Star class genie requests

We are losing our star class virginity in a month on the Harmony.

We know that our genie is there to make our vacation the trip of a lifetime.

We were wondering what some of you who have been lucky enough to sail star class have requested from the genie and received? What has the genie been unable to accommodate.

Thanks!

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Congratulations ! It IS a vacation of a lifetime and you're going to love it. We've been in Star Class twice on Harmony. It is ab-fab.

Frankly, I have never asked a Genie for anything that they could not deliver....but then again, our needs are pretty simple.

Both times that we have been in Star Class on Harmony we have hosted the cabin crawl and asked our Genie to assist with the planning. Both times it was flawless. Food was brought from Jamie's Italian both times. 6 meat planks, as I recall. The Genie ordered everything we needed - plates, silverware, napkins, food, of course, I think we had 8 bottles of champagne delivered (which we were charged a very reasonable fee for. I think the champagne cost us $80 or something close to that).

Friends who were cruising with us, also in a Star Class Suite (different Genie though) threw an even larger party and their Genie was awesome ! I never heard of their Genie denying any of their requests - some of which were fairly unreasonable, to be honest.

Congratulations ! It IS a vacation of a lifetime and you're going to love it. We've been in Star Class twice on Harmony. It is ab-fab.

 

Frankly, I have never asked a Genie for anything that they could not deliver....but then again, our needs are pretty simple.

 

Both times that we have been in Star Class on Harmony we have hosted the cabin crawl and asked our Genie to assist with the planning. Both times it was flawless. Food was brought from Jamie's Italian both times. 6 meat planks, as I recall. The Genie ordered everything we needed - plates, silverware, napkins, food, of course, I think we had 8 bottles of champagne delivered (which we were charged a very reasonable fee for. I think the champagne cost us $80 or something close to that).

 

Friends who were cruising with us, also in a Star Class Suite (different Genie though) threw an even larger party and their Genie was awesome ! I never heard of their Genie denying any of their requests - some of which were fairly unreasonable, to be honest.

We on the other hand on Harmony requested some meat platters for our CC cabin crawl for 11:30 am and they could not deliver. Jamie's wasn't open, therefore we were told they could not deliver them. Our steward arranged drinks and the Genie did nothing for in organizing a better cabin crawl.

Needless to say I had a meeting with the head of Guest Services at 12:30 the same day.

We didn't have any over the top requests. We asked for a plate of cookies that my daughter liked, we asked for certain beers and juice, etc to be stocked, and we would call our Genie for room service from CK or Specialty restaurant. Also asked for him to arrange a few tours. I think we were probably on the lighter side of what people request according to our Genie. We didn't know anybody else on the ship, so we really didn't have anyone to arrange a party for or entertain in the suites, or anything like that.

But, I felt that he did a great job of anticipating many of our needs or wants, so it didn't seem like there was a need to really ask for much more additionally. That is the beauty of the Genie.

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We were on Anthem in June and requested that we have beer and soda in the refrigerator. Genie told us that beer is not included.

We were on Anthem in June and requested that we have beer and soda in the refrigerator. Genie told us that beer is not included.

Wow, we had a case of beer in our cabin from our steward's and Genie's organization. Very strange after others have said bottles of wine appeared at no cost. What's even stranger you can get free beer with your drink package, so why not leave a case in your cabin?

In my prior to having kids life we used to sail in other cruise line with a similar kind of service, we don't ask for much but I like to have breakfast set up in my room while I sleep and wake up with the smell of the coffe and the pastries. I tried to have this perk in the suite class at RC and the cabin steward explained that they are not allowed to enter the cabin while the guests sleep. We are sailing in December star class for the first time and I will try this request to see if it happens :D

I never heard of their Genie denying any of their requests - some of which were fairly unreasonable, to be honest.

Come on give some examples...

