Eliminating Butlers - Spoke to Celebrity. Here is conversation.

[shirazcruiser]

We experienced on numerous buffet lunches, that we couldn't find a normal dinner size plate and only the medium size. I told DH that it was X's way of controlling the amount of food you take.

[jelayne]

4 minutes ago, abbydancer said:

We boarded the Apex yesterday, and so far, it's good.

 

The head butler came in and introduced himself as we were dropping our bags off.  I mentioned that I wanted the minibar emptied, because I wanted to put bottled water (not Evian, I don't like it, coke and ginger ale in it.  He said he'd have the room guy make sure we had water, and a couple hours later, he delivered two cans of coke and two of ginger ale.

 

Turns out all that was in the refrig was a can of coke, but that was gone and there were 3 bottles of water in the room.  Two more bottles were added this morning.

 

Today, we had some issues attaching our Roku ie we couldn't get our remote to work, so I called him.  While I was still trying to explain it, he was at the door and told us how to use the supplied remote.

 

I have not yet tried any food delivery.

 

And a friend had the pigs feet thing and thought it was delicious.  I think I'm going to get a little tired of onion soup and NY steak by the end.  I'm thinking maybe for future cruises we'll sometimes go to dinner elsewhere, and use Luminae for breakfast and lunch.

 

 

I was able to get a small filet last month when there was nothing appealing on the menu. Since I can’t eat fish or seafood very often it was the filet.

[jelayne]

1 minute ago, shirazcruiser said:

We experienced on numerous buffet lunches, that we couldn't find a normal dinner size plate and only the medium size. I told DH that it was X's way of controlling the amount of food you take.

That’s strange, the large plates were plentiful on the Edge last month, although they don’t seem to be at the salad, pizza or dessert stations.

[NMTraveller]

9 minutes ago, batsabode said:

Totally agree cant stand the buffet on any ship.  when will people realize they can go back multiple times and not have to pile everything on one plate.

That is why Celebrity should have servers like HAL.  It is a more elevated experience.

[shirazcruiser]

1 minute ago, jelayne said:

That’s strange, the large plates were plentiful on the Edge last month, although they don’t seem to be at the salad, pizza or dessert stations.

The medium plates were at all of the main food stations....not a large plate to be found.  There were small ones at desserts. 

[Cap_D]

Did anyone read of any reports from Australia when LHB and team were on Edge?  I haven't seen any detailed reports.  In any event, LHB is less than impressive except in her ability to ignore the reality of what she is operating and the issues she is causing.  The irony is LLP is over on Instagram hawking a book on leadership, using ones time to the fullest, and other leadership principles often with imagery from when she was CEO.  The messages are open to interpretation, but its almost as if there is a bit of trolling going on.  Although both are presumably only interested in the bottom line even if they took different paths to get there.

 

Most on here have heard this or experienced this already, but since there's some new commenters:

 

The Retreat was designed to include butlers as glue; without the butler service the Retreat experience is veering into being useless except for a larger room and a source of frustration.   In practice, the butler may sometimes be underused or make mistakes (we didn't get a breakfast order one day and it entirely messed up the excursion, and took a lot self-help to resolve (e.g., after the order arrived, having to go to Luminae to get utensils, condiments).  But, in the Celebrity system, especially because the alternative is 1:1 waiting in line or using a wired phone, the butler was an essential part of leveling the experience with the service that any comparably priced (or less as is often the case) resort, hotel, boutique hotel experience would deliver on as a baseline and most likely to be a source of "wow," which now just leaves the Luminae team for most suite guests, along with a cast of crew that is spread more widely.  Post cutbacks, its been established that the point of contact is the housekeeping staff, which is ridiculous.  While important, the person cleaning (including the toilet) should not be the person responsible for morning coffee service or any food handling, let alone anything else.  They also don't have any "authority" or "gravitas" to get anything done internally on the ship.  Even a desk clerk at a hotel has more "power" than a Celebrity housekeeper.  (I'm using housekeeper because that is the function of the room attendant, host, etc. regardless of fancy title).  

 

Many of the services a butler can or would handle don't require a butler on land, but because the way shipboard operations work a butler can made the difference.  For example, on Celebrity the Butler would be the primary point of repeat contact and have some ability to follow-up on anything and everything, integral to overall QC for the room, room service, room service QC (ensuring right items for each order, right amount of utensils, etc.), pre-packaged drinks / minibar, troubleshooting seamstress, laundry, etc., answering basic questions without waiting in a line with 20 or more other people and then getting solicited by hawkers offering insoles, restaurant packages, cork screws, liasoning with overworked other crewmembers, departments, etc, some who don't have phones / computer / Ipad that are used by crew to communicate, etc.  

Edited December 17, 2023 by Cap_D

[tfred]

13 minutes ago, shirazcruiser said:

We experienced on numerous buffet lunches, that we couldn't find a normal dinner size plate and only the medium size. I told DH that it was X's way of controlling the amount of food you take.

True - along with every buffet in the world that does this

[shirazcruiser]

I forgot to note, that after cancellilng all of our cruises but one which we changed from Egypty/Israel in 2024 to 2025 is that we really want to take that itinerary....and that X gave us some FCC for the ship vibrations.  Otherwise...we're done. When we changed the sailing with with the new Retreat booking policy, we lost our grats and OBC (even the OBC we got for booking onboard). 

Edited December 17, 2023 by shirazcruiser

[tfred]

Looking at a 2019 X brochure, the term X uses is "Personal Butler available 24/7". Without wordsmithing it that would mean (to me) that a butler will be available to take care of you personally 

 

they don't say dedicated, sole use, etc.  What the service may have assumed to be is "my personal butler" but that isn't indicated in their language. 

