Joker54

Thinking of a certain Manneken bronze sculpture in Brussels 😄

I have a little more grey:)

Greetings Jim and Iain! Love Singapore it is a fabulous city! Looking forward to reading more of your adventures! We wish you all the best on your cruise and wish that you and Iain always have Fair Winds and Following Seas!!!!!

We were on the Equinox in October and had a variety of experiences, some good, some bad. Staffing shortages most everywhere. One morning Cafe Al Bacio had one waitress, I had been sitting waiting to have her take my drink order but she was busy helping others making coffee's for those standing in line. We were sitting with a double Zenith who tracked someone down and drink orders were finally taken. Every seat in Cafe Al Bacio was taken. Simply no excuse to only have one server working, not fair to her and not fair to guests. We always go the late show, don't recall the particular show we were at but really had a great laugh when the recording played 15 minutes before the start of the show reminding everyone that they should place their drink orders. Problem was, there wasn't a single soul working bar service in the theater. One server finally showed up about 2 minutes prior to the start of the show. We were in a SS so had the premium drink package, even though we would ask for Evian, the server would show up with regular ship ice water. This happened everywhere, not sure if X is trying to force that on us to save $$ or if there is a training issue. I am also sure that staff being assigned extra duties etc that moral may not be the best. We ate at Murano twice and they had 1 less waiter than in all of our previous Murano experiences. Those looking to book a SS - the only advantage is the slightly larger room, the Retreat Lounge and Luminae. So if you are hoping to get better service by being in that class of suite, save your money and get a Veranda room. For us, it wasn't worth the money and will not another SS with X. We gave them a 5 on whether we would recommend X and in the comments I noted that we would never recommend any of our friends book into a suite until the Butler service is restored to pre-pandemic staffing and service levels. But noted that we would recommend Veranda rooms, otherwise they would have received a 1. Of course we complimented the crew that provided excellent service, but the rest of the very long commentary in that survey was far from positive. Cheers

That’s fine I will happily bow out of this thread going forward. Please don’t read anything into my reply, not meant in an offensive way. I was actually much happier when I was just lurking and not posting.

I didn’t start the thread, I only pointed out that I received a reply in 10 minutes where others are not getting responses. While I won’t provide a direct quote most might understand that the corporate koolaid related to reduced butler services has not changed. i was the asked to share a little more on my note and the reply which is what did i am not the OP

I was a business traveler for many years so I’m in tune with airlines and forgot that those here travel but may not fly like I did. So Delta made a bunch of changes to their FF program that cut perks from their most dedicated customers. There was a huge backlash and Delta has backed some of those changes out and admitted that they moved too fast in changing things. While the industry is different reducing perks in a big way can cause repercussions. So similar in some ways but not all. Think reduced menus, reduced menu quality, masking price increases by removing prepaid tips from AI without corresponding rate reductions, reduced butler services etc

Sure 1st was that allowing Zeniths back into the retreat was an excellent move and that should be good for the cruise line. 2nd I mentioned that there only 2 dedicated butlers for 24 suites, ph, rs, cs and that I didn’t see where the financial savings by reducing the butler staff would be more than the impact to suite guests by reducing services. I think it inappropriate to provide a direct quote of her reply since it was correspondence to me alone. I will say that the response was professional and very business oriented. I do not agree with the corporate outlook on Butler service reduction and feel it may end up causing issues similar to what Delta airlines is currently going through. from my discussions with crew members that we have kept in touch with over the years; the butlers were all reassigned and not let go. It could be that they are not yet able to fill all their openings and needed to realign existing staff Besides replacing butlers in sky suites with a room attendant and room service, X has reduced the dedicated butler headcount on solstice class vessels to 2. Those 2 butlers will be very busy. I saw 1 butler in the theatre on the first chic night. And the Retreat concierge’s were at the theatre for the second chic night. we are in a high end suite on the Beyond in January. We are hoping the service is as good as it has always been, however we have set our expectations appropriately. Cheers

Please let us know what you get and send photos........

They definitely were not fresh but they were in better shape than the grapes

That picture was taken before we touched it. That is how it arrived We really enjoyed the cruise and had a great time. Of course the issues here and there can be somewhat of a challenge - we try to never let those affect our holiday. Outside of room service the rest of the crew were as amazing as they have always been. It's not the crews fault that they have been handicapped by corp. There has also been departmental staff reductions so some of those crew members are doing more now than before and they were very busy before the changes. We will book X again but only in a Veranda room.

