Butler?

[Vernoncruise]

I know this has been brought up before, but wanted to get any new insights. Our family of four will be staying in a Sky Suite for the first time. Does anyone have any tips on how we should use our butler?

 

e.g., will he/she get us a hot breakfast from the dining room menu delivered to the balcony at a certain time?

 

I can't think of what else we would use the butler for?

[claud925]

This is right off the Celebrity website:

 

Celebrity's Butler Service

Celebrity's suites include European butler service, a Celebrity exclusive.

This service includes:

• Assistance with unpacking/packing
  
• Daily news delivery
  
• Full breakfast
  
• In-suite lunch & dinner service
  
• In-suite afternoon tea service
  
• Evening hors d'oeuvres daily
  
• Complimentary espresso & cappuccino
  
• Shoeshine service
  
• Delivery of requested board games

A couple of observations:

 

While the first item claims that the butler will assist with unpacking and packing, I've not heard anyone actually avail themselves of this service;

 

Also, take note that while the sofa in a sky suite does pull out to provide additional sleeping, when open it makes for a very tight space with not much room for manueveribility, and just totally blocks access to the verandah . . . this means that one would need to close up the sofa before the butler can get out there with your breakfast.

 

One use I did make of a butler was to ask his assistance in planning a private party of cocktails and snacks. I was in a SS that had the huge 175 sq. ft. balconies on Mercury's 12th deck (a C-class ship). He was very helpful with the invitations, and supplied platters of cheese, crackers, chips, pretzels, cookies and the ice buckets and champagne glasses .... he received an extra gratuity immediately following the function.

 

You should also plan to have at least one lunch or dinner in your sky suite - let your butler know in the morning. He will bring you a menu (the same one you would have in the dining room). He will take your order; then, at the appointed time, serve your meal course-by-course in-suite.

 

I hope this helps - have a wonderful cruise.

[canderson]

I know this has been brought up before, but wanted to get any new insights. Our family of four will be staying in a Sky Suite for the first time. Does anyone have any tips on how we should use our butler?

 

e.g., will he/she get us a hot breakfast from the dining room menu delivered to the balcony at a certain time?

 

I can't think of what else we would use the butler for?

Could be cozy! As noted above, you'll need to get that fold-out folded IN right away to make yourself some space.

 

We've not too many uses for a butler, either. Just about all of the services we would require are normally handled by the cabin steward. For example, your hot breakfast comes that way if you're not in a suite. In our experience, it's more as though the butlers take some of the normal load of special requests (I'm including any meal service in that description) from the cabin stewards.

 

A couple of times, we asked Ivo (very accomodating fellow on Galaxy) to double up on the afternoon tea snacks and Cova drinks so 4 of us could participate (invited two friends on the cruise up for tea). And since I could never seem to find the cabin steward on the floor, we'd ask him to send down the wine for dinner - things like that. But that latter item has always been handled perfectly well by our cabin steward when we've not been a suite.

[kruznkanuk]

We were just in a Sky Suite for 2 weeks in Dec with our teenager and found no problem getting to the verandah with our tray of danish and coffee EVERY morning while she had her beauty sleep in the hide-a-bed. The same thing had been impossible in the Veranday cabins.

I suggest you treat the butler as your personal problem solver.

Some of the many things butlers have done for us on this an other trips-

• arranged to change table assignments in the Restaurant almost instantly

;) arranged to get us on a "full" shore excursion

• obtained an extra chair for the verandah since there are often only two

:rolleyes: obtained reading material from the Library that we could not get on our own

• had a sticky verandah door fixed in an hour

;) brought extra beach towels for on shore

• special types of cookies or other things that are not "on the menu"

:p a few years ago, Celebrity was using non-dairy creamer, which makes me sick. The butler ensured a pitcher of real cream was in the fridge at all times.

• got Priority Tender tickets when they were missed

:p solved a mixup with an invite to dine with the Captain that was starting to turn into an embarrassing mess

 

Sure, maybe the cabin attendant can do some of these things but the butlers have more prestige with the maitre d', kitchen, shore excursion staff, more time, and generally better English skills. We LOVE our butlers--but they have never packed anything for us!

Also, if you don't like the selection of cookies and sandwiches in the Afternoon tea or hors d'oevres they bring, let the butler know and they can bring something you like.

Just remember, you have one more person to tip, too.

[cruisencruise]

Hello:

 

We booked the sky suites on our last 2 X cruises (Constellation/Canada and Infinity/Alaska) primarily for the space. We felt the butler was an added bonus.

