Eliminating Butlers - Spoke to Celebrity. Here is conversation.

[Lastdance]

I do not need a butler to be happy, just so you know that; however, the team approach might by like vaping in the casino...a way to see how much anger and resentment will be on the meter that tracks this in real time.

 

(I graduated from Throw it and See what Sticks, junior college - same school as some of the new hires.)

Edited August 23, 2023 by Lastdance

[Kelownadon]

5 hours ago, zitsky said:

 

They are probably a graduate of Loyola.

Just joking but they probably don’t teach English grammar at DePaul.

[zitsky]

1 hour ago, Kelownadon said:

Just joking but they probably don’t teach English grammar at DePaul.

Do I have to explain the use of “they” as it has been used for several centuries when referring to someone whose gender you do not know?

 

https://www.npr.org/2016/01/13/462906419/everyone-uses-singular-they-whether-they-realize-it-or-not

 

They is also preferred by some people in the transgender community.

 

 

[hcat]

pls keep this thread on track

[zitsky]

27 minutes ago, hcat said:

pls keep this thread on track

So what do you think about the butler changes?  Do you travel in a suite?  Do you think there will be other changes to service for suites such as a reduction in benefits?

[chrisn-au]

I reckon the Butler thing will settle down. It is not a huge thing for me and if they do a sensible implementation of team it will not change my thinking of booking in the future (my opinion only and I get the frustration of those that use a butler and feel that this has been taken away ) however if it is true the cookie thing (and I don't eat cookies) might be the reason I don't book Celebrity (and my bank balance). If all inclusive is not all inclusive then I will actively look elsewhere 

[hcat]

1 hour ago, zitsky said:

So what do you think about the butler changes?  Do you travel in a suite?  Do you think there will be other changes to service for suites such as a reduction in benefits?

We have been cruising on X since Century and Mercury..Been on most of the ships since then. Mostly in AQ class..since it started    We enjoy the Thermal suites and I love the spa   We have been in an SV and Inf V.. We like  the E class ships ..but are not " suite people"

 

our first and only suite was recently on Beyond in a Sky Suite..used up fccs from multiple cancellations.  We found our Butler to be a pest, did not care for Luminae, found Retreat a wasted space and the  outdoor area  very crowded with a small pool. Best on port days.

 

Glad we tried  a suite but Happily going back to AQ   We will miss the larger cabin, early boarding and disembark which AQ guests used to  enjoy

 

I think those who booked with a Butler in their fare should have that  service restored.  We expect the entire Celeb experience will continue to be degraded!  We will enjoy Ascent, then APEX..but have no plans with X after that!  Glad we had so many great cruises on X..but those days are truly over.

[zitsky]

8 hours ago, hcat said:

We have been cruising on X since Century and Mercury..Been on most of the ships since then. Mostly in AQ class..since it started    We enjoy the Thermal suites and I love the spa   We have been in an SV and Inf V.. We like  the E class ships ..but are not " suite people"

 

our first and only suite was recently on Beyond in a Sky Suite..used up fccs from multiple cancellations.  We found our Butler to be a pest, did not care for Luminae, found Retreat a wasted space and the  outdoor area  very crowded with a small pool. Best on port days.

 

Glad we tried  a suite but Happily going back to AQ   We will miss the larger cabin, early boarding and disembark which AQ guests used to  enjoy

 

I think those who booked with a Butler in their fare should have that  service restored.  We expect the entire Celeb experience will continue to be degraded!  We will enjoy Ascent, then APEX..but have no plans with X after that!  Glad we had so many great cruises on X..but those days are truly over.

Do you think there will be any changes to Aqua class?

[ChucktownSteve]

20 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Do you think there will be any changes to Aqua class?

XX is on a roll. Why stop the momentum now?

[hcat]

29 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Do you think there will be any changes to Aqua class?

Hope not..other than I believe BLU should be exclusive to AQ class cruisers.

 

. Suite guests were allowed to dine in BLU,  subject to availability before Luminae was created..I always felt that once that happened, BLU should have reverted back to AQ only  Venue is small and gets overcrowded/ overwhelmed at certain times.

 

Solution would be to improve Luminae menu and/or offer rotating  "BEST of BLU" in Luminae!

[scottie920]

9 hours ago, hcat said:

I think those who booked with a Butler in their fare should have that  service restored. 

I think you have hit the nail on the head. Celebrity should honour the service offered at the time of booking, otherwise offer some sort of financial compensation or cancellation without penalties. 
As far as I can see from this thread, Sky Suite guests have paid for a service that is not now being provided. 

[terrydtx]

9 minutes ago, scottie920 said:

I think you have hit the nail on the head. Celebrity should honour the service offered at the time of booking, otherwise offer some sort of financial compensation or cancellation without penalties. 
As far as I can see from this thread, Sky Suite guests have paid for a service that is not now being provided. 

I brought that point up in my phone conversation with Celebrity and their response was, in their view the service was not taken away and no compensation will be offered. I told the person, I did not believe them and that after my 3 upcoming Retreat cruises I was done with Celebrity. Her response was that was my choice, they do not care if they lose any current customers as they know we can all be replaced.