I sent a note to the president 4 days ago. I sent it very late in the afternoon. In that note I had attached a letter of commendation for a group of associates that were providing service above and beyond. In the same email I provided my observations on 2 issues related to the recent changes. I did not copy the executive office as I thought that might lead to confusion on who should answer my note. I received a reply from Laura 10 minutes later. The note from her thanked us for the compliments and provided answers for our observations. In all things in life timing is everything, it is possible that she was in email at the time mine arrived (or whomever reads emails addressed to her) and had a moment to reply right away. Cheers

Vaping - forgot to mention that there was a fair amount of vaping on deck 14 - all over deck 14. Actually saw a person walking through deck 5 vaping. This is probably just the way life is these days.

Sure

Our final observations from the B2B's The OVC was crowded at all meal times. The carving station was MIA at dinner. We ordered the Luminae hamburger one evening and it was raw in the middle. Guess the chef wasn't using a thermometer that day. Sent it back and ordered a different meal. Our waiter did offer to get another burger but I wasn't interested after that. Ordered the NY Strip from the MDR, it was prepared like a roast similar to the Ribeye that I had earlier in the week. It was barely cooked to medium rare when it arrived but at least it wasn't raw:) There was one small scoop of mashed potatoes - I guess they were rationing those portions. They were lumpy so I am assuming that meant that they were not out of a box. While room service for breakfast was on time and the food warm, we ended up eating breakfast in Luminae. We would ask for 2 sausage links and 1 hash brown each and the meal always came with 4 links and 2 hash browns each. Maybe the meals are prepped that way for speed. In Luminae we received what we asked for. They had back to back comedians during the cruise which was a huge mistake. The first comedian was outstanding - we had seem him on previous cruises. The comedian that followed him the next night might have been funny had we not seen the best the day before. We left that show after about 15 minutes, many others left as well. Bad planning on Celebrities part. Just as a test of the new no-butler-system we called room service and ordered a cheese and cracker plate which arrived in 25 minutes. It was horrible, if I had been in a regular room and been charged for it along with the 20% tip I would have been livid and at customer relations. I took a photo and spoke with the suite manager and she took a photo of my photo. We expected a new cheese and cracker plate to show up but nothing - we didn't ask for a replacement - just was expecting it. We did receive compensation which we didn't want, we just wanted the issues resolved. I guess it's easier to throw some money at problems rather than fix them. It was nothing like what our butlers have brought in our many previous cruises. After 14 days the mysterious head butler was never seen. Only his photograph at the entrance to the Retreat Lounge. Cheers

It's not worth the $$ anymore. We have 1 more cruise in an SS and will keep it. Any future bookings will be in a Veranda room.

Yes they are still the Retreat concierges. We didnt make any real requests from them. We needed to change a dinner booking and tried calling them, never answered so we called Specialty Reservations ourselves and made the change in only a couple of minutes with no price changes Ian english was better than Gazelle's. She spoke great english but sometimes looked very confused when we were trying to explain an issue. They never appeared to be busy as others have posted.

Denisa Mordunescu - we have not asked her for anything but can say that she is very friendly and easy to talk too. Wish we could say the same for the Hotel Director. Cheers

Sorry for being mia for a few days. We noticed one very important issue with the new Butler situation. Not only have they removed Butlers from the Sky Suites, they have also reduced the number of dedicated butlers on this ship to 2. So 2 butlers are responsible for the PH's, RS's and CS's. That is an impossible work load. We spoke with a guest who was in a Royal Suite and he mentioned that he never saw his Butler and that his requests were rarely completed. He was very frustrated. Noticed that the menu's in Luminae are dated Feb 2023. So far they seem to be the same as on previous cruises. I had the "Beef Ribeye" the other night, it looked more like a roast and had been tied together for cooking. It was not like any Ribeye steak I have ever seen. It was prepared well and had a pleasant taste but was definitely a choice cut. Our room attendant continues to impress us with the level of service he provides. We feel bad for him since he has so many rooms to take care of. We went to guest relations - to see if we could find out exactly who in the crew participate in the prepaid tips and how that money is divided up and was told that information was not available. Cheers

