Is your Sky Suite butler back? Please report

[Whinenowine]

1 hour ago, RichYak said:

I’m pretty sure I can de-bunc (sic) the notion that you might have been the one responsible. 

Ah...'nuff said!  Thanks @RichYak and @dlh015.  I didn't think I said anything untoward...though these days one never can tell!  😁

[abbydancer2003]

7 hours ago, billc23 said:

Solstice, b4b, Hong Kong to Vancouver. 

Would you be able to ask your butler (or head butler if in a Sky) if there's a date for dedicated butlers to be back?  Thanks much

[Lastdance]

 

 

🤗. Looking forward to hearing all the butler stuff!  Am I allowed to say this?  Well, I just did!

Edited March 18 by Lastdance

[billc23]

1 hour ago, abbydancer2003 said:

Would you be able to ask your butler (or head butler if in a Sky) if there's a date for dedicated butlers to be back?  Thanks much

See my post #78. No change from then.

[abbydancer2003]

4 minutes ago, billc23 said:

See my post #78. No change from then.

What you described is the head butler model, not the back to dedicated butler model. What I was asking is if your head butler has an idea of when the Solstice will get dedicated butlers back.  We're in a sky suite from Sydney to Vancouver, and my head butler on Beyond said S class ships will have dedicated butlers in late April.  So that was my question.

 

I'm sorry if I wasn't clear.

[Dolebludger]

I’d like to remind all about the fact that if room stewards were given additional duties, and fewer suites, we wouldn’t need butlers. We are going on a Regent cruise later this week.,we will not have a butler. But our steward will stock our bar and fridge with the soda, mixers, beer and wine we want.,We can also designate what spirits we want.,they will be delivered and replenished if we need. All included. And there will be no “grocery store” wines at extra charge + 20% tip. And the price of this cruise is not more than a comparable one in an SS on X. After all the backlash against eliminating butlers in SS, I am surprised a the delay in correction. It should have been immediate. And the prices for SS should have been lowered. Some may ask, why don’t I chose a different cruise line.,I have. But five years ago I cruised in a RS for less than Regent, and it was close to as good — with a Margery suite. Can’t do that anymore.

[RichYak]

16 minutes ago, Dolebludger said:

 

I’d like to remind all about the fact that if room stewards were given additional duties, and fewer suites, we wouldn’t need butlers.

 

I disagree. On Celebrity, the stewards work for housekeeping. It’s not possible for them to assume duties of butlers without completely restructuring departments. 

[billc23]

57 minutes ago, billc23 said:

See my post #78. No change from then.

When I arrived on the Solstice the head butler greeted me because he had been our butler on many sailings. I asked about the return of butlers for SS and he told me that this is the first Solstice sailing that the dedicated butlers are back for the sky suites. He also said they do not have full butler staffing yet for the sky suites so room service may be needed to help out on busy mornings. Now, there are 44 SS with only 2 butlers dedicated to those and the head butler will be helping out too.

 

I have not asked any passengers about their butler service but I have observed that the Michael club staff is not being burdened with requests and never heard anyone complain about the lack of a butler when chatting in the retreat areas. I think this is different than the team model that has upset passengers but I am in an upper suite with a butler so I have no first hand experience.  The official line from the Retreat manager is that butlers are back for the SS on the Solstice. I do wonder if the full complement of butlers are back on any of the ships at this time and if they will increase the numbers in the future. 

[sixpackeddie]

We were booked in a sky suite on the Apex last week and before we won our move up to a penthouse I sent a email to the ship directly to the retreat desk asking if dedicated butlers were back on the apex but did not receive a reply.

When we boarded the ship and were escorted by one of the retreat concierge staff they mentioned they received my email and really wanted to respond but were instructed not to by upper management. Clearly not wanting to be transparent about the timeline when butlers will be back.

[abbydancer2003]

1 minute ago, billc23 said:

When I arrived on the Solstice the head butler greeted me because he had been our butler on many sailings. I asked about the return of butlers for SS and he told me that this is the first Solstice sailing that the dedicated butlers are back for the sky suites. He also said they do not have full butler staffing yet for the sky suites so room service may be needed to help out on busy mornings. Now, there are 44 SS with only 2 butlers dedicated to those and the head butler will be helping out too.

