Suite Guests - How to you utilize your Butler?

[eryde]

Hi All,

 

My wife and I have been cruising with Celebrity for many years exclusively in Aqua Class; this time it will be in a Sky Suite.  We were just wondering how other suite travelers utilize your Butlers.  We know what the brochures say but are looking for real world examples of how "you" get the best value from butler service.

 

Thanks,

Eric

 

 

 

[pl281]

We've stayed in a Sky Suite twice now... and we have a 5 1/2 year old now so some of this was tailored to that

 

1) Emptied Fridge of everything except Iced Tea / Milk - we specifically asked for that

2) For afternoon fruit - customized to what we wanted so there wasn't waste

3) Wanted TV out of Hotel Mode so we could would iPad on TV

4) They can help with dining reservations / shore excursions

 

I believe they can help with unpacking / packing but we are fine doing that on our own.

 

[Lastdance]

Actually, we do not utilize our butler very often, but it is nice if a minor issue presents itself.  Others use their butlers quite a bit, and just about anything that they can do, they will do for you.  Ours wanted so much to escort us to the theater, but we like to go on our own schedule.  However, on our upcoming cruise, we may just take advantage of that feature.  It is very nice to be able to call and contact them with a question.  Our wants are just very small when cruising.  

 

I just remembered this...our very first butler must have been new, as he could not get the simplist request done, even after trying 3 times...it had to do with laundry!  However, we did not care because we were upgrades from a C2 to an S1 aft for a total of $300.  Even our room attendants could not get our bed made on several ocassions!  

Edited March 6, 2019 by Lastdance

[chemmo]

Communication is the key to utilising your butler.

 

Let him know what you want (breakfast, afternoon snacks, a shrimp platter to enjoy late at night, a sail away party....) and he will sort it.

 

Some suite guests really don’t want butler service and butler’s do respect that. Also some guests seem to expect butler’s to magically know what they want and then complain at the end of cruise that their butler has not done anything for them!

 

As Luvcrusn posts above there is the odd not good butler, we had one on our very first Celebrity cruise. However, on the whole we have found them very good (provide everything you request quickly and efficiently) or outstanding (they do lots of little things that enhance your whole cruise experience). The key to making the most of having a butler is to let them know what you want from your cruise.

 

 

[Jim_Iain]

We don't use ours extensively.   Usually just deliver Breakfast daily, laundry and confirmation of invitations.  If we aren't in the mood for afternoon tea in Michael's club ask for a small plate of sandwiches in the afternoon.

[groryjm]

For our 25th my  SiL connived with our butler to decorate our room with balloons etc when we were ashore in Italy 😎 

....And then he arrived pre dinner with a huge tray of shrimp, amazing canapes and a couple of bottles of Perrier Jouët 🍾

 

[mfs2k]

Now I want a butler. Lol 

 

i imagine people end up tipping them well at the end of a cruise. That’s probably how they get paid. 

[PTC DAWG]

He could bring me a drink, or an occasional meal, other than that...not much...

[Husky61]

On our last cruise we were in a Royal Suite and the butler was extraordinary. He made dining reservations, theater reserved seating, drinks, daily snacks, laundry, just about anything we wanted including fresh cut limes for our drinks.  He was great!

[Bill_R]

This will be our third time in a Royal suite. Our first time was with an upgrade call the day before our cruise. Now my wife and I have caught the bug. While I don’t consider us “ Butler people” I truly recommend if you get the opportunity to do it once. Ours butlers would bring us breakfast in the morning, escort us down to the gangway on tender ports days and get us off the ship, and make dinner reservation for us. On a previous post someone talk about the Butler magic and getting dinner reservations for the time we want when restaurants were supposedly full. They truly are amazing. They seem to know your whereabouts and know when you need something or don’t. I probably too underutilize them and read these post to see if I’m missing something. But they truly are amazing and usually make our cruises even more memorable. 

