NOW I have a problem with the new Suite policies

[kwokpot]

8 hours ago, jbcallender said:

On Millie, Luminae had a butter poached lobster on the menu one night later in the cruise.  On the night formerly known as "lobster night" which was also the first "chic" night, I had Luminae add a lobster from the MDR to the filet and paid a $13.99 upcharge.  Those were the only lobster opportunities I saw....

 

First photo was the lobster entree in Luminae on the Reflection March, 2022; second photo same entree on the Apex December 2021:

Edited August 17, 2023 by kwokpot

[markeb]

6 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

First photo was the lobster entree in Luminae on the Reflection March, 2022; second photo same entree on the Apex December 2021:

 

As someone who generally doesn't order lobster, other than an occasional lobster roll, which is better? Because the top looks a lot better to me. There appears to be no need to bury it in a heavy cream sauce. But again, lobster isn't my thing...

[abbydancer2003]

What am I missing?

 

First, I don't eat lobster, so not a big deal.  

 

In the main dining room, the first lobster is free, but someone is now saying Luminae lobster is not free for sky suites.  If I, in a sky suite, wanted lobster, could I just order the main dining one for free?

 

This doesn't make sense to me. 

[SunnySunflower]

13 hours ago, sixpackeddie said:

We are currently on the Reflection in an upper level suite. We have sailed in upper suites before and know what has been included and what’s not.

We just pushed off Olympia Greece, tired from the sun and was hoping to order dinner from Lawn Club Grill and enjoy on our balcony. Spoke to butler and this is no longer allowed for any suites. Only room service from Lumaine is available. 
Asked about other changes an also learnt Sky suites will not be stocked with alcohol. If you order alcohol to your Sky Suite or Aqua Sky Suite you will be charged per the room service menu.

There are currently only 3 butlers on our ship that take care of Celebrity Suites and above. All the Sky suites are being taken care of by 2 Butlers from Michael’s Club. 
I confirmed that prior to this cruise there were 9 butlers in total, and have trimmed to 5, so they cut 4 total from the Solstice Class ships.

We will be considering different options going forward as we typically cruise in Sky suites 80% of the time. With these changes considering the costs of a Sky Suite we will look elsewhere.
 

When we were on the Reflection in 2015 we were not allowed to have food from the lawn club in our cabana at dinner time, so I am not surprised you are having trouble getting it delivered to your room.

The first thing we noticed on the Eclipse was how lightly staffed the ship is given that it is a very full sold out ship. No surprise that Reflection is also lightly staffed. 

[NMTraveller]

Nothing like a good lobster thread 🙂🙂🙂 

[kwokpot]

9 minutes ago, markeb said:

 

As someone who generally doesn't order lobster, other than an occasional lobster roll, which is better? Because the top looks a lot better to me. There appears to be no need to bury it in a heavy cream sauce. But again, lobster isn't my thing...

Definitely without the extra sauce. The chef in Luminae on my December 2021 Apex sailing was sauce crazy on his entrees. Here is what THAT chef considered a ribeye STEAK in Luminae. At the time I posted here on CC I was quite disappointed in this particular entree since  it was our first time ever in Retreat Class and I wanted a Ribeye STEAK and what I was served was two slices of a Ribeye ROAST drenched in sauce. 

Edited August 17, 2023 by kwokpot

[markeb]

3 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

Definitely without the extra sauce. The chef in Luminae on my December 2021 sailing was sauce crazy on his entrees. Here is what THAT chef considered a ribeye STEAK in Luminae. At the time I posted here on CC I was quite disappointed in this particular entree since  it was our first time ever in Retreat Class and I wanted a Ribeye STEAK and what I was served was two slices of a Ribeye ROAST. 

 

Yeah. The thread is already off the rails, so I don't think I can hijack it...

 

I rarely order steak on a cruise. I don't eat it that much anyway at this point in my life, and I'd rather have either a grilled/smoked steak (probably ribeye these days) medium rare to medium, and thin slice it to share with my wife, OR filet au poivre vert with green pepper corns. But I can make both of those, as good or sometimes better (maybe not the filet au poivre; that's a lot of work). I don't really do lamb, so that's my cruise "go to". That "ribeye" is honestly bizarre.

 

Oh, well...

