For Me, It's Buh-bye Celebrity

[heidik]

I want to start by saying my comments here are strictly my personal feelings and I do not want to come across as badmouthing Celebrity as a cruise line - this is simply feedback from Me - 1 cruise passenger. The Solstice is a gorgeous ship and Celebrity is an excellent cruise choice.

 

I got off the Solstice yesterday after a 7 day western Carib. cruise. I am a mature female, travel solo, splurge on suites (when it's a good deal) when I cruise. When in the Carib., I cruise for the "suite life" and do not get off the ship - it's about total relaxation, being pampered, having serious downtime, getting some sun, being lazy and sitting on my balcony - alone with the sea :)

 

I had posted on the Board at the beginning of my cruise questioning the duties of the suite Butler as this was my first Celebrity suite experience.....several people asked for the name of my butler and I did not want to respond until I was off the ship...just in case......his name was Alex Sarokov (or something similar). Again, for me and my cruise experience, it was a terrible match and affected my enjoyment - and relaxation - on this cruise. After going to Guest Services and having them call him to tell him he's supposed to set my table for meals, it was not much better. It was not "bad" enough though, to complain to Guest Services in my opinion. He was trying I could tell, but he definitely was not up to standard in regard to being a Butler in a suite. I cringed every time he knocked on my door and rang the bell as it was the same thing every time "Is everything about your suite to your satisfaction? Let me know if it's not" -- this is all he said the entire cruise - like a pre-programmed robot butler -- zero personalization, zero smiles, rushed. Again, my personal experience and a definite "clash of fit" regarding myself and this guy. In contrast, my 2 young cabin stewards were delightful, full of laughter and song, asking about my day, if they could get me a nice piece of cake, etc. Very thoughtful and attentive.

 

So, that's part of my disenchantment with my Celebrity suite experience. Don't get me wrong, the cabin itself appeared brand new, spotless and nicely designed -- my balcony was the HUGE saving grace of my entire cruise. What a fantastic location at the back corner of the ship. Wide open, totally quiet, it was magical.

 

I want to speak a bit about my constant comparison during this cruise with my Holland America deluxe suite experience vs. this Celebrity Sky 1 suite experience. Again, this is my personal taste and is not directed at the Celebrity line as a whole........I just feel that the suite experience on Celebrity is nothing special at all and I am hard pressed to understand what the big monetary difference is between the S1 and say, an AQ -- except the size of the cabin....?

 

With HAL, I feel totally pampered and feel that the money I have spent (alot when considering I am cruising solo!) is well worth it. The HAL bathroom with whirlpool tub and closet is huge, while the Celebrity S1 was pretty basic -- I felt nothing special at all and very similar to the AQ I was in before. With HAL I received invitations to special dinners, lunches, tours, etc. every day - with Celebrity, nothing. With HAL, of course, is the Neptune Lounge for suite guests which is a great "perk" and I feel adds great value to the cost of a suite. With HAL, unlimited free pressing - with Celebrity, $46 was charged for pressing about 8 ladies shirts and 3 pants(?). With HAL, I feel the suite attendants went the extra mile and really showed they actually cared about you and made sure you received every amenity that a suite was supposed to include. On my Celebrity cruise, although the attendants were sweet and competent, they did not appear to know what the amenities were for a suite.

 

I also do not drink alcohol. With HAL, the alcohol in my room was immediately removed - including the welcome bottle of champagne (or sparkling wine - whatever it is) -- and I was asked what I would like to drink. I said water. Everything was immediately replaced by "designer" bottled waters and replenished throughout the cruise. With Celebrity, they removed the alcohol, did not ask what I preferred and simply put a bottle of water with the $4 price note on my bar! Nothing else was ever offered to me!

