First Celebrity Cruise: Need help!

[Maya1234]

I have taken exactly one  cruise before. An NCL. I researched everything to death. We are now going on a short Celebrity cruise (4 days around X mas time) and I feel like i know nothing because I have been so busy at work. Ugh. This board is made up of the most wonderful people who always provide great advice. 

 

Here's what we have in place so far:

 

We are on the Infinity in a Royal Suite. My two young adult kids are with us in a Sky Suite

 

We have excursions booked. We made reservations for one night at that interactive animated chef thing.

 

Here are some questions:

 

1. Who do I need (or should) give tip to? what is the range of tips that most people give?

 

2. How do I get my luggage tags? On NCL I was in the Haven and they sent them

 

3.  I understand there is some sort of restaurant for the suites. Do you recommend eating most of our meals there? If not, then where should we?

 

4. What do I  need to do or bring that I may not know about?

 

Feeling very uninformed! TIA for any info or help. 

[kenevenpar]

15 minutes ago, Maya1234 said:

I have taken exactly one  cruise before. An NCL. I researched everything to death. We are now going on a short Celebrity cruise (4 days around X mas time) and I feel like i know nothing because I have been so busy at work. Ugh. This board is made up of the most wonderful people who always provide great advice. 

 

Here's what we have in place so far:

 

We are on the Infinity in a Royal Suite. My two young adult kids are with us in a Sky Suite

 

We have excursions booked. We made reservations for one night at that interactive animated chef thing.

 

Here are some questions:

 

1. Who do I need (or should) give tip to? what is the range of tips that most people give? I

We tip the butler and stateroom attendant based on what we feel they did to make our stay special.

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2. How do I get my luggage tags? On NCL I was in the Haven and they sent them.

You can still order them online under your cruise planner.  If not, no worries as the porters at the pier will have plenty

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3.  I understand there is some sort of restaurant for the suites. Do you recommend eating most of our meals there? If not, then where should we?

Luminae.  In our opinion, the main reason to sail in suites.  I assume you are on infinity, so the specialty restaurants are QS, kind of a fun sort of Asian/Mediterranean spot with sharing different items.  Tuscan Grille is an Italian Steakhouse, not our favorite, but others seem to enjoy it.  We think Luminae is the best.

Quote

 

4. What do I  need to do or bring that I may not know about?

 

Feeling very uninformed! TIA for any info or help. 

See Above

 

Hope it helps

[wrk2cruise]

21 minutes ago, Maya1234 said:

I have taken exactly one  cruise before. An NCL. I researched everything to death. We are now going on a short Celebrity cruise (4 days around X mas time) and I feel like i know nothing because I have been so busy at work. Ugh. This board is made up of the most wonderful people who always provide great advice. 

 

Here's what we have in place so far:

 

We are on the Infinity in a Royal Suite. My two young adult kids are with us in a Sky Suite

 

We have excursions booked. We made reservations for one night at that interactive animated chef thing.

 

Here are some questions:

 

1. Who do I need (or should) give tip to? what is the range of tips that most people give?

Technically if you don't remove the auto tips then you have met your tipping obligations.  Tipping is certainly a personal choice.  When in suites we find that the service is generally well above what's expected and enjoy showing our gratitude with addition tips.  I never feel obligated.

21 minutes ago, Maya1234 said:

 

2. How do I get my luggage tags? On NCL I was in the Haven and they sent them

In your cruise docs there will be an image of one you can print out and attach to your luggage.  There also should be a link in your reservation somewhere to order preprinted ones to be sent to you.  Or you can get the porters to attach at the pier.

21 minutes ago, Maya1234 said:

 

3.  I understand there is some sort of restaurant for the suites. Do you recommend eating most of our meals there? If not, then where should we?

Luminae is the suite dining room.  We find it very good and will dine there over specialty dining.  With the Royal Suite specialty dining is included but not with the Sky Suite.

21 minutes ago, Maya1234 said:

 

4. What do I  need to do or bring that I may not know about?

 

Feeling very uninformed! TIA for any info or help. 

