What have you successfully asked for from both concierge and butler

[drdestructo]

Just off the Bliss in Haven.  Our butler Jennifer was teriffic!  We asked for a pitcher of ice water and unsweet iced tea in the fridge each night.  We asked her to not deliver the canapes in the afternoon as they would go to waste. 

 

We also asked for and received chocolate chip cookies and glasses of milk each evening.  Jennifer also left a bowl of peanut and plain M & M's.   

 

One night we planned to watch teh Monday Night Football Game game in the room and stopped by the Local to pick up a piece of apple pie and carrot cake to take back to the room.  The person at the desk at the Local said we could not do that. Then they noticed our Seapass was for Haven.  She asked for our butler's phone number and about 15 minutes later Jennifer knocked at our room door with the desserts!

 

On the last full day of the cruise we had sent some laundry out in the morning and wanted to finish packing before dinner so we could leave our bags outside the room.  After a phone call to Jennifer she brought the folded laundry to our room.

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, BDL said:

We're new to the Haven - going on Getaway next month. Are there any charges for all these treats?  My husband would love peanut M&Ms and I would love chocolate covered strawberries.  We have a free 3 day specialty dining package - do we use that if we want to have dinner in the suite?   Thanks in advance!

M&M (plain or peanut) and gummie bears are available. 

 

If you order from the MDR or Haven dinner menu, it is free. If you order from a specialty restaurant, you need to pay or use an SDP credit. 

[DCT61]

Apparently when you cruise on NCL, your appetite for gummy bears and m&m’s becomes insatiable

[Aesop081]

4 hours ago, DCT61 said:

Apparently when you cruise on NCL, your appetite for gummy bears and m&m’s becomes insatiable

It's important to eat lots of gummy bears, as they make you more bouyant.  It's a safety thing!

[TrpngBilly]

On the Escape, asked our butler to serve us dinner on our aft facing balcony, which he did.  There were four of us; two adults and two kids.  After looking at the menus from all the dining venues, we each asked for dinner from a different.  Everything was brought to us as requested and my wife even got her special request dessert; from yet another restaurant that was different from the four dinner restaurants.

 

We asked for  

[maja651]

When we cruised on the Jewel in the GV, our amazing butler Putu noticed I love champagne. He kept bringing bottles of the good stuff until he ran out (about 6 bottles later). He had a stash from when GV or OS passengers don’t use the champagne and I used it all up! 😉

 

My friend likes the cheese/meat anti pasta platter for snacks, and I like sweets. We ask the butler for both and always get both.

 

On our last cruise in March, our butler Leo set up an amazing anniversary spread for the hubs and I. He had decorated the table with napkin candles, a Happy Anniversary sign, balloons, a huge anniversary cake, pretzel rolls, 3 bottles of champs and many glasses and plates . (He knew we were traveling in a group of 5 as we had the OS and our friends had the 2 connecting penthouse suites).

 

I love the idea of calling the butler to bring us quickly up to the room to avoid the long elevator lines when getting back on the ship after a long day at a port. We have  never done this but I think we will in March. I imagine if we bring our room phone with us we can call when we get close to the ship.

[bpphoto]

On 10/24/2018 at 6:54 PM, tomservo said:

Can anyone with a butler request these tours? I'd be interested in this.

My son would love this too... We are boarding Bliss in April, would this be possible???

[dinkydee718]

On the Pearl we asked the butler for a bunch of DVDs and he brought them. The concierge straightened out a dinner reservation mistake that NCL made. 

[Shellbelle28]

On 12/28/2018 at 9:26 PM, maja651 said:

When we cruised on the Jewel in the GV, our amazing butler Putu noticed I love champagne. He kept bringing bottles of the good stuff until he ran out (about 6 bottles later). He had a stash from when GV or OS passengers don’t use the champagne and I used it all up! 😉

 

My friend likes the cheese/meat anti pasta platter for snacks, and I like sweets. We ask the butler for both and always get both.