[CruisersTimesThree]

We are on the Silhouette in the PH right now and are frustrating our Butler because we don’t like to be fussed over.  He served us breakfast on the balcony on Monday morning and beyond that we really haven’t asked for much. He has been leaving plates of cheese, fruit and shrimp cocktail each afternoon and some sweets at night. I did have him make a dinner reservation for us in Tuscan Grill next week. He keeps telling us he is there for anything we need, but we don’t need much.

i think he was so happy this afternoon when I gave him a teeshirt my husband stained with pizza grease and asked if he could see if laundry service could get it out. Even though we don’t utilize him all that much, he will receive a generous tip at the end of our cruise.

Edited March 7, 2019 by CruisersTimesThree

[watchdiva]

We soend alot of time in our suite.  We enjoy breakfast daily on our balcony, treats in the afternoon brought by the butler and several dinner “picnics” in our suite also.  A real favorite is to enjoy evening chic dinner inour jammies watching a movie!  We make sure our butler knows our preferences in terms of snacks, etc. and we show our appreciation for his efforts at the end of the cruise. 

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, mfs2k said:

Now I want a butler. Lol 

 

i imagine people end up tipping them well at the end of a cruise. That’s probably how they get paid. 

We just spent 21 days on the Reflection and had a great butler whose name was Walter. Prior to this cruise we had never had a butler, so we really didn't know what to expect. Simply put if you need anything or have any questions about anything, ask your butler. His or her sole job is to make sure you have a wonderful experience on your cruise! At least that was the impression we got as he definitely was a pleasant addition to our suite experience!

 

We also wanted to find out how much, if anything, the butler got with regards to the GoBest prepaid gratuities, so we went and asked Customer Service. They told us the butler gets $4 a day while the steward gets a little more than that and the waiters and servers get the rest. They actually gave us a printed form with the breakdown, but all I could remember was the butler got $4 a day. We gave him an additional $100 at the end of our cruise as we felt he was well worth it and we can only hope we have one as caring as him on our next X cruise in a Sky Suite.

Edited March 7, 2019 by Ken the cruiser

[mfs2k]

10 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We just spent 21 days on the Reflection and had a great butler whose name was Walter. 

 We gave him an additional $100 at tge end of our cruise as we felt he was well worth it 

 

I think I overtip. I had a butler in my 7 day all inclusive resort at Breathless and tipped him $250. 

[George C]

We really do not use him much, on our cruise last year he gave us some champagne and offered us a second bottle and brought us some snacks . Normally used concierge for dinning room reservations if needed . 

[DiamondSuiteCruiser]

3 hours ago, Husky61 said:

On our last cruise we were in a Royal Suite and the butler was extraordinary. He made dining reservations, theater reserved seating, drinks, daily snacks, laundry, just about anything we wanted including fresh cut limes for our drinks.  He was great!

You are correct in the upper suites we have had excellent service, and had some wonderful Butlers, but on out last CS & S1 it seems like they are overwhelmed or not trained well,  and our service was non existent. No ice the first day, fruit rotted before taking away, he didn’t bring our breakfast, room service did. Our room steward felt bad for us and did more for us than he did, so we tipped him the butlers tip. We had to hunt the Butler down, he was non existent. Terrible service at least in the lower suites on the Summit and the Eclipse. We are maybe spoiled because we’ve always cruised in PH suites in the past before retiring, and now service is definitely nonexistent in the lower suites even Luminae treats you like trash if you are in a CS or sky suite. Just wait it will change when you downsize, at it that was what we noticed on our last two cruises. We shall see what happens on our upcoming Reflection cruise. 

