Is Celebrity going to Eliminate Butlers on Sky and Celebrity Suites?

[Ex-Airbalancer]

27 minutes ago, dlh015 said:

See ya...

Where are you going ? 😁

[jelayne]

15 minutes ago, kirtihk said:

My point is as I mentioned the entire ship is yours (especially, Regent like that is not that small) versus just Retreat area (class separator), and on Regent the entertainment is really good (on our cruise with Regent the orchestra had its own for an hour at 11 pm every night besides its regular duty in the theater).

We find the entire Celebrity ship as ours, not just the Retreat.  We spend more time in the non Retreat areas when on the ship than the Retreat.   The little exploring I have done about Regent they look very nice and old world and carry far fewer passenger ( 500- 800) just not what we enjoy.

[Sabbycat]

20 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 

 What about the “Sky Class” that is between Sea and Star?  No genie but full suite benefits. 
 

I see Sky Suites as the equivalent to Grand Suites on Royal Caribbean.  I base this on the Sky Suites have full access to the Suite Lounge and the Suite dining room, the latter on Oasis Class ships. 
 

Junior suites are just a larger room without the suite benefits. 
 

Just wait, they will take away those benefits too. But keep increasing the cost. Apparently they think their customers are idiots

[bigbenboys]

21 minutes ago, kirtihk said:

My point is as I mentioned the entire ship is yours (especially, Regent like that is not that small) versus just Retreat area (class separator), and on Regent the entertainment is really good (on our cruise with Regent the orchestra had its own for an hour at 11 pm every night besides its regular duty in the theater).

I also dont like smaller ships or their dresscode. I just want to be able to wear gray jeans (no rips or tears) and a polo on the smaller ships. We tried Azamara, the ship was boring. I'm looking for music closer to Billie Eilish not Lawrence Welk.

 

[Sabbycat]

18 hours ago, Straughn said:

I could not agree more. The new President, Beth “ somebody” was a former RCCL person. She comes with the mindset, focus,  and the expectation that there are many things that can be  eliminated to save money, and increase the share price. So far, everything I have read that has been instituted since she came “on board” are almost identical to what Royal does. LLP wanted Celebrity to be at the top of the mass market lines. (I think there is another category for this, but I can’t recall.) The new “mindset’s” priority  is to reduce costs. The game plan is to do what Royal has done. 
 

I am waiting for Sky Suites to be kicked out of The Retreat, no access to the suite Sundeck area, and dinner in Luminae based on availability, just the same as Royal’s Junior Suites. If the rumor that Butlers will only be in the high end suites turns out to be true, that is just another example. All the focus will be on increasing  the perks/exclusivity (and therefore, the price) for the high end suites. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I predict they will kick them out of Retreat. But I don't know how they will justify the expensive prices.

[Sabbycat]

4 hours ago, prmssk said:

In my opinion, it is rumor until there is actually a policy or it is implemented.  From what I can tell it has not been verified by any higher official, what we know is only through word-of-mouth, and the plan could be changed or tweaked at any point before implementation.  

 

That's not to say rumors can't ultimately come true.

The client service centres are confirming it. So it would be official, announcement or not

 

[Sabbycat]

1 hour ago, Relaxinginthesun said:

With the elimination of the butler, they will need those tips to give the cabin stewards more due to their increased workload..

Well you are still paying the Suite daily grat charge even though you don't have a butler. What becomes of that extra amount paid???

[Cap_D]

We'd be done if no access to Retreat. Royal Caribbeans lack of a suite experience or dedicated restaurant except for certain rooms within the suite category is one of several reasons why their offerings don't appeal to us.  The Coastal Kitchen seems pedestrian, limited ships, etc.   

 

We were in a CS on Apex on the last cruise.  The room divider between the main room and the bedroom lets a high degree of light in, so it was no better than a Sky Suite in our view.  Someone would be watching TV or have the drapes open and wake up anyone in the bedroom. 