 

[Phxazzcruisers]

Those two replies are excellent.

Tipping is a personal matter.  Tips are automatically charged by room type.

If you get service above and beyond, (we always seem to) we tip the butler, Stateroom attendant, waiter in Luminae and sommelier.  Again, it is a very personal decision and not expected as you already give tips.

We LOVE Luminae, if there is nothing on the menu that evening that you desire, they will bring you the menu from the Main Dining Room and you can order off of that menu also.

Bring a desire to have a great vacation and enjoy !!!

[Maya1234]

Thank you everybody. Just looking for a little guidance on tips. I know it's very personal but a range would be helpful. For example on a 7 day NCL cruise I'd say the range for a butler was (from reading multiple posts) between $50 and $250 with about $150 being most common. A rule of thumb was $10 per day per person. So tipping $20 bucks would be way out of line and so would $500. Just wondering if the same ranges would be true here. 

[NantahalaCruiser]

In addition to Luminae and specialty restaurants, there is the Blu restaurant. The Blu restaurant is the dedicated restaurant for Aqua Class cabin guests; but suite guests also have access to Blu on a space available basis - generally at off-peak hours.

[jelayne]

You will automatically be charged $18 per person, per day for gratuties for the dining staff, cabin attendant, Butler and a portion goes to folks behind the scenes you never see.  Drinks have a automatic 18% gratutity charged.The Royal Suite includes the Premium beverage  package and the SS probably received the Classic package, Celebrity includes the 18% gratutity with the package so no additional tips are necessary with your drinks.

 

Suite guests have access to Michaels Club, usually a quiet place for a drink,   canapes in the afternoon, continental breakfast in the morning.  Some evenings there is entertainment or a meet & greet with the Officers.   Michaels Club is staffed from about 7-midnight.  The is a Michaels Club Conceigre who will assist you with any reservations, resolved any issues and do anything within reason to make your cruise wonderful.

 

So back to extra tipping the list of potential people to tip: Bartender & assistant in Michaels Club, MC Conceigre, your favorite bartender(s), the sommelier, the waitstaff in Luminae, Butler, cabin attendant, room service if your Butler isn’t the one delivering it, waiter & sommlier in the specially restaurant.  All of these are candidates for a tip, many of them you may not use on a 4 day trip.  We tip extra for those that have done extra.  We have had the MC Conceigre make reservations, resolve incorrect charges to our account, arrange a bday party & print off some documents we needed- extra tip.  Another  cruise we didn’t visit Michaels Club so no tip to the staff; we have had good Butlers and excellent Butlers the excellent one get a tip and the more we ask over and above the norm the more the extra tip is.

[abbydancer2003]

1 hour ago, jelayne said:

You will automatically be charged $18 per person, per day for gratuties for the dining staff, cabin attendant, Butler and a portion goes to folks behind the scenes you never see.  Drinks have a automatic 18% gratutity charged.The Royal Suite includes the Premium beverage  package and the SS probably received the Classic package, Celebrity includes the 18% gratutity with the package so no additional tips are necessary with your drinks.

 

 

I've been in Sky Suites twice, and got the Premium package.

 

By the way, from an earlier reply and based on the original post, it looks like QS is now Le Petit Chef.  Not sure if the original Qsine menu is ever served anymore.  

[keesar]

An important item to bring is a copy of your final invoice which shows which perks you are entitled to.  Plus some Prilosec...

 

[Luvcrusn]

Suites generally come with four perks: Premium Beverage Package, pre-paid gratuities, OBC (on board credit) and unlimited WIFI. Your account will automatically be charged $18 per person per day. Anything extra you spend on board will be charged to your account against the OBC until it's used up, and then charged to your credit card on file. The $18 per day satisfies all of your tipping requirements, and anything you decide to do extra to recognize crew members who went the extra mile for you is entirely up to you and will be gratefully accepted. Some that we have tipped extra are stateroom attendants (and butler), dining staff, maître d, sommelier, and others listed in the previous posts. If you have a beverage package, the gratuities for drinks are covered by the package. If you find a favorite bartender and feel like an extra $1-$2 is in order, go ahead, but it's not necessary. 

