Eliminating Butlers - Spoke to Celebrity. Here is conversation.

[twins_to_alaska]

I was on the pre-maiden Nov 26 Celebrity Ascent cruise in a sky suite. I met my retreat host Ivan and the head butler Miljan the first day. I wanted a short sleeve robe and a kettle, both of which arrived the first day. Their numbers were on cards in my room. I saw both of them frequently. Miljan let me know if I wanted cookies brought from Eden Cafe (he saw me coming back with a plate of desserts from there) or dinner from Luminae (I was masked outside my cabin and not eating in Luminae... often ate up a deck at the outside Retreat bar area) that I just had to ask. He said that he supervised all the requests/food being delivered. So for example, if I wanted a cheese plate in the afternoon, he said he looked it over before it went out. The 4 Retreat concierges got me a bottle of late harvest dessert wine to keep at the Retreat Lounge bar, fixed an issue with my account on the app, and interfaced with shoreside to fix another issue. I thought all the service was exemplary. No complaints.

[Joker54]

2 hours ago, jelayne said:

I believe the service, or lack of, by the Head Butler is due to the difference in the number of Sky Suites.

 

E class ships 146-162 Sky Suites with 1 head Butler

S Class have 44-84 Sky Suites with 1 Head Butler

M class have 32 Sky Suutes with 1 Head Butler.

 

There is no way 1 HB on a E class ship can provide the same service as a HB on a S or M class. 

We were on b2b in SS on the Equinox last Oct. Never met or heard from the head butler. They had his picture in the Retreat lounge…. I did ask if he was real or if it was just some photo to make us think there was a head butler…..they just ignored that comment.

[zitsky]

If my husband annoys me on our next SS cruise, and I want to embarrass him, all I have to do is go to the lounge and loudly say “where is the head butler?”.

[C4HCG]

3 hours ago, RichYak said:

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

Agree it’s an open forum so free to all and I like that. Just don’t get why people who no longer sail Celebrity would want to. Each to their own I guess.

[batsabode]

6 hours ago, hcat said:

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???

There are people who book well over a year in advance or more so it will be a while I would imagine . Doubt they will drop the price like they supposedly did or will do for not having gratuities included not to mention OBC.

Maybe they will do away with that category and use those cabins for aqua and the aqua for concierge. Who knows I doubt I will be part of celebrity by that time. 

[billc23]

6 hours ago, hcat said:

so  many of them could possibly cancel or downgrade..without losing too much!  If no Butler is a deal breaker

if the Butler is a deal breaker one could also upgrade to a suite with a Butler and hope that don't change too.

[terrydtx]

4 minutes ago, billc23 said:

if the Butler is a deal breaker one could also upgrade to a suite with a Butler and hope that don't change too.

On our Jan 25th cruise we looked at a move up to CS but minimum bid was $1600pp and I didn't want to give any more money to Celebrity than we already have.

[RichYak]

36 minutes ago, C4HCG said:

Agree it’s an open forum so free to all and I like that. Just don’t get why people who no longer sail Celebrity would want to. Each to their own I guess.

It's very possible that I may have sailed Celebrity for the last time, yet here I am. For sure, not nearly as often as I used to, but I am here. Why? Here's a few reasons off the top of my head.

 

• My X experience is recent so still relevant and feel I can occasionally answer a question, which I try to do to give back to a board that's been so helpful to me.
• I like to keep my knowledge current. Maybe there will be a reason to come back to X some day. If there is, this is how I'll find out.
• In the last month, there have been 3 live threads from the Galapagos, which I've enjoyed immensely, reminiscing about my Xpedition cruise there some years ago.
• There are occasionally comparison threads for lines that I plan to sail. I find value in the Celebrity cruisers' perspective on other lines, even more so than from those cruise lines' boards. I'm booked on MSC in March almost entirely due to a side by side thread by @GenerationX some months back.

I hope that by listing some of my own reasons, we can all just let people post here freely without questioning why. 

[sixpackeddie]

4 hours ago, chemmo said:

That is the buffet entertainment…

How many times have you see the “grab”? Never mind the utensils.  
How many times have you seen washroom use and direct exit without washing hands.

This is why I am not a fan of buffet.

[billc23]

16 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

On our Jan 25th cruise we looked at a move up to CS but minimum bid was $1600pp and I didn't want to give any more money to Celebrity than we already have.

Understood. An alternate view would be to ask if the cost per day for a larger room and a Butler are worth it to you - and they may be - but not wanting to give more money to X is certainly valid. I would probably swallow the bitter pill and go for a move up to enhance the experience, and then not sail X for a long while. But that is me who has not been subject to the SS changes.

 

Terry, when you described how you have utilized your Butler on prior cruises, I have actually taken notes because I have certainly under utilized my Butler in the past. 

