Northern Europe on Jewel - horrible suite butler

[EileenN]

It seems to me that the Key to this is: Did you address your complaint to the concierge or hotel director on the first day? When rushed on board, did you comment to the butler to slow down? It does little good to complain here if nothing was said on board. Why deny yourself of this service without commenting to the person's supervisor? You paid for it and should have express the disappointment at that time. That would have corrected your problem and most likely you would have been compensated for your inconvenience with a bottle of wine or something. NCL is usually quick to take corrective measures and is generous. Hope you get a chance to enjoy it better another time. We got of the Dawn from an AB today and it was awesome.

[terrymtex01]

In a restaurant, if we have horrible service.. ie. food is a long time getting to us.. etc.. we always leave a tip anyway because sometimes it isn't the servers fault. They should keep in contact with us letting us know it's running late.. keeping our drinks filled, etc.. but we usually always tip.

 

HOWEVER, I'm going to say that on our last cruise even though we tipped the butler, I wish I could have taken it back and split what we did give him between the room stewards and the concierge. I would not have felt the least bit guilt. He was HORRIBLE. I won't go into ALL that he did, but the worst was the very last morning of the cruise at like 6:45AM he called our room and insisted.. I mean INSISTED that he come in our room and make up the table for the next cruise that was boarding later that day because he had to get off the ship early because he was going to be going home. Ok. I understand that he was excited to be going home.. but this was our vacation we had paid for.. we wanted to sleep in our last morning. He barged in seconds after hanging up the phone. Our wonderful room stewards later apologized for him doing that and said they practically tried to tackle him in the hallway to keep him from barging in on us, but they could not stop him. I didn't have time to get our of bed, my DDP barely had time to put on a robe.. It was horrible. I wasn't able to complain to the concierge about that happening because we were never able to see her again (she was busy with priority disembarkation, etc). His name is Leo and he was BEYOND horrible.

[RCDR]

I'm surprised you didn't tell Alex Forbes. And, if you did, I'm even MORE surprised he didn't fix it, and rip the butler a new you-know-what--that's part of the Concierge's job.

 

After 20+ cruises on NCL, and 12 times in the GV, we don't put up with that nonsense. If a butler is good, he'll be VERY happy throughout the cruise, and, especially, at tip time. If he's not so good, we'll be letting the Concierge know in a NY minute. Actually, in all our times in the GV, we've only ONCE had a bad butler, and he was replaced by Karin, who's now a Concierge and was FANTASTIC as a butler. But who's the best butler? I cannot decide! John D'Souza? Kaydek? Roland--plus all the other fine ones.

 

We did hinted the problem to Alex, but he appears reluctant on addressing the problem. As we did not fully understand who is who's superior, plus we were on VACATION and did not really want to CONFRONT the issue we just decided to drop it and put it out of our mind so we can enjoy all the other wonderful aspect of our cruise.......

[RCDR]

Our butlers ask us if we want course by course or all at one time.

 

That is what i thought, our butler should have at least ASKED! We as passengers are not MIND READERS neither, plus if we are not offer what options available, are we suppose to act like spoiled people and ask for the world??? They are the vendor offering service, and should have offered available OPTIONS....

[RCDR]

Our dinner (we had an AC cabin on Jewel Baltics in July) all arrived at once, including the ice cream which was already completely melted when it got to our cabin. I can understand the time constraints, but I did think they could have at least put the ice cream dishes into an outer container with ice like most hotels do.

 

Our concierge was somewhat disorganized. I think he spent most of the day at a desk by Cagney's, and he might have been bored and dozed off from time to time. He mixed up a couple of our dinner reservations and a shore excursion request he was trying to arrange for us. The people in the AB next door said he supposedly made a couple of dinner reservations for them but when they arrived at the restaurants they weren't on the lists. They were pretty unhappy.

