specific examples of "outstanding service"

[wildwoods]

Husband armed with Classic drinks card~ wine waiter in MDR knew what he wanted every night and constantly kept filling his glass with a spot on Red wine..never had to ask :)

Staff in the duty free let us know not to buy tabacco on one day as it was going to be on a 20% off special in 2 days time :D

[Karynanne]

A small thing, but it shows how the staff and officers do care about the "little" things. (if you are an ice cream junky like I am you know how important this "little" thing is!"

 

On Solstice in September of '10 we were talking to the Food & Beverage manager, Robert Flack. I mentioned that I had been on a quest for coffee ice cream and not found any place on the ship to satisfy my craving... not even available in Blu. He got on his cell phone and found out that the only place on board that served coffee ice cream was the Tuscan Grille! Robert then called Blu and the rest is history. From that night forward our server in Blu always finished my meal by bringing me 2 scoops of coffee ice cream. Gotta love 'em! :D

 

Char, your post reminded on a cruise a few years ago. I love Rum Raisin ice cream, and asked our waiter if we could possibly have it served every night. Well sure enough the next night he brought Rum ice cream...no raisins. The following night, vanilla ice cream with one or two raisins...and each night was a fun expectation of "what are we going to get tonight". They always try their best, and it's always fun.

[Esojac]

Thanks for starting this thread - we will be on our first Celebrity cruise this October (Silhouette) and I'm even more excited about it now - and I love that people are posting those simple things that make you feel special - nothing really over the top or that they received because they complained.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

As the OP, I have to thank everyone who has contributed to this thread so far, and hope that even more will chime in. I was so peeved at a thread involving tipping where the question came up "just what is outstanding service" that I wanted lots of examples, and here they all are. This is what makes X our line of choice. Keep em' coming, and I hope we'll remember to reference this thread the next time someone talks about not tipping the staff.....

 

A big thank you for starting this thread! So much nicer than reading all the posts from people who think this lovely staff does not deserve tips.

 

I've had so many wonderful experiences with the staff on Celebrity, it's hard to know what to mention. Special desserts. A separate basket of breadsticks when it was noticed that our group was partial to breadsticks. Former waiters welcoming us back on board another cruise with a big hug and a smile. Julianna, our great cabin steward, giving us all a big hug as we all sadly departed from a wonderful cruise. Tiger in the sunset bar serving as our unofficial message center. Our waiter, Dominic, of the lovely smile and great magic tricks. We were always the last out of the dining room on that cruise!

 

Wonderful folks! That's what keeps me coming back for more.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Char, your post reminded on a cruise a few years ago. I love Rum Raisin ice cream, and asked our waiter if we could possibly have it served every night. Well sure enough the next night he brought Rum ice cream...no raisins. The following night, vanilla ice cream with one or two raisins...and each night was a fun expectation of "what are we going to get tonight". They always try their best, and it's always fun.

 

Oh lord, the rum raisin ice cream! I mentioned to Bonifacio, another of our wonderful waiters, that I was disappointed not to see rum raisin ice cream on the dessert menu. From then on, I had rum raisin ice cream every night. No matter what I ordered. :D I would get whatever I ordered PLUS rum raisin ice cream.

[Orator]

DW and I were on a few cruises on MIL that were several months apart. On the first cruise we were served by Sone, an assistant waiterr in Select dining. Each evening my DW started with a cranberry juice. The next time we were on the ship Soner was in Traditional dining. He spotted us on the second evening and rushed up to greet us, cranberry juice in hand. Wonderful guy with a bright future ahead.

[Hawaiidan]

While on a 28 day cruise on the Regent Mariner, I inquired as to the possibiity of a spcial rquest for a lunch, KaseSchnitten, a Swiss Valais specialty. I was contacted by a sous chef who was swiss, and told me no problem.. he we have all the classic ingredients. ...And even a bottle of Fandant, a very local Swiss wine, not generaly found outside switzerland.

He presnted me with not one but 2 renditions for my choice. one classic the other his adaption... Wow.

 

If that were not enough I ran into the Captain at a getotgether and he discovered I havd been a navigator in the Navy and also sailed offshore sailboats. ( Turns out he was a ardent sailboat owner himself) Leaving Hilo, I inquired his intended route to Honolulu. I offered a suggestion of a volcano sail by, which was not in his sailplan. About 2 hours before castoff from Hilo, I got a note from him that the pleasure of my company was requested on the brige. When I arrived he said..tell you what, since you know these waters, why dont you lay a course out for us.! I proceeded to lay out a new course very professionaly, and went over them ..