[NMTraveller]

3 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

And others on this board are like... 🙂

 

[hcat]

one nice thing about BLU is that you can easily get entrees not buried in sauces..on the side is an option or none..  

 

sorry this is OFF TOPIC!

Edited August 17, 2023 by hcat

[mnocket]

3 hours ago, calicakes said:

How is the food in the Yacht club? 

It's fine.  It's not going to knock your socks off and probably doesn't measure up to the best of Luminae, but the service is good and I've not had a problem with the food quality.

[virginconvert]

You can order as many lobsters as you please in Luminae and Blu. I ordered two last week in Luminae in a Sky Suite.

[Beachlover1989]

Having had time to get through this whole thread yet, but we’re on Apex right now in a Celebrity Suite and one of the first things our butler said to us was - butlers are no longer filling the coolers. Whatever we want in there we have to get ourselves from the retreat lounge 😳   We were in a Celebrity Suite on Infinity in February and our Butler kept the cooler overflowing! Very disappointing 

[terrydtx]

16 minutes ago, Beachlover1989 said:

Having had time to get through this whole thread yet, but we’re on Apex right now in a Celebrity Suite and one of the first things our butler said to us was - butlers are no longer filling the coolers. Whatever we want in there we have to get ourselves from the retreat lounge 😳   We were in a Celebrity Suite on Infinity in February and our Butler kept the cooler overflowing! Very disappointing 

What I figured would happen, how about the premium bottled water like Evian, do you have to get that as well from the Retreat lounge? Every one of our past Retreat cruises our fridge was kept filled with beer, wine and water by our butlers.

Edited August 17, 2023 by terrydtx

[sixpackeddie]

20 minutes ago, Beachlover1989 said:

Having had time to get through this whole thread yet, but we’re on Apex right now in a Celebrity Suite and one of the first things our butler said to us was - butlers are no longer filling the coolers. Whatever we want in there we have to get ourselves from the retreat lounge 😳   We were in a Celebrity Suite on Infinity in February and our Butler kept the cooler overflowing! Very disappointing 

Yes we were told the exact same thing. I thought it was sky suites only but must be for celebrity suites too. I hope you are enjoying your cruise, we were in a Sky Suite on the Apex in June and really enjoyed the ship and the excellent crew. 

[bikerunner]

37 minutes ago, sixpackeddie said:

Yes we were told the exact same thing. I thought it was sky suites only but must be for celebrity suites too. I hope you are enjoying your cruise, we were in a Sky Suite on the Apex in June and really enjoyed the ship and the excellent crew. 

I would just go to the retreat lounge and fill up a big tote to the brim.  And do it every day to empty it out at retreat since I have to do it on my own.  If that what is told to fill it yourself.  

[terrydtx]

24 minutes ago, bikerunner said:

I would just go to the retreat lounge and fill up a big tote to the brim.  And do it every day to empty it out at retreat since I have to do it on my own.  If that what is told to fill it yourself.  

Make sure your butler team removes all items from the fridge first, or you might get charged for everything you take out the Retreat lounge items, lol

[prmssk]

2 hours ago, Beachlover1989 said:

Having had time to get through this whole thread yet, but we’re on Apex right now in a Celebrity Suite and one of the first things our butler said to us was - butlers are no longer filling the coolers. Whatever we want in there we have to get ourselves from the retreat lounge 😳   We were in a Celebrity Suite on Infinity in February and our Butler kept the cooler overflowing! Very disappointing 

It is my understanding, this was never an official perk of lower suites.   Some butlers would do it and others refused.  The butler my mother-in-law had in November said the mini-bar was not complimentary for Sky Suites and wouldn't fill it with anything.  Our butler the year before very hesitantly put a few waters (nothing else) in ours when we asked but did not refill it when we drank those.

 

So I am not surprised they are pulling back on something they never were required to do.

[jelayne]

 

9 minutes ago, prmssk said:

It is my understanding, this was never an official perk of lower suites.   Some butlers would do it and others refused.  The butler my mother-in-law had in November said the mini-bar was not complimentary for Sky Suites and wouldn't fill it with anything.  Our butler the year before very hesitantly put a few waters (nothing else) in ours when we asked but did not refill it when we drank those.

 

So I am not surprised they are pulling back on something they never were required to do.