We on the other hand on Harmony requested some meat platters for our CC cabin crawl for 11:30 am and they could not deliver. Jamie's wasn't open, therefore we were told they could not deliver them. Our steward arranged drinks and the Genie did nothing for in organizing a better cabin crawl.

 

Needless to say I had a meeting with the head of Guest Services at 12:30 the same day.

Wow. This is very surprising to me. When was your cruise ? It it was more recent than Feb 17 then maybe they have curtailed the service for things like the cabin crawl. If that is the case I need to know beforehand as I have another Star Class cruise coming up in Sept. and have planned to have this party again.

What did the folks at GS say ? I have never heard of them denying this kind of service.

Come on give some examples...

Well, let's see. They called their Genie at 2AM to get drinks sent to their suite on the first night. Granted.

They called their Genie at around midnight to have several pizzas delivered to them and their drunk buddies in the casino on the second night. Granted.

After finding out about these outrageous requests I admonished them both and reminded them that the Genies are supposed to return to their bottles at 9PM. They stopped with the ridiculous late-night requests but still ran their Genie ragged all week.

As I mentioned above, there was one very raucous party to which an obscene amount of food was delivered. So much food that they eventually had to start turning the carts around at the door and send them back. I think that party lasted until 5AM and I know for sure that the Genie was in and out, checking on them all night.

Of course, in the end, they made it up to her - each of them tipped her $1000 (and the steward received $500 from each of them) so I'm sure that helped but it was still a very tough week for her. She was a true professional and the very definition of grace under fire. To my knowledge she never denied anything they asked of her - except perhaps for her to join them for a drink one night. I think she politely declined that offer...

Genie told us that beer is not included.

That's definitely not true on Harmony - or at least it wasn't true as of Feb. 17. We had as much beer, soda and water delivered as we wanted. I know that the different ships have different rules but I'm surprised to hear that any ship denied beer as part of Star Class. This is the first time I've heard of them denying beer in the suite.

We were in a 2 bedroom Aquatheater suite on the Allure in March. Our party was my DH, myself and 5 "kids" - ages 21, 20, 19, 18 & 15. Our Genie, Susan, was great. She seemed a litter overwhelmed by all of us at times but was quite helpful. She made sure the Red Bull and Diet Coke was always stocked & that we had ice. There were some charges that showed up on our account that shouldn't have, she got them all removed without a fuss. The seats that were reserved for shows were quite nice, other guests got a little irritated, but she and the other genies were always at the shows holding seats for their guests. She would pick up our laundry and make sure it was back when we needed it.

There was some confusion as to if alcoholic drinks could be delivered as "free", in the end they were. The older 2 girls got around most of this by ordering "4 fingers of Tito's vodka" at the bar in the concierge lounge/Coastal Kitchen area. They would just make their own drinks with the alcohol they brought back to the room.

In St Thomas we chartered a private boat for a snorkeling trip. I booked the charter myself, but Susan walked us off the ship and helped us locate the place to meet our ride. She did not leave us until she knew we were with the right people. She also got contact info for them in case we were not back when expected.

On the first day, she made all our dinner reservations at the specialty restaurants. One request she could not accommodate was a dinner at Izumi. We did end up having lunch there one day. One night she arranged for us to have dinner on our 800 sq ft balcony. Originally we were told we could order from a couple different restaurants, in the end, they only let us to order from one.

Having the Royal Genie spoiled us, it was awesome. Actually, when crew members saw the Black Sea Pass Card, they practically kissed your feet. Occasionally one of the kids would ask for something and the crew member would be in the middle of saying "no", if they held their Sea Pass card out, the reply immediately became, "oh, you have a black card, sorry, what is you wanted?" Even if a crew member noticed you standing in line, they would take you to the front. It was almost embarrassing at times, but downright awesome at others.