 

So, that's it from me here. I was totally taken aback by the lack of "specialness" I felt on this cruise as a suite guest. And to boot, I paid more for this 7 day cruise on Celebrity than I paid for an 11-day on HAL! Please understand that I do not regret this cruise and rack this up as a lesson learned - this was just not the right fit for Me. I will continue to recommend Celebrity as a great cruise line, but again, for Me, I will not cruise it again.

[kenorus]

I agree, that is why we purchase suites with hal and not with celebrity. We do drink alcholol and that is what makes celebrity more attractive for us. The drink package. When we go on hal we make sure it is a destination t hat we really want and can not get on celebrity. My dad who has cruised on many world cruises on hal says the best staff come with hal.

[pete_coach]

Thanks for the review and personal opinions. We too had a S1 suite on our last cruise but as an upgrade. I also would not pay that much more for just extra room but for free it was spectacular LOL.

We too had a Butler that seemed only to show face as opposed to "butlering" (?). I really did not know what to expect and when we asked him for things, it seemed as an imposition. Our cabin attendants were much more helpful (and we tipped them extra for it).

I heartily agree on the water thing. We were Aqua class and they got free water. We were thrilled with the upgrade only to find they charged for water? For the extra cost of a suite, I would think water would have been included.

It is too bad that your cruise was not what it was expected to be but, hopefully one persons poor service aboard did not taint your view of the entire ship or at worst, the entire line. I do believe Celebrity is a quality line.

I thank you for your comparisons of suites to HAL. We have only cruised on Celebrity and with your comparison, we have a better idea of another cruise line and it may be worth our while to check them out.

[Gracie115]

We cruised in a Sky Suite on our first X cruise and I would have to agree with you in regards to any "extras" not being worth the $$ for the SS. However we really love Celebrity and had occasion on other cruises to stay in both the Royal Suite, twice and a Celebrity Suite once.... There IS a difference in the service between the levels of suites. We felt truly pampered, especially in the Royal Suite. Unfortunately that is just too pricey an option for us and now we've settled happily into Aqua Class which has been great for us. Perhaps you would have been happier with that option but can certainly understand you're wanting to go back to HAL if there service was that much better. Happy cruising whatever line you choose!!:)

[jacketwatch]

Sorry you had a disappointing time. Thanks for posting this as all views should be respected whether or not you agree or disagree. Best of luck in the future. Also this makes me think that perhaps HAL has a different standard of training for their butlers as such differences have been noted here. Maybe so. Again, best of luck. :)

[Colorado Babe]

I totally agree with you. We just sailed on our first Celebrity cruise for New Year's and we had the same experience. Our butler acted like a robot. When I asked him about the capuccino he said that there wasn't any, just regular coffee. When I asked him about the tote bag, again, there wasn't one. When we told him our refrigerator in our suite was not working, no one came to fix it until we asked at least three times. All three times, I had no choice but to finally go to the pursor desk and they immediately called him and the problem was solved. Cappucino was delivered to our stateroom in the mornings a tote bag appeared and a new refrigerator was put in the room. As a suite guests, we should get the perks that were supposed to get and not have to ask for it. I've never cruised HAL but will if they will guarantee me a stress free vacation that doesn't take up all my time at the pursur desk.

 

In regards to the private events. When we arrrived on the ship and got into our room, there was a letter that told us the dates and times of the events and it specifically mentioned that we would get no more notices because they were trying to conserve paper. Perhaps you received it but didn't realize that it was your one and only invitation? I thought that was strange because the spa constantly sent us invitation to purchase their packages every day even though we didn't book with them. I thought that was ridiciulus.

 

I would like to suggest that if you ever experience any of these problems again, irregardless of cruise line, to please go to the pursur's desk and complain. It really worked for us. We had a few problems also with the wine package and excursion desk. When we took these complaints as well to the pursur's desk, they were able to fix it by taking the wine package off our tab and comped us two bottles of wine. And, when the excursion desk tried to charge us for an excursion that my husband won at the casino, they were able to take that off our tab as well. Thank God, that Celebrity has competent people working at the pursur desk. If it wasn't for them, I truly believe our vacation would have been ruined.

