Sky Suite... Butler?

[marcias722]

Aqua Class cabin assigned attendents pretty much do everything a butler does. Just ask. And early embark and debark. If you really want or need the extra footage to move around because of size etc, would maybe want a suite. But an extra $5-6k just for a “butler”, Michael’s and Luminae not really worth the $. Love the Blu menu and lighter style menu and if, like us, a huge lunch is not required or desired, Aqua Class and Blu are the perfect choice, and all the geat spa features included as well! 

[CEOofVacation]

If you get Budi on Reflection, good luck with that.  He was awful when we had him last year.   Hopefully he has improved after our feedback.  We were on Reflection again this year and he still had a job which surprised us.  Several of us had him on our TA last year and he wanted to do nothing.  Between us we called him "The useless butler".   We all gave feedback post cruise and we expected him to be gone but he was still there.  

 

- When we first boarded, the requested distilled water and power cord were not there.  The safe was locked.  We waited several hours and made several calls to him and finally the power cord and distilled water were delivered.  The safe was unlocked only after dinner, after a few more calls.  We are paranoid and wanted to make sure that my husband got the distilled water and power cord before we set sail.

- Asked him about a dinner menu outside of the limited choice on TV for room service when my husband was down with a cold halfway through the cruise and we decided to not expose others with his cold.  He asked us to call room service.  Room service said we could only order what we saw on the TV, which was a limited menu.  Food was delivered by a room service guy, not "our" butler.  My husband went on to expose others on the ship with his cold on the following day because we did not care for the limited menu. We later found out from cruisecritic after our cruise that we could have ordered off the dinner menu from MDR. 

- Friend from another room asked him to deliver cappuccino each morning.  He got his coffee the following morning and no more after that.  Halfway through our friend asked him again to deliver his cappuccino each morning, he got it the following morning and then no more.

- First chic night, he was not seen anywhere and then after our dinner and show, we bumped into him in the hallway... and he said "Did you want to watch the show tonight, there should be reserve sitting?"  Whatever.  

- Then there was laundry... too much to get into.

Some butlers are great and some are better to have without.  There were several things where we asked the stateroom attendant, including about laundry bags and he said he would get for us but we should be calling the butler about it.  We would much prefer to have one person that we go to rather than having to figure out whether it is a butler's duties or a stateroom attendant's.  

 

 

[CHEZMARYLOU]

CEO, this is disappointing, to have a butler as poor as yours.  Can I ask what suite you were in?  Hoping to avoid this situation in November.

[Jim_Iain]

Disappointed to hear that some have had a bad butler.    I've had some great ones and some that were so so but never a bad one.    I met someone in Michael's Club that had a "Bad" butler and brought it to the attention of the Michael's Club Concierge.   They were immediately assigned a new butler and were happy campers.  

 

With the addition of the Suite"s Manager I would think that he would be the person that you discuss with.   He manages all the butlers as well as MCC.  

 

On another post I read that early morning Cappuccino's were not available.   I always order cappuccino's with my breakfast and they are delivered.   While it is not listed on the Menu I just write it in.   The butlers have a cappuccino machine in their pantry (not the best) but my last butler would get them from Al Bachio for me.   I'm not sure if that was because I was in a CS but would think SS would have no different experience. 

Edited October 22, 2018 by Jim_Iain

[CHEZMARYLOU]

So far we have never had a bad butler, we considered a lot of them to be great, the rest good. 

[patty1955]

The only butler we've had wasn't very good. I don't know if he was "bad" but he wasn't good. He never told us what services he would/could provide. We were't told that he would bring us coffee so we ordered it from room service the night before. When we called to see why we never got it, we were told we should have asked our butler. We the butler to bring it every morning and he only brought it the first time. He did recognize that we preferred the sweets for our afternoon snacks so he always had plenty. 

[CEOofVacation]

2 hours ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

CEO, this is disappointing, to have a butler as poor as yours.  Can I ask what suite you were in?  Hoping to avoid this situation in November.

We were in a SS2. While it did not help being at the bottom suite level, having a bad butler was worse than not having one.  

 

We will be on the Millennium this Dec in a SS1, and we hope for a better experience.

 

[CHEZMARYLOU]

1 hour ago, CEOofVacation said:

We were in a SS2. While it did not help being at the bottom suite level, having a bad butler was worse than not having one.  

 

We will be on the Millennium this Dec in a SS1, and we hope for a better experience.

 

We were on Millennium last summer in a RS and had Robert.  He was very good, reminded us of Peter Lorre with his mannerisms. Maybe you'll get him.

We are in a RS in November so should have a better experience than you did.  If not, as Jim-Iain said, we'll speak with the suites manager.

BTW I am in no way anticipating a bad experience.

 

[CEOofVacation]

3 minutes ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

We were on Millennium last summer in a RS and had Robert.  He was very good, reminded us of Peter Lorre with his mannerisms. Maybe you'll get him.

We are in a RS in November so should have a better experience than you did.  If not, as Jim-Iain said, we'll speak with the suites manager.

BTW I am in no way anticipating a bad experience.

 

Thank you.  We will be in 6145, close to all the expensive suites, and typically better butlers. 😉 

[Covepointcruiser]

Butler service totally depends on the number of Suites your Butler has.    We were in a RS but our Butler had all of the RSS, CSS and Penthouse on the starboard side of the ship ( many decks).   The Penthouse expected the Butler to be always at their beck and call and the residents were notorious throughout the ship.   If the Butler didn’t answer their call within a minute they complained to guest services.  He brought our coffee and OJ every morning and once arranged a party for the RS guests.   He did pick up our laundry and dry cleaning.    We never sat in the reserved seats as we like making a quick getaway if we don’t like the show.   On the transatlantic last year on the Reflection Michaels Club was often too crowded to have a before dinner drink or have tea.   This is the case of too many Suites for the same size MC.  Because Beverage Packages are not included on transatlantic the crowding was even worse.   Many people were carrying drinks out of MC,spilling them on the way.   You could follow the spills to the elevators.  For good suite service, avoid the Reflection.

