NOW I have a problem with the new Suite policies

[Dolebludger]

I know I said I wouldn’t post on this thread again, but here I go. But it is only a clarification. My only problem with “changes”  is when I book many months (or years) ahead, and the accommodations booked had certain inclusions at time of booking. Then, before the cruise, some of these inclusions are removed without notification and without ability to cancel with no penalty. Now things like cookies and pillow chocolates don’t matter to me. Not deal breakers. But things like included mini fridge, priority embarkation and debarkation, included beverages, separate dining room and lounge, and environment free of crowds and lines are some of my “must haves”. I won’t book a cruise that doesn’t include them. And if any of my must have features are removed between booking and sailing, I just might want out of the deal without penalty! But that’s not how it works with cruise lines. And that’s just wrong. When I order a new car with delivery months in the future with specified features, if there must be any change, I am notified and given a chance to cancel free of penalty. If the changes don’t matter, I can go ahead with the deal. If they do, I can get out of it. It’s up to me. Can’t do that with a cruise. That’s a shame.  

[zitsky]

1 hour ago, kwokpot said:

And in my opinion a bit tacky, along with the waitstaff in the MDR singing and dancing.  

Well when they sprinkle the 24 carat gold flakes on the bed, it makes it upscale.  😂

[zitsky]

1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

I agree and did not consider it a cut

 

My point was about the understaffed room attendants and how long it took to get our room made up each day usually after lunch. On one day we came back from an excursion at 2pm and the room still hadn't been made up. Our butler explained that they were understaffed by room attendants by 30% and each one had 30% more cabins than normal. 

Is someone going to tell me I should tip 30% more because staff is over worked and under paid?  🤔

 

I pay for good service not bad service.  😂

[Silkroad]

1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

The June Equinox cruise was also the first cruise that we did not get the nightly towel animals, I was told by our butler this had been discontinued because it took much time away from the over worked and understaffed room attendants. The ship was 100% full and some days we didn't get our cabin made up until after lunch.

Interesting. We’ve found towel animals (swans) only once, on the night we celebrated a special anniversary in Murano. We returned to our cabin (not suite) to find beautiful swans and rose petals arranged on the bed. I thought Celebrity didn’t usually do towel animals.

[wineoclock]

We had towel animals when we were in PS I assume as we were with our young dcs. Always had them on DCL. 

[cublet]

16 hours ago, kwokpot said:

And in my opinion a bit tacky, along with the waitstaff in the MDR singing and dancing.  

Hello,

 

I would generally agree with you when the kitchen and waiting staff parade through the MDR waving napkins to the tune of Funiculì, Funiculà.

 

However my one and only Cruise on Carnival had the Irish Maître d' - who always dressed in bow tie and tails -  singing with an excellent voice whilst the waiting staff 'danced' on the spot on their serving stations. It was a genuinely entertaining experience and would happily 'suffer' again.

 

Regards,

 

Cublet

[cublet]

16 hours ago, terrydtx said:

I agree the towel animals have never been a big deal but on the Equinox we had our 12 year old granddaughter with us and thought she would enjoy having seem them. That was the only reason I even asked about it.

Hello,

 

I agree if the display is 'same old, same old' but there can sometimes be something original that even brings a smile to a miserable git like me:

 

 

Regards,

 

Cublet

[hcat]

21 hours ago, terrydtx said:

The June Equinox cruise was also the first cruise that we did not get the nightly towel animals, I was told by our butler this had been discontinued because it took much time away from the over worked and understaffed room attendants. The ship was 100% full and some days we didn't get our cabin made up until after lunch.

 

 

oops..just realized this is a SUITE thread..we are mostly AQ class cruisers  but I alreay typed it..sorry!

 

As far back as we can recall  (which starts with Mercury on X and Radiance on Royal),   towel animals ( along with door decorations) were always a Royal C thing.  Some attendants on X did the animals  but it was not part  the expected  "services". 

 

One day dh opened our door & found a towel monkey hanging from a clip hanger, sporting  his fav &  VERY expensive sunglasses!

Thanks but no thanks!

