Butler Team Service in SS - Please Post Current Cruisers Comments on your Experience.

[DaKahuna]

59 minutes ago, Whinenowine said:

Just a point of clarification, on our Edge cruise a few weeks ago, the head butler also stopped by and left his card--which was appreciated.  But the number is not his but for the  general 'butler team'--we called several times and a different person answered each time. 

  I guess I am getting more tolerant as I get older but this is fine with me.  As long as I have a means to contact someone to take care of what I called about I do not really care who does it.  We have enjoyed having the same butler to address our wants and will miss the relationship that can build up by working with the same individual over time but even under the old system there were times when we called our butler's number only to have someone who was covering for her/him answer and take care of our request.  

 

 We do not sail until May so I am sure things will smooth out, or even change again, between now and then. 

 

[Whinenowine]

5 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

  I guess I am getting more tolerant as I get older but this is fine with me.  As long as I have a means to contact someone to take care of what I called about I do not really care who does it.  We have enjoyed having the same butler to address our wants and will miss the relationship that can build up by working with the same individual over time but even under the old system there were times when we called our butler's number only to have someone who was covering for her/him answer and take care of our request.  

 

 We do not sail until May so I am sure things will smooth out, or even change again, between now and then. 

 

Yep, I hear you.  All our calls to that number were resolved relatively quickly and successfully.  But as you say we did miss the one-on-one relationship we've developed with past butlers.  Our more difficult queries went to the 3 Retreat Concierges....who were just inundated the entire week.  I didn't see anyone hog their time or behave badly towards them....but by disembarkation, they just looked beaten down and exhausted.

[DaKahuna]

6 minutes ago, Whinenowine said:

Yep, I hear you.  All our calls to that number were resolved relatively quickly and successfully.  But as you say we did miss the one-on-one relationship we've developed with past butlers.  Our more difficult queries went to the 3 Retreat Concierges....who were just inundated the entire week.  I didn't see anyone hog their time or behave badly towards them....but by disembarkation, they just looked beaten down and exhausted.

 

 I have enjoyed our interactions with the various Retreat Concierge's in the past and always liked it when they had the time to stop by and chat with us.  I guess with the new system this will become a thing of the past. On our last cruise we often found ourselves two of the very few people in the Retreat Lounge most of the time.  We used it as a place to go while giving our stateroom attendant time to service our room.  So we would often find ourselves as the only passengers in there with the bartender and the Retreat Concierges. 

[PH2]

We're winding up our first Celebrity cruise (debark on Friday) and are in a SS. Here are my thoughts overall and experience with the Retreat team. 

 

Overall, we've had a fabulous cruise. We are not experienced cruisers and even on land vacations, do not seek out the kind of pampering and service we have gotten on this cruise. At times, it has been almost too much (our running joke is that I now refer to my wife as M'lady).

 

Our "Retreat Host" has been fine in terms of making up the room, but we asked for the fridge to be emptied and ice once a day in the morning, and neither of those happened.. But not a big deal - I cleaned it out myself.

 

We've been given 2 or 4 regular bottles of water each day. At present we have 12 bottles in the fridge. Never asked for anything else to be brought in, but we stopped by Michaels Club, asked for a couple Cokes and they were handed over with no questions. 

 

We didn't meet our head butler until the second day so that's probably why our requests to our Retreat Host went unfulfilled.  One of our biggest gripes is that no one explained anything about what we do/don't get. Even the inconsequential stuff. There was an Effy locket on the desk and given all the other stuff in the room that was extra (drinks and what-not), we couldn't tell if it was a gift or a "you take it, you bought it" situation. It wasn't until day 3 that we found out about the charms they were giving away that went with the locket, which we then figured out was a gift. A few other newbies in line for charms said the same thing to my wife.

 

Service in Luminae and other areas has been excellent. Breakfast room service was not served by our retreat host/butler, but it was actually early by 5-10 minutes both times and hot and correct. Minor gripe - they should serve room service tea out of the same carafes they use in Luminae so the tea does not taste like coffee because the hot water was in a coffee carafe. It was hard to drink. 

 

We've eaten a few times in Oceanview just because of timing and especially at lunch, we're not interested in a full dinner-like meal (steak, fish, full pasta meals, etc.) that take 45-60 minutes. It's been fine for buffet food, no complaints except the same complaint on every cruise - get a fresh omelet, never eat the scrambled eggs. Oceanview has been packed every time we've gone and we've had to search for 2 seats. But every station was open and full. Stir fry was good. 