He then signed off and presented then to the Coast Guard and the Hilo pilot. and was introduced to then at "his Navigator" They apporved likewise when they found I was ex navy. .

I remained on the bridge for the next several hours while he followed my course precise. The result pleased everyone as it was unexpected and highly interesting.

Getting a special meal. or service is one thing but having the ship basicaly turned over to me to take her a special route of my choosing was stunning to say the least...

There were just the 4 of us on the Bridge the hemsman, the Watch officer, the Captain and little ol'e me... and this 300 million dollar ship.....

 

Thats service/class on a whole other level.;)

[dln929]

One sea day afternoon I was overcome with a little too much sun, fun, and vino and as a result had a blinding headache by late afternoon. Off to our cabin for a recuperative nap! My husband woke me up just before dinner asking if I was joining him at the dining table that evening and later for the show. I told him, no, I needed a few more hours of peace and quiet. But, I asked him, could you bring me back a steak before you go off to the show? He said, sure, and I retreated to the veranda with my Kindle.

 

Imagine my surprise when there was a knock on the door and who should it be but our cabin steward with a nice rare steak for me? He explained that our waiter was worried that I would be hungry if I had to wait until dinner service was over before getting my steak! Isn't that the most thoughtful thing you've ever heard of? And you know what? Our waiter was right. My husband probably would have forgotten to bring me back something to eat but thanks to him, I had a wonderful and quiet dinner on the veranda. I'll never forget that Outstanding Service.

 

My steak, delivered exactly as I like it.

 

[cruisestitch]

All your dessert memories brought back one of my own.

 

You wouldn't know to look at me, but I don't order desserts after dinner. I can't pass a brownie in the afternoon, but dessert after dinner doesn't do it for me. So I politely pass when the waiter comes to take the table's order. One night, as he brought all the others their sweets, he had a plate for me with a cover on it. He placed it before me, and with a flourish, removed the cover to reveal what he had written in chocolate on a plate:

 

 

 

Oh shoot -- it came out sideways. Anyway you get the gist!

[TideCruiser1946]

DW and I went to a cooking demonstration by two of the assistant chefs on infinity. After the presentation DW asked one of the chefs if the recipe for MaMas pork chops(a favorite of ours in the MDR)was in the cookbook Celebrity had recently published. He said it was not in the cookbook but that he would send a copy of the recipe to our cabin. Well.......We appreciated his telling us he would do this but we could see how busy he was and didn't really expect to see the recipe.

Sure enough, we returned to our cabin later that night and there was an envelope in the message slot outside our cabin. Inside was a handwritten copy of the MaMas pork chops recipe.

We searched him out later to thank him, but we're still amused when we look at the recipe. The first item on the list of ingredients is "100 pork chops".

[FortyNinerLiz]

Thanks for starting this thread - we will be on our first Celebrity cruise this October (Silhouette) and I'm even more excited about it now - and I love that people are posting those simple things that make you feel special - nothing really over the top or that they received because they complained.

I don't know if Mildred will be on the ship when you are cruising, but she just moved to the Lawn Club Grill group (which you will love) and ask for her. She is an angel on service!! Also, the "Family" of the Tuscan Grill staff will do everything to make your meal "wonderful" , delicious and relaxing!!!!

[Orator]

I don't know if Mildred will be on the ship when you are cruising, but she just moved to the Lawn Club Grill group (which you will love) and ask for her. She is an angel on service!! Also, the "Family" of the Tuscan Grill staff will do everything to make your meal "wonderful" , delicious and relaxing!!!!

 

Is this the Mildred from Chile?

[Richard&JohnSTX]

Thanks so much for starting this thread - I'm actually tearing up a bit here!

 

We have so many stories to share but here are just two - sorry so long!