 

On the flip side, our cabin stewards were fantastic. They moved out some furniture we didn't need (I think NCL gets a little carried away with the amount of furniture they cram into some of the suites), and we have a couple of great pictures of them laughing as they dragged out the huge and hideous fake flowering tree. Almost every day after that they would stop us in the hall to give us the latest update on the fake tree growing and taking over the storage room they put it in.:D

 

I am not surprised to hear about your ice cream, needless to say ours was 'milk shakes' when we got to it....

However, our concierge Alex and especially his assistant, were both spot on with everything we had requested. If it was not for them, we would have been REALLY disappointed with the suite experience.

[RCDR]

So you stiffed the poor guy because you were expecting something non-existant?....Shameful...

 

You were not the only cabin the butler has, i think you were honestly expecting WAY too much. The only valid thing i would say was the table not being set. The rest was all something even if traveling in a suite i would come to kind of expect on a mainstream line. Not putting it down, but, its NCL, not Seabourn.

 

Did you honestly think he was going to go to the galley for each and every course?.....Thats just a little absurd i think.

 

As i did not want to sound like a complete complainer, there were OTHER things our butler did not fulfill......U must be one of those people that think just because u provide service, u deserved to be compensated, even if its BAD service! Service will not get better if you keep compensating BAD service. We are not complete idiots, we KNOW its not Seabourn.....

[RCDR]

Those pictures are TOO funny! Thanks for posting them. There was a thread going recently that you may want to post these pictures and others from your cruise on.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=835009

 

We haven't been to Europe yet. We were trying to decide between a cruise or a land based tour such as Perillo, maybe for 2010. Did you find you had enough time in each port? It sounds like you had a great time. Would love to see your pictures if you have the time to post them.

 

Thanks again for posting the "tree" pics.

 

Happy Cruising! :)

 

Our cruise was a good introduction to Northern Europe, which is exactly what we expected as neither of us have been to that part of the world. Important to wake up early to watch the ship sail toward Stockholm, we were told by our wonderful shopping lady and it was well worth waking up at 6am....

We took the ship's russia tours, but if we do it again, we would arrange for a local company with fewer people. Not the say the ship's tour was not good, but u know the deal, cattle calls.....

Hope this helps u,

[RCDR]

RCDR, who was your Hotel Director?

 

I believe it was a woman, and had a latin name.....

[RCDR]

So, we should expect sub-par service because the butlers are swamped? Gimme' a break! The OP sounded like she got the royal blow off by her butler and she was right to not tip. If I order a 4 course meal in a suite I paid mucho bucks for and I don't get a tablecloth or I get all my courses at once, you can bet I will be complaining. And if it doesn't change or get resolved, you can bet I am not tipping. If the butlers are too busy, NCL should hire more, not expect guests to put up with whatever they can do because they are swamped. I now will be sure I am specific about how I want the courses to come out, though.

 

Thank you....my thought the same! No service=No pay

[RCDR]

Had the O/S on Star last Feb and enjoyed dinner in our room twice. Both times all courses delivered at once.

 

Honestly, these butlers are swamped. I would have felt bad asking him to deliver it course by course. Several evenings we saw him in one of the specialty restaurants waiting for someone's entree.

 

Adding... our butler was responsible for more than the GVs and the O/S's. He also handled a number of the Penthouse Suites.

 

I guess my frustration was the fact that we were not OFFERED the options. I TOTALLY understand if he is stuck in a specific situation having to service too many suites, but at least offer and work out something with us. We are NOT spoiled unreasonable people.

[RCDR]

It seems to me that the Key to this is: Did you address your complaint to the concierge or hotel director on the first day? When rushed on board, did you comment to the butler to slow down? It does little good to complain here if nothing was said on board. Why deny yourself of this service without commenting to the person's supervisor? You paid for it and should have express the disappointment at that time. That would have corrected your problem and most likely you would have been compensated for your inconvenience with a bottle of wine or something. NCL is usually quick to take corrective measures and is generous. Hope you get a chance to enjoy it better another time. We got of the Dawn from an AB today and it was awesome.