 

Not having the room made up til late in the day is not good.. but worse is if it is not turned down and refreshed early while we are at dinner....we like to sit out and stargaze!

 

 We try to work with our attendants on the  schedules..They no longer have assts but often work together... only 1 bad attendant over the years.. a pretty good record!

Edited August 27, 2023 by hcat

[kwokpot]

6 hours ago, cublet said:

Hello,

 

I would generally agree with you when the kitchen and waiting staff parade through the MDR waving napkins to the tune of Funiculì, Funiculà.

 

However my one and only Cruise on Carnival had the Irish Maître d' - who always dressed in bow tie and tails -  singing with an excellent voice whilst the waiting staff 'danced' on the spot on their serving stations. It was a genuinely entertaining experience and would happily 'suffer' again.

 

Regards,

 

Cublet

We cruise Carnival regularly and the singing and dancing waiters is my biggest pet peeve with Carnival. It interferes with the dinner service and most of the time the audio quality of the taped music is so poor and it's made worse with the volume turned up high, so it's this distorted static screeching of Ganggum Style.

I would MUCH prefer a crew talent show in the theater which some lines used to do (although I REALLY don't need to see the human water fountain trick😬) since many a time the crew has better performing skills than the entertainment staff/headliners!

 

Last month after our Apex cruise we were on a Greek Islands cruise on Royal's Odyssey of the Seas. It was a family cruise with 9 of us. We had anytime dining but they arranged for us to have a set table every night. We had great service but what was really nice is a server from another section, who on embarkation day had assisted my dad with a wheelchair boarding, came by to perform some magic tricks. He was truly entertaining and had the skills but also the personality superior to those headliner 'magicians' the ship brings on. That he came over to our table not in his section to entertain our family showed his true nature as someone who wants all guests to have the best vacation. 

Edited August 27, 2023 by kwokpot

[CHEZMARYLOU]

We haven't seen a crew talent show on Celebrity for years.  When they had them the theater was packed. A lot of the crew were quite good, one assistant waiter had us in tears with the song and quality of his voice.

[terrydtx]

10 minutes ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

We haven't seen a crew talent show on Celebrity for years.  When they had them the theater was packed. A lot of the crew were quite good, one assistant waiter had us in tears with the song and quality of his voice.

A talent show put on by the talented crew would be another way for Celebrity to save money by not paying performers for a show that night. I would go to a show like that.

[jelayne]

45 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

A talent show put on by the talented crew would be another way for Celebrity to save money by not paying performers for a show that night. I would go to a show like that.

Then there would be complaints of another cut - We paid for professional entertainers and they put on a show by amateurs.

[terrydtx]

3 minutes ago, jelayne said:

Then there would be complaints of another cut - We paid for professional entertainers and they put on a show by amateurs.

I have seen more amateurs doing fantastic performances on Americas Got Talent than some professional ones put on. But I can also see some complaints that their cabin attendant is performing instead of leaving their pillow chocolate that night. 😁

Edited August 27, 2023 by terrydtx

[tfred]

On 8/26/2023 at 9:58 AM, terrydtx said:

This would be the same type of cabin as a Signature Suite on HAL, larger cabin and balcony but no suite amenities. However, on HAL you can add their Club Orange which gets you the private dining room, on the newest ships, with added entree items, priority embarkation and debarkation and a CO concierge. We add this on every HAL cruise or $25pp per day and it is well worth the cost. We also get their HIA which is similar to Celebrity AI but HIA includes shore excursions credit and specialty dining credits. Maybe this could be the model for Celebrity for their SS, drop the prices significantly and let passengers who want "more" pay for more and people who do not drink or use Wi-Fi would not have pay for the AI, Call the more Club X and include Luminae, the Retreat deck and priority embarkation, tendering and  debarkation. 

why cheapen the product when there are customers willing to pay for it?

 

X assumes (correctly) that they can get enough suite customers to pay full price for an all inclusive package. They aren't looking for customers who are trying to finesse the system, with carry on wine, free elite drinks  

 

They also know the demographics and purchases of pax they want, especially at suite level.  If you aren't drinking and using the internet, you probably aren't buying spa, specialty restaurants or buying items on board. That is where all the profit is. 

