice, we generally just let the steward know that we like ice available in the afternoon and again at turn down. Just let both the butler and steward know of your desires and expectations. Every cruiser is different, and they cannot read minds.

 

This^^. It's been a long time since we've been actually escorted to our suite, even in the Garden Villa - it seems nowadays they get us to Cagney's and we find our way to our suite - no big deal.. Butlers and stewards are hard to come by in any cabin on embarkation day, and if we want ice we either call for it or go get some ourselves - that's typical. Luggage as you said punkincc, it depends who finds it first, and we generally bring it in ourselves (the butler or steward don't deliver it). Yes, suites are great, but people set their expectations waaay too high. They read that Pax A got this and Pax B got that, and Pax C got the other, and they expect to have it ALL automatically - too many suite pax and too few staff to please everyone all the time... No ice in your suite? Your suite wasn't totally set up yet, butler may have been still escorting others to Cagney's or meeting some of his other guests, steward may have been gathering pillows for others or cleaning the last of his staterooms. As said, embarkation day is crazy busy, and you often won't even meet your butler until day 2, especially if you are out and about when they stop by.

 

They did totally screw up by sending you to the wrong line, though. You didn't miss much, but you shouldn't have had to wait on that line...

 

Robin

[camasidaho]

Don't get me wrong we are loving it. My message was simple. Just cause you read it somewhere doesn't mean it will happen to you.

[GeezerCouple]

One of the best "hints" we had on CruiseCritic about "the suite life" was to have a PRINTED "letter" for the Butler, to let him/her know what some of your preferences are, or your likely schedule, or when you do/do not want to be disturbed, etc.

 

They *want* to help, to provide service, or they wouldn't (shouldn't!) be in that job. (No, not everyone is great at their jobs, but most people, everywhere, do try.)

 

But as has been stated many times, they can't read your mind.

And probably they have lots of other people making requests, especially right at first.

 

There were some sample letters to a Butler we found here on CC, and we just modified them for our preferences.

 

When we first met the Butler, we greeted him, told him how much we were looking forward to the trip, and handed him the letter, telling him we knew he was busy right now, but that this should help him understand what we did or didn't want, so he would be able to focus on the things we found most important.

 

On the second day, he showed up and said he had now had time to carefully read the letter, and thanked us, and then began asking about things that clearly were important/relevant to us.

 

It was VERY obvious that he was trying very hard to help make our trip pleasant, and the snacks were pretty quickly the ones we really wanted.

 

Giving feedback works wonders, as in "We really don't like X, but love y!"

Sure enough, plates of "y" were frequent.

 

This was our first NCL cruise, and we weren't sure what to expect from the wide variety of comments on CC.

But among the first things we did upon getting home was to make reservations for several more NCL trips :)

 

We also had some very nice experiences in the MDR. The service was great, no matter what time we ate.

(Waiting in line, not so much fun. We aren't sure what "reservations" actually mean, if the response is "okay, but they won't hold a table for you", but that's a different issue, one we'll deal with on board next time.)

 

If the other trips are all so pleasant, we'll be happy campers for a long time, on NCL and other lines.

 

GeezerCouple

[toby517]

Hi,

 

We just returned from the Gem today. We were in a 2 bedroom family suite number 11024. We LOVED it. The whole trip was fantastic. I'm not sure how the original poster missed the sign in the terminal that was directing you to the Suite/VIP line. If you knew that's where you should have been from reading CC you should have been looking for it and not just taking the first person's directions. We got signed in and directed to the VIP Lounge. We only had time to grab a cookie when we were escorted on the ship and shown to the elevator to take us to Cagney's. At Cagney's we had only given our lunch order when the announcement was made that rooms were ready. I did not expect or need an escort to our room. I had done enough research to know where our room was.

 

Never going back to below a suite category again.

[galleycook]

We just returned from a trip on the GEM and service was pretty much as expected. We had a little snag with one of the pre-screeners who wanted to send us to the Latitudes line instead of the suites line (for check in). Finally she conceded, but it took almost 5 minutes of reviewing the paperwork first. After check-in, we waited in the Concierge Lounge with many other guests. At this time we met the Concierge (as usual) and other butlers, although not ours.