 

My thing was not so much to complain in this forum. I am sharing and seeking what others have experienced! More important, I hope this will help future cruiser be more educated so they can GET all their $$ 's worth. Lets face it, even our AD suite was NOT cheap. Now that we have had this experience and have seen what others are saying, we can be educated cruiser and do accordingly. Who knows, if we hit the lotto, we might be able to afford Seabourn :)

[AFAMILY]

Our cruise was a good introduction to Northern Europe, which is exactly what we expected as neither of us have been to that part of the world. Important to wake up early to watch the ship sail toward Stockholm, we were told by our wonderful shopping lady and it was well worth waking up at 6am....

We took the ship's russia tours, but if we do it again, we would arrange for a local company with fewer people. Not the say the ship's tour was not good, but u know the deal, cattle calls.....

Hope this helps u,

 

Thanks for the posting. I appreciate the advise.

 

To date, we have only taken NCL excursions, just because of the security of knowing if anything goes wrong, such as getting back late, it won't be a problem. I'm sure there are better excursion options available, as you suggested, it's just a matter of research I guess. We DO hate that "cattle call" thing.

 

Happy Cruising! :)

[noreddye]

In a restaurant, if we have horrible service.. ie. food is a long time getting to us.. etc.. we always leave a tip anyway because sometimes it isn't the servers fault. They should keep in contact with us letting us know it's running late.. keeping our drinks filled, etc.. but we usually always tip.

 

HOWEVER, I'm going to say that on our last cruise even though we tipped the butler, I wish I could have taken it back and split what we did give him between the room stewards and the concierge. I would not have felt the least bit guilt. He was HORRIBLE. I won't go into ALL that he did, but the worst was the very last morning of the cruise at like 6:45AM he called our room and insisted.. I mean INSISTED that he come in our room and make up the table for the next cruise that was boarding later that day because he had to get off the ship early because he was going to be going home. Ok. I understand that he was excited to be going home.. but this was our vacation we had paid for.. we wanted to sleep in our last morning. He barged in seconds after hanging up the phone. Our wonderful room stewards later apologized for him doing that and said they practically tried to tackle him in the hallway to keep him from barging in on us, but they could not stop him. I didn't have time to get our of bed, my DDP barely had time to put on a robe.. It was horrible. I wasn't able to complain to the concierge about that happening because we were never able to see her again (she was busy with priority disembarkation, etc). His name is Leo and he was BEYOND horrible.

 

I would have been infuriated if someone burst into my room, let alone call me at 6:45 a.m. Your butler was inconsiderate and down right rude. Sorry you had such poor customer service.

[VoyageVirgin]

I would have been infuriated if someone burst into my room, let alone call me at 6:45 a.m. Your butler was inconsiderate and down right rude. Sorry you had such poor customer service.

 

Just a thought: Maybe he was not happy to be heading home - ie: discharged or contract not renewed? Still not nice for you - nor is it acceptable behaviour.

[RCDR]

Thanks for the posting. I appreciate the advise.

 

To date, we have only taken NCL excursions, just because of the security of knowing if anything goes wrong, such as getting back late, it won't be a problem. I'm sure there are better excursion options available, as you suggested, it's just a matter of research I guess. We DO hate that "cattle call" thing.

 

Happy Cruising! :)

 

Do read more about the tours in Russia on this site, lots of great advise. Just wanted to add, our NCL tours to the Hermitage, and 'Eyes of the Russian' was overall a good experience. We were provided with wireless headsets during the Hermitage tours, and our guide spoke GREAT english. The "eyes' tour guide was a bit difficult to understand. Bus was clean and the lunch on one of them was sufficient, although i would trade that dining time with more time walking around.

I did noticed while riding on the bus from place to place, that u really do not see 'tourist' walking around on the streets. Its really strange, maybe it is true that the government DO heavily regulate tourist activities.....

