What can we expect from a Butler?

[CactusGirly]

We have never stayed in a Suite before. We will be in Celebrity Suite #1618 on the Solstice in April. What sorts of things will the butler do for us? I don't want to seem high maintenance, but don't want to miss out on a service we are paying for either. :o

[squidward]

The butler is like having your own Guest Relations representative. You can ask for help with anything related to the cruise, and he can either take care of it himself or find the right person to do it.

 

In the past, butlers have helped us with dining reservations (even if the restaurant is supposed to be fully booked;)), shore excursions (even if the shore excursion is supposed to be sold out;)), securing babysitters for our son at night (even if guest relations says none are available;)), etc.

 

The butlers know everyone and everything on the ship, and they are able to grease the skids ;) to make sure you have an enjoyable cruise.

 

They also serve your room-service meals and afternoon tea, pick up and deliver your laundry and pressing, shine your shoes, find you a bobby pin in a pinch, you name it.:)

[CactusGirly]

Wow - now if they did hair and makeup that would be a real treat. :-)

[bdabob]

We have sailed twice on X in suites (Summit & Infinity) and will soon be in a Sky Suite on the Eclipse. The butler service has been extraordinary, much like the previous post states.

On our Summit 12 day Med cruise our butler seemd to appear out of nowhere at all times of the day and night. I don't think I opened our cabin door once during the first 6 days; he was always in the hallway and ran to open our door for us. In fact it became a game where we would try and sneak back before he could sight us!

At one point we thought he was living beneath the bed as things miracuously happened in the blink of an eye.

Need a button sewn on, a shirt ironed, reservations for specialty restaurants or spa, shoes shined, just ask.

Enjoy the Xperience!

[natshala]

You guys have been fortunate. Our butler on Millennium last week was mostly invisible and often didn't even answer his phone. He never smiled or even tried to be friendly. It was a short (5-day) cruise but the service we got was disappointing.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

You guys have been fortunate. Our butler on Millennium last week was mostly invisible and often didn't even answer his phone. He never smiled or even tried to be friendly. It was a short (5-day) cruise but the service we got was disappointing.

 

Sorry to hear that. I would have complained to the head butler or the hotel director right away. Celebrity can't fix what it doesn't know about.

[spencerdrivecruiser]

We have been in numerous suites and rarely have used the Butler services.

 

My DW will not let him touch her clothes so no unpacking.

 

We pre book our excursions.

 

We do not do afternoon tea. The sweets are not worth the extra calories.

 

I bring 3 pair of shined shoes and like my professional shine I get at home.

 

We do a great breakfast at Michael's Club so no room service needed.

 

We venture out to the library and get our books.

 

Most of the SS we have had really are not set up for a dinner so we dont eat in the cabin.

 

Personally I can see no use (for us) for a Butler. It is a $7 per day expense which I can do without.

[djhsolara]

Does stateroom location have anything to do with level of service from the Butler? Our suite is on the 8th deck away from the "high rent district" on deck 6. Does that make a difference? Do we also have a stateroom steward or is it just the Butler?

 

Thank you!!

 

 

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[royalcruz]

We never used the butler service. It would be cool to invite guests and have them announced though. :D:cool:

[Keith1010]

Celebrity does a great job with the butlers.

 

They are your point of contact on any issue as mentioned.

 

They will bring you meals, bring you afternoon snacks, attend to shore excursion tickets, take your pressing and laundry, stock your refrigerator, take care of dining reservations along with many other items. They can also answer a lot of questions for you whether that relates to the ship or even to the port of call.

 

Keith

[BermudaMom]

We were on the Solstice a few weeks ago in RS1614 and our butler, George, was terrific. Not that we made many specific requests for help, but he was just a friendly face there regularly. Delivered room service a few times when we had early morning tours, setup the table and just made a nice start to our day.

 

It was my husband's birthday during the cruise and our daughter had wanted to have a cake delivered while we were out on a tour and the cabin decorated with balloons. He arranged it and when we returned, balloons were stuck on the living room ceiling all over the place and a nice strawberry shortcake was on the table. Husband was very pleased.

 

I had stomach problems one day so stayed on the ship alone and he was attentive, checking on me, seeing if I needed anything and just doing what he could to make me comfortable. It was nice knowing there was someone specific I could actually ask for help if I needed it.

 

We also had Muriel and Allan seeing to our cabin and they too were terrific.

 

It was our first time on Celebrity and will definitely not be our last.

[BonnieVA]

Does stateroom location have anything to do with level of service from the Butler? Our suite is on the 8th deck away from the "high rent district" on deck 6. Does that make a difference? Do we also have a stateroom steward or is it just the Butler?

 

Stateroom location won't have anything to do with level of service. The butlers sometimes switch locations during their contract so a butler who once took care of one area might later take care of another.

 

You will have a butler and a cabin stewrad (& his asst).

[DAllenTCY]

We had a sky suite in May for our 25th anniversary cruise. He was always asking what he could do for us, and the only three times I took him up on his offer was to:

1. Put a DVD player in our room (there was only a VHS player) and he did

2. Bring dinner to our balcony in Juneau (temp 82 degrees F) and he did

3. Bring a shrimp coctail to share at 5 pm to our room every day and he did

I had made specialty dinner reservations online, and we had Select Dining which was great.