We were on the Allure for 7 nights, because of the size of our party and what she did for us, I tipped the Genie $1200 & the room attendant an extra $700 over his standard rate (his pay was included in our fare). Because of the perks of our room & the little bit of OBC I had, our final bill was less than $20 --

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Wow. This is very surprising to me. When was your cruise ? It it was more recent than Feb 17 then maybe they have curtailed the service for things like the cabin crawl. If that is the case I need to know beforehand as I have another Star Class cruise coming up in Sept. and have planned to have this party again.

 

What did the folks at GS say ? I have never heard of them denying this kind of service.

March 11, 2017 was our sailing date on Harmony.

If you read my live review, in my expanded signature, you will see the downfalls that they had with us. After we returned home I emailed Micheal Bailey's three weeks after my post cruise survey. I heard back from his office in 5 hours on a Friday night at 10pm.

They launched an investigation and the person who ran it was actually sailing on Harmony on following Sunday. They also had the head of the Genie training email me to apologize for my experience in March. The individual running the investigation called me from the ship on the Monday along with the new head of GS that was on board. The pier side suite greeter that yelled at us on embarkation day was relocated because of what happened to us. It goes down hill from there. We didn't meet our Genie until we were at our cabin door and we questioned why we were in the locked deck 17 hallway. It started really bad and by the end If was half decent. It was a sh!t show, espically after our earlier Star Class sailing in August 2016.

As it stands we currently have 4 more booked to March of 2019 and I made our disappointed well known. I have been promised a much different experience for this September 30th on Harmony. I will be doing a live review, you might just want to follow along to see how it goes this time. I also have the email of the person from Micheal Bailey's office and the the head of the Genie training. I was told they were going to reach out to me a few weeks orior to my sailing.

We shall see how it goes this time.

March 11, 2017 was our sailing date on Harmony.

 

 

 

If you read my live review, in my expanded signature, you will see the downfalls that they had with us. After we returned home I emailed Micheal Bailey's three weeks after my post cruise survey. I heard back from his office in 5 hours on a Friday night at 10pm.

 

 

 

They launched an investigation and the person who ran it was actually sailing on Harmony on following Sunday. They also had the head of the Genie training email me to apologize for my experience in March. The individual running the investigation called me from the ship on the Monday along with the new head of GS that was on board. The pier side suite greeter that yelled at us on embarkation day was relocated because of what happened to us. It goes down hill from there. We didn't meet our Genie until we were at our cabin door and we questioned why we were in the locked deck 17 hallway. It started really bad and by the end If was half decent. It was a sh!t show, espically after our earlier Star Class sailing in August 2016.

 

 

 

 

 

As it stands we currently have 4 more booked to March of 2019 and I made our disappointed well known. I have been promised a much different experience for this September 30th on Harmony. I will be doing a live review, you might just want to follow along to see how it goes this time. I also have the email of the person from Micheal Bailey's office and the the head of the Genie training. I was told they were going to reach out to me a few weeks orior to my sailing.

 

 

 

 

 

We shall see how it goes this time.

What is the title of your live review? I can't get a link out of your signature on my iPad. I would like to read it. We had problems with the people outside the terminal when we were boarding the Allure on March 12th. Inside the terminal it got better, I'd say the Star class started once we got to our room. I didn't complain to RCCL about it, but I probably should have.

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March 11, 2017 was our sailing date on Harmony.

 

If you read my live review, in my expanded signature, you will see the downfalls that they had with us. After we returned home I emailed Micheal Bailey's three weeks after my post cruise survey. I heard back from his office in 5 hours on a Friday night at 10pm.

 

They launched an investigation and the person who ran it was actually sailing on Harmony on following Sunday. They also had the head of the Genie training email me to apologize for my experience in March. The individual running the investigation called me from the ship on the Monday along with the new head of GS that was on board. The pier side suite greeter that yelled at us on embarkation day was relocated because of what happened to us. It goes down hill from there. We didn't meet our Genie until we were at our cabin door and we questioned why we were in the locked deck 17 hallway. It started really bad and by the end If was half decent. It was a sh!t show, esp after our earlier Star Class sailing in August 2016.