 

On our last cruise in March, our butler Leo set up an amazing anniversary spread for the hubs and I. He had decorated the table with napkin candles, a Happy Anniversary sign, balloons, a huge anniversary cake, pretzel rolls, 3 bottles of champs and many glasses and plates . (He knew we were traveling in a group of 5 as we had the OS and our friends had the 2 connecting penthouse suites).

 

I love the idea of calling the butler to bring us quickly up to the room to avoid the long elevator lines when getting back on the ship after a long day at a port. We have  never done this but I think we will in March. I imagine if we bring our room phone with us we can call when we get close to the ship.

I agree Putu is amazing and a sweetheart! He was on the Pearl when we sailed her in 2015. 

[northernrose]

great insight to want butlers can do.

[House_Atreides]

November 2018 25 days....Star.

 

Butler:  Loy was really on top of things, always refilling the coffee pods, the fridge with water and mixers.  Lots of afternoon treats and yes, M&Ms.  We had friends over to play cards frequently and he brought huge bowls of potato chips in for us.  Escort on and off the ship at embarkation and ports.  (Either him or Suzana our concierge).

 

Concierge:  I kept messing up dinner reservations and she kept fixing them for me and gave me a print out.  One night we had an extra guest we wanted to bring with us to Teppy and she arranged with the chef to make room for her.  I have difficulties walking and she offered to escort me to my room one night but I got there alright.  She checked in with us every day making sure to stop and say hi to each of us. She was amazing and we all still miss Suzy (Star, November 2018).  We did the TA and b2b 11 night southern Caribbean.  

 

 

[House_Atreides]

November 2018 25 days....Star.

 

Butler:  Loy was really on top of things, always refilling the coffee pods, the fridge with water and mixers.  Lots of afternoon treats and yes, M&Ms.  We had friends over to play cards frequently and he brought huge bowls of potato chips in for us.  Escort on and off the ship at embarkation and ports.  (Either him or Suzana our concierge).

 

Concierge:  I kept messing up dinner reservations and she kept fixing them for me and gave me a print out.  One night we had an extra guest we wanted to bring with us to Teppy and she arranged with the chef to make room for her.  I have difficulties walking and she offered to escort me to my room one night but I got there alright.  She checked in with us every day making sure to stop and say hi to each of us. She was amazing and we all still miss Suzy (Star, November 2018).  We did the TA and b2b 11 night southern Caribbean.  

 

 

[samiam0403]

You guys are making me jealous with all of these butler/concierge success stories! My first experience in a suite was a 10-day sailing on the Sun. Monica was AMAZING and set the bar for us for concierges. Recent sailings have been...underwhelming. On Getaway a few years ago, we asked our butler to a) not bring any of the fishy snacks, and b) maybe substitute pretzel rolls instead. We were flat out told no. When needing to make a mid-cruise change to a dinner reservation, our concierge informed us he could only get us in to Le Bistro on the last night at 9:00pm. Our last few suite/Haven cruises haven’t been great. Hoping our next one (in just 30 days!) on Epic breaks the streak. 

 

(Note: for the record, I am not high-maintenance, am appreciative and polite (26 years in the military makes one appreciate how blessed we are to cruise at all!), have minimal requests (literally, other than our pre-cruise concierge request for OJ in the fridge, our only requests on Getaway were the ones mentioned above - no meals served in room, we made all our own reservations pre-cruise, nothing extra. At all.), and tip decently. I really think it is just luck of the draw sometimes, so I really hope we hear ‘yes’ more than ‘no’ on this upcoming cruise - after camping in what’s left of our home after Hurricane Michael, we could use the luxury!)