Ship was in George Town, we stayed on board to enjoy the ship. Room service delivered breakfast at the appointed time and brought the requested Latte's from Cafe Al Bacio - checked our account this morning and pleasantly surprised that we were not charged for the coffee's Still waiting to see the mysterious head butler. Wandered through the OVC and all stations seemed to be in use for breakfast. Everything looked very good. We will try to wander through this evening. Dinner in Luminae - the waiter told us he remembered us as being the couple that wrote the letter to the president on their behalf - guessing that is why we are receiving a lot of attention. They did a great job last year and deserved that letter. Its nice that they remembered as its been a year and they see a lot of guests. The DW had black bass and said it was very good. I enjoyed French Onion soup and the Seafood Meadly Orzo from the main dining room and it was excellent. I am still looking to catch the name of the suite manager and hope to post that tomorrow. Veranda has yet to be cleaned the entire trip. Will have that resolved today. Retreat host said the Staff Captain denied our request for a second lounger due to safety reasons - I guess our request to remove the existing chairs was also a safety issue.......................... Future Cruise desk has been busy. They have a 40% off each person and the sale shows ending but magically reappears. We went an priced an Aqua class room for an 8 night cruise in Dec and it came out to 6500 for the 2 of us. We declined and told them they wanted to much money, then the associate tried to talk us into purchasing a future cruise certificate - we politely declined again. We are enjoying the cruise and the suite but going forward we will book a concierge room and save some money as it is way overpriced Cheers

Day 2 Breakfast in the suite, room service arrived at the time requested from the card we left out the night before. He set everything up on the coffee table. Had the Filet in Luminae at lunch, DW had the cobb salad. The filet was a nice cut of meat and prepared well.The Cobb salad was as good as always. The Luminae staff were much more attentive on day 2. Not sure if that is normal or if that is related to one waiter who recognized us as having sent a letter to the presidents office commending the team last November. That trip we were in the PH and treated like royalty in Luminae. Dinner at Sushi on 5 - always great Last night we added Latte's to the breakfast order - written off to the side as its not a listed item. We will see if it comes this morning and whether we get charged or not. The suite attendant replenished the water when he did the evening room make up. This is something he did on his own as we have not asked him to do that for us. We have not received the usual bag for hauling things around the yacht. Am going to ask about that today. Laundry now takes 48 hours vs the old 24 hours?? Wonder if they reduced the laundry staff? Others have posted how busy the Retreat Lounge concierge's have been, so far on this cruise they have not been busy at all. Still have not seen the head butler, we may see him today as we asked the Retreat Concierge if we could get a second lounger on our Veranda - had to laugh when he said he would talk to our butler.....i really wanted to say we only had a room attendant but we want the furniture so no need to make a scene lol. He let us know later that the head butler was going to look into that today..... we will see Cheers

George Town, Grand Caman Cozumel, Mexico Bimini, Bahamas Then on the follow-on 8 night cruise San Juan, Puerto Rico Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas Philipsburg, St. Maarten Tortola, BVI Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

We will do our best to get online and answer any questions that are posted. For those interested in the new Sky Suite Butler/no Butler situation here is how yesterday went. Room was ready for us at 11:15 which was nice, however there are somethings that are missing from the bathroom, even still this morning so we will ask him about that next time we see him. We met our room steward around 3, have yet to see the head butler. Met the suite Manager in the Retreat and she is hilarious and very friendly. Room steward has picked up on a few things from previous cruisers in that the fridge was already empty. We thanked him for having that already cleared out. We asked him for a few items, some appeared in the room, others did not like menu's for breakfast. So we called room service around 10pm and they delivered a few menu's with in 15 minutes. Lunch in Luminae was so so, menu seemed to be the same. Staff were slow to pick up plates when we were finished, the DW ordered an ice tea which never came. 15 minutes after they picked up the plates from the main we got up and left as we couldn't wait any longer for desert to arrive due to Spa appointments. Had dinner in Murano, food was great. They did not have enough waiters. Not sure if they are missing someone or if it is a cutback. Our waiter had tables all over the restaurant. He worked hard and the lack of staff didnt have a huge impact on us. Our room attendant has 1 Penthouse, 2 RS's, 5 Aqua class rooms and our SS. Its a long way from the Penthouse to the stern to get to our Sunset SS. Feel bad for him. We asked him how the new process was working and he replied with the corporate line that SS passengers never use their butlers........ Cheers

With their managers approval they are allowed. They are not breaking any rules by joining us for dinner

First we are very gracious tippers They work hard, long hours and yes they do it by choice. So the only way to do something that they enjoy for themselves is to give them something other than case, gift certificate to the spa or restaurant or take them to dinner. In my earlier post I said we went to their manager, what I didnt say is we talk with them first to make sure they would like to go to dinner. Most say yes, 1 was worried that other crew members would be jealous and give them grief so we did something different for him. Some on mentioned that some other crew member might have to cover for them, when we take them to dinner we do it when they are off work so no one else is impacted. The one time we took our butler another butler did cover for him, but butlers do that all the time.