 

Edwin, our butler on the Constellation was fantastic. He got our table seating changed right away when we found out it was late instead of early seating and for a table for 2. He opened our champagne. We had breakfast every morning in. He would ring us 5 minutes before he showed up with tray in hand. He quickly learned what our likes were and would bring extra servings. When I requested a cappucino one afternoon. Every afternoon after, he would bring me a cappuccino. He found out I liked the chocolate croissants and would have 2 or 3 for me if we requested breakfast after 8AM. Cova Cafe only had those available after 8ish. They made for a nice midnight snack in bed. I know most will say the hordourves are not the best but I liked some of them. We did ask for shrimp cocktail mid cruise and got them everyday after with our hordourves. He arranged for a pot of hot chocolate to be in the room on sea days so we would have it while enjoying the scenery on the balcony. He made our cruise all the more special with these little touches.

 

Seby, our butler on Infinity was attentive as well. On formal night, DH put on his tux only to find out the pants were 4-5 inches longer than what he requested. He had rented tuxes on almost all our cruises and never had a problem with sizing until now. We called Seby about our dilemma and he immediately took the pants to find the tailor. There was no tailor available and Seby took needle in handle and hemmed the pants himself. We were only a few minutes late for dinner. I asked for chocolate covered strawberries mid cruise and ended up getting them every night after. After 3 nights straight, I was tired of them.

 

If the breakfast menu doesn't have what you want, write it in and he will see what he can do to get that for you. The suite breakfast menus offer more than the standard room service menu.

 

So if you want something special at a particular time, be prepared to get them every time after. If you or your children like cookies, milk or certain fruits every night, do tell him and he will probably have them there waiting for you.

 

We loved the space of the sky suites and I had warned DH once we experience a skysuite, it would be very difficult to book anything less on the millennium class ships.

 

I am sure when you are on your cruise, your butler will take care of whatever you need.

 

Remember, suite people have a different embarkation line. If you don't see signs for it, ask a X personnel where the line is. It is usually very, very short and you will be on board very quickly.

 

Enjoy!

[Vernoncruise]

Thanks everyone. We do have a suite on the sky deck with the large balcony, so we are looking forward to enjoying it with some nice meals (after we climb over the sleeping prince and princess to get out there).

[excitedofharpenden]

Vernoncruise, you will enjoy your breakfast outside and your butler will ring you a couple of minutes beforehand to make sure you are ready. That was the main thing we have used him for.

 

From experience and reading these boards too, it is evident that there are so-so butlers and great butlers with everything in between. If there was one thing I wish I'd have done the first time we had a butler it would have been to ask him what he could do for us and also what he would expect in the form of notice etc. If you get a good butler and build a rapport with him, then you will enjoy the experience that much more.

 

Phil

[uktog]

Vernoncruise

I do not know how old the prince and princess are but we had a 17 year old prince in our SS and he and Ricky the butler became great pals and always joked with each other. We got Ricky to call us 10 mins (not the usual 5 mins) before he was coming and of course all the boy had to do was put his lovely bath robe on and flick the sofa up. SOme days we had the breakfast in the room (not on the balcony) and Ricky still managed to set it all up for us. It was great having another pair of eyes to help us keep the room in order which you need when there are more than 2 of you in it

[TNTKP]

As far as "Someone extra to tip," consider this: On a recent Spendour OTS cruise we had to come up with the tip, in cash, each time room service was delivered, since it could have been any one of several servers, and that was only fair. On a 14 day cruise, this totaled more than the suggested tip for a butler. It was much easier to tip one person at the end of the cruise, with occassional extras for special services, than to continually have to go to the purser's desk/customer service desk to get change for tips. Actually had to get nasty with 1 rep who questioned what I needed the smaller bills for. And for all the hassle involved, you don't get all the "extras" mentioned above. Butlers just add a simplified aura to the whole cruise experience IMHO!

Tim

p.s. Have used the unpacking assistance twice, but not the packing assist.

[MrsBBuffalo]

Hi, Phil! Good to find you here.

 

I was trying to e-mail you and it came back. Could you e-mail me please and then I can try to reply? bammoran at msn.com

 

I hope you are well. Any cruise plans before the Connie?

 

Beth

Mercury Amigos October 2005

[Jim_Iain]

Vernoncruise -

Prepare to enjoy yourself. We always books suites and have always had the joy of being pampered by a butler. Phil is correct that there are good ones and mediocre ones.

 

I had asked the butler on my first cruise what he offered. I was having a difficult time trying to figure out who does what. He explained that the Cabin Attendant and Assistant were there to take care of the Cabin. His job was to take care of us. He told us that whatever we needed or desired just asked and he would attempt to take care of it. Getting flowers, arranging for a party and hand delivering invitations, helping tie a tuxedo bow tie and loaning me a pair of cufflinks when I lost mine were just a few of things butlers have done to make my cruise more desirable.