abbydancer2003

Mega trip Day 0 We’re off on what I’ve dubbed our first Mega Trip. Today we go to Singapore for a few days and then board the Solstice for 41 days. Singapore to Sydney, Sydney to Honolulu, and Honolulu to Vancouver. I will bel sort of live for the first leg, and I’ll be honest, I’m torn about the second two since @Jim_Iain is boarding in Sydney, and he’s the best at live threads. I want to be him when I grow up, so I don’t know if I should continue. Anyway, we’re currently in the SFO United Club. We are eligible for the Polaris lounge, but they close at 11 and it was 10:40 when we got there. It took a while because we got to security and Glen didn’t have Pre-check so he went back. We had arrived at the airport at about 10:15, and the ANA counter had just opened. Because we were past restaurant times, they did give us a voucher for some in the international terminal, but we’d grabbed a quick dinner before we left, so weren’t hungry. So for this opening a quick overview - we arrive in Singapore on Saturday evening, where we will go to our hotel, the JW Marriott and likely have dinner in the lounge. We then have 3 days, with plans for each evening with Cruise Critic friends. On Wednesday we board the Solstice. We’d booked all three cruises at different times (in reverse order), all sky suites, but changes on each cruise. The first cruise was an Aqua Sky. Suite, because that was booked last and that was all they had. The other two are Sunset Skys. A few months ago, I was able to get the same room for cruise 2 and 3. However, they would not downgrade me to a Sunset without losing perks. I might have tried again if our same room became available, but it didn’t. I wasn’t looking forward to being under the buffet, so for grins, I bid medium bids on both Celebrity Suites and Royal Suites. (I didn’t bother with Penthouse). To my surprise, the Royal came through a month before the cruise. The fun part? Glen still thinks we’re in a sky suite. It’s been a bit tricky, but so far so good. Fortunately, he doesn’t pay much attention to room numbers. So that’s it for now. We have 5+ hours in Haneda, so I’ll let you all know about the flight then.

As far as I know, unless they've changed it, Go Green includes towels and trash in the evening. Just not a full cleaning.

Maybe. The reason they stated to me was that it was too crowded for Covid. Of course that didn't stop them from doing the more crowded Silent Disco. And honestly, the closest I've ever seen to private to announcement was when the group asked me to introduce myself because I ran the roll call spreadsheet. Maybe that was your experience, but it wasn't mine.

Did you get a card, and did it say butler or head butler? We've only had head butlers (all were responsive) and the card stated that.

I don't think it would be mentioned on a captains club webinar, since it has nothing to do with Captains Club, and applies to only a small percent of people on the cruise.

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.

We did a side by side on Royal and Celebrity. There were a lot of differences. But their suite restaurant is open for lunch on port days.

I don't have it. Post 8858 on page 355 is the most recent.

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.

Hmmm, I usually get the PUP emails the second day. Never got it this time. And for that matter, I haven't received a marketing email in about a week. Maybe I'll resubsrcibe. And thanks for the link. I watched the video. Learned almost nothing.

I really enjoyed those - it was great meeting people and I often got to talk to officers. My experience has never been a focus on private tours (I've seen more of those on Princess) and it's great to put faces to names.

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

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.

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

Which cruise are you on? If you want to take this to email: abby at genandabby dot com

I hope someone can report back this week, since I have conflicting information.

If you're elite on Celebrity you should be Diamond on Royal as long as the accounts are linked.

I thought that once you hit Elite on X or Diamond on Royal, you get the other, but there you stay. To move up you have to sail the actual line.

My niece has a leash trained cat. She was feral originally. Sweetest cat ever. My sister's cats hate her.

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

If you're staying on it will be nice to meet you. We join next week in Singapore and are on through Vancouver. Sky suite on the 2nd two, got a move up accepted to a Royal Suite on the first. If you're in a suite, maybe we can share a meal.

Great - that means S class are on the way - we're on the Solstice next month. Maybe .... I can't edit the post, but it will be there next week, I promise!

I think I'm going to, every Saturday, post a list of where dedicated butlers have been reported. Today: Ascent, Apex, Beyond Edge Did I miss any?

While this sucks, and I do think you deserver more than 100.00 each OBC (either more OBC or some specialty dinners), I think the term deceit may be an overstatement. Remember, sometimes the effects of malice are indistinguishable from those of incompetence. Maybe push the retreat concierges for more OBC or specialty? They have some ability to do stuff.

I'm not disputing what you're saying at all. I was just trying to clarify that they do sell guarantees into specific suite categories, not just W "suite guarantees". Although as you say, there are only 2 Penthouses, so why would, if they were both sold, offer a guarantee? As I said, that's beyond me. Just because it makes no sense whatsoever doesn't mean they wouldn't do it.