Eliminating Butlers - Spoke to Celebrity. Here is conversation.

[C-Dragons]

3 hours ago, TeeRick said:

Terry now I kind of understand why you are peeved at this change.  You actually use your butler a lot vs. my use of them.  I think perhaps once in a 7 night cruise I might actually call my Butler.  Not 1-2 times a day.  I see my butler when he/she stops by on occasion, perhaps to check our mini-fridge.  Or when they deliver our breakfast after leaving the card on the door.  I actually have very little need for them in reality.   We never have them meet us in the theatre on Chic night- and we don't like the reserved seat area.  Anything related to guest services, reservations, etc. I will go to the Retreat Lounge and use the Concierge there.  Our room steward takes care of us more than our butler including taking an occasional laundry bag.  That is my case.  Frankly I struggle finding what to do with the butler on most cruises.  So most of my needs would be easily met by a dedicated on-demand Retreat Team approach when I really think about it.  So I am willing to try it.

Our main request of the Butlers is for breakfast on the verandah every morning. We're pretty much low maintenance, so the Team approach won’t be a major change for us.

[Kelownadon]

15 minutes ago, C-Dragons said:

Our main request of the Butlers is for breakfast on the verandah every morning. We're pretty much low maintenance, so the Team approach won’t be a major change for us.

 

Edited August 12, 2023 by Kelownadon

[Veinless]

Betting the Sky Suites will all become Aqua Sky Suites, with access to Blu only. Blah. 

[C-Dragons]

32 minutes ago, Kelownadon said:

 

 

Edited August 12, 2023 by C-Dragons

[CHEZMARYLOU]

20 minutes ago, Veinless said:

Betting the Sky Suites will all become Aqua Sky Suites, with access to Blu only. Blah. 

I don't see that happening. Blu is small to begin with and that would leave excess capacity at Luminae, especially on E class ships. Plus overwhelming the spa.

Edited August 12, 2023 by CHEZMARYLOU

[hcat]

3 minutes ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

I don't see that happening. Blu is small to begin with and that would leave excess capacity at Luminae, especially on E class ships. Plus overwhelming the spa.

agree 100%

AQ Class with Blu and Thermal suites are very successful and just fine as is..

Hope  we are not dumped on! 

 

No reason why Sky suite guests can't fit into Luminae for  dining  or the cavernous Retreat Lounge where they can connect with their Retreat Service Team!

[Veinless]

1 hour ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

I don't see that happening. Blu is small to begin with and that would leave excess capacity at Luminae, especially on E class ships. Plus overwhelming the spa.

If those peasants don’t want to feel crowded they can just upgrade to a real suite.

[clojacks]

5 hours ago, terrydtx said:

It doesn't seem to stop you as well!!!! 

Says the guy with almost 9000 posts to the guy with only 1500….

[zitsky]

50 minutes ago, Veinless said:

If those peasants don’t want to feel crowded they can just upgrade to a real suite.

Who are you calling a peasant?

[zitsky]

3 hours ago, C-Dragons said:

Our main request of the Butlers is for breakfast on the verandah every morning. We're pretty much low maintenance, so the Team approach won’t be a major change for us.

That’s our pet peeve.  We want to have room service in our SS on Millie like we did on the Beyond.  They don’t have a good size table.  They have these seats or luggage stands that some people use to hold the tray.  And the balcony table isn’t that big.

 

See what a burden cruising is?  😭

[LMHSRN]

1 hour ago, zitsky said:

That’s our pet peeve.  We want to have room service in our SS on Millie like we did on the Beyond.  They don’t have a good size table.  They have these seats or luggage stands that some people use to hold the tray.  And the balcony table isn’t that big.

 

See what a burden cruising is?  😭

I see your off your meds again.

[lexmiller]

19 hours ago, Veinless said:

Betting the Sky Suites will all become Aqua Sky Suites, with access to Blu only. Blah. 

Definitely not going to happen I'm sure, as there simply wouldn't be enough passengers left to populate Luminae and there would be too many in Blu!  Yes, cuts are being made, but there are limits - no changes to the Luminae/Blu access will be made as infrastructure wise, it makes absolutely no sense.  

[TeeRick]

It seems to me anyway that some sort of blended plan might work for suites.  When you board (or before), you choose a Team Butler approach or an Individual Dedicated Butler approach (who has a number of suites as before).  All suites must choose, not just Sky Suites.  I think from reading the comments here, quite a few would choose the Team approach since they use the Butler service for mainly routine things.  But if you want an individual because you use them a lot then that could be accommodated.

[bnurick]

The core issue isn’t how much you use the butler service, it’s the quality of the service and meeting your needs, low or high. The team approach makes it more likely requests fall through the cracks IMO.

 

The morning your breakfast is wrong or is completely forgotten comments being made will change… That is what @terrydtx is essentially saying.

 

We have one SS and four CS booked, so we will monitor all this before booking additional X cruises.