 

A nice surprise we got (surprise to us, at least) was getting to observe Dawes glacier from the helipad on Monday morning. Fortunately the fog cleared, rain stopped and we got to within a mile of the glacier before doing the 360 viewing. 

 

We've only spoken to the head butler 3 or 4 times. That said, we don't ask for much and don't need much, but part of that is due to not knowing what we get in SS and not being pushy/particular about things. We do have 3 business cards in our room - head butler, retreat host and retreat concierges. Concierges set up our glass blowing class shortly after we embarked. I called the head butler at his request after completing the Canada customs paperwork and he answered and came down to our room within 10 minutes to collect the paperwork. He delivered the invite to the Retreat meet-and-greet with the ship staff and also accompanied a servicer who came to fix our doorbell (we didn't notice a problem but apparently room service did).

 

Entertainment has been fine. I'm not much for showtune-y music but the shows were mostly enjoyable. A weak singer here, a hokey bit there, a God-awful arrangement of Walk This Way, etc., but nothing that made us want to walk out. The aerialists were the highlight. The comedian was "eh" - the magician was better. And frankly, the star of the show has been Milos Radakovich, the naturalist. Smart, funny, informative. Should have filled in for the comedian. We've been to 4 of his talks and his narration during the glacier viewing was terrific as well. 

 

I definitely think part of why Celebrity feels comfortable with both raising prices and cutting back is supply and demand, of course, but mostly a new supply of people like us who come in with little to no expectations of what we are missing (you don't know what you don't know) or what the "good ol' days" used to look like on Celebrity. The few people we've talked to who are new to Celebrity have had great things to say about the service and all aspects of this cruise, which we agree with. The wife wants to come back on a Celebrity cruise, even with the understanding we are likely priced out of the Retreat. So I apologize in advance for propping up the new Celebrity business model because we enjoyed ourselves and will definitely be back at some point. 

 

Sorry this turned out so long! 

[hcat]

excellent review.. glad u enjoyed  your stateroom and the cruise

 

having a good speaker like the naturalist was always a plus on X!

[chemmo]

Thank you for a thoughtful and well balanced review.

[bnurick]

8 hours ago, PH2 said:

We're winding up our first Celebrity cruise (debark on Friday) and are in a SS. Here are my thoughts overall and experience with the Retreat team. 

 

Overall, we've had a fabulous cruise. We are not experienced cruisers and even on land vacations, do not seek out the kind of pampering and service we have gotten on this cruise. At times, it has been almost too much (our running joke is that I now refer to my wife as M'lady).

 

Our "Retreat Host" has been fine in terms of making up the room, but we asked for the fridge to be emptied and ice once a day in the morning, and neither of those happened.. But not a big deal - I cleaned it out myself.

 

We've been given 2 or 4 regular bottles of water each day. At present we have 12 bottles in the fridge. Never asked for anything else to be brought in, but we stopped by Michaels Club, asked for a couple Cokes and they were handed over with no questions. 

 

We didn't meet our head butler until the second day so that's probably why our requests to our Retreat Host went unfulfilled.  One of our biggest gripes is that no one explained anything about what we do/don't get. Even the inconsequential stuff. There was an Effy locket on the desk and given all the other stuff in the room that was extra (drinks and what-not), we couldn't tell if it was a gift or a "you take it, you bought it" situation. It wasn't until day 3 that we found out about the charms they were giving away that went with the locket, which we then figured out was a gift. A few other newbies in line for charms said the same thing to my wife.

 

Service in Luminae and other areas has been excellent. Breakfast room service was not served by our retreat host/butler, but it was actually early by 5-10 minutes both times and hot and correct. Minor gripe - they should serve room service tea out of the same carafes they use in Luminae so the tea does not taste like coffee because the hot water was in a coffee carafe. It was hard to drink. 

 

We've eaten a few times in Oceanview just because of timing and especially at lunch, we're not interested in a full dinner-like meal (steak, fish, full pasta meals, etc.) that take 45-60 minutes. It's been fine for buffet food, no complaints except the same complaint on every cruise - get a fresh omelet, never eat the scrambled eggs. Oceanview has been packed every time we've gone and we've had to search for 2 seats. But every station was open and full. Stir fry was good. 