[heidik]

jacketwatch - actually, HAL does not have butlers for the deluxe suites (not sure of the upper suite levels as never looked into)......I believe that the butler could have been totally removed from my suite, the stewards could have handled everything just fine - I like that HAL has the concierge that handles all of your requests so that there's not all these interruptions during the day/evening with room stewards and the butler banging on the door. Again, just my personal opinion.......

 

Colorado Babe - I did not see any suite guest events listed in the daily schedules.....on HAL, you get a nice formal invitation for all the events and it, again, adds to the suite experience.....

[CathyCruises]

Interesting and thoughtful review. We had a Sky Suite on Century a few years back and I also did not feel special at all, but I wasn't really expecting to so I was less disappointed. However I had studied all the perks and knew what I was supposed to get. When we first arrived, I immediately noticed there were no flowers and mentioned it to the 'butler'. He said, oh no, that's for Royal Suites! Not! He did bring the standard few stems a while later--silly me, I was expecting a bouquet!!

 

The only thing he did for us was get reservations in Murano--big deal. It would have been lovely if he would have introduced himself and explained all of our options, but of course that would be more work for him, so it never happened.

 

Now we cruise in CC or AQ (or FV in the last case) and don't have any unfulfilled expectations. I am sorry you were disappointed--I'm sure you were really looking forward to a great experience!! :(

[CruisingChick]

I am so sorry to hear about your experience and that you were disappointed.

 

I guess I am glad we can not afford to book suites. We are not missing much.

[jacketwatch]

jacketwatch - actually, HAL does not have butlers for the deluxe suites (not sure of the upper suite levels as never looked into)......I believe that the butler could have been totally removed from my suite, the stewards could have handled everything just fine - I like that HAL has the concierge that handles all of your requests so that there's not all these interruptions during the day/evening with room stewards and the butler banging on the door. Again, just my personal opinion.......

 

Colorado Babe - I did not see any suite guest events listed in the daily schedules.....on HAL, you get a nice formal invitation for all the events and it, again, adds to the suite experience.....

We recently took out 1st X cruise and our cabin attendants were great as well. Cheers, Larry :)

[Orator]

At one time most Butlers came from Goa, India where there was a training school. Don't know if that school has been discontinued, but now Butlers may not be as well trained. Recently had a Butler from Honduras, who was teriffic. He was an older waiter who could no longer work in the MDR so he decided to apply for a Butler position. Full of personality and always attentive to our needs. My guess is that we were lucky. Someone always has the best person, someone has the worst.

[heidik]

Orator - on my Silversea cruise the butler was from India -- totally outstanding and completely different experience than the butler I had on the Solstice

[uktog]

Having just come back from an Azamara cruise I can see a huge difference between Celebrity butlers and Azamara butlers. In the past our Celebrity butlers (Edwin, George, Wilfred to name a few ) have been great but in recent years the experiences have been much less positive and we have found us rating them good not excellent (despite the end of cruise speeches from the butler, all delivered robotically.

 

We too were annoyed to find when Aquaclass was announced despite paying for a suite, we could not automatically enjoy Blu or free water. This was explained to us as our extra $ went into real estate aka the larger room and not additional service. Guess what, we no longer book suites preferring Aquaclass. What we save we use to make more frequent trips to Azamara.

 

So sorry the OP did not have a good time - we too were in a similar suite on Eclipse and felt the butler avoided the extra distance to come to our aft room preferring to look after guests on the lower decks - we can understand your frustration. We have not been on HAL so cannot compare your experiences with them, however unless you are a repeat cruiser, I think your assessment about invitations to additional events will also be correct re Celebrity unless you are sailing in the Penthouse

 

You might like to look at Azamara cruises, although the ships are smaller and much less glitzy the suite experience is wonderful

[Bruin Steve]

I have not cruised on HAL...

But I have cruised in suites on both Celebrity and on Oceania...