 

Edited March 7, 2019 by DiamondSuiteCruiser

[George C]

24 minutes ago, DiamondSuiteCruiser said:

You are correct in the upper suites we have had excellent service, and had some wonderful Butlers, but on out last CS & S1 it seems like they are overwhelmed or not trained well,  and our service was non existent. No ice the first day, fruit rotted before taking away, he didn’t bring our breakfast, room service did. Our room steward felt bad for us and did more for us than he did, so we tipped him the butlers tip. We had to hunt the Butler down, he was non existent. Terrible service at least in the lower suites on the Summit and the Eclipse. We are maybe spoiled because we’ve always cruised in PH suites in the past before retiring, and now service is definitely nonexistent in the lower suites even Luminae treats you like trash if you are in a CS or sky suite. Just wait it will change when you downsize, at it that was what we noticed on our last two cruises. We shall see what happens on our upcoming Reflection cruise. 

 

Totally disagree our service in luminae was perfect and no issues with ice or anything else in our sky suite last year on summit, will be doing both sky and celebrity suite this month on infinity and doubt we will have any negative issues. 

[CruisersTimesThree]

1 hour ago, DiamondSuiteCruiser said:

You are correct in the upper suites we have had excellent service, and had some wonderful Butlers, but on out last CS & S1 it seems like they are overwhelmed or not trained well,  and our service was non existent. No ice the first day, fruit rotted before taking away, he didn’t bring our breakfast, room service did. Our room steward felt bad for us and did more for us than he did, so we tipped him the butlers tip. We had to hunt the Butler down, he was non existent. Terrible service at least in the lower suites on the Summit and the Eclipse. We are maybe spoiled because we’ve always cruised in PH suites in the past before retiring, and now service is definitely nonexistent in the lower suites even Luminae treats you like trash if you are in a CS or sky suite. Just wait it will change when you downsize, at it that was what we noticed on our last two cruises. We shall see what happens on our upcoming Reflection cruise. 

 

I haven’t seen anyone being treated like “trash” in Luminae! The staff has been friendly and professional to all that have been sitting in my section of the dining room.The Maitre d’ and the hostess have been walking around talking to all the guests at dinner.

[XtaSea]

We did Sky Suites a few times, then moved to Celebrity Suites. Always got excellent service in Luminae and Michael's Club regardless of our suite level and noticed no difference between us and any other guests in those venues. As far as butler service, we had some terrific ones in Sky Suites although we asked for very little...empty the fridge, extra pillows, some bottled water, switch the sparkling wine for a pinot, some specifics on types of cheese for snacks, etc. First time in a CS we had a rather strict butler who entered the suite and demanded we sit while he instructed us on, basically, what he would not do for us. When I laughed and stood up he sternly instructed me to sit down. We had already had our basic requests (empty fridge, extra pillows, etc.) met through our pre-cruise discussion with the Shoreside Concierge, and as I said we really don't utilize a butler, so I told him we really had no need for him and suggested he move on to another suite...immediately. We thought it was pretty funny and throughout the cruise often one of us would tell the other to "sit down!" after which we would break out laughing. Of course, it's a cruise so alcohol was always involved. The butler was pretty much invisible for the week, not that we missed him, but he did appear on the last day. As I approached him in the corridor he flashed a big smile. As I passed by I told him he looked familiar.

[GastroGnome]

Interesting to read Diamondsuite's experience.  We fluctuate between Royals (if DD is with us) and CS.  My mother and Sister, when with us, either have sky or CS.  I do think the upper suites receive slightly different treatment - staff are very definitely aware of who they are.  Not in Luminae - I've never seen that.  But in Michael's they are definitely aware of who you are, and of course the same staff work throughout the ship.

 

What I have seen - both from personal experience and from observation - that sometimes guests expect too much and either do not communicate their wishes or do so in an abrupt manner.  I've always found the best way to get exceptional service is to be nice, polite, understanding if things go wrong and appreciative.

 

Back to bulter's though...  We don't use ours as much as we perhaps might. But definitely for dinner reservations.  I like canapes before dinner.  What I did find totally wonderful when cruising with DM out of Venice - she was unwell (age - not anything catching) and it seemed like the whole butler service knew where she was at any time.  Her butler looked after her so well - not intrusive at all.  But someone always knew where she was on the ship if we wanted to find her and made sure she was OK, could get to where she wanted etc. The whole experience, which could have been quite harrowing, was wonderful. (And DM is still with us and still cruising!)