 

Anything more than 20k and up, and we'd spend it elsewhere.  The hospitality and quality isn't that good.  Saltines are 2 for $6 at the grocery store, etc. 

 

 

Edited July 29, 2023 by Cap_D

[kirtihk]

44 minutes ago, jelayne said:

We find the entire Celebrity ship as ours, not just the Retreat.  We spend more time in the non Retreat areas when on the ship than the Retreat.   The little exploring I have done about Regent they look very nice and old world and carry far fewer passenger ( 500- 800) just not what we enjoy.

All good; on Celebrity there will be 3,000 people around you vs those 700 on Regent, and Regent has double square footage of open area per person vs Celebrity - just an observation, not forcing anyone to travel on a luxury cruise.

Edited July 29, 2023 by kirtihk

[Orator]

29 minutes ago, Sabbycat said:

Just wait, they will take away those benefits too. But keep increasing the cost. Apparently they think their customers are idiots

They've eliminated loyalty benefits, added higher prices, reduced the quality of food and still people book. What do you think? 

Edited July 29, 2023 by Orator

[kirtihk]

29 minutes ago, bigbenboys said:

I also dont like smaller ships or their dresscode. I just want to be able to wear gray jeans (no rips or tears) and a polo on the smaller ships. We tried Azamara, the ship was boring. I'm looking for music closer to Billie Eilish not Lawrence Welk.

 

You would  be surprised: on our last Seabourn cruise people were in shorts at dinner in a restaurant.  The same occurred on our Azamara cruise a few weeks ago.

Edited July 29, 2023 by kirtihk

[NMTraveller]

1 hour ago, TexasRon said:

The blind loyalty teams at most lines amaze me.  I am reading this thread because we are considering a Celebrity cruise at some point and these threads about cuts amuse me with the loyalists that go with each brand defending the indefensible—if you paid for it, you should get it.  Even if you don’t need it or use it, it should be as advertised.  
 
There was a shortage of employees, we understood.  Now they are cutting employees they told us would be part of the package.  I’m mostly an outside with one cruise a year, but we will see what happens in the future.

There is no cut that is too deep for the Celebrity cheerleaders....

Edited July 29, 2023 by NMTraveller

[NMTraveller]

23 hours ago, jelayne said:

Im becoming more and more convinced that Lisa’s departure was due to an unwillingness to jump on the downgrading of Celebrity.  

Yet I do think that the Royalization of Celebrity started with her and the introduction of E class ships targeted towards a younger demographic.

Edited July 29, 2023 by NMTraveller

[phoenix_dream]

1 hour ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

🤣

Amazing , this rumour change is less than 4% of the cabins on a S-class ship 

You would think the sky was falling when you read alllll the post here 

Nothing to see here , time to move on 😉, 
 

We'll move on when we're ready to.  If you don't want to read these posts anymore, then I respectfully suggest it is you who should move on to other threads.  There are two reasons there are reactors here - one is that this is just one more way Celebrity is cutting services while their costs skyrocket.  That concerns everyone, not just those in suites. Second, it is a very questionable business model where a product is advertised, paid for, and then not delivered. Again, that point concerns everyone, not just those in suites.

[prmssk]

Another piece of information - this is from FB and supposedly a screenshot from DMs on Twitter. 

 

[phoenix_dream]

1 hour ago, neverlaysup said:

The bigger issue beyond the loss of butlers in Sky Suites would be if they also removed Sky Suite access to the Retreat. Looking at Retreat sundeck sizes and Luminae, you would create an almost empty area on the ship for the use of 60 or less guests. Our next cruise is a Trans Pac on the Mille in a Sky Suite and if the Retreat and Luminae were taken away, it would be my last cruise on Celebrity.

As frustrated and angry as I am at Celebrity right now (and that is a lot), I really don't believe they will take away access to Luminae.   There just literally is not enough space in their other restaurants to accommodate the number of suite guests.  If they were to try to do that, I think there would be an uprising across the board, rather than just suite guests, as other restaurants became packed well beyond capacity.  As to the Retreat Deck and the lounge - I do sincerely fear that is at risk.  Considering that Sky Suites are a large portion of all suites, I personally feel that would be a huge mistake - but then they are not consulting me.

