First Time Cruiser - What should I ask my "Genie" for?

[spooky981]

I got a two bedroom spacious aquatheater suite on Symphony. I'll be bringing my wife and two kids (3 and 5). People always talk about how incredible these genies are and how you're only limited by your imagination - but since I'm not an avid cruiser I have no imagination!

 

The only thing that comes to mind is asking for a favorite beer on ice, or a dessert in room after we return from dinner. It feels like that would be a waste of an extraordinary resource though!

 

What kinds of things can a Genie do that I probably wouldn't think about?

Is there anything they can do to make childcare easier?

[forgotmyCCname]

You don't have to ask your Genie for anything. He/she will ask you your preferred beverages for your fridge; you will have champagne on ice if you desire. Our steward actually kept our fridges stocked with hubs preferred beers and my diet soda; bottles of water, etc.

 

The Genie will send a waiter to your suite each afternoon for a cocktail order so that you don't have to walk all the way to the suite lounge; I was a big fan of the Lemon Drop martini. 
 

They will provide you with a weekly and daily schedule of activities that will be discussed before you ever step on the ship and confirmed by email.  

 

They will not be able to assist with childcare; you will still have to sign the papers and set your kids up for whatever hours "kid camp " has. (we did witness one dad having a bit of a meltdown when our shared Genie told him he couldn't sit with  or provide a private sitter for his 7 year old.) "Childcare" per se is more of a group of kids if a certain age together in a specific location with a few team leaders. For your own piece of mind you may want to research a bit on what is available now on Symphony for your children's age groups. There is a section on the website about "kids and teens". There is no private childcare or in suite babysitting.

 

Genie will escort you to a bridge tour if you desire. Our Genies always stopped by our suite several times daily . 

 

Your Genie will pop up at dinner, escort you to specially reserved and labeled your seats in the theaters and aqua theaters. You won't ever miss a show because they schedule for when you like and remind you of your reservations and escort you to the venue.

We have enjoyed our Genies ; they are several steps above a butler on NCL. But we have never embraced the attitude that you see a lot on these boards to make sure we get every single possible second that we can out of them. It will all just kind of flow and you don't have to over think it.

Ours have even given us gifts at the end of the cruise which is quite sweet.

 

From what we have seen they are very good with kids.

 

Have a great cruise!!

 

PS: the steward will take care of daily laundry for you which will be excellent with kids!
 

 

 

Edited July 15, 2021 by forgotmyCCname

[RFerrington]

It has been our experience that all-in-all, we get waaay more food delivered to the suite than we could ever consume.  On the last few SC cruises we have taken, we have asked the Genie to please STOP the food from coming.  It just gets wasted.  Between all of the specialty dining and the in-suite treats, I just can't eat that much !  Of course, children will make a difference.  It's just the 2 of us...

 

Genie can do as much or as little as you want them to do.  My husband is one of the few that really doesn't care much for the Genie service.  You will find that there is a lot of activity around a SC suite.  It seems like someone is always coming to pick something up or drop something off or calling to confirm this or that.  It's just too much attention, for him.  We had B2B SC cruises on Anthem in 2019 and one of our requests for our Genie was to minimize the interruptions.  She did an excellent job of doing that.

 

Having reserved seating for entertainment venues is one of the nicest perks of SC.  Now, with social distancing, I suspect this feature will be even more important as will the ability to reserve all of your dining.

 

One of the nice features of SC is the fact that they do your laundry for you as often as you want.  It's very nice to have clothes go out to the laundry every day and come back on hangers (except for unmentionables, which come back in a sealed bag) every afternoon.

 

Since you are in an ATS it might be fun to have the Genie arrange for delivery of popcorn for the kids during the ATS shows.  That's always a fun treat. I always enjoyed breakfast out on the balcony the most.  It's usually still cool enough out there to enjoy eating outside and since mornings can be trying...especially with 3 and 5 year olds !  Of course, you can have any food delivered at nearly any time but there's something about breakfast outside....

 

Enjoy the ATS.  We did SC twice in ATS before we moved up to Deck 17.  The view and the balcony are completely unique.  It's a long walk all the way back there but it's really great AND the kids will have their own bedroom which is a BIG plus.