 

 

We shall see how it goes this time.

I found your review...

I had a similar experience the next day, March 12th boarding the Allure. I should have complained on the ship, but I didn't. A happy husband is important too, and if I am complaining, it puts him in a bad mood. So I brushed it off, but as you experienced, the day didn't begin in a STAR fashion. The initial waiting time, standing with the bags for 7 people at the Star Class Flag for what seemed like forever -- long enough for 2 cars to get parked and the 5 other people in our party to join us -- was very irritating. If my husband would have been waiting with me, his head would popped off! Not one person acknowledged us, despite me trying to get someone's attention.

We also couldn't reach our genie, Susan, that morning, but someone did radio her. She explained to us that the genies were having trouble with their phones, they were only working when they had wifi on the ship. They didn't work in the terminal, so if she was in the terminal helping other guests, or whatever, her phone didn't work. That is probably what happened to you too. We also had some trouble communicating with Susan, I was using the Loop system...I thought that was what is was designed for. On the 6th day she explained to me that if I sent a message through the Loop, she didn't get it until she was at her computer. It was better if I called her. I had been avoiding calling her because I didn't want to interrupt her if she was with another guest.

I hope they have corrected the problems. I am anxious to hear how your experience is in August. Actually, it would probably be better to hear from other STAR Class people you sail with. They should be rolling out the red carpet for you this cruise.

This is some of what I posted a few months ago...

Posted March 14th, 2017, 10:39 AM

…The only thing that was really annoying was that there were 7 of us, 5 between 15-21, and we had more luggage than we should. Instead of just handing it off to the porters at the curb, you have to take your luggage through all the porters and crowds to the suite entrance. From there we left it in the corner with some other Star Class luggage and proceeded through security. (1st we were told not to bring it in, I told him the woman told us to (I pointed to the woman that avoided me earlier), it went back and forth again. There was ZERO way I was dragging it back over to the porters, eventually he let us leave it in the corner!?!) Our luggage arrived in our suite about 3 hours later.

Posted March 23rd, 2017, 04:36 PM

I think Port Canaveral has a better set-up. Their luggage & drop off is a lot more organized than at Port Everglades. Unless Port Everglades starts having the porters take the luggage for the star class guests, it won't change. The entrance for the star class is too far from the passenger drop off -- it actually isn't that far, the area is just FULL of people and luggage. You have to go through a maze with your party & luggage while everyone else just drops their luggage at the curb with the porters. RCCL should have dedicated porters at their "Star Class" banner on the curb. The banner is there, but it is surrounded by other guests & vans of people being dropped off who are not Star Class. There should at minimum be a RCCL representative at their banner to tell guests what to do next. I waited at the banner for a good 10 minutes with one of my sons and a ton of luggage while the rest of our party parked the two cars, no one from RCCL said a word to me. I was standing by the banner & made eye contact with one staff woman a couple of times. When I thought the rest of our party would be there soon, I approached her to ask her what we should do with our luggage. When I was about 1 1/2 steps from her, her phone rang. She answered it, turned around and walked about 10 steps from me. I followed her, when she hung up, she didn't turn around. After a few seconds, I went around her so I could see her face and told her we were Star Class, gave her our last name & room number and asked what to do. She just pointed and told me to take our luggage to the suite entrance. She didn't say anything else to me, I did hear her call into her radio that we were on our way to the suite entrance. Port Everglades is chaotic, I would love to see the luggage drop off become more streamlined. -- When you have a family of 7, a porter is really a must to transport the luggage from the car to wherever the cruise line wants it. I shouldn't have to touch it after it leaves my car until it arrives in my suite. If I wanted to drag luggage all over, I would have stayed at a SUPER8, not in an $18k suite. If I would have stayed in a lesser cabin, a porter would have taken the luggage right at the curb. The set up makes no sense. If RCCL wants to pay me a consulting fee, I can fix the problem in less than a week for them. :)

We were on the Anthem this past May for a B2B in a Grand Loft Suite and had a fantastic experience.