[NutsAboutGolf]

My WAG (Wild A$$ Guess) is, if they start with a team of 25 butlers for the team, every year they’ll cut 3 of them

[OysterD]

On 8/11/2023 at 7:14 PM, terrydtx said:

On our 5 post Covid cruises in a Sky Suite, not once when we called our butler did he not answer the phone and we called him at least once or twice a day.  We had such excellent service from all 5 and I DO NOT want to lose that level of service. 

And this is why they're changing to a team service approach, whenever you cruise your butler was too busy with your multiple requests a day to get to any of the other cabins he was supposed to be servicing hahaha

[bEwAbG]

I actually do think the team approach will work better because it can be an inconsistent service currently, especially if you have a butler whose services are being monopolized by one or two cabins.  However, I do think they need to give people the option to cancel their reservations and walk away as it is no longer what was advertised.  This is a major part of booking a suite and to push a substitute service on existing customers is being penny wise but pound foolish.  Tourism is starting to soften and X is pricing themselves out of a lot of the market; now they are taking away the differentiators and making the product less attractive.

[Funky Fusion FoodsJ]

17 hours ago, OysterD said:

And this is why they're changing to a team service approach, whenever you cruise your butler was too busy with your multiple requests a day to get to any of the other cabins he was supposed to be servicing hahaha

You say that in jest but I really think there is some validity to your observation.

[sanger727]

On 8/12/2023 at 10:29 AM, LMHSRN said:

I think you need to adjust your medications.  

 Wow, your right. You aren't rude at all 🙄

[LMHSRN]

1 hour ago, sanger727 said:

 Wow, your right. You aren't rude at all 🙄

Your correct, i'm not!

 

[sixpackeddie]

Just boarded the Reflection today. In an upper suite. Speaking with our butler regarding the change in sky suites to a team vs individual butler has reduced the butlers on the edge class from 16 to 4 and on the solstice clears from 12 to 3. In my opinion the decision made was purely to reduce operational costs. How it will affect sky suite guests will be remain to be seen. 

[zitsky]

3 minutes ago, sixpackeddie said:

Just boarded the Reflection today. In an upper suite. Speaking with our butler regarding the change in sky suites to a team vs individual butler has reduced the butlers on the edge class from 16 to 4 and on the solstice clears from 12 to 3. In my opinion the decision made was purely to reduce operational costs. How it will affect sky suite guests will be remain to be seen. 

So if you give feedback you’ll be told you don’t care about the butlers who are left.  That’s a crazy # of positions to eliminate.  It’s not going to improve service.

[Susanb10567]

8 minutes ago, sixpackeddie said:

Just boarded the Reflection today. In an upper suite. Speaking with our butler regarding the change in sky suites to a team vs individual butler has reduced the butlers on the edge class from 16 to 4 and on the solstice clears from 12 to 3. In my opinion the decision made was purely to reduce operational costs. How it will affect sky suite guests will be remain to be seen. 

Wow that’s a huge decrease…obviously just another cost cutting measure…we booked a sky suite for my husband’s big birthday for Jan 2024 when it was just released…probably close to two years out by the times we sail…a little disappointed with how they are handling it…we have only sailed sky suites and have used butlers in different amounts..but we did an anniversary cruise on the Edge last September and our butler was wonderful in providing us surprises as well as my birthday cruise this past February..

 

I don’t like how you booked a suite being sold certain benefits and they just took them away without even notifying guests…that is terrible customer service..

 

The January cruise is our last in a sky suite…the prices have become outrageous…we have booked some Aqua going forward..I’ll see if we like it..

 

I thought Celebrity would be our go to line going forward…but I don’t think that is going to happen..

 

We just returned from a Danube river cruise on Tauck and it was incredible..After 30 ocean cruises I was hesitant to book that but it was spectacular..I can’t wait to book another one as well as some Tauck land tours…

[terrydtx]

 

19 minutes ago, sixpackeddie said:

Just boarded the Reflection today. In an upper suite. Speaking with our butler regarding the change in sky suites to a team vs individual butler has reduced the butlers on the edge class from 16 to 4 and on the solstice clears from 12 to 3. In my opinion the decision made was purely to reduce operational costs. How it will affect sky suite guests will be remain to be seen. 

 

14 minutes ago, zitsky said:

So if you give feedback you’ll be told you don’t care about the butlers who are left.  That’s a crazy # of positions to eliminate.  It’s not going to improve service.

4 to do the work of 16 previous butlers hardly sounds like a team and contradicts what Celebrity is telling us. I was told by Celebrity we would have a team of 8 to 10 butlers working all the Sky Suites on E Class ships. We board the Apex a month from today and I am not expecting the same level of service we had on previous Retreat cruises.

[Lena11033]

4 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

 

 

4 to do the work of 16 previous butlers hardly sounds like a team and contradicts what Celebrity is telling us. I was told by Celebrity we would have a team of 8 to 10 butlers working all the Sky Suites on E Class ships. We board the Apex a month from today and I am not expecting the same level of service we had on previous Retreat cruises.

 

Ah the good old 'lean method' less people more work. If 16 people struggled managing all the suites I can hardly see how 4 are going to.