[crazyman3]

8 hours ago, George C said:

Totally disagree our service in luminae was perfect and no issues with ice or anything else in our sky suite last year on summit, will be doing both sky and celebrity suite this month on infinity and doubt we will have any negative issues. 

 

I'm with you on this! We've always had a CS or a Sig.Suite and have always had wonderful service in Luminae.

[Caribbean Chris]

First one about four years ago was useless. After we arrived at our stateroom, I asked her to find out where the service dog relief station was onboard, since the front desk was clueless. Lots of giggling and comments about how she’d never seen a service dog before. Eventually someone from housekeeping provided the answer.

 

Other butlers since then have been more professional, but we really don’t use their services much at all and rarely see them since Celebrity scaled back the scheduled mid-afternoon tea delivery to all suites and moved it to Michael’s. (Of course, you can still request it.)

 

i’ve found that an experienced room steward and a good concierge in Michael’s (Sylvia was a super-star) are more attuned to actual problem solving.

 

i join those who have had “NOT trash” experiences in Luminae! The staff has always been fantastic to us when traveling in lowly Sky Suites.

 

 

 

[crazyman3]

I injured (minor) my leg on one cruise and the butler was fantastic! Ice... elevation...  etc. Plus DVDs, chocs, added to in-suite dining. 

 

Like many, we do under-use our butler. We would never dream of asking someone to pack/unpack for us. Occasionally we'll ask for a restaurant reservation or request some special food. 

 

My only moan about butlers, is that they don't always pick up that I need a laundry bag with paperwork every day! I explain it to them when we first meet: a bag a day please. 

It still goes wrong! It's my chore, before breakfast, to sort the piles of dirty clothes, complete the paperwork and then wake up my DW with my halo shining. No laundry bag  means no halo and no points. And we all know that points mean prizes e.g. a special vodka or an ice cream.

[emairs]

We are low maintenance and do not use our butlers. We just got off the Edge after two weeks in a sky suite. We told our butler on day one that we would not need her, giving her more time with her other passengers. However, she would not take no for an answer and came to our cabin once or twice/day asking if there was something she could do for us. She was very nice, and have to give her credit for trying, but it was a waste of her time.

 

Re: the poster who commented on Luminae staff treating lower suite guests like trash- In our experience, this could not be farther from the truth, and it is a shocking comment. Luminae service is excellent, and everyone is treated equally. 

 

[Cyber Kat]

This is a great thread!  Thanks to Eryde for starting it!  

 

This is our first Celebrity cruise and first time in a suite. We are in a Sky Suite because I didn’t think we really needed all the extra room of the larger suites. Time will tell! 😁

 

Anyway, this will also be our first time with a butler as well.  We had no idea how to use one. I wouldn’t use one for packing or unpacking because I have my own way of doing that.

 

I like the idea of cheese and shrimp cocktail in the afternoon!  I will have to remember to let him/her know what kind of fruit we like. I hate to see it go to waste. We might like breakfast on our balcony. I always think room service for that. Should we use the butler for that. 

 

Do they bring drinks?   Did I understand that correctly. That would be lovely. I think I will like having them make reservations for dinner. Do you just tell them, We would like dinner in the Tuscan Grill at 7pm?” Is that how it works?

 

 We don’t have a lot of needs, but the little nicities will be appreciated. How do you contact them?  Is there a desk or a special phone number?  

 

We are really newbies at this. 

 

I’m so looking forward to this cruise. It’s a new experience all around. New cruise line, new ship, first time in a suite, and a completely new itinerary - no repeat ports. Also it’s our first time sailing from Fort Lauderdale. And it’s over a year away!  Good thing we have other cruises to while away the time 😍