 

A nice surprise we got (surprise to us, at least) was getting to observe Dawes glacier from the helipad on Monday morning. Fortunately the fog cleared, rain stopped and we got to within a mile of the glacier before doing the 360 viewing. 

 

We've only spoken to the head butler 3 or 4 times. That said, we don't ask for much and don't need much, but part of that is due to not knowing what we get in SS and not being pushy/particular about things. We do have 3 business cards in our room - head butler, retreat host and retreat concierges. Concierges set up our glass blowing class shortly after we embarked. I called the head butler at his request after completing the Canada customs paperwork and he answered and came down to our room within 10 minutes to collect the paperwork. He delivered the invite to the Retreat meet-and-greet with the ship staff and also accompanied a servicer who came to fix our doorbell (we didn't notice a problem but apparently room service did).

 

Entertainment has been fine. I'm not much for showtune-y music but the shows were mostly enjoyable. A weak singer here, a hokey bit there, a God-awful arrangement of Walk This Way, etc., but nothing that made us want to walk out. The aerialists were the highlight. The comedian was "eh" - the magician was better. And frankly, the star of the show has been Milos Radakovich, the naturalist. Smart, funny, informative. Should have filled in for the comedian. We've been to 4 of his talks and his narration during the glacier viewing was terrific as well. 

 

I definitely think part of why Celebrity feels comfortable with both raising prices and cutting back is supply and demand, of course, but mostly a new supply of people like us who come in with little to no expectations of what we are missing (you don't know what you don't know) or what the "good ol' days" used to look like on Celebrity. The few people we've talked to who are new to Celebrity have had great things to say about the service and all aspects of this cruise, which we agree with. The wife wants to come back on a Celebrity cruise, even with the understanding we are likely priced out of the Retreat. So I apologize in advance for propping up the new Celebrity business model because we enjoyed ourselves and will definitely be back at some point. 

 

Sorry this turned out so long! 

 

If you sailed Alaska I think it was the Solstice which is an S-Class ship with few suites. You should actually have received more attention because of the staff to suite passenger ratio.

 

@terrydtx is starting an Edge Class cruise I think this week. His observations will go a long way to getting a feel for what you could expect on future sailings.

 

Thank you for the excellent feedback.

[PH2]

A couple other "hot button" topics I forgot to mention - Solstice still has the old Luminae menu (huevos rancheros and raspberry vacherin were on there), and we didn't observe anyone vaping in the casino, although we didn't spend a ton of time there.

 

Oh, and we've had Bingo twice (today will be the second).

Edited September 14, 2023 by PH2

[billc23]

Great review! Almost 20 years ago I was in a SS and the butler was not telling us any of the services he could/should provide, even though I asked. I had a print out of what was included and he begrudgingly complied. As an example, at that time espresso was an uncharge at the coffee shop in person but free when delivered by the butler. He always delivered it cold and not in a timely fashion. A few years later we were on the infamous Millennium sailing with the broken propeller and had a great butler who provided above and beyond service. The point is to take along the listed benefits to be sure .

[zitsky]

2 hours ago, billc23 said:

Great review! Almost 20 years ago I was in a SS and the butler was not telling us any of the services he could/should provide, even though I asked. I had a print out of what was included and he begrudgingly complied. As an example, at that time espresso was an uncharge at the coffee shop in person but free when delivered by the butler. He always delivered it cold and not in a timely fashion. A few years later we were on the infamous Millennium sailing with the broken propeller and had a great butler who provided above and beyond service. The point is to take along the listed benefits to be sure .

Not the first person commenting on room service coffee in a suite.  For breakfast they would bring a thermos.  But how do they keep a espresso / cappuccino hot?

[billc23]

52 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Not the first person commenting on room service coffee in a suite.  For breakfast they would bring a thermos.  But how do they keep a espresso / cappuccino hot?

They get it from the cafe and bring it directly to the room. That is what I have been experiencing recently but not with my first Butler from 20 years ago. It is as hot as if I got it myself. I almost never request a coffee from the cafe - maybe once every 4 weeks. 20 years ago I did because it was included if delivered but not in person! Makes no sense.

[goofysmom99]

2 hours ago, zitsky said:

Not the first person commenting on room service coffee in a suite.  For breakfast they would bring a thermos.  But how do they keep a espresso / cappuccino hot?

