What have you successfully asked for from both concierge and butler

[CruiseAF]

What have you successfully asked for from both concierge and butler?

1. What did you ask for?

2. Was the request granted?

[YVRBassElectric]

we were in the Social on Deck 6 of the Bliss, DH forgot his cane in our cabin on Deck 17 - Butler brought it to us. She seemed quite happy that we had finally made a request of her

[Shellbelle28]

Butler- 

• take away too-hot down comforter and supply lightweight blanket for bed (yes)
• bring "smooshier" pillows (yes)
• supply pitcher of real cream in room fridge for coffee (yes)
• bring more of my preferred blend of Nespresso pods (yes)
• provide pitcher of ice water in room and keep refreshed (yes, but after a few days he he asked if we wanted bottled water instead and gave us half a dozen 1-liter bottles of water)
• take our picture on our balcony (LOL)

Concierge-

• change pre-booked dining reservations (yes)
• get tickets for excursion that was showing as sold out (yes)
• escort to reserved theater seating area ahead of others waiting to get in doors (he offered when he saw us)
• escort off ship in ports in advance of others (note sent to room on days this was being done)
• escort off ship for final disembark (note sent to room with meeting location)

 

[valleyvillage]

Years ago on the Star I told our Butler he could take the sparkling wine away as I didn't care for it. He asked if I liked the real stuff and I said oh yes! He left and came back with a bottle of the good one! Said that his DOS pax didn't drink it. What a treat!

This time on Bliss I told our Butler to take it or give it away and he offered to bring us some extra bottles of water, which was quite appreciated!

[NLH Arizona]

Pitchers of iced tea and ice water refilled daily and oatmeal raisin cookies.

[vpearlkc]

We learned that the crew were having some filipino food for dinner so the butler brought some for my wife who is from the Philippines. BTW the butler was also filipino.

 

Had the butler bring our free sparkling wine on ice with flutes to the showroom and set it up by our chairs in the reserved suites balcony.

[cliffd64]

Concierge and butlers do not typically refuse or say "no" to most reasonable requests.  All requests below were met easily.

From the Concierge:  

  Shore Excursions in the time slot we preferred.  Restaurants (specialty) at the days/times we desired.  Escorts off the ship and/or to tender.  

Butler:

  Once asked the butler for pretzel rolls because we couldnt find them anywhere - turns out  at that time they weren't being served on board - and butler had the head chef make some for us special (this was going way beyond what we had asked for or expected).  Ever since, at every time we have traveled in a suite, pretzel rolls are always delivered for my wife without asking.  Asked butler to bring us (4 of us) Macadamia Nut Ice Cream sandwiches from Cagneys...  no issue.    Various cocktail deliveries, dinner on balcony a couple of times...  pretty standard stuff.

[YVRBassElectric]

cliffd64's story about the pretzel rolls reminded me of our spring cruise on the Bliss. We asked the concierge when & where the Raspberry Truffle Cake was going to be served (was on MDR menu in 2017), he called the Haven chef, it is no longer being made, but they made it specially for him & kept making it, it became a bit of a joke with Chef & waiters. Glad they didn't make it on our recent cruise as hubby has been diagnosed diabetic

[KweezyCruiser]

1.  The concierge on the Breakaway registered us in advance for a “Paint By U” session, much to the annoyance of some of the many people who lined up early but still couldn’t get in to the very limited seating event.

2. When we were wrongly accused of skipping the muster drill and told to show up for a make up drill, the concierge told us that he would take care of it and we didn’t have to attend.  (We really did attend the first one, but there must have been a problem with the card swipes.)

[erdoran]

7 hours ago, cliffd64 said:

Concierge and butlers do not typically refuse or say "no" to most reasonable requests.  All requests below were met easily.

From the Concierge:  

  Shore Excursions in the time slot we preferred.  Restaurants (specialty) at the days/times we desired.  Escorts off the ship and/or to tender.  

Butler:

  Once asked the butler for pretzel rolls because we couldnt find them anywhere - turns out  at that time they weren't being served on board - and butler had the head chef make some for us special (this was going way beyond what we had asked for or expected).  Ever since, at every time we have traveled in a suite, pretzel rolls are always delivered for my wife without asking.  Asked butler to bring us (4 of us) Macadamia Nut Ice Cream sandwiches from Cagneys...  no issue.    Various cocktail deliveries, dinner on balcony a couple of times...  pretty standard stuff.

Macadamia nut ice cream sandwiches??  I had that ice cream minus brownie, i didn’t realize it is available as a sandwich?  Tell me more please!  And can I get specialty appetizers or desserts from the butler without paying for specialty restaurant?