Edited January 4, 2019 by samiam0403

[maja651]

2 hours ago, samiam0403 said:

You guys are making me jealous with all of these butler/concierge success stories! My first experience in a suite was a 10-day sailing on the Sun. Monica was AMAZING and set the bar for us for concierges. Recent sailings have been...underwhelming. On Getaway a few years ago, we asked our butler to a) not bring any of the fishy snacks, and b) maybe substitute pretzel rolls instead. We were flat out told no. When needing to make a mid-cruise change to a dinner reservation, our concierge informed us he could only get us in to Le Bistro on the last night at 9:00pm. Our last few suite/Haven cruises haven’t been great. Hoping our next one (in just 30 days!) on Epic breaks the streak. 

 

(Note: for the record, I am not high-maintenance, am appreciative and polite (26 years in the military makes one appreciate how blessed we are to cruise at all!), have minimal requests (literally, other than our pre-cruise concierge request for OJ in the fridge, our only requests on Getaway were the ones mentioned above - no meals served in room, we made all our own reservations pre-cruise, nothing extra. At all.), and tip decently. I really think it is just luck of the draw sometimes, so I really hope we hear ‘yes’ more than ‘no’ on this upcoming cruise - after camping in what’s left of our home after Hurricane Michael, we could use the luxury!)

If I had experienced the poor service you had I would have escalated that. The butler really should not tell you no, ever. (Unless of course the request is unreasonable). Switching pretzel rolls out and being told no is absolutely ridiculous.  If that happens again to you, tell the concierge (butler’s boss), and if that doesn’t work, talk to the hotel director.  

 

We had a very, very poor experience with a concierge on the Jewel a couple of years ago. I mean, TERRIBLE.  We were only 2 people, sailing in the Garden Villa no less, and were told basically no to everything from the concierge, Bruno.  “Bruno, can we pay for a massage in our room?’  - Bruno - NO.  ‘Bruno can you fix the hot tub, as we want to use it.’ Bruno - sorry, today is the maintenance DAY.    ‘Bruno - can you please set up the limo ride back to the airport’ (this comes with the GV) - Bruno - sure. I’ll take care of it. Then day of departure, it was not set up and the port escort lady had to scramble to get a ride for my friend.  Luckily for us, and not for Bruno, my friend was taking the limo and I was taking something else as I was staying in LA after the cruise. So, I was aware of the limo fiasco and let Bruno have it before I debarked.  I also let the hotel director know what happened and how displeased we were with the lack of service from Bruno. Im pretty sure Bruno was put in the penalty box as a result of our cruise because he was later on multiple ships with no contract as a fill in.

 

I have  also had amazing experience experiences from great concierges like Adrian. One of the things I’ll never forget him saying was  something like, I don’t like lines, and don’t do them, so with me, you wont either.  And he was right, no lines ever on the Epic when he was our concierge. He is hands down our favorite concierge.

[samiam0403]

10 hours ago, maja651 said:

If I had experienced the poor service you had I would have escalated that. The butler really should not tell you no, ever. (Unless of course the request is unreasonable). Switching pretzel rolls out and being told no is absolutely ridiculous.  If that happens again to you, tell the concierge (butler’s boss), and if that doesn’t work, talk to the hotel director.  

 

We had a very, very poor experience with a concierge on the Jewel a couple of years ago. I mean, TERRIBLE.  We were only 2 people, sailing in the Garden Villa no less, and were told basically no to everything from the concierge, Bruno.  “Bruno, can we pay for a massage in our room?’  - Bruno - NO.  ‘Bruno can you fix the hot tub, as we want to use it.’ Bruno - sorry, today is the maintenance DAY.    ‘Bruno - can you please set up the limo ride back to the airport’ (this comes with the GV) - Bruno - sure. I’ll take care of it. Then day of departure, it was not set up and the port escort lady had to scramble to get a ride for my friend.  Luckily for us, and not for Bruno, my friend was taking the limo and I was taking something else as I was staying in LA after the cruise. So, I was aware of the limo fiasco and let Bruno have it before I debarked.  I also let the hotel director know what happened and how displeased we were with the lack of service from Bruno. Im pretty sure Bruno was put in the penalty box as a result of our cruise because he was later on multiple ships with no contract as a fill in.