Prior to the cruise we mentioned that we like the bumper cars & would like to do the North Star in Bayonne, while @ sea and in port - all those granted. We also requested beer, soda & orange juice replenished which was done. I had mentioned that I liked chocolate covered strawberries & at around 5PM every night a plate of at least 8 were delivered. We also had a standing order every morning for coffee, pastries & fresh squeezed orange juice delivered @ 7am. If me & my sister were off the ship doing an excursion he would have my dad's lunch delivered to the cabin & make sure he had what he needed. We didn't have many requests but what we asked for it was taken care of.

Pat

What is the title of your live review? I can't get a link out of your signature on my iPad. I would like to read it. We had problems with the people outside the terminal when we were boarding the Allure on March 12th. Inside the terminal it got better, I'd say the Star class started once we got to our room. I didn't complain to RCCL about it, but I probably should have.

 

 

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I also addressed the lack of working working phones and they said that the matter had been corrected.

They also informed me that the luggage can go to the suite entrance door and be taken from there. Well at least as of April of this year. If their precruise communication says the same this September that will be exactly what I do. If they say only drop at the flag then that will be what I do. Our luggage did not get to our cabin until 3 for the first bag and 3:30 for our other two. So much for direct to your your cabin luggage delivery.

If we have issues on embarkation day this cruise upcoming I will go directly to see the Guest Services manager, as well as reach out to my contact at the corporate office. They are reaching out to me from corporate, prior to our September sailing, to make sure that things go smoothly for us. I trust things should work how they are advertised. I'm not wanting kid glove handling, I just want what is promised in their literature and for what we pay for.

I'm sorry you had your issues on embarkation day, as I know exactly how that feels and it is not fun.

I also had similar initial luggage issues at PE. I agree with both of you that the initial luggage process for Star Class at PE is completely dysfunctional. We had the same song and dance...take your luggage to the Suites door...no, take your luggage over to the porters with a blue flag...wait...have them look at you like you're from Mars...then wait 3 hours for the luggage to be delivered to your suite.

I also agree that there should be someone "stationed" at the Star Class flag at the drop off area.

We'll see if the process has improved when we go back to Harmony in September.

 

I'm sorry you had your issues on embarkation day, as I know exactly how that feels and it is not fun.

I will be interested to see how they remedy the luggage drop off issue. If a party only has 2-3 people, luggage isn't a big deal, but when you add 3 teenage girls & a boy with 2 flowboards, it starts getting complicated. The people working in & around the terminal need some customer service lessons from Disney. This is my vacation & they should at least pretend to be happy and want to help me. The no eye contact & turning away from me to answer her phone without so much as giving me a wave to let me know she would be with me in a minute, really pissed me off. -- honestly, I don't believe she ever intended to help me until I forced her to. Let me know how things have improved, Imam hoping it is infinitely better. I like the big ships, but as of right now I have 3 cruises booked on Celebrity- a Celebrity Suite, a Reflection Suite & a Royal Suite. If things look like they are getting better with RCCL, I'll go back to the Oasis Class ships. You don't have many choices because I know you want to flowboard -- you better whip them into shape soon! --

--btw, I talked to you some prior to our Allure cruise in March, ironically you gave me Genie info. One of the things I asked was about the Flowrider rental -- ended up my son got it for free. He traded time for lessons, Eli gave lessons to the head instructor & in turn he was able to ride for an hour by himself at no charge. SWEET!

Vickie

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After finding out about these outrageous requests I admonished them both and reminded them that the Genies are supposed to return to their bottles at 9PM. They stopped with the ridiculous late-night requests but still ran their Genie ragged all week.

oh wow.