[CHEZMARYLOU]

The talent shows we saw were in the afternoon towards the end of the cruise. I don't know how many crew were involved but there were Celebrity entertainers as part of it along with behind the scene crew, dining staff, cabin attendants, etc. 

[PSU]

Regent Seven Seas has a crew talent show called Crew Kapers.

[Joker54]

On 8/25/2023 at 9:12 AM, zitsky said:

 

I think if you remember to use your "please" and "thank yous", I don't see any problem with asking.  The worst that they can say is "no".

 

The rule we live by is that no one can say yes if you don’t ask, and if the answer happens to be no it’s not the end of the world and the word no isn’t painful 

 

cheers

[Joker54]

On 8/25/2023 at 11:14 AM, Dolebludger said:

FWIW, I just responded to an email ad from Celebrity, and looked at the inclusions for all the Retreat accommodations from SS up to Edge Villa. All list the mini fridge contents as “May be subject to additional charge”. So clearly no longer included in the Retreat package, if it ever was officially. 

Just took this screen shot of the amenities for a royal suite. Beer water and soda stocked daily. That’s the minibar so it’s still included

[tfred]

On 8/26/2023 at 10:54 AM, terrydtx said:

I agree and did not consider it a cut

 

My point was about the understaffed room attendants and how long it took to get our room made up each day usually after lunch. On one day we came back from an excursion at 2pm and the room still hadn't been made up. Our butler explained that they were understaffed by room attendants by 30% and each one had 30% more cabins than normal. 

Many people didn’t use that animal towel for drying off. The staff has to rewash all those towels using up water and generating grey water waste. 

[Dolebludger]

Well, in our two cruises in Celebrity Suites, we never saw an animal towel. Didn’t miss them. Don’t care about them, and don’t think the inclusion problem with the retreat should be about animal towels. 

[jelayne]

1 hour ago, Joker54 said:

Just took this screen shot of the amenities for a royal suite. Beer water and soda stocked daily. That’s the minibar so it’s still included

The mini bars also have small bottles of liquor and wine as well as snacks, which depending upon your Butler, you may or may not be charged for using. 

[Dolebludger]

May or may not be charged for mini bar use in a Royal Suite? That is no good!

[sixpackeddie]

2 hours ago, jelayne said:

The mini bars also have small bottles of liquor and wine as well as snacks, which depending upon your Butler, you may or may not be charged for using. 

The mini fridge has only been removed for Sky Suites and Aqua Sky Suites. All upper suites will have your butler restock the drinks in your mini fridge.

[Joker54]

8 hours ago, jelayne said:

The mini bars also have small bottles of liquor and wine as well as snacks, which depending upon your Butler, you may or may not be charged for using. 

There is a difference in how a minibar is stocked. If you are in an all inclusive suite (signature suite or above) only contains the items you request such as vitamin water, beers, etc. those suites are also stocked with 2 full sized bottles of liquor that you select pre cruise. We have sailed in every suite class other than a CS. When in a high end suite our minibar has never had snacks. The butler brings those upon request. I admit that when we have been in an SS we didn’t look in the minibar as we knew it was not included and had no plans to use any of the contents, and never asked our butler to do anything special related to the SS mini bar, so those may have had snacks and mini liquors.

[sixpackeddie]

10 minutes ago, Joker54 said:

There is a difference in how a minibar is stocked. If you are in an all inclusive suite (signature suite or above) only contains the items you request such as vitamin water, beers, etc. those suites are also stocked with 2 full sized bottles of liquor that you select pre cruise. We have sailed in every suite class other than a CS. When in a high end suite our minibar has never had snacks. The butler brings those upon request. I admit that when we have been in an SS we didn’t look in the minibar as we knew it was not included and had no plans to use any of the contents, and never asked our butler to do anything special related to the SS mini bar, so those may have had snacks and mini liquors.

Yes, correct. This a how the mini bar is stocked currently on an upper level suite on the edge currently. The onshore retreat team will contact you about one week before sailing to ask for your preferences.