 

I have  also had amazing experience experiences from great concierges like Adrian. One of the things I’ll never forget him saying was  something like, I don’t like lines, and don’t do them, so with me, you wont either.  And he was right, no lines ever on the Epic when he was our concierge. He is hands down our favorite concierge.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience - I’m glad you finally said something to Bruno and the HD! Hopefully they were suitably horrified at your lack of service. My problem is I’m always reluctant to complain - even when I absolutely should. This next time my husband is going with me, and he’ll be more than happy to do so on my behalf when it’s warranted.

 

Looking forward to sailing in the Haven on Epic (just sailed on her in a spa mini-suite 2 weeks ago and wished I was in the Haven the entire time 😂 ). And hoping we have an amazing experience as you did! 

[Shellbelle28]

16 hours ago, maja651 said:

We had a very, very poor experience with a concierge on the Jewel a couple of years ago. I mean, TERRIBLE.  We were only 2 people, sailing in the Garden Villa no less, and were told basically no to everything from the concierge, Bruno.  “Bruno, can we pay for a massage in our room?’  - Bruno - NO.  ‘Bruno can you fix the hot tub, as we want to use it.’ Bruno - sorry, today is the maintenance DAY.    ‘Bruno - can you please set up the limo ride back to the airport’ (this comes with the GV) - Bruno - sure. I’ll take care of it. Then day of departure, it was not set up and the port escort lady had to scramble to get a ride for my friend.  Luckily for us, and not for Bruno, my friend was taking the limo and I was taking something else as I was staying in LA after the cruise. So, I was aware of the limo fiasco and let Bruno have it before I debarked.  I also let the hotel director know what happened and how displeased we were with the lack of service from Bruno. Im pretty sure Bruno was put in the penalty box as a result of our cruise because he was later on multiple ships with no contract as a fill in.

Wow! I don't know if that was the same Concierge named Bruno that we had this September (2018) on the Pearl, because if it was, he has seriously improved his game. Our Bruno was excellent. He was personable , visible and "No problem" was his answer for every request. 

[maja651]

37 minutes ago, Shellbelle28 said:

Wow! I don't know if that was the same Concierge named Bruno that we had this September (2018) on the Pearl, because if it was, he has seriously improved his game. Our Bruno was excellent. He was personable , visible and "No problem" was his answer for every request. 

I think it is the same Bruno.  My friend who was with me on the cruise where he was horrific also had him again on the Epic a few months later.  She said he was completely different and made up for his past horrible concierge behavior.  I think his time in the penalty box helped him with his attitude and perspective on service. Lol

[jvsnana]

17 hours ago, maja651 said:

I have  also had amazing experience experiences from great concierges like Adrian. One of the things I’ll never forget him saying was  something like, I don’t like lines, and don’t do them, so with me, you wont either.  And he was right, no lines ever on the Epic when he was our concierge. He is hands down our favorite concierge.

Oh Adrian!  Once he found us standing in a line and he grabbed my hand and said "We DON'T do lines" and proceeded to happily whisk us away to the front of the line ... although we received the stink eye from several other folks in said line 

We have had great service from Bruno recently, so all is good there!

We had a horrible butler once in the GV...told no several times as you.  A few years later we ran into him (he was not our butler, we had a different one).  We of course remembered him but he did not remember us.  He was so pleasant and kind and we found ourselves enjoying his company and chatting lots on our long TA.  Funny how that happens! 

[RDH377]

Recently off the Gem out of NYC. Concierge Elvina and butler Ronald. 7 of us in a GV. Every reservation, including a couple of changes handled very efficiently. All questions answered quickly and accurately. Escorts on and off the ship, plus the limo ride back to our hotel post cruise done exactly right. 