[noreddye]

Just a thought: Maybe he was not happy to be heading home - ie: discharged or contract not renewed? Still not nice for you - nor is it acceptable behaviour.

 

I agree, you never know what is going on in someone else's life however that does not excuse his poor customer service behavior. I don't think he (or anyone) would be happy to be jarred awake by a phone ringing at 6:45 a.m. on the last day of a vacation. :eek:

[lazydaz]

We had two half day and one evening NCL excursions while in Russia last month. I agree with the previous writer that the various tours are worth checking out and that the guides spoke good English. For us. the evening Russian dance extravaganza was a particular surprise. Being from Canada, I have enjoyed a lot of Ukrainian dancing over the years and thought this would be similar. However, it was Russian Cossack dancing that was presented and with a wide range of colourful costumes, singing, a variety of music and very energetic dancers, we received a great treat. At the point where we thought the show was over, it was just an intermission and souvenir sales tables and free drinks were being offered in the rotunda. I highly recommend the show, but mention that there were no elevators in the theatre so it was awkward for anyone having trouble climbing stairs.

 

Lazydaz

[Kathylovescruises]

We did hinted the problem to Alex, but he appears reluctant on addressing the problem. As we did not fully understand who is who's superior, plus we were on VACATION and did not really want to CONFRONT the issue we just decided to drop it and put it out of our mind so we can enjoy all the other wonderful aspect of our cruise.......

 

 

We had wonderful butler on Jewel, but Alex Forbes was horrible to us. Now all of you Alex fans can slam me again- i can TOTALLY see him not getting involved- he blew us off at every possible moment!( For you in the Forbes Fan Club- you won't change my mind, he did treat us like crap and I won't travel on the Jewel again because of him. 3 families were completely ignored when he was concierge- there was no excuse for the rudeness!! )

Anyway, I would be reallly upset if the butler was a jerk- ours on Jewel and Pearl have done everything for us. There is no excuse for the way you were treated, and Alex is the person to settle the matter. The front desk people are hot and cold on help- our key cards demagnitized one day and the clerk yelled at my DH!! Not what one expects for any amount of money- and a high season CV with 5 occupants runs expensive!

 

Don't let anyone guilt you into feeling bad. You were treated poorly.

 

Better luck next cruise!

 

Kathy

[terrymtex01]

Just a thought: Maybe he was not happy to be heading home - ie: discharged or contract not renewed? Still not nice for you - nor is it acceptable behaviour.

 

Wow.. see.. that is what is great about posting stuff here.. that never entered my mind. It does make me look at it a bit differently.

[indesign]

I work on deadlines for monthly magazines and if I am not going to make deadline I ask for help and that is exactly what should be available for this butler if he is overwhelmed. I've worked in the restaurant business as well and know the term "swamped". If the cruise line is offering this service then there is no such excuse that the butler has other cabins to attend to so wait your turn. It's just ridiculous to suggest otherwise.

[RCDR]

Thanks to you all for your comments, it does make me feel less like i was asking for the world :)

Bottom line, cruise line offer better service and charge accordingly for them, any passenger that had paid for these service should received them.

I have filed a complaint today with NCL, lets see what they say....

Thanks again everyone...lets keep writing so we can all benefit from it!

[terrymtex01]

I work on deadlines for monthly magazines and if I am not going to make deadline I ask for help and that is exactly what should be available for this butler if he is overwhelmed. I've worked in the restaurant business as well and know the term "swamped". If the cruise line is offering this service then there is no such excuse that the butler has other cabins to attend to so wait your turn. It's just ridiculous to suggest otherwise.

 

Not only that, but I think where the cabins are the bulter is assigned should be looked at by NCL. On our last cruise, the one where we had the most HORRIBLE butler, when he escorted us onboard, he took us with like four other cabins of his. The other four were all in the forward section of the ship, our suite was on the very back of the ship, aft. Can you imagine if we had used him very much how exhausted he would be running back and forth all day from forward to aft?