 

We were on the Millennium January 2011 Southern Caribbean from San Juan - it was a last minute decision because the balcony GTY was a bargain and we only had to fly from St Croix. Any way we are on top deck and watching the arrival into Dominica on Jan 6th - Andrew Harris the Hotel Director stops to chat - asks us how the cruise is going so far - great we reply - any special events? - well it is my birthday today but I tell him for me it is a quiet time - I don't like fanfare! - where are you dining? We told him we had reserved at the Olympic that evening. Arrive at the restaurant and told complimentary bottle of wine from the Hotel Director - I was impressed and thought that was above and beyond. Well after dinner and after we had the wonderful soufflé desserts out comes a Happy Birthday cake with candles and the whole wait staff singing Happy Birthday silently!!!!! A quiet time indeed!

 

The same cruise - Juliana Forbes Charles was the Captain's Club Hostess - this was just our second cruise after becoming Elite so we were newbies in all of this but she couldn't have been sweeter and more helpful. Well another deal comes up and we end up on the Millennium April 2011 from San Juan to San Diego while transiting the Panama Canal and up the Pacific Coast - come to find out she is still on Millennium and her Mom and Dad and Brother were there too - so sweet to see hard working staff able to enjoy their jobs and family too!

So we book onboard for the last Holy Land Cruise and B2B with the Inaugural TA on the Sillhoutte for October 2011 - guess what - Juliana is transferred to the Silly - we spend 23 nights with her - she was so delightful and caring even though she had like 600 Elites on the TA.

 

My partner John was so impressed with how hard she worked on those four cruises last year ( He is a Manpower Planning Consultant ) that he took his best photos from the four cruises and ordered a book to be printed. The destination photos were superb and I'm sure Juliana will enjoy the memories of the ports as we do but the best photo was us in our tuxes on each side of Juliana in her sexy green dress and her wonderful smile on the last formal night before disembarkation from Bayonne. ( Juliana's last port of call before vacation. )

 

So we received the newly printed book just before Christmas and mailed it to Juliana in Brazil!

 

Thanks to Celebrity and Andrew and Juliana and all your staff - you make our vacations special!

 

Richard

[PartyAllDaTyme]

As dessert time in the MDR rolled around, my DW scanned the menu for her favorite, chocolate cake. Sadly, there was none to be found. our waiter noted her disappointed face and asked what was wrong. When she said, "I was hoping you had chocolate cake," he said, "A moment, madame." He was gone for more than a few moments, but returned with a piece of heaven, a.k.a chocolate cake. When we asked where he got it from, he told us he dashed up to the buffet to get it. Now, he could have simply suggested to us that we stop by the buffet if we wanted chocolate cake so badly, but we were at his table, and it was his job to take care of our every desire, if possible, with no inconvenience whatsoever.

 

Another time, we noticed it was an older gentleman that was in charge of handing out the cold towels as we reboarded at a Caribbean port, asking if we had a nice time ashore. It wasn't until we were back aboard that it dawned on me that the crewmember pulling that menial duty was the captain.

[Waihekean]

Just love all these stories and I am excited to board my first Celebrity ship soon! It is going to be a Mum and daughter cruise and she will have her birthday on board. I think we will have no problem to make it a memorable time and to make her feel spoiled:):):)

[Miss SeaBee]

We were in a Celebrity Suite on Solstice. For some reason I still don't understand, there is only 1 lounger on the balcony, plus a table and 4 standard chairs. Upon boarding, our butler came to introduce himself. I wish I could remember his name. I asked if it would be possible to get another lounger for the balcony. We had 3 adults staying in the suite, and it was even one of the angled hump suites with extra-large balcony. He immediately got the room steward and together they went up to the pool deck. In just a few minutes, they, along with a pool butler, hurried into the suite carrying a pool lounger, laughing and enjoying the "sneaking" of the lounger to our balcony. The lounger stayed for the duration of our cruise. I tried to tip the butler on the spot, but he would have none of it. Of course we tipped him very well at the end of the cruise. His kindness, sense of fun, and desire to make our cruise perfect set the tone for the rest of the cruise.

[Qmadam]

Thanks for a great thread!! Bringing back so many wonderful memories!

 

I have two that stand out in my mind: We did a back to back cruise and had requested a table for two at the railing for the first one. We had wonderful servers and a great experience. When we showed up for dinner on the second cruise of the back to back we found the Maitre'd had given us our same table and had the servers reassigned so that they would be with us for the entire second cruise. It seems that the servers rotate tables with each cruise. We did not request this it was just something wonderfully thoughtful.