 

The butler service was on point. Lots of fresh fruit delivered daily along with chocolate covered strawberry's. Fresh unsweetened tea every day with lemon and limes. Tea bags for hot tea refreshed daily and sometimes more than once. Firm pillows delivered the same day they were requested along with a 2nd blanket for one of our rooms. Service with a smile at ALL times. Well worth the expense.

 

The only questionable thing was the first day. I asked the butler if we could order food from multiple locations to be delivered to the suite. Surprisingly, we were told no. We did not push it as it turns out we never did try to do so. That seemed unusual since everything I read on these boards seems to indicate that the answer should have been yes. 

 

Best, even if minor, concierge story. On $20 laundry bag day, we did not follow the instructions and left the bags in the living room instead of on the beds. So, they were not taken. Called the concierge later in the day once we discovered this. No issue at all and the laundry was returned on time and at the discounted price even though the mistake was ours.

 

Have a nice day.

[dongordon]

2 hours ago, RDH377 said:

Recently off the Gem out of NYC. Concierge Elvina and butler Ronald. 7 of us in a GV. Every reservation, including a couple of changes handled very efficiently. All questions answered quickly and accurately. Escorts on and off the ship, plus the limo ride back to our hotel post cruise done exactly right. 

 

The butler service was on point. Lots of fresh fruit delivered daily along with chocolate covered strawberry's. Fresh unsweetened tea every day with lemon and limes. Tea bags for hot tea refreshed daily and sometimes more than once. Firm pillows delivered the same day they were requested along with a 2nd blanket for one of our rooms. Service with a smile at ALL times. Well worth the expense.

 

The only questionable thing was the first day. I asked the butler if we could order food from multiple locations to be delivered to the suite. Surprisingly, we were told no. We did not push it as it turns out we never did try to do so. That seemed unusual since everything I read on these boards seems to indicate that the answer should have been yes. 

 

Best, even if minor, concierge story. On $20 laundry bag day, we did not follow the instructions and left the bags in the living room instead of on the beds. So, they were not taken. Called the concierge later in the day once we discovered this. No issue at all and the laundry was returned on time and at the discounted price even though the mistake was ours.

 

Have a nice day.

Elvina by far was the best Concierge I have ever had on an NCL ship.

I wish she was on all my NCL ships!  She always goes the extra mile and is a lovely lady. 

Don

[maja651]

3 hours ago, RDH377 said:

Recently off the Gem out of NYC. Concierge Elvina and butler Ronald. 7 of us in a GV. Every reservation, including a couple of changes handled very efficiently. All questions answered quickly and accurately. Escorts on and off the ship, plus the limo ride back to our hotel post cruise done exactly right. 

 

Did you bring your portable room phone for escorting back onto the ship? I love this plan to avoid the long elevator waits.

[shrew]

On 12/28/2018 at 9:26 PM, maja651 said:

When we cruised on the Jewel in the GV, our amazing butler Putu noticed I love champagne. He kept bringing bottles of the good stuff until he ran out (about 6 bottles later). He had a stash from when GV or OS passengers don’t use the champagne and I used it all up! 😉

 

My friend likes the cheese/meat anti pasta platter for snacks, and I like sweets. We ask the butler for both and always get both.

 

On our last cruise in March, our butler Leo set up an amazing anniversary spread for the hubs and I. He had decorated the table with napkin candles, a Happy Anniversary sign, balloons, a huge anniversary cake, pretzel rolls, 3 bottles of champs and many glasses and plates . (He knew we were traveling in a group of 5 as we had the OS and our friends had the 2 connecting penthouse suites).

 

I love the idea of calling the butler to bring us quickly up to the room to avoid the long elevator lines when getting back on the ship after a long day at a port. We have  never done this but I think we will in March. I imagine if we bring our room phone with us we can call when we get close to the ship.