 

I have read that they now take groups, in-mass, from the Concierge Lounge onto the ship. This is what happened to us. We were all taken to Cagney’s for lunch. After lunch we just went to our suite. We have stayed in this room before so I knew the routine, how the “gadgets” work and an escort was not required. However when we saw the Concierge later, she said that she tried to catch us after we finished lunch but we had already left. Maybe she was going to escort us to our room???

 

We were asked in the past if we wanted our luggage unpacked but always do it ourselves. They certainly shouldn’t be unpacking your luggage without permission. When we came back to the room after a little ships tour, our luggage was there (in the room). As always, we unpacked it ourselves without giving the butler the opportunity to ask. It was actually around this time that we met our butler, which was more than fine. I know they are busy the first day. The paperwork on the table had the particulars if we needed him or the concierge. For that matter, the card in the bedroom also had the room steward’s telephone number as well. We did not meet her until the next day but again I have no problem with that and I can’t say that I’ve seen it written or heard it said that they should introduce themselves to you within “x” hours of boarding. We aren’t the only ones on the ship and they also have lots to do. We’ll see them when we see them and call them if we need them beforehand.

 

Our previous experiences have been pretty much the same on disembarkation day. When you go to breakfast, they start working on the room. Taking apart the coffeemaker, removing old flowers, cleaning out the fridge, etc. When exactly they fill up the ice, bring in the new fruit, etc., I don’t know, but usually by mustering, everything is taken care of. As far as I’m concerned, everything was as expected.

[CTCruiser001]

Hi,

 

We just returned from the Gem today. We were in a 2 bedroom family suite number 11024. We LOVED it. The whole trip was fantastic. I'm not sure how the original poster missed the sign in the terminal that was directing you to the Suite/VIP line. If you knew that's where you should have been from reading CC you should have been looking for it and not just taking the first person's directions. We got signed in and directed to the VIP Lounge. We only had time to grab a cookie when we were escorted on the ship and shown to the elevator to take us to Cagney's. At Cagney's we had only given our lunch order when the announcement was made that rooms were ready. I did not expect or need an escort to our room. I had done enough research to know where our room was.

 

Never going back to below a suite category again.

 

Heya Toby! So glad you guys had a great time! I agree, the suite life is hard to beat. How was the Canada trip? DW and I are thinking about it in the future.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I497 using Forums mobile app

[Love my butler]

Like cruising in any room on any ship, getting the most out of the suite life takes practice. Reading CC is a good start, but you have to take that knowledge and apply it while on the ship. If you know what you want and how to ask for it most stewards, butlers and concierges will be more than willing to accommodate.

 

Numerous times I have 'taught' a butler what he can do for me. The biggest key in the learning process is you must let the staff know what you want. Expecting them to read your mind is a path to disappointment.

[garycarla]

The port rent-a-screeners generally don't know what they are doing. More than once we had to just go where we needed to go,counter to their instructions.

 

The little snacks served pierside are no big deal. No loss there. Unless somebody is there to escort us,we just go our own. We can find Cagneys and our cabin just fine.

[galleycook]

Numerous times I have 'taught' a butler what he can do for me. The biggest key in the learning process is you must let the staff know what you want. Expecting them to read your mind is a path to disappointment.

 

I'm sorry that you've had to "teach" your butlers so many times. We've been fortunate as our butlers have always known what to do.

[Love my butler]

I'm sorry that you've had to "teach" your butlers so many times. We've been fortunate as our butlers have always known what to do.

 

Don't be sorry, I get along just fine. :D

 

Maybe I have had many more butlers so the odds are better that some teaching is involved...

[latebloomer56]

We were in the Haven DOS in May 2013 and it was great so we booked a 2 BR Suite in Oct. 2013 as the Dawn doesn't have the Haven that was great also. The room steward was good and the Butler stopped by a little bit each day.

Now this Nov. we are in just a Aft Suite not sure about the level of service because they have so many folks to take care of in the Haven. We will of course have the list of request (easy no feather pillows & extra pillows, empty the fridge) we don't really need the Butler or Concierge. We do like the getting on and off the ship perk though. Last time we never even met the Concierge until we left the ship and even then he was to busy except to meet us at the door and walk us to the ramp. Turned to thank him but he was gone.

We don't really need anybody to walk us to lunch or our cabin as we generally know where we are heading.

Enjoy your Suite Life, we do.