 

I have not asked any passengers about their butler service but I have observed that the Michael club staff is not being burdened with requests and never heard anyone complain about the lack of a butler when chatting in the retreat areas. I think this is different than the team model that has upset passengers but I am in an upper suite with a butler so I have no first hand experience.  The official line from the Retreat manager is that butlers are back for the SS on the Solstice. I do wonder if the full complement of butlers are back on any of the ships at this time and if they will increase the numbers in the future. 

interesting.  That to me, still sounds like head butler, and if they're saying it's back to dedicated, that's kind of misleading.  

[Boxerlover2]

On 3/13/2024 at 6:12 PM, Boxerlover2 said:

I can confirm butlers are back for Sky Suites on Edge as of today’s 13 March sailing. Our butler, Albert, came to introduce himself. He is taking care of 26 suites across multiple decks. 

I just want to follow up on my previous comment and mention that our butler also sometimes works at the Retreat serving drinks to help out during busy times. 

Edited March 19 by Boxerlover2

[jamscckmc]

We get on the Edge Sunday in a SS. Although I’m glad the butlers are back, with 26 suites to take care of I will try not ask for much!

[jelayne]

11 hours ago, abbydancer2003 said:

interesting.  That to me, still sounds like head butler, and if they're saying it's back to dedicated, that's kind of misleading.  

I tend to agree.  Unless I’m mistaken I don’t recall there being a Head Butler before the removal of butlers for Sky Suites.  There was a Retreat Manager, Retreat Concierge’s and Butlers.  Most Butlers were handling  12 -13 suites not 20+.

 

[Baynanno1]

19 hours ago, sixpackeddie said:

We were booked in a sky suite on the Apex last week and before we won our move up to a penthouse I sent a email to the ship directly to the retreat desk asking if dedicated butlers were back on the apex but did not receive a reply.

When we boarded the ship and were escorted by one of the retreat concierge staff they mentioned they received my email and really wanted to respond but were instructed not to by upper management. Clearly not wanting to be transparent about the timeline when butlers will be back.

 

I wonder whether the instruction from upper management was just for queries regarding return of butlers, or for any email enquiry?

 

December 2022 we received an email from the Shoreside Concierge several weeks prior to our cruise and exchanged a few more emails prior to the cruise.

 

I had not received an email prior to our cruise in October 2023, so I used the same email address successfully to contact the Shoreside Concierge.

 

We board again next week and I have attempted to contact the Shoreside Concierge using the same email address  theretreat@Celebrity.com  followed up several days later with  SolsticeRetreat@celebrity.com  which was included in a post by an experienced cruiser.

 

I have not had any response from either address.

[sixpackeddie]

I actually used this email address directly to the retreat concierge on the ship.

ax_retreatconcierge@celebrity.com

[abbydancer2003]

25 minutes ago, Baynanno1 said:

 

I wonder whether the instruction from upper management was just for queries regarding return of butlers, or for any email enquiry?

 

December 2022 we received an email from the Shoreside Concierge several weeks prior to our cruise and exchanged a few more emails prior to the cruise.

 

I had not received an email prior to our cruise in October 2023, so I used the same email address successfully to contact the Shoreside Concierge.

 

We board again next week and I have attempted to contact the Shoreside Concierge using the same email address  theretreat@Celebrity.com  followed up several days later with  SolsticeRetreat@celebrity.com  which was included in a post by an experienced cruiser.

 

I have not had any response from either address.

A week after I got my move up accepted, I emailed SolsticeRetreat and asked if I'd get a call.  No response.  About a week ago, I got a long emial from them asking for information.  I returned it with what they requested, and asked a couple of questions.  No response.  I also emailed a question over the weekend and no response on that either.

[RichYak]

20 hours ago, abbydancer2003 said:

interesting.  That to me, still sounds like head butler, and if they're saying it's back to dedicated, that's kind of misleading.  

I agree. This butler’s native language seems to be corporate-speak. 

[MMMCruiser]

22 hours ago, sixpackeddie said:

We were booked in a sky suite on the Apex last week and before we won our move up to a penthouse I sent a email to the ship directly to the retreat desk asking if dedicated butlers were back on the apex but did not receive a reply.

When we boarded the ship and were escorted by one of the retreat concierge staff they mentioned they received my email and really wanted to respond but were instructed not to by upper management. Clearly not wanting to be transparent about the timeline when butlers will be back.