[chemmo]

So does this imply….

 

Higher suites will still have a ‘named’ butler.

Sky suites will have a generic phone number to ring and a member of the ‘Retreat Team’ will respond and bring their coffee, make their reservations…

 

 

[NMTraveller]

7 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

As frustrated and angry as I am at Celebrity right now (and that is a lot), I really don't believe they will take away access to Luminae.   There just literally is not enough space in their other restaurants to accommodate the number of suite guests.  

They did try to shut down the OVC in the evenings in January.  That did not go well for them. That would have also caused the MDRs to be overcrowded.

[neverlaysup]

10 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

As frustrated and angry as I am at Celebrity right now (and that is a lot), I really don't believe they will take away access to Luminae.   There just literally is not enough space in their other restaurants to accommodate the number of suite guests.  If they were to try to do that, I think there would be an uprising across the board, rather than just suite guests, as other restaurants became packed well beyond capacity.  As to the Retreat Deck and the lounge - I do sincerely fear that is at risk.  Considering that Sky Suites are a large portion of all suites, I personally feel that would be a huge mistake - but then they are not consulting me.

From reading another thread,, it appears Sky Suite guests will be serviced by the Retreat Team? From that language, it would imply that all needs for Sky Suites would be taken care of by the Retreat host so it looks like Retreat access would not be affected.....for now at least!

Edited July 29, 2023 by neverlaysup

[AmberCascades]

6 minutes ago, chemmo said:

So does this imply….

 

Higher suites will still have a ‘named’ butler.

Sky suites will have a generic phone number to ring and a member of the ‘Retreat Team’ will respond and bring their coffee, make their reservations…

 

 

Maybe they were finding some butlers had a lot to do and others didn't get quite as many requests, so they decided to share it out amongst a team?  Maybe if a butler gets tied up helping with a cocktail party then those who share that butler can still have access to "a" butler?  Just throwing out some ideas for why they might have decided to do this.  Of course, one never truly knows why a corporation does the things it does.  lol

[neverlaysup]

35 minutes ago, kirtihk said:

All good; on Celebrity there will be 3,000 people around you vs those 700 on Regent, and Regent has double square footage of open area per person vs Celebrity - just an observation, not forcing anyone to travel on a luxury cruise.

But, if you think $1000 a day is acceptable for Celebrity, why would you not sail Regent given that absolutely everything including business class airfare is included? We've had some Interline rates for less than $300 a day on Regent and it is fabulous!

[wineoclock]

Tut tut Celebrity - still showing this on website

 

 

[Orator]

9 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

As frustrated and angry as I am at Celebrity right now (and that is a lot), I really don't believe they will take away access to Luminae.   There just literally is not enough space in their other restaurants to accommodate the number of suite guests.  If they were to try to do that, I think there would be an uprising across the board, rather than just suite guests, as other restaurants became packed well beyond capacity.  As to the Retreat Deck and the lounge - I do sincerely fear that is at risk.  Considering that Sky Suites are a large portion of all suites, I personally feel that would be a huge mistake - but then they are not consulting me.

When Celebrity eliminated the MC/Retreat benefit from the Zenith benefits they said it was because Covid. Later Celebrity decided to sell space to upper suite passengers. I suspect that they would monetize in this case as well. Once they decided to change their demographic change was in the air. Some posters tried to warn of the changes. Some posters simply labelled those who warned as "complainers".

[NanaChar]

The price of our ‘24 cruise has more than doubled what we paid.  The prices have soared.  So we compared our ‘25 cruise to Silver Seas.  It came out less and it came with free excursions and a door to door rate.  We have jumped ship.  

[3boyz2keep]

Just did a mock booking of a Sky Suite and Celebrity is still advertising a "Butler" as a room amenity. I'm not going to get myself in a tizzy. We have a Sky Suite booked for February and am certain we're going to have a fabulous time!!