I don't think, from my experience, that I could fault the butlers on either line...(Of course, our butlers have all been from India)...

We've always had a great experience on Celebrity...We do get a lot of extras...all of the little invitations, etc., but mostly, I guess, because we are also Elite Captains Club members...

 

I do think that different people have different expectations of the butlers...It helps to sort of let them know early in the cruise what your expectations are...

 

Perhaps, my expectations are not as demanding as the OPs...but, we've found our butlers on X to do more than we expect...I've never booked a Sky Suite specifically for the butler service...I have always found the attention I get from the cabin stewards to be more than sufficient...The attraction of the Sky Suite to me is the larger space...

 

Now I recently cruised on the new Oceania Marina in an "Oceania Suite" (1,000+ square feet, two bathrooms, living/dining room, media room, etc.)--which was simply marvelous...We had not only a butler, but also an assistant buttler, a cabin steward and two assistant cabin stewards assisting us. The service was phenomenal...The cabin came with a bottle of champagne, white wine, red wine, Grey Goose vodka, gin, rum and Black Label scotch...and a refrigerator full of water, soft drinks and mixers--which were replenished constantly...I had my butler trade the Gin--which I don't drink--for a second bottle of scotch. I suppose the OP could ask them to take it all away...or just give it to friends...

 

They also had a very nice executive lounge which also had a supply of soft drinks, water and coffee drinks...Of course, on Oceania, all soft drinks and bottled water are now "included"...

 

I am guessing the OP might find Oceania very much to her liking...

 

For me, though I've cruised in suites, I am actually more than happy in "ordinary" cabins on Celebrity...I have cruised on seven different cruise lines and I find that what I get for my money on Celebrity is easily the "best value"...IMHO, the service, overall, is superior to most cruise lines...

 

Of course, we all look for different things when we cruise...we all have different expectations and different standards...So, I can understand why the OP feels Celebrity may not be the cruise line for her...

 

Of course, OTOH, it may just be that she had an isolated, random, unsatisfactory experience...it happens...

[DavidYYC]

It definitely sounds like Celebrity is not the fit for you.

 

I guess I'm just not that "needy" so the level of service and the experience I get with Celebrity is perfect. In fact I find it all a bit too much - I don't want special treatment and I don't want my every whim catered to...even if I could afford it.

[squidward]

I am currently on the second week of a B2B on Solstice, in a S1 suite, and have Alex as our butler.

 

I think that the location of the suite makes it much more difficult for Alex. Unlike on other ships, where all the suites are clustered together, the S1 suites on decks 6-9 are the only 2 suites on the deck, and they are located all the way in the back. That means the butler has to do a lot of running up and down and cannot maintain a constant presence on any deck.

 

As a result, Alex does seem somewhat rushed. However, he really came through last week when I needed my formal shirt pressed at 5:00 PM for that evening. He personally took the shirt to the laundry, had it pressed, and brought it back to me within an hour.

 

They took out the alcohol from the mini-bar as requested, and Alex kept the fridge stocked with milk for our 2-year old.

 

We feel he is similar to most other butlers we've had and are having a wonderful cruise!:)

 

Ed

[heidik]

I would not call it "neediness" -- I would call my expectations simply getting what was advertised and what was paid for! If you paid alot of extra money for "bells and whistles" and rented, say, a new Cadillac for a special occasion- wouldn't you expect to drive off the lot in a new Cadillac instead of some economy car? It has nothing to do with "neediness" - it is about value and quality for your money. That's what my expectations were based on.

[dkjretired]

Thank you for your honestly, you have to do what is most appropriate for yourself. I would say that like anything in life, a lot depends on who you get as your butler. I have heard and seen Butlers who would do anything for their customers and had the personalty to be a Butler. On the other hand you got a Bummer. I still remember my first Butler many years ago on Century, Nikki from England.