[scottie920]

9 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

I brought that point up in my phone conversation with Celebrity and their response was, in their view the service was not taken away and no compensation will be offered. I told the person, I did not believe them and that after my 3 upcoming Retreat cruises I was done with Celebrity. Her response was that was my choice, they do not care if they lose any current customers as they know we can all be replaced.

I don’t know how Celebrity can take this attitude. I assume a lot of Sky Suite and Aqua Sky Suite passengers booked some time ago when the list of services included the statement ‘Butler’. I think for new bookings it now states ‘Retreat Butler’ so IMO there is clearly a reduction in service, dedicated butler to one shared by a number of suites. 
 

It is early days of the changes so hoping those who experience this ‘new’ Sky Suite service will post how it has affected their experience.

[mahdnc]

10 hours ago, hcat said:

......We like  the E class ships ..but are not " suite people"

 

our first and only suite was recently on Beyond in a Sky Suite..used up fccs from multiple cancellations.  We found our Butler to be a pest, did not care for Luminae, found Retreat a wasted space and the  outdoor area  very crowded with a small pool. Best on port days.

 

You will be wealthier for it!

[terrydtx]

3 minutes ago, scottie920 said:

I don’t know how Celebrity can take this attitude. I assume a lot of Sky Suite and Aqua Sky Suite passengers booked some time ago when the list of services included the statement ‘Butler’. I think for new bookings it now states ‘Retreat Butler’ so IMO there is clearly a reduction in service, dedicated butler to one shared by a number of suites. 
 

It is early days of the changes so hoping those who experience this ‘new’ Sky Suite service will post how it has affected their experience.

We booked our 3 upcoming cruises in early 2022. The same thinking was used in January when Celebrity went from free room service for all cabin categories to charging for RM for all but the suite guests. No compensation or grandfathering for those who booked when the RS was free and included in their cruise fare. On our last cruise on the Reflection last year our SS butler had 15 suites and he was the only butler we saw for our cabin. Now with the reduction and changes they have about one butler for every 30-40 Sky Suites, this to me is a reduction in service

[hcat]

4 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

You will be wealthier for it!

AQ can be pricey..but nothing like Retreat.. we jump between SV with the 4 mdrs( prefer Tuscan and Cyprus),   and AQ class (we do not mind the Inf  Balc)

 

money "saved" goes to excursions, spa, specialty dining etc

[LMHSRN]

5 hours ago, terrydtx said:

I brought that point up in my phone conversation with Celebrity and their response was, in their view the service was not taken away and no compensation will be offered. I told the person, I did not believe them and that after my 3 upcoming Retreat cruises I was done with Celebrity. Her response was that was my choice, they do not care if they lose any current customers as they know we can all be replaced.

Well, apparently she knows you.

[weregoingcruising]

12 minutes ago, LMHSRN said:

Well, apparently she knows you.

So true

[Cap_D]

As long as the vloggers, travel agent suck ups and Instagram people continue to promote Celebrity is something amazing and infallible, the truth of how they're treating their customers as fungible will be drowned out.  The content that's been produced over the last year and a half is essentially deceptive at this point, but will live on for a while. 

Edited August 24, 2023 by Cap_D

[LMHSRN]

5 hours ago, terrydtx said:

We booked our 3 upcoming cruises in early 2022. The same thinking was used in January when Celebrity went from free room service for all cabin categories to charging for RM for all but the suite guests. No compensation or grandfathering for those who booked when the RS was free and included in their cruise fare. On our last cruise on the Reflection last year our SS butler had 15 suites and he was the only butler we saw for our cabin. Now with the reduction and changes they have about one butler for every 30-40 Sky Suites, this to me is a reduction in service

Since you utilized your butler 3-4 times a day, that put a load on the butler cutting down on service to others.  Guess your service and everyone else's will now be almost non-existent

[C4HCG]

16 minutes ago, Cap_D said:

As long as the vloggers, travel agent suck ups and Instagram people continue to promote Celebrity is something amazing and infallible, the truth of how they're treating their customers as fungible will be drowned out.  The content that's been produced over the last year and a half is essentially deceptive at this point, but will live on for a while. 

Deleted as I promised myself to stop posting on this topic 

Edited August 24, 2023 by C4HCG

[batsabode]

On 8/24/2023 at 9:59 AM, terrydtx said:

We booked our 3 upcoming cruises in early 2022. The same thinking was used in January when Celebrity went from free room service for all cabin categories to charging for RM for all but the suite guests. No compensation or grandfathering for those who booked when the RS was free and included in their cruise fare. On our last cruise on the Reflection last year our SS butler had 15 suites and he was the only butler we saw for our cabin. Now with the reduction and changes they have about one butler for every 30-40 Sky Suites, this to me is a reduction in service