 

BTW my asks-

Daily bowl of fresh berries & yogurt

milk for hubby

pitcher of iced water and unsweetened iced tea

wings from the local to enjoy during Eagles game

Concierge

Changing assorted reservations

Escorts on and off ship at port

No show escort - Bliss had reserved Haven seating

[cliffd64]

9 hours ago, erdoran said:

Macadamia nut ice cream sandwiches??  I had that ice cream minus brownie, i didn’t realize it is available as a sandwich?  Tell me more please!  And can I get specialty appetizers or desserts from the butler without paying for specialty restaurant?

 

Not sure in all cases, but in this case, we didn't have to pay extra for the desserts from Cagneys.  The Macadamia Nut Ice Cream Sandwiches are basically the macadamia Nut Ice Cream between two large Macadamia Nut Cookies...  it was very delicious.  I believe it's still on the menu at all Cagney's.

[javalsu]

Similar to the pretzel roles and the ice cream bars.  My wife really likes the Brazilian bread from  Moderno Churrascaria.  So one night we had our Cagny's dinner in our suite but with the bread from Moderno.

We also had breakfast in our suite every morning. 

[CruiseAF]

some interesting things. any others?

[Peachypooh]

We had 2 BLT sandwiches with chips delivered each day instead of the usual snacks. The Butler

was disappointed that after 5 days we said no more. We loved them but we started worrying about

the extra calories LOL.

[Georgia_Peaches]

I asked our butler for a fan as our stateroom felt warm.  A 3-speed, upright floor fan arrived within the hour and was left in the room for the duration of the trip. This was on Epic.

Edited October 24, 2018 by Georgia_Peaches

[drumming cruisers]

Butler -Instead of bringing  sandwiches, I asked for  Chocolate chip cookies, and m&m's. To please stop chocolate covered strawberries as I am allergic to them. Also lighter blanket for the bed. 

Concierge - booked a show, changed dining times. Escorted us off ship at end of cruise. 

[tbo]

We've never stayed in the Haven, one of my big questions about it has always been -what on earth would we need a butler for? Love these answers....more please 🙂

[Aesop081]

We're doing the Haven for the first time next March on the Jade so all this sounds like great service and attention to detail.  Can you tell me if there are any no no's when communicating with butler/concierge.  Except of course being civil and treating people as people?  is there a limit to what they can do?

[BirdTravels]

Concierge  

 

private tours of engine control room by Chief Engineer, hour-long tour of the Bridge by the captain as we secured tendering and departed GSC, and private tour of the galley by the executive chef  

 

butler

 

canapé tray with caviar  canapés

Edited October 24, 2018 by BirdTravels

[cdnsteelman]

Back in our suite days, especially when our kids were just babies, we often ate specialty restaurant meals served by our butler in suite and, regardless of where we ordered from, I asked for (and received) a double order of Teppanyaki's green tea cake and green tea ice cream for dessert. On several sailings it just started showing up in suite each night as a special treat.

 

We were also always successful in asking the butler to swap out the gratis bottle of "bubbly" for a bottle of red wine.

 

We have had very little occasion to make special requests of concierges with the exception of Bruce on the Spirit and Karin on the Sun back in the ~2010-11 timeframe. Karin was exceptionally knowledgable about the around the Horn BA to Santiago sailing we were on and was happy to give us great tips for each port over breakfast. Bruce was seemingly everywhere anticipating our every need before we knew we needed it including showing up in one port as we debarked with umbrellas for us as it was raining outside - we didn't ask and we have no idea how he knew when we were leaving the ship but there he was. Amazing!

[tomservo]

2 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Concierge  

 

private tours of engine control room by Chief Engineer, hour-long tour of the Bridge by the captain as we secured tendering and departed GSC, and private tour of the galley by the executive chef  

 

butler

 

canapé tray with caviar  canapés

Can anyone with a butler request these tours? I'd be interested in this.

[tomservo]

On 10/18/2018 at 6:46 AM, cliffd64 said:

Not sure in all cases, but in this case, we didn't have to pay extra for the desserts from Cagneys.  The Macadamia Nut Ice Cream Sandwiches are basically the macadamia Nut Ice Cream between two large Macadamia Nut Cookies...  it was very delicious.  I believe it's still on the menu at all Cagney's.

I'm curious about this as well. I wonder how far anyone was able to go to get apps and/or desserts from the specialty restaurants via the butler without extra charge. From what I've read, the desserts from the non-specialty restaurants can be pretty tasteless.

[CruiseAF]

keep em coming!

[miaminautigal]

Butler bought me a new keycard to room. Gummy bears and peanut M&M's. Hot milk for nespresso in room. Concierge sends us down in freight elevators.  

[BDL]

We're new to the Haven - going on Getaway next month. Are there any charges for all these treats?  My husband would love peanut M&Ms and I would love chocolate covered strawberries.  We have a free 3 day specialty dining package - do we use that if we want to have dinner in the suite?   Thanks in advance!