Putu was our butler on the Star in March and he was fabulous! He brought us extra bottles of champagne for mimosas in the morning, noticed that we weren't eating the sweets really so brought us more savory - except that he knew my daughter was crazy for the chocolate covered strawberries so he brought them almost daily. Hoping he's on the Breakaway in Feb... 🙂

[keep on cruisin]

Concierge

 

We have had good and bad concierge service in our 3 Haven stays on Breakaway.  The first 2 was the same concierge which I don't recall his name but do know he is generally considered very good here. For us he did not say yes to anything.  On the second night we asked for dining reservations in a specialty, did not care if it was Teppanyaki, Cagney or Le Bistro.  He apologized and said there was no available times.  We asked early afternoon so not a complete surprise but had seen enough concierge reviews that the concierge could get in typically.   Didn't push it but asked for what nights he could.  We were told no times available for 3 in a party.  I made my own reservations for all 3 specialties the next morning.  Didn't use him for anything other than debarkation escort after that.  

 

Our last trip however the concierge was wonderful.  Always had a smile, always said hello. Knew our names by the first night.  He was able to adjust same dining time we had maid with the pre cruise concierge.  Always made sure we knew were to meet before shows for Haven access to by the lines.

 

Butlers

 

All 3 have been good.  The first was excellent.

First in the Aft penthouse,  we had breakfast on that fabulous balcony every morning.  Our son loved the M&M's so he made sure we got always filled(until we asked him to just leave what was ther rather than topping them off).  He brought us DVD's, and changed the pillows out.

 

The second in the Haven proper we really didn't ask him for anything.  I think we did breakfast one morning with an early excursion.  Most morning we took advantage of the haven restaurant for breakfast.

 

Most recently again in the Haven proper we use them for quire a bit of late night room service(which of course is the evening butler)  the best thing about that trip though was the butler and room steward were able to get me the original remote for the TV so i could connect my Roku to the TV HDMI input(no longer accesable due to removal of DVD players).  This allowed me to us Smartview from my tablet to watch my previously downloaded movies.  They also exchanged out the multiple bottles of sparkling wine we received for water..

 

So as many have said there is good and bad.  And on the same sailing you will have stories of great and stories of horrendous from the same person.

 

I do believe part of the issue with the concierge on the first sailing was partially due to us not going to the Haven as often due to being in the aft penthouse.  The next 2 sailings were in the actual Haven area.  While we did not use any concierge services on the second trip he was much more personable with us.  We were much more visible to him.

 

On a side note others have discussed getting desserts from specialties from the Butler.  We actually did that in the Haven restaurant all the stays, as well as getting the escargot from Le Bistro multiple times.  Not just the nights it was offered in the MDR.  The only request they had for us was if knew we want something if possible give them a heads up either the night before of the that morning at breakfast so the could schedule it better.

 

The Haven MaitreD also had Chocolate souffle for us one night when we had mentioned how we missed it from our earlier NCL cruises.  At breakfast she told us we had to eat with them that night as she had a surprise for us. 

[Nextcruise42]

We received an email precruise asking us to list requests. We asked for in cabin refrigerator to be emptied, daily ice,  almond milk and bananas. We also requested pillows from their suggested list. All requests were honored. We sometimes missed the butler but we knew he had been there. ( afternoon treats).We met the concierge on day 1 but never needed his assistance, so I can`t comment.

[dexddd]

12 hours ago, jvsnana said:

Oh Adrian!  Once he found us standing in a line and he grabbed my hand and said "We DON'T do lines" and proceeded to happily whisk us away to the front of the line ... although we received the stink eye from several other folks in said line 

We have had great service from Bruno recently, so all is good there!

We had a horrible butler once in the GV...told no several times as you.  A few years later we ran into him (he was not our butler, we had a different one).  We of course remembered him but he did not remember us.  He was so pleasant and kind and we found ourselves enjoying his company and chatting lots on our long TA.  Funny how that happens! 

I never gave you the stink eye -it was a double stink eye.