[Chunky2219]

At one time most Butlers came from Goa, India where there was a training school. Don't know if that school has been discontinued, but now Butlers may not be as well trained. .

We've sailed with several lines, never a problem with butlers. But now you mention it, the only one who really was outstanding was a chap from India on P&O Oceana. We're not at all demanding , but I'm sure if we asked him to stand on his head he would have given it a go. And unlike the usual disembarkation day rush, when they seem not to make any special effort to catch your eye or even say thanks for the tip, Andrew was fantastic, sought us out, wished us well and even rushed around to get us a complete set of the Sunday papers to take with us.

 

My only worry is that we've never sailed with Celebrity yet, but have a suite booked on Solstice and are about to book one on Constellation for later this year. We do it mainly for the room, but I hope the overall expereince doesn't fall flat.

 

And I can't for the life of me comprehend The Celebrity drinks policy. I can't believe that we'll be boarding a ship with the best part of a suitcase full of sparkiling water and diet coke to take into a Royal Suite!

.

.

[cruise pup]

Gee, it sounds like I got better service from my cabin steward on Princess than these butlers who are there specifically to take care of special needs. This steward was constantly checking with me to make sure if everything was okay and if I had any special requests. I did and he took care of everything. He arranged for a pitcher of ice water to be in my cabin every evening (I get thirsty at night). I hate the blankets tucked under the mattress. He made the bed the normal way every morning and untucked for turned down at night. I felt really spoiled.

 

By the way, I did travel in a suite on a Galaxy cruise. My butler was terrific. One morning I hear a knock on the door and a different butler shows up with my breakfast. When I asked what happened to the first butler I was told that on a moments notice they transferred him to another Celebrity ship that was in the same port. That came as an unpleasant surprise. Didn't have a chance to tip him (don't remember if it was automatic on the shipboard account back then) let alone say goodbye.

[dhmjdds]

Does anyone know how many cabins each butler has to take care of? We are getting our first suite (Royal Suite on Solstice) next winter, and these threads about the good and bad of butlers always get me concerned.

 

If you've sailed in a Royal or Celebrity Suite, did you feel like your butler was overwhelmed with cabins to care for?

 

Diane

[dkjretired]

Does anyone know how many cabins each butler has to take care of? We are getting our first suite (Royal Suite on Solstice) next winter, and these threads about the good and bad of butlers always get me concerned.

 

If you've sailed in a Royal or Celebrity Suite, did you feel like your butler was overwhelmed with cabins to care for?

 

Diane

 

Generally the better butlers are going to be assigned to the higher end suites...

[TRadle]

Generally the better butlers are going to be assigned to the higher end suites...

 

 

This has been are experience as well. The only time we’ve had a very attentive butler in a sky suite is when we’ve sailed on M class ships in the suites that adjoin the Penthouse. We got the Penthouse butler! :D

Our butlers in Celebrity Suites have always been outstanding. They check in with us before Muster and show us where all the switches are and ask if we have any requests for the cruise. This is the time to let the butler know how much service you would like on your sailing. We are very low maintenance!

[miXterOB]

So sorry to hear about your poor experience with that butler Heidek.

Neither Corky or I drink and that was the very first thing we addressed last month in AQ 1605 aboard Solstice. The cabin steward immediately grabbed the alcohol from the cooler and they did not return during our 8 days.

My opinion...the prepaid/auto gratuities are to blame for the lowered quality of service. This was our first cruise which used that and was about the lowest level of service we've ever had cabin-wise. Blu service was wonderful.

Might be time for a new Hotel Director aboard Solstice IMHO.

[Colorado Babe]

I don't think asking for what is supposed to be a part of the suite amenties is being "High Maintenance". If the list say's Speciality coffee's, tote bag, etc., your suite should come with it. We were only in our suite one time when he came around with the coffee cart. The only thing I expected was to have cappuccino delivered to my room in the morning when we woke up and the tote bag. I asked about the flower bouqet and was also told it is only for the royal suites.