[bigbenboys]

On 6/8/2018 at 5:28 AM, Jbrattoncruise said:

Is packing/unpacking a task they can complete? Anyone do this?

It is my understand that they will unpack for you. But you have to tell the butler where you want items to go. I really dont what someone that I dont know going through my suitcase.

[bigbenboys]

One of the nice things the butler will do for you. Breakfast on the balcony.

Edited October 23, 2018 by bigbenboys
added info

[Host Jazzbeau]

On 10/22/2018 at 4:54 PM, bigbenboys said:

It is my understand that they will unpack for you. But you have to tell the butler where you want items to go. I really dont what someone that I dont know going through my suitcase.

 

Right, I get that at the airport for free!

[LMC]

I’ll be on board with you in a sky suite and I’m thinking the same thing!

[Carole2313]

I disagree with posters saying the Reflection has bad Butlers.  Our experience was the opposite, we had wonderful Butlers, even in the “lowly” Sky Suites.  We had Rudy, who was always around asking what else he could do to make our cruise special.  In the Signature Suite we had Joey, who took great care of us.  Both of them served Breakfast each morning on the balcony, brought treats in the afternoon, made reservations for us, took care of the laundry and dry cleaning, stocked the fridge with our favorites, etc..  We are back on Reflection in February in a Sky Suite and it would be so great if we could get Rudy or Joey again.

[LA_CA_GAL]

If you encounter any problem contact your Butler.

We pulled into Bermuda and I ran out of cigarettes. 
Of course, ship stores closed, so I contacted my Butler, and he was able to make a delivery.
Also, we requested a breakfast delivery every morning at 8:00 of fruit and coffee at the beginning of the cruise.
And I always bring a small cooler that gets filled with ice each day.  Love grabbing beers regularly and putting them on ice.

 

[CEOofVacation]

15 hours ago, Carole2313 said:

I disagree with posters saying the Reflection has bad Butlers.  Our experience was the opposite, we had wonderful Butlers, even in the “lowly” Sky Suites.  We had Rudy, who was always around asking what else he could do to make our cruise special.  In the Signature Suite we had Joey, who took great care of us.  Both of them served Breakfast each morning on the balcony, brought treats in the afternoon, made reservations for us, took care of the laundry and dry cleaning, stocked the fridge with our favorites, etc..  We are back on Reflection in February in a Sky Suite and it would be so great if we could get Rudy or Joey again.

I am thinking your post was not directed at me.  My complaints were about a specific butler called Budi.

[Carole2313]

CEO, yes my comments were not directed at you at all, just bad Butlers in general on Reflection.  I sure don’t want to get Budi as my Butler!  So sorry you got him.  Hubby would be down in MC talking to the Concierge about getting a new Butler.  We have been very lucky getting great service on Reflection.  

[NanaChar]

One cruise we had our 7 and 10 year olds with us.  The butler introduced himself, then we went to lunch.  When we came back, an Xbox was setup for the kids.  

He offered to pick up the kids from the Fun Factory when we were trying to figure out our busy schedule one night.

I think our best butler was one we had in our SS.  The worst was in the RS.  He was not bad,  but he didn’t read our minds as well as the others.  

[JaneStarr]

In my experience, the best butlers haven’t correlated to our suite level.

We’ve had a really attentive butler in a Sky Suite (SS2) and our least helpful butler in a Royal Suite. Just seems to be the luck of the draw.  

 

It seems to be more a matter of attitude than workload.  We haven’t relied our butlers for much, but the really great ones find things to do for you that you didn’t even know could be requested.

 

We understand if our butler is tied up doing something for another guest, but the really great ones still make us feel valued.

One example is a butler (Peter) when we were in an SS2 on a transatlantic. He noticed one of my thong sandals had broken and showed up with superglue to fix it! We also had this same butler in a RS years later. Service was equally good in each suite.

Jane 

 

 

[Jgowings]

On 6/8/2018 at 12:53 AM, Airrace said:

 

Is Michael's/retreat lounge open when we board?

 

Go to the celebrity website and look up the sky suite. It will show you al, the benefits of having a butler.

 

Some of them are:

 

Priority embarkment and the same for de barking.

You can even be first off at the port stops.

Snacks and drinks all you need to do is ask.

Any meal from the restaurants delivered to your room.

Luminae restaurant for suite guests only.

Michael’s bar for suite quests only

Priority reserved seating for the chic night shows.

Special line for suite quests at the home port to arrange getting you on the ship faster. You then can then hang out at Michael’s or leave some of you carry on while you wait for your suite to get ready and explore the ship.

There will be a door bell outside your suite that the butler will ring with your room.

 

Just ask I have heard of butlers doing all kind of things.

 

 

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[tkline]

Sorry to hear you had a bad butler experience. We were on Celebrity Solstice 2 years ago to Alaska in a sky suite and had a great butler (butleress?), Tanya. That was my first cruise ever. She was super nice and attentive and helpful, we got room service for breakfast and she delivered it every morning. Was happy to chat about the destination or excursions and help with anything we needed. If it were possible to request a butler, we'd ask for her again for sure.

 

If you're having issues with a butler, is it possible to request a different one?

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

2 hours ago, tkline said:

If you're having issues with a butler, is it possible to request a different one?

 

Absolutely.  At the first sign of a problem, you should be having a conversation with the Suite Manager.  It's that person's job to deal with issues like this.  Thankfully, I've never had a bad butler.