Luminae is your dining venue and is wonderfully reviewed by all the suite patrons. You should enjoy eating there.  You may choose to dine in Blu if space is available, in the MDR or any of the specialty restaurants, (I don't think sky suites get unlimited specialty restaurant dining) just ask the suite manager or the Michaels Club Concierge to make arrangements for you.

The best bet for getting luggage tags most quickly and reliably is to call Captains Club and ask for them because the website is sometimes (ok, most times😜) buggy. That number is 1-800-760-0654. Don't worry if you don't get them, they'll have them at the pier as well and you'll have a separate boarding arrangement as suite passengers.

[filamino]

I don’t know where we rank on the tipping scale but tend to tip along the course of our cruise rather than extra at the end. One trip I had a blast giving away gold dollar coins, but they’re heavy and I think some of the crew didn’t know what they were, at least at first. 

 

I’d guess I average $20-$30 a day which breaks down to an extra $1-$2 per drink to bartenders or bar servers who are especially pleasant, $5 for a friendly housekeeper in the hallway, $3-$5 when receiving room service. I have never had a butler or required concierge services. We don’t usually order bottles of wine or I suspect I would tip the sommelier. Our next cruise is a 4-day in a jr suite so I am curious if I’ll feel inclined to tip the butler for whatever they add to our stay, but expect it’ll be $5-$10 here and there, maybe an extra $20 a day if we see them a lot. With that said, my DH has a different perspective on tipping, has never worked in the service sector, and is of the mind that additional tips are rarely necessary. I just like saying thank you with a few dollars, and if I had more money I’d give more.

[crazyman3]

We have had Celebrity Suites on all of our X cruises -----except on the Reflection when we had a SS.

Deals and inclusions seems to vary a little to a lot ----depends on the country you're in!

 

We've always had grats. included.

 

We've always had a Classic drinks package on sometimes been 'given' premium package.

 

All laundry has been included twice.

 

Luminae has been great but we've always enjoyed Murano as another option. We ate in the MDR once, just to try it out. It was similar to the MDR on Princess and P & O ships.

 

Tips: although our tips were pre-paid, we tipped our butler, room steward, good bar staff and usually the Michael's Club concierge. Waiters in Luminae can also receive a lottle extra. On our last couple of cruises we've also given a tip to someone who does an important job but is often ignored... the toilet attendant.

For the Michael's club concierge, we've tried to give perfume, booze etc. having 'investigated' the tastes of the individual.

 

Enjoy your cruise ----and don't forget to book your next one whilst on board!

[Covepointcruiser]

for Specialty Dining for every meal but breakfast.   When the Concierge contacts you get your reservations made.   Your childr n in the Sky Suite will need to pay extra fo Specialties so if they will eat with you you will want to get a Specialty Dining Package.

[dkjretired]

Here's a little practical advice for when you board the ship.  You might be escorted to Michaels Club but if not go there immediately after boarding.  You will meet the Michaels Concierge and possibly the suite co-ordinator.   I give this advice because most people go to the buffet to eat however on Celebrity a bit of a problem arises since they don't normally clear the rooms for passengers until 1:00P.M. This causes many people to park themselves in the buffet with their carry ons thus taking room from those who actually want to eat.   Okay, now you are in Michaels club and the concierge will tell you to leave your carry ons and you can go for lunch in Luminae, nice and quiet without the craziness.   Don't get me wrong, I like buffets but not first day.  As a matter of fact Celebrity does a nice buffet for dinner with made to order items and sometimes theme nights.  Evening's are a lot quieter in the buffet and actually relaxing since everyone is eating elsewhere.

 

Also, Michaels is a nice place for a pre dinner drink, free and sometimes with entertainment.  

 

Just a suggestion and sorry for being so wordy but wanted to explain the why and where. 

[cruisinabout]

Thanks for this - very useful tips.