That’s quite different from our experience.  Our first cruise in a suite was 2014 and we have never had a butler who did not empty the mini bar and stock it with water or soda.  After the restart beer was always an option available to be stocked in the mini bar the half bottles of wine were not.  All but 1 butler gifted us a couple of bottles of wine.  The 1 that didn’t also disliked delivering morning coffee and juice, didn’t care to remove used dishes or glasses from the suite or restock the mini bar.  

[prmssk]

3 minutes ago, jelayne said:

 

That’s quite different from our experience.  Our first cruise in a suite was 2014 and we have never had a butler who did not empty the mini bar and stock it with water or soda.  After the restart beer was always an option available to be stocked in the mini bar the half bottles of wine were not.  All but 1 butler gifted us a couple of bottles of wine.  The 1 that didn’t also disliked delivering morning coffee and juice, didn’t care to remove used dishes or glasses from the suite or restock the mini bar.  

I have heard experiences like yours so I don't doubt it at all.  It just doesn't match my Retreat experience (which have all been since the restart).

[mac_tlc]

22 minutes ago, jelayne said:

 

That’s quite different from our experience.  Our first cruise in a suite was 2014 and we have never had a butler who did not empty the mini bar and stock it with water or soda.  After the restart beer was always an option available to be stocked in the mini bar the half bottles of wine were not.  All but 1 butler gifted us a couple of bottles of wine.  The 1 that didn’t also disliked delivering morning coffee and juice, didn’t care to remove used dishes or glasses from the suite or restock the mini bar.  

That has been our experience as well in all of our SS cruises. How can they charge for a water or beer that happens to be in the minibar when I have the Premium drink package? 
 

One of the first thing all of our butlers asked is what we want in the fridge. 
 

mac_tlc

[jbcallender]

9 hours ago, abbydancer said:

What am I missing?

 

First, I don't eat lobster, so not a big deal.  

 

In the main dining room, the first lobster is free, but someone is now saying Luminae lobster is not free for sky suites.  If I, in a sky suite, wanted lobster, could I just order the main dining one for free?

 

This doesn't make sense to me. 

On Millie last week, I had to pay $13.99 in Luminae for the MDR lobser tail added to my filet.  They said they had just started the upcharge that very night and were very apologetic about it.  I have no idea if there was a charge in MDR or not - I assume there was.

[prmssk]

3 minutes ago, mac_tlc said:

How can they charge for a water or beer that happens to be in the minibar when I have the Premium drink package?

Non-Retreat passengers with the premium drink package get charged for minibar drinks. Celebrity’s premium drink package specifically excludes the mini-bar. 
 

Any mini-bar inclusions come with the room not the drink package and if you look at Celebrity’s website, the only rooms that actually say the minibar is included are upper suites. 
 

I did not push on the times I was told no because I have not been able to find any advertising or written materials that actually say lower suites are entitled to anything in the minibar. Obviously, that hasn’t stopped some butlers from unofficially including those drinks but I’m pretty sure they haven’t been required to do so. 

[Mark_T]

13 minutes ago, mac_tlc said:

That has been our experience as well in all of our SS cruises. How can they charge for a water or beer that happens to be in the minibar when I have the Premium drink package?
 

Easily when the published rules make it very clear that the mini-bar is not part of the drinks package...

 

14 minutes ago, mac_tlc said:

One of the first thing all of our butlers asked is what we want in the fridge.

We have had the same experience in the past, but now there is no butler to take stock from the Retreat to restock the room, the scope to work around the rules to deliver a better customer experience is pretty much eliminated. 

[jelayne]

24 minutes ago, jbcallender said:

On Millie last week, I had to pay $13.99 in Luminae for the MDR lobser tail added to my filet.  They said they had just started the upcharge that very night and were very apologetic about it.  I have no idea if there was a charge in MDR or not - I assume there was.

So being in s suite got you a $3 discount over the price for a 2nd in the MDR.😮,  Not much of a Suite Life.

[TeeRick]

31 minutes ago, jbcallender said:

On Millie last week, I had to pay $13.99 in Luminae for the MDR lobser tail added to my filet.  They said they had just started the upcharge that very night and were very apologetic about it.  I have no idea if there was a charge in MDR or not - I assume there was.

That actually is a huge change for Luminae.  I cannot recall anybody ever posting about an extra charge there for lobster or anything else.