 

 

[terrydtx]

6 minutes ago, sixpackeddie said:

How many times have you see the “grab”? Never mind the utensils.  
How many times have you seen washroom use and direct exit without washing hands.

This is why I am not a fan of buffet.

I have seen the guy and gal cough into their hands, pass the wash sinks and the hand sanitizer and then proceed to the buffet. That is why we avoid them like the plague.

[billc23]

1 minute ago, terrydtx said:

I have seen the guy and gal cough into their hands, pass the wash sinks and the hand sanitizer and then proceed to the buffet. That is why we avoid them like the plague.

I put on surgical gloves when serving myself at the buffet! 

[terrydtx]

8 minutes ago, billc23 said:

Understood. An alternate view would be to ask if the cost per day for a larger room and a Butler are worth it to you - and they may be - but not wanting to give more money to X is certainly valid. I would probably swallow the bitter pill and go for a move up to enhance the experience, and then not sail X for a long while. But that is me who has not been subject to the SS changes.

 

Terry, when you described how you have utilized your Butler on prior cruises, I have actually taken notes because I have certainly under utilized my Butler in the past. 

 

 

Bill the point here is we booked suites knowing what we would get, a butler, and then Celebrity takes them away. But we paid for a service we didn't get. Can we live without a butler, yes, but again we paid for one. If we had booked our first Sky Suite 4 years ago and it didn't have a butler, it would have been a whole different story because we wouldn't have known what we missed.

 

We booked an 18-day cruise of South America on Oceania in 2025 for less than the booked and then canceled by Celebrity SS on the Equinox. We do not get a butler but we know that upfront so its no big deal. We booked an A1 level Concierge class cabin on Oceania for 18 nights for $200pp less than the booked and canceled Equinox 14 night cruise. 

Edited December 17, 2023 by terrydtx

[sixpackeddie]

34 minutes ago, billc23 said:

if the Butler is a deal breaker one could also upgrade to a suite with a Butler and hope that don't change too.

We did 2 cruises at the end of August in upper suites, our experience was great. The butler was spot on although we didn’t use him much. Had a few bumps but honestly we were so pampered, so many cheese plates. No complaints with upper suite service. Our family loved it, so many great memories. 

[billc23]

1 minute ago, terrydtx said:

Bill the point here is we booked suites knowing what we would get, a butler, and then Celebrity takes them away. But we paid for a service we didn't get. Can we live without a butler, yes, but again we paid for one. If we had booked our first Sky Suite 4 years ago and it didn't have a butler, it would have been a whole different story and we wouldn't have known what we missed.

I do understand your point and I would be just as outraged as you many others are who have booked a SS expecting a certain level of service that is no longer provided. But - however distasteful it may be to pay X more, I would do the move up. Again, just how I look at the situation in view of the total trip cost and how much additional the move up costs. I would rather be upset that I had to pay more to X because of their callous changes in service, than to be upset on a daily basis because of the downgraded experience. Just the way I look at the situation.

[Dolebludger]

I’d just like to give my personal opinion about when butlers are and are not needed for a premium cruise experience. If a ship has an adequate number and quality of room stewards and room service personnel, butlers aren’t really needed. Examples of lines I have experienced that that provide excellent service without butlers in all but the highest suite levels include Silversea and Regent. Those who cruise these lines pretty much agree that butlers are rather redundant, and are not a reason to book a top suite. But on those lines, the stewards perform all the functions of butlers in the Retreat, and are adequate in numbers to do so, and still make up suites, because they have fewer suites to service. They don’t have to become involved with room service functions, because room service is staffed to provide prompt and accurate service. So, on these lines, there is a premium/lux experience without butlers. In contrast, it has been my observation that on Celebrity, room stewards are given only the duties of hotel maids, and have too many rooms assigned to do more. Similarly, room service is not staffed to the numbers required to provide premium service. Thus, when Celebrity sought to offer a lux product in its suite class (Retreat) it added the butlers, and priced the Retreat less than the lux lines I mentioned above. And it provided a very good product for a time. Now, with elimination of butlers in SS and other cuts, along with huge price increases, it is no longer competitive in the lux market. Again, just my opinion.

[billc23]

15 minutes ago, sixpackeddie said:

We did 2 cruises at the end of August in upper suites, our experience was great. The butler was spot on although we didn’t use him much. Had a few bumps but honestly we were so pampered, so many cheese plates. No complaints with upper suite service. Our family loved it, so many great memories. 

The upper suite experience on X has mostly been great. No disagreement there but the pricing has increased so I tried a more lux line and enjoyed it more than X when sailing with my spouse. Oh, I prefer a sashimi platter rather than a cheese plate. 