Mine have always arrived hot and once I receive it, I dump it into an insulated mug.  If I have lots of OBC, I'll buy one on the ship or prebuy as a gift.  Otherwise, I take along a Yeti tumbler (it's an eBay knock-off so no stress if I lose it).  

[Suite Susie]

We sail on 23rd and will report back, but will be asking for coffee to be delivered every morning from Al Bacio, Ice twice a day, the mini bar emptied etc.  Not overly hopeful!

[agape01]

I am sailing on the Milie this coming November and I managed to get hold of The Retreat hotline to notify the retreat team to empty out the minibar before I board. Let's see how good this notice will be passed down to the team.

[JDPCruisers]

15 hours ago, agape01 said:

I am sailing on the Milie this coming November and I managed to get hold of The Retreat hotline to notify the retreat team to empty out the minibar before I board. Let's see how good this notice will be passed down to the team.

Will we interested to read if that works for you as I plan to do the same for our December Connie cruise. 

[phoenix_dream]

36 minutes ago, JDPCruisers said:

Will we interested to read if that works for you as I plan to do the same for our December Connie cruise. 

Don't have a lot of suite experience but when I have it, the vast majority of the time none of what I requested was done. But the butler took care of it all when we boarded so no big deal. How a butler team will work who knows 

[jelayne]

3 hours ago, JDPCruisers said:

Will we interested to read if that works for you as I plan to do the same for our December Connie cruise. 

We have found requests made through the Shoreside Concierge to be hit and miss.  More misses than hits, but with things like, emptying mini bar, extra hangers, pillows they have been easily handled by the Cabin Attendant once on the ship.

[Yplr]

Thought I bring this response over from another group. Interesting...

 

Just disembarked the Millennium in Vancouver.  Here is our experience.  We were traveling with another couple.  We got the bid up to a Royal suite.  We had an amazing week, the butler treated us like royalty, the Luminae food and staff were beyond our expectations and the retreat lounge was just the perfect touch.   
The staff for retreat in all areas were absolutely amazing!  Our friends in the sky suite did not have the same experience,   Even though they also loved Luminae and Retreat Lounge their over all experience was not as good.   The head butler was only visible on day one and afterwards only as a name.  He was never to be seen again.   The host delivered one request,  she delivered coffee and filled the ice bucket each day.   They ask her to bring a blanket to the room, that never happened.   Another good example happened this morning.   There was no room regular room service.  I asked our butler if we could still get coffee and he answered absolutely!!   Our friends asked and the host replied “you get it yourself”.    Which was her response to all of their request except the ice and coffee.  So as for a “retreat team” that’s in name sake only so they can advertise a butler.   Makes me sad!  We will probably never cruise Celebrity again.   The cost for sky suites and above going forward are outrageous and the sky suite does not give you a true retreat experience as advertised.  As for us, our week was magical!   ❤️ Happy Sailing!

[mac_tlc]

3 minutes ago, Yplr said:

Thought I bring this response over from another group. Interesting...

 

Just disembarked the Millennium in Vancouver.  Here is our experience.  We were traveling with another couple.  We got the bid up to a Royal suite.  We had an amazing week, the butler treated us like royalty, the Luminae food and staff were beyond our expectations and the retreat lounge was just the perfect touch.   
The staff for retreat in all areas were absolutely amazing!  Our friends in the sky suite did not have the same experience,   Even though they also loved Luminae and Retreat Lounge their over all experience was not as good.   The head butler was only visible on day one and afterwards only as a name.  He was never to be seen again.   The host delivered one request,  she delivered coffee and filled the ice bucket each day.   They ask her to bring a blanket to the room, that never happened.   Another good example happened this morning.   There was no room regular room service.  I asked our butler if we could still get coffee and he answered absolutely!!   Our friends asked and the host replied “you get it yourself”.    Which was her response to all of their request except the ice and coffee.  So as for a “retreat team” that’s in name sake only so they can advertise a butler.   Makes me sad!  We will probably never cruise Celebrity again.   The cost for sky suites and above going forward are outrageous and the sky suite does not give you a true retreat experience as advertised.  As for us, our week was magical!   ❤️ Happy Sailing!

Thank you for reporting on your experience.  I hope you and your friends noted this in the post-cruise surveys.

 

 

mac_tlc

[Cap_D]

6 minutes ago, mac_tlc said:

Thank you for reporting on your experience.  I hope you and your friends noted this in the post-cruise surveys.