 

The second memory: We dined in the Olympic one night and had a thoroughly enjoyable dinner. At one point my husband mentioned that he loved a certain entree' and was sorry to see it was no longer offered. At the end of our evening the Maitre'd came to our table and invited us back the next night for a special dinner. Yup, they made my husbands favorite.

 

Oh, I love Celebrity!!!

[MaxCruise]

We just returned from the July 10-22 Solstice sailing. Unfortunately, it turned out to be an 11-day cruise for us, because Delta Airlines cancelled our flight from JFK to Barcelona the night before, causing us and about 40-50 other cruisebound passengers 48 hours of travel hell, resulting in a flight the next day from JFK to Nice, where we caught the ship.

 

The day before our sail-in to Venice, we received invitations to view the cruise in from the Helipad on the bow of the ship, "as a special gesture after a difficult start." The event included champagne, hors d'oevres and free photographs from the ship's photographers. They sell this event for $50 (which I would never pay), but it was still a turnout of about 70 people or so, giving us the opportunity to enjoy phenomenal views of Venice and a "reunion" of sorts with our fellow distressed passengers, all of whom were now over our travel problems.

 

Additionally, our cabin steward delivered two extra bathrobes to our stateroom, with instructions from his supervisor that they were ours to keep due to the rough start. They were also very gracious at the front desk in refunding our non-refundalbe Nice excursions that we purchased ahead of time.

 

My feedback to Delta Airlines, which was the root cause of our issues due to mechanical problems and the lack of backup equipment at JFK, is to ask them how come they caused the problem, but Celebrity did a 10 times better job of making us feel better?

[Orator]

We just returned from the July 10-22 Solstice sailing. Unfortunately, it turned out to be an 11-day cruise for us, because Delta Airlines cancelled our flight from JFK to Barcelona the night before, causing us and about 40-50 other cruisebound passengers 48 hours of travel hell, resulting in a flight the next day from JFK to Nice, where we caught the ship.

 

The day before our sail-in to Venice, we received invitations to view the cruise in from the Helipad on the bow of the ship, "as a special gesture after a difficult start." The event included champagne, hors d'oevres and free photographs from the ship's photographers. They sell this event for $50 (which I would never pay), but it was still a turnout of about 70 people or so, giving us the opportunity to enjoy phenomenal views of Venice and a "reunion" of sorts with our fellow distressed passengers, all of whom were now over our travel problems.

 

Additionally, our cabin steward delivered two extra bathrobes to our stateroom, with instructions from his supervisor that they were ours to keep due to the rough start. They were also very gracious at the front desk in refunding our non-refundalbe Nice excursions that we purchased ahead of time.

 

My feedback to Delta Airlines, which was the root cause of our issues due to mechanical problems and the lack of backup equipment at JFK, is to ask them how come they caused the problem, but Celebrity did a 10 times better job of making us feel better?

 

Wow, I was almost on that flight and cruise, but decided to go on the August 3rd sailing instead. Glad to hear that Celebrity really came through for you.

[Ma Bell]

Just love all these stories and I am excited to board my first Celebrity ship soon! It is going to be a Mum and daughter cruise and she will have her birthday on board. I think we will have no problem to make it a memorable time and to make her feel spoiled:):):)

 

Have a wonderful time!

[Lois R]

We just returned from the July 10-22 Solstice sailing. Unfortunately, it turned out to be an 11-day cruise for us, because Delta Airlines cancelled our flight from JFK to Barcelona the night before, causing us and about 40-50 other cruisebound passengers 48 hours of travel hell, resulting in a flight the next day from JFK to Nice, where we caught the ship.

 

The day before our sail-in to Venice, we received invitations to view the cruise in from the Helipad on the bow of the ship, "as a special gesture after a difficult start." The event included champagne, hors d'oevres and free photographs from the ship's photographers. They sell this event for $50 (which I would never pay), but it was still a turnout of about 70 people or so, giving us the opportunity to enjoy phenomenal views of Venice and a "reunion" of sorts with our fellow distressed passengers, all of whom were now over our travel problems.

 

Additionally, our cabin steward delivered two extra bathrobes to our stateroom, with instructions from his supervisor that they were ours to keep due to the rough start. They were also very gracious at the front desk in refunding our non-refundalbe Nice excursions that we purchased ahead of time.

 

My feedback to Delta Airlines, which was the root cause of our issues due to mechanical problems and the lack of backup equipment at JFK, is to ask them how come they caused the problem, but Celebrity did a 10 times better job of making us feel better?