He brought canape's, cookies, coffee, tea, and all sorts of "goodies" by every afternoon. It was a good experience, but unless you're celebrating a milestone, I don't think it is worth the extra charge and tip (yes I gave him a big one since he was going home on vacation in August for 10 weeks to Indonesia).

David

[celyvabeach]

Enjoyed reading your comments. We will be on a 14-day Holy Land cruise on the Constellation Nov 6th. It's our first cruise on X and will be on Sky Suite on deck 6. I plan do have an in-suite breakfast on a morning we arrive late in port and may be dinner on an evening coming back late from a tour (we have early seating). I am hoping that we get a good butler and have a positive experience like most of you had... any suggestions are very welcome...

[newcruiser09]

My suggestion would be to not set your expectations too high. We had a suite on our April Caribbean cruise and after reading information here I thought it would be absolutely fantastic. On our first day, when we first met our butler, I asked if it would be possible to get the MDR menus for the week so we could decide which night we wanted to do spcecialty dining and which night to do dinner on our balcony, His response was of course! Anything is possible!! We never saw the menus. It didnt ruin our trip but left me with a lowered opinion of him. When we did do dinner on our balcony, our food was brought in two times, breads, apps, and soups first and then main course and dessert was left on the table in our room. It wasn't a huge deal but it didn't feel as special if it would have been brought course by course as I had expected. We had to clear our dinner dishes to make room to enjoy dessert. Lastly, there was a huge disconnect on who should deliver late night room service, which we ordered almost every night after the casino, room service thought the Butler should do it but he wasn't working so after a second call we got our snacks an hour after we ordered. The trip overall was great and we didn't complain on board because it would be weird to complain about "not being treated better than expected."

[pickytraveler4]

You guys have been fortunate. Our butler on Millennium last week was mostly invisible and often didn't even answer his phone. He never smiled or even tried to be friendly. It was a short (5-day) cruise but the service we got was disappointing.

 

We are on Millenium in 2 weeks in a suite. Do you remember your butler's name or what suite you were in? Just curious.

[RMSeadog]

Enjoyed reading your comments. We will be on a 14-day Holy Land cruise on the Constellation Nov 6th. It's our first cruise on X and will be on Sky Suite on deck 6. I plan do have an in-suite breakfast on a morning we arrive late in port and may be dinner on an evening coming back late from a tour (we have early seating). I am hoping that we get a good butler and have a positive experience like most of you had... any suggestions are very welcome...

 

Hey Cely!

 

You will be well cared for. Any problems with the Butler service, talk to the Butler, then to the Assistant Chief Housekeeper for your deck. I have never gone higher than ACH to resolve problems. If your lucky you will get a Pinoy, then you will have made in the shade, eh? ~ Ric

[celyvabeach]

Hey Cely!

 

You will be well cared for. Any problems with the Butler service, talk to the Butler, then to the Assistant Chief Housekeeper for your deck. I have never gone higher than ACH to resolve problems. If your lucky you will get a Pinoy, then you will have made in the shade, eh? ~ Ric

 

 

Thanks Ric ...

[H2Oregon]

On our recent cruise on Constellation our butler noticed that we did not drink all of our coffee that he brought at tea time. We said that the coffee was ok, but not great. Every day after that he would bring us coffee from the specialty coffee shop in the afternoon and at breakfast if we had room service. Not a big thing but very nice, and much better coffee.

[jomf]

We has a CS suite on the Eclipse a couple of weeks ago. I had expected far more from the butler than we got.

I watched some passengers being taken on board at embarkation, which would have been great. We never even saw ours until gone 10 pm, and that was after I had been to guest relations to ask if our room included a butler!

Celebrity changed our butler for another.

Whilst he was fine, I only received things that I knew to ask for.

 

We wouldn't have a suite again (unless the price was the same as a normal balcony cabin).

[orchestrapal]

We has a CS suite on the Eclipse a couple of weeks ago. I had expected far more from the butler than we got.

I watched some passengers being taken on board at embarkation, which would have been great. We never even saw ours until gone 10 pm, and that was after I had been to guest relations to ask if our room included a butler!

Celebrity changed our butler for another.

Whilst he was fine, I only received things that I knew to ask for.

 

We wouldn't have a suite again (unless the price was the same as a normal balcony cabin).

 

What kind of suite were you in?

It may very well be that the best butlers are assigned to the best suites....

[eyetwinkle]

That's too bad Natshda....maybe your butler was too busy in bdabob's hallway waiting for their return to their room!!! LOL

[jomf]

What kind of suite were you in?

It may very well be that the best butlers are assigned to the best suites....

 

We were in a Celebrity Suite. So not the bottom grade.

 

The only info I had came from these boards!

[eyetwinkle]

That's good to know jomf.....We have a Concierge balcony cabin and from what I've been reading....it's doesn't mean much different than a regular except we picked dining on our oun schedule.....what do you know?

[luv2sail7]

We are looking at booking a Sky Suite on the Solstice in Feb 2012 as there will be 3 of us in the cabin and we feel we will need the extra space. Not so concerned about using the butler to unpack but would love to have them pack at the end of the cruise. Is this possible? Packing on the last day is so depressing - rather spend my time in the bar :o...