 

 

mac_tlc

Ditto.  Anyone reading these reviews when considering Celebrity Retreat would be turned off.  The annoyances are abundant, and the wow moments are in short supply.  

[Midsomer Madness]

1 hour ago, Cap_D said:

Ditto.  Anyone reading these reviews when considering Celebrity Retreat would be turned off.  The annoyances are abundant, and the wow moments are in short supply.  

We were considering Celebrity for our Silver Wedding anniversary, but seeing as they haven’t even told us officially of the recent changes to Sky Suites, despite us having a booking for January and despite the services of a butler being advertised when we booked, we will revert back to Cunard, Celebrity don’t deserve our money! 

[Lastdance]

Oceania’s new program is called “simply MORE.”  You have to pay for everything whether you want it or not!  It looks like Celebrity is charging more for simply less...interesting indeed.

[jagoffee]

5 hours ago, Yplr said:

Thought I bring this response over from another group. Interesting...

 

Just disembarked the Millennium in Vancouver.  Here is our experience.  We were traveling with another couple.  We got the bid up to a Royal suite.  We had an amazing week, the butler treated us like royalty, the Luminae food and staff were beyond our expectations and the retreat lounge was just the perfect touch.   
The staff for retreat in all areas were absolutely amazing!  Our friends in the sky suite did not have the same experience,   Even though they also loved Luminae and Retreat Lounge their over all experience was not as good.   The head butler was only visible on day one and afterwards only as a name.  He was never to be seen again.   The host delivered one request,  she delivered coffee and filled the ice bucket each day.   They ask her to bring a blanket to the room, that never happened.   Another good example happened this morning.   There was no room regular room service.  I asked our butler if we could still get coffee and he answered absolutely!!   Our friends asked and the host replied “you get it yourself”.    Which was her response to all of their request except the ice and coffee.  So as for a “retreat team” that’s in name sake only so they can advertise a butler.   Makes me sad!  We will probably never cruise Celebrity again.   The cost for sky suites and above going forward are outrageous and the sky suite does not give you a true retreat experience as advertised.  As for us, our week was magical!   ❤️ Happy Sailing!

I am surprise about your second hand report. The head  butler should have provided his contact information and the Retreat Concierges should have been available and very helpful. I assume that they had requests and at least talked to them about their disappointment.  

 

I was on the Summit in August and I also asked for an extra blanket.  Although I had one of the dedicated Butlers, the blanket was provided by our cabin steward.  The Retreat hosts were outstanding.

 

Obviously all ships are not providing the same level of service.

 

My wife and I are low maintenance and do not require much from the dedicated Butler or Butler team.  

 

[billc23]

I think that the upper suites were always - officially - treated differently than the other suites and some butlers gave extra services that were not officially designated to the other suites (hate to call them lower suites). Over the 20+ years I have sailed with Celebrity they have really set up a hierarchal system that I am uncomfortable with. I have started to book cruise lines where the treatment is similar for all passengers and I am happier with that system.

[agape01]

14 hours ago, Yplr said:

Thought I bring this response over from another group. Interesting...

 

Just disembarked the Millennium in Vancouver.  Here is our experience.  We were traveling with another couple.  We got the bid up to a Royal suite.  We had an amazing week, the butler treated us like royalty, the Luminae food and staff were beyond our expectations and the retreat lounge was just the perfect touch.   
The staff for retreat in all areas were absolutely amazing!  Our friends in the sky suite did not have the same experience,   Even though they also loved Luminae and Retreat Lounge their over all experience was not as good.   The head butler was only visible on day one and afterwards only as a name.  He was never to be seen again.   The host delivered one request,  she delivered coffee and filled the ice bucket each day.   They ask her to bring a blanket to the room, that never happened.   Another good example happened this morning.   There was no room regular room service.  I asked our butler if we could still get coffee and he answered absolutely!!   Our friends asked and the host replied “you get it yourself”.    Which was her response to all of their request except the ice and coffee.  So as for a “retreat team” that’s in name sake only so they can advertise a butler.   Makes me sad!  We will probably never cruise Celebrity again.   The cost for sky suites and above going forward are outrageous and the sky suite does not give you a true retreat experience as advertised.  As for us, our week was magical!   ❤️ Happy Sailing!

 

I am curiously wondering which sky suite room did your friends stay in?

For me, I would be in one of the rooms on the Penthouse deck.