They just keep digging a deeper hole with this stuff.  I am booked in an Aqua Sky Suite for my first ever Celebrity cruise and so far they are failing to impress me.  I did get a call a while back and was told the Apex would have butlers back "by June" but is that a full team or an understaffed one?  I have no loyalty to this cruise line, but was hoping that X would be our new cruise home.  It's not looking good right now.  You'd think they wouldn't want to make long time customers and new customers look elsewhere.

 

[billc23]

22 hours ago, abbydancer2003 said:

interesting.  That to me, still sounds like head butler, and if they're saying it's back to dedicated, that's kind of misleading.  

I guess it depends how you look at the situation. SS have a dedicated butler in addition to a cabin steward beginning with the current Solstice sailing. The current head butler will transition back into the butler pool and I am not sure when this will happen - probably on his next contract. The SS butlers do have more rooms than in the past but each SS is assigned a particular person as their butler. From reading the posts in this thread it seems that this is the case on other ships also - dedicated butlers back for SS but they have more rooms. 

 

I have not heard any complaints about lack of service or dissatisfaction but I have not specifically asked. The retreat concierges do not have people lined up with questions/requests like I saw after the change to a Retreat team approach. It seems that the current system is working to some extent though it may not be the same as the past.

 

As far as I can ascertain, the butlers are back for the SS on the Solstice the same as they are back on the other ships listed as having butlers back. If the question is: Have the butlers returned to the SS as they were in the past? No they have not. If the question is: Is the return of butlers to the SS at the current staffing level satisfactory to the SS guests? Time will tell and Celebrity is monitoring the feedback.

[Baynanno1]

3 hours ago, sixpackeddie said:

I actually used this email address directly to the retreat concierge on the ship.

ax_retreatconcierge@celebrity.com

 

Your previous post indicates that you did not get a response.

[abbydancer2003]

11 minutes ago, billc23 said:

I guess it depends how you look at the situation. SS have a dedicated butler in addition to a cabin steward beginning with the current Solstice sailing. The current head butler will transition back into the butler pool and I am not sure when this will happen - probably on his next contract. The SS butlers do have more rooms than in the past but each SS is assigned a particular person as their butler. From reading the posts in this thread it seems that this is the case on other ships also - dedicated butlers back for SS but they have more rooms. 

 

 

 

As far as I can ascertain, the butlers are back for the SS on the Solstice the same as they are back on the other ships listed as having butlers back. If the question is: Have the butlers returned to the SS as they were in the past? No they have not. If the question is: Is the return of butlers to the SS at the current staffing level satisfactory to the SS guests? Time will tell and Celebrity is monitoring the feedback.

But that was the head butler model.  We had a "dedicated" head butler on our 3 cruises since the change, and he was not the head butler for all sky suites.  He was assigned to us, and did a lot of things.  The head butler did the minibar swaps (when I asked a room steward about putting some coke and gingerale in he called the head butler) but not the laundry or the food/drink delivery - that was handled by a dedicated room service team.   There were maybe 2-3 head butlers on each ship, and each had a set of rooms. 

 

I think maybe we're arguing semantics here.  

 

And we actually felt very well taken care of with the head butler model, but I know it wasn't consistent across the fleet.

 

Edited March 20 by abbydancer2003

[sixpackeddie]

7 minutes ago, Baynanno1 said:

 

Your previous post indicates that you did not get a response.

Correct. I sent a email to the ship when we had a skysuite booked and was asking the retreat concierge on the ship if butlers were back. They did not respond even though they did receive my email as directed by upper management.

When we were on the Apex last week I can confirm dedicated butlers are not back for sky suites.

Edited March 20 by sixpackeddie

[RichYak]

1 hour ago, abbydancer2003 said:

I think maybe we're arguing semantics here.

One butler per 20+ cabins is not semantics. That is the Retreat team concept. 

[billc23]

1 hour ago, RichYak said:

One butler per 20+ cabins is not semantics. That is the Retreat team concept. 

Then there are not butlers back in SS on any Celebrity ship. 

[CruisingTheWaves]

On 3/17/2024 at 10:56 AM, abbydancer2003 said:

 

Ok, I'm confused.  I was also told on the Beyond that the Apex was getting their butlers at the end February.

 

All I can say is that I had the name of a specific butler to call, she was definitely NOT a stateroom attendant, made herself extremely visible (I saw her almost every time I left my stateroom) and was willing to help with anything I asked for. 3 people were retreat concierges for my sailing.