 

Oh.....so sorry to read of your flight problems:(.....I was on Equinox

in May and had problems on USAIR but it was at the end of the cruise

going home.....which meant there were folks flying to Rome who also

missed their first day....we were stuck in FCO for the entire day

and those folks who flew into FCO missed the boat.....that flight

came from Philly....so those pax had to get to either Sicily or Athens

the following days to catch the ship.

Glad Celebrity helped you out and I hope you ended up having a

great cruise:).

 

So both Delta and USAIR messed up this summer:eek:

[fgc15527]

We had the best cabin steward on Eclipse. One night he made a towel animal for our cabin and my daughter thanked him for it and he offered to teach her how to make them during his free time on a sea day afternoon. While we sat on the balcony he taught her how to make too many animals to count and when he left the cabin our beds were covered in so many different towel animals. It was so nice of him to use his very limited free time to spend with us in order to make my daughters cruise a little more special.

[Cruise Arizona]

What a wonderful thread. It really does confirm my thought that Celebrity is fantastic, not just my opinion, but the opinion of many others too.

 

I've told this story 1000 times but on my first Celebrity cruise they started the Karaoke at 10:00 on formal night but we had second seating and wanted to attend the show. I mentioned that I would come but that I was worried about time to select a song, so he had the song selection book delivered to my room for me to select a song earlier in the afternoon.

 

We have had really amazing wine service, with special glasses even when we didn't order the most expensive bottles that warrented them. (though we did order those bottles too.)

 

The kids wanted sticky buns for breakfast or a grill burger for lunch and the assistant maitre'de who wasn't even ours, would go up to the buffet and bring sticky buns down for the kids or he would order the burger and fries for lunch in the MDR for my son.

 

We mentioned that we liked sugar free crem brulee and got it several times.

 

The waiters would always do little things to make the cruise special for the kids like games and riddles, card tricks and napkin folding after dinner.

 

They really do try to help and make the cruise as special as possible.

[sealover155]

We remember many outstanding examples of service from our cruises but this one stands out.

 

On our November Equinox transatlantic cruise last year, we were shocked to read about a storm in our town in the USA "newspaper" that came to our cabin just before dinner. At the moment, we were sailing off the coast of Spain, headed for the Azores.

 

The lead story was about an unexpected wind storm that had devastated Pasadena, CA, with hurricane like winds. Downed power lines, uprooted trees, power outages, etc. Since it was too early to call friends and neighbors, we did the next best thing and headed to the Ensemble Lounge for "liquid assistance". The bartenders overheard our despair and concern and immediately called Guest Services. Within minutes, a member of the Concierge staff appeared at our table to offer any assistance possible, phone, internet, etc. For the duration of the cruise, over 10 days, they called daily to check on the progress and to continue to offer support. Additionally, the bartenders, who became our new best friends, continuously inquired about the status of our home.

 

Unfortunately, we did suffer severe damage to our property, but the house survived pretty well as it has for 87 years. Thanks to our wonderful neighbors who emailed photos of our home we were able to grasp the reality of it all. We lost many, many, old trees but overall we felt very fortunate. Some friends are still out of their homes awaiting completion of repairs. Shockingly, Cal Tech reported gusts of over 160MPH.

 

Thanks to all of this support, our enjoyment of the cruise was not eclipsed by these events. Their concern was definitely genuine. This is an example of the character of the Celebrity family. It can't be trained or instilled, it has to be inherrent and obviously, someone in Human Resources noticed it in these employees. We will be forever grateful.

[spencerdrivecruiser]

Wife and I did two 15 day b2b on the CN a few years back.

 

Being Elite we would go to Michaels Club each morning for coffee and Smoothies.

 

While we were in Michaels Club in the morning we would notice the cleaner would come in to dust, polish, etc. After seeing him a few days we said good morning and asked him how he was.

 

On the second b2b we arrived at the club and no attendents were around, probably getting more supplies.

 

All of a sudden the cleaner brought over a smoothie for me. He served it as a waiter would with the tray and napkin. He was aware I drank smoothies each day and seeing me sitting there waiting decided to make it happen.

 

I was touched and did an Attention to Detail which got him Employee of the Month and dinner with other awardees at the Captains Table. Needless to say he was a happy camper. He went above and beyond his duty as a cleaner in servicing me.