We were just on a cruise November and were told we had no butler. We ask why this wasn't conveyed to us prior to getting on and they said we should have been. We tried using our cabin Stewart the first day to get coffee every morning at 7am and that was a disaster taking 45 minutes longer to arrive along with several phone calls and being told it hadn't been registered to arrive yet they called to ask what time did we want 7 am or 7.30 that was at 7.15. Anyway it went downhill from there, we were told that there is a head butler called John who we never ever saw ,never introduced himself to us no card in the room and the dedicated "Team" was confusing to say the least who did what that your butler used to do. No central point of contact, as to food delivery, laundering, coffee, mending of buttons reservations etc etc. The new CEO had already sent out a note saying they were trying to get more "Family friendly" I spoke to her assistant and she said the cleo was furious, not that she denied the premise, and our New Orleans cruise was changed from 12 days to 8 days with three weeks to decide but we wouldn't know what the price difference would be for over three weeks so had no choice to cancel it. In the end we told the head concierge at the retreat all of this and about three days later we both got a $500 future cruise credit each. We are due to go on another jan 2024 which we booked way back in March and are going to ask first thing to clarify this team approach and to be honest I will be expecting another future cruise credit for both os us as a butler is what we expected and had paid for in our initial booking. Sorry to go on so long but that is our story. If they change access to lumina next then we are done with Celebrity I am sick of being treated as a second class suite customer when we paid for an elevated experience 

 

[zitsky]

4 minutes ago, batsabode said:

We were just on a cruise November and were told we had no butler. We ask why this wasn't conveyed to us prior to getting on and they said we should have been. We tried using our cabin Stewart the first day to get coffee every morning at 7am and that was a disaster taking 45 minutes longer to arrive along with several phone calls and being told it hadn't been registered to arrive yet they called to ask what time did we want 7 am or 7.30 that was at 7.15. Anyway it went downhill from there, we were told that there is a head butler called John who we never ever saw ,never introduced himself to us no card in the room and the dedicated "Team" was confusing to say the least who did what that your butler used to do. No central point of contact, as to food delivery, laundering, coffee, mending of buttons reservations etc etc. The new CEO had already sent out a note saying they were trying to get more "Family friendly" I spoke to her assistant and she said the cleo was furious, not that she denied the premise, and our New Orleans cruise was changed from 12 days to 8 days with three weeks to decide but we wouldn't know what the price difference would be for over three weeks so had no choice to cancel it. In the end we told the head concierge at the retreat all of this and about three days later we both got a $500 future cruise credit each. We are due to go on another jan 2024 which we booked way back in March and are going to ask first thing to clarify this team approach and to be honest I will be expecting another future cruise credit for both os us as a butler is what we expected and had paid for in our initial booking. Sorry to go on so long but that is our story. If they change access to lumina next then we are done with Celebrity I am sick of being treated as a second class suite customer when we paid for an elevated experience 

 

What category of suite were you in?  That is relevant.  Sky Suite?

[hcat]

just  curious

When will the SS  bookings with  BUTLER included in price but  no longer provided...peter out?   By then it will be a different world..maybe  SS prices will drop accordingly??? Or maybe they won't???

[terrydtx]

28 minutes ago, batsabode said:

We were just on a cruise November and were told we had no butler. We ask why this wasn't conveyed to us prior to getting on and they said we should have been. We tried using our cabin Stewart the first day to get coffee every morning at 7am and that was a disaster taking 45 minutes longer to arrive along with several phone calls and being told it hadn't been registered to arrive yet they called to ask what time did we want 7 am or 7.30 that was at 7.15. Anyway it went downhill from there, we were told that there is a head butler called John who we never ever saw ,never introduced himself to us no card in the room and the dedicated "Team" was confusing to say the least who did what that your butler used to do. No central point of contact, as to food delivery, laundering, coffee, mending of buttons reservations etc etc. The new CEO had already sent out a note saying they were trying to get more "Family friendly" I spoke to her assistant and she said the cleo was furious, not that she denied the premise, and our New Orleans cruise was changed from 12 days to 8 days with three weeks to decide but we wouldn't know what the price difference would be for over three weeks so had no choice to cancel it. In the end we told the head concierge at the retreat all of this and about three days later we both got a $500 future cruise credit each. We are due to go on another jan 2024 which we booked way back in March and are going to ask first thing to clarify this team approach and to be honest I will be expecting another future cruise credit for both os us as a butler is what we expected and had paid for in our initial booking. Sorry to go on so long but that is our story. If they change access to lumina next then we are done with Celebrity I am sick of being treated as a second class suite customer when we paid for an elevated experience 

 

After our cruises next month on the Edge is a SS we are done with Celebrity too. I wrote emails to the CEO about the lack of butlers and how the Team is a joke. All we got was a phone call from an underling and NO OFFER of any compensation. Celebrity has cheapened their product while at the same time raised pricing as high as 40% more. My post cruise survey was all 1 and 2 ratings on butler service, room service and again no response. If we hadn't already paid for our airfare for Australia, we would have canceled and booked with another cruise line. Our air to Australia was over $9K so we have no choice but to go.

Edited December 17, 2023 by terrydtx