 

That said, X should do a better job with the team concept if that is their method.  My thought that room centric requests should handled by the butler team.  Any other requests (specialty dining, excursions etc) are handled by the Retreat concierge. 

[tfred]

1 hour ago, shirazcruiser said:

We sailed on the Reflection on a B2B in Sept/Oct and were disappointed that we weren't going to have our dedicated butler; however, we were actually pleased that our team ended up being very responsive to everything. Every time we called room service asking that our breakfast be delivered earlier than previously requested, our Head Butler graciously responded quickly to have our breakfast delivered. The butler team was the least of our worries.  We were in SS 2161 (totaly mid ship) and it vibrated for 19 days straight and the officer who verified the vibrations made so many ridiculous excuses. Also, we and other guests found the new Luminae menu unappealing (Pigs Feet Carpacio for an app). After emailing the Executive Office, they informed me that after many complaints regarding the new menu, they would be going back to the "classic menu". Luminae had been one of the main reasons we sail on X, but we have cancelled all of our future cruises except for 1 and that's iffy. Removing the OBC and grats is a big cut.  

I think that going back to the Classic Menu means plain chicken, beef or salmon listed on the menu   Also means the suggestion that the kids menu is available for super selective eaters 

 

It doesnt mean the demise of interesting starters or main courses.  

 

Overall the price of a suite is going up and they aren't including anything that the average land based resort guest would be looking for .  Why would X give away money to new cruisers when they aren't even expecting it. Grats and OBC are very rare in a land based resort. If anything land resorts have "resort fees" that can be roughly the same price at grass on X.  

[weregoingcruising]

2 hours ago, terrydtx said:

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.

After your next Celebrity cruise will you continue posting on this forum?

[terrydtx]

5 minutes ago, weregoingcruising said:

After your next Celebrity cruise will you continue posting on this forum?

I may post about our experiences on the cruises and then I do not know. I believe people who book in the future need to know what to expect and not just what some of the Celebrity Cheerleaders post here. I will add there seems to be fewer and fewer Cheerleaders in this forum. I have found some of the older Cheerleaders now posting on the Oceania forum as they jumped ship. We booked an Oceania cruise of South America in 2025 after Celebrity pulled out of the market to do more shorter Caribbean cruises. Posting there is like a homecoming to Celebrity. 

Edited December 17, 2023 by terrydtx

[CruiseRQA]

1 hour ago, zitsky said:

It’s great that you don’t care about a butler.  I don’t use the buffet.  I guess Celebrity should remove that too?

The buffet serves a purpose that 90% of passengers use at some point during a cruise.   A butler?   Purpose still baffles me and used by maybe 10% of the passengers.   If X figured out that resources directed at having a butler could be more efficiently used elsewhere, well, they made the right choice.   

[weregoingcruising]

3 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

I may post about our experiences on the cruises and then I do not know. I believe people who book in the future need to know what to expect and not just what some of the Celebrity Cheerleaders post here.

How will you post current information if your not on a Celebrity ship?

[chemmo]

1 hour ago, batsabode said:

Totally agree cant stand the buffet on any ship.  when will people realize they can go back multiple times and not have to pile everything on one plate.

That is the buffet entertainment…

[terrydtx]

3 minutes ago, CruiseRQA said:

The buffet serves a purpose that 90% of passengers use at some point during a cruise.   A butler?   Purpose still baffles me and used by maybe 10% of the passengers.   If X figured out that resources directed at having a butler could be more efficiently used elsewhere, well, they made the right choice.   

Let me guess you have never booked or cruised in a suite on Celebrity. The point of this whole thread has been that many like us booked a cruise expecting to get a service (Butler) that we no longer get but paid dearly for. Do you believe the resources used to staff and supply Luminae and the Retreat lounges, which are also used by 10% of the passengers, could be better utilized elsewhere?

[chemmo]

6 minutes ago, weregoingcruising said:

How will you post current information if your not on a Celebrity ship?

Comparative experience of new experience against previous Celebrity experiences definitely valued by myself. 

[terrydtx]

3 minutes ago, chemmo said:

That is the buffet entertainment…

I prefer Jimmy Buffett entertainment. LOL And he is one Buffett I miss

Edited December 17, 2023 by terrydtx

[NMTraveller]

1 hour ago, zitsky said:

It’s great that you don’t care about a butler.  I don’t use the buffet.  I guess Celebrity should remove that too?

They should.  That would be an improvement.  

[RichYak]

17 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

I will add there seems to be fewer and fewer Cheerleaders in this forum.

Ironically, the very next post...

 

13 minutes ago, CruiseRQA said:

The buffet serves a purpose that 90% of passengers use at some point during a cruise.   A butler?   Purpose still baffles me and used by maybe 10% of the passengers.   If X figured out that resources directed at having a butler could be more efficiently used elsewhere, well, they made the right choice.   

 

[RichYak]

23 minutes ago, weregoingcruising said:

After your next Celebrity cruise will you continue posting on this forum?

Anyone can post in this forum. Are you suggesting otherwise?

[drakes2]

23 minutes ago, chemmo said:

That is the buffet entertainment…

I hate buffets with a passion. Food is so tasteless

[batsabode]

3 hours ago, zitsky said:

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

Sky suite 

 

[dlh015]

47 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

The point of this whole thread has been that many like us booked a cruise expecting to get a service (Butler) that we no longer get but paid dearly for.

Thank you. I was waiting until I finished all the new posts before posting precisely what you said. 

[ChucktownSteve]

1 hour ago, chemmo said:

That is the buffet entertainment…

As they waddle back to their table?