Our Star Class experience in Oasis is completely different from what I've heard here. From the moment we arrived at the curb at PC, we were treated like royalty. As soon as we found the Star Class sign at the curb, our luggage was taken from us by a porter and we were walked through a dedicated security line with our porter in tow. After security, our luggage disappeared, but our luggage was in our Suite before we even got to the Suite!

We will be sailing from PE this Thanksgiving in another Star Class Suite, I'm expecting the same great experience we had in April.

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Our Star Class experience in Oasis is completely different from what I've heard here. From the moment we arrived at the curb at PC, we were treated like royalty. As soon as we found the Star Class sign at the curb, our luggage was taken from us by a porter and we were walked through a dedicated security line with our porter in tow. After security, our luggage disappeared, but our luggage was in our Suite before we even got to the Suite!

 

We will be sailing from PE this Thanksgiving in another Star Class Suite, I'm expecting the same great experience we had in April.

 

 

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Our August Allure 2016 sailing out of PE was like the one you experienced in PC, except our cabin wasn't ready until closer to 1pm. The guest who was in it left late and was messy but our luggage was waiting in it for us when we entered the cabin. Heck the whole idea of having you luggage in your cabin the moment you are there is so you can unpack immediately, grab your swim suit and hit the wave and pool right away.

I hope you get the same great service for your cruise out of PE but I am holding my breath for our up coming cruise in September. There are two other CC members on my roll call that are Star Class so it will be interesting to compare notes with them from embarkation to Genie communications and wishes granted as the cruise goes on.

I believe there is at least one CC member (Constable145) sailing Star Class out of PE that I can think of in September so I am waiting to hear feed back before we sail. Hopefully embarkation has been streamlined and is working properly for them as well as all of "us".

If there are more of you please chime in as the embarkation and luggage drop/arrival is my biggest beef out of PE. Well, that is after Napoleon at the suite door, but I believe my regretfully valid complaint got him downgraded in position.

Our August Allure 2016 sailing out of PE was like the one you experienced in PC, except our cabin wasn't ready until closer to 1pm. The guest who was in it left late and was messy but our luggage was waiting in it for us when we entered the cabin. Heck the whole idea of having you luggage in your cabin the moment you are there is so you can unpack immediately, grab your swim suit and hit the wave and pool right away.

 

I hope you get the same great service for your cruise out of PE but I am holding my breath for our up coming cruise in September. There are two other CC members on my roll call that are Star Class so it will be interesting to compare notes with them from embarkation to Genie communications and wishes granted as the cruise goes on.

 

I believe there is at least one CC member (Constable145) sailing Star Class out of PE that I can think of in September so I am waiting to hear feed back before we sail. Hopefully embarkation has been streamlined and is working properly for them as well as all of "us".

 

If there are more of you please chime in as the embarkation and luggage drop/arrival is my biggest beef out of PE. Well, that is after Napoleon at the suite door, but I believe my regretfully valid complaint got him downgraded in position.

I hope they have all of these issues worked out by the time you sail on 9/30. We are leaving the next day on the Allure in Star Class and I would hate to encounter these issues like you have in the past at PE.

I hope they have all of these issues worked out by the time you sail on 9/30. We are leaving the next day on the Allure in Star Class and I would hate to encounter these issues like you have in the past at PE.

I will be doing a joint live review for that sailing but if Star Class "issues" arise I will gloss over it. If it is similar to my March experience I will do a separate thread after I return as I don't want it to sour my experience.

If I gloss over issues and you experience similar issues the next day we can/should work together to let RC know about our separate experiences. Then they can address them and hopefully that will improve the experience for everyone.

I will be doing a joint live review for that sailing but if Star Class "issues" arise I will gloss over it. If it is similar to my March experience I will do a separate thread after I return as I don't want it to sour my experience.

 

If I gloss over issues and you experience similar issues the next day we can/should work together to let RC know about our separate experiences. Then they can address them and hopefully that will improve the experience for everyone.

Sounds like a plan to me. Have a great cruise!