[terrydtx]

20 minutes ago, billc23 said:

I do understand your point and I would be just as outraged as you many others are who have booked a SS expecting a certain level of service that is no longer provided. But - however distasteful it may be to pay X more, I would do the move up. Again, just how I look at the situation in view of the total trip cost and how much additional the move up costs. I would rather be upset that I had to pay more to X because of their callous changes in service, than to be upset on a daily basis because of the downgraded experience. Just the way I look at the situation.

One other consideration was our first cruise on Jan 13th is almost sold out and there was not much move up availability. We have the same SS for both cruises in a a prime deck 10 location and we did not want to go through changing cabins on the turnaround day. 

[billc23]

8 minutes ago, Dolebludger said:

I’d just like to give my personal opinion about when butlers are and are not needed for a premium cruise experience. If a ship has an adequate number and quality of room stewards and room service personnel, butlers aren’t really needed. Examples of lines I have experienced that that provide excellent service without butlers in all but the highest suite levels include Silversea and Regent.

Silversea provides Butlers to all rooms while Regent does not. The Silversea Butlers that I have had are uniformly better, in the level of service provided, than most I have had on X. I believe they have fewer rooms to take care of on Silversea than the Butlers on Celebrity.

[Joker54]

Sixpackeddie the EV is an amazing suite, which ship were you on? We had an EV on the Apex last April on a TA and the service was as expected.

 

since you posted a pick of the cheese and cracker plate the DW and I felt the need to share a pic of the cheese and cracker plate we got while in an SS on the Equinox this past October. Huge difference and somehow LBH thinks the Retreat Team concept is working well……. At least that is what she told me via email not long ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 17, 2023 by Joker54

[billc23]

5 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

One other consideration was our first cruise on Jan 13th is almost sold out and there was not much move up availability. We have the same SS for both cruises in a a prime deck 10 location and we did not want to go through changing cabins on the turnaround day. 

That a big consideration in my book. I have a B4B coming up on the Solstice and need to switch rooms for each leg. So we go from room A to B, then back to A... then B. Not a big issue but I would much rather unpack and set up camp once! I'm working on getting it changed but I'm not optimistic.

[billc23]

6 minutes ago, Joker54 said:

Sixpackeddie the EV is an amazing suite, which ship were you on? We had an EV on the Apex last April on a TA and the service was as expected.

 

since you posted a pick of the cheese and cracker plate the DW and I felt the need to share a pic of the cheese and cracker plate we got while in an SS on the Equinox this past October. Huge difference and somehow LBH thinks the Retreat Team concept is working well……. At least that is what she told me via email not long ago.

 

 

Cheese platter... Why not:  Caviar and Monopole Champagne delivered on request anytime on Silversea even in their lowest cost suite - not much different than current Sky Suite pricing. Sorry I don't have a complete picture of the entire afternoon snack setup. 

 

 

 

 

[zitsky]

37 minutes ago, Dolebludger said:

I’d just like to give my personal opinion about when butlers are and are not needed for a premium cruise experience. If a ship has an adequate number and quality of room stewards and room service personnel, butlers aren’t really needed. Examples of lines I have experienced that that provide excellent service without butlers in all but the highest suite levels include Silversea and Regent. Those who cruise these lines pretty much agree that butlers are rather redundant, and are not a reason to book a top suite. But on those lines, the stewards perform all the functions of butlers in the Retreat, and are adequate in numbers to do so, and still make up suites, because they have fewer suites to service. They don’t have to become involved with room service functions, because room service is staffed to provide prompt and accurate service. So, on these lines, there is a premium/lux experience without butlers. In contrast, it has been my observation that on Celebrity, room stewards are given only the duties of hotel maids, and have too many rooms assigned to do more. Similarly, room service is not staffed to the numbers required to provide premium service. Thus, when Celebrity sought to offer a lux product in its suite class (Retreat) it added the butlers, and priced the Retreat less than the lux lines I mentioned above. And it provided a very good product for a time. Now, with elimination of butlers in SS and other cuts, along with huge price increases, it is no longer competitive in the lux market. Again, just my opinion.

Would you like to go on your next celebrity cruise only to find your cabin has no bed because your contract says that Celebrity can change anything at any time?

[Joker54]

2 minutes ago, billc23 said:

 

Cheese platter... Why not:  Caviar and Monopole Champagne delivered on request anytime on Silversea even in their lowest cost suite - not much different than current Sky Suite pricing. Sorry I don't have a complete picture of the entire afternoon snack setup. 

 

 

 

 

Well thinking we will look at Silver Sea

 

that looks amazing 

[RichYak]

27 minutes ago, Joker54 said:

since you posted a pick of the cheese and cracker plate the DW and I felt the need to share a pic of the cheese and cracker plate we got while in an SS on the Equinox this past October.

That's pathetic.