[spooky981]

That's interesting. I thought that they could help with childcare, and it sounds like they almost push excess on you. I didn't quite get many ideas on unique things to request but I sure have a better idea of what to expect now.

[neverbeenhere]

13 minutes ago, spooky981 said:

That's interesting. I thought that they could help with childcare, and it sounds like they almost push excess on you. I didn't quite get many ideas on unique things to request but I sure have a better idea of what to expect now.

 

[forgotmyCCname]

16 minutes ago, spooky981 said:

That's interesting. I thought that they could help with childcare, and it sounds like they almost push excess on you. I didn't quite get many ideas on unique things to request but I sure have a better idea of what to expect now.

We have cruised with our 3 since they were 2,2 and 9 months. They are now 22,22 and 20.

There is no "childcare " on RCL, NCL cruise ships (except one had a "nursery" where you can leave an infant 😉 NCL used to have extended "kids camp" hours where you paid for the kidlettes to stay longer than the regular scheduled hours.

 

You might want to check on the hours of the kids camp so you aren't unpleasantly surprised when you board. 
 

when are you sailing? 

 

 

 

[spooky981]

I sail in late November.

[mac_tlc]

We have had a genie once on Oasis in a 2BDR Aquatheatre Suite and will have our second experience on Allure on 8/15, also in a AQ Suite. In fact, we just received our first e-mail yesterday from our genie, Smitha. 
 

The prior summaries are very good. We had 8 in our room, so there were a lot of schedule changes that our genie handled without a hitch. The frig was ridiculously stocked with whatever you want. 
 

I think they had to add additional staff in the laundry for all the stuff we sent them!!!

 

The best item we requested was popcorn and shakes from Johnny Rockets—— and they were delivered every night at 8pm. 
 

You will have a great time!

 

mac_tlc

 

 

[lovescats5]

It will be interesting to see what happens with the genies with all the changes on board.  I know we always got personalized gifts, very few available on the ship, most were purchased otherwise.  With cruises restarting the genies might not be able to provide the service they did before.  However, a genie is a wonderful person to have when on board.  Our first genie on Oasis we even asked, towards the end of the cruise, if there were things we could have asked for that we did not know about.  They have a sixth sense of where you are and what you are doing.  Ours, Derick, on Anthem could always find us regardless of where we were.  

 

They will book all your shows, dining, have your frig filled, any activities you want to attend will be booked.  Any change you might want to make during the week happens, whether it is dinner time, dinner place or whatever else.  However, they are not servents either.  While on Anthem a genie was expected to go to the hot dog hut and get a single hot dog with a certain kind of mustard.  She did it but it takes a different kind of person to expect someone to go get them food.  Not saying they would not drop by with popcorn, but those things can be sent otherwise also.  

 

Once you have a genie it is hard to sail on Oasis class or Quantum class not in a SC room.  Our genie from Anthem is now on Oasis and we are hoping he will transfer to Anthem when she comes back to Bayonne and Oasis goes to Miami.  

 

As someone said, you will have a wonderful time.  Enjoy all the perkes.

[forgotmyCCname]

You could always bring a babysitter! We were on Freedom once and a family brought a nanny. The mother required her to wear scrubs as a "uniform" the entire cruise. The poor gal had to swim in her rolled up scrubs at the old Coco Cay. The nanny had a stateroom with the kids; we were in the concierge lounge when Suite  Mother of the Year was very upset with  the concierge; she wanted to make sure that the Nanny had no charging privileges beyond $10 / day  because " you just don't know who to trust". 
My then 10 yo asked her why she cared more about her onboard account than her children. She was not amused. 
 

 

[RFerrington]

2 hours ago, forgotmyCCname said:

You could always bring a babysitter! We were on Freedom once and a family brought a nanny. The mother required her to wear scrubs as a "uniform" the entire cruise. The poor gal had to swim in her rolled up scrubs at the old Coco Cay. The nanny had a stateroom with the kids; we were in the concierge lounge when Suite  Mother of the Year was very upset with  the concierge; she wanted to make sure that the Nanny had no charging privileges beyond $10 / day  because " you just don't know who to trust". 
My then 10 yo asked her why she cared more about her onboard account than her children. She was not amused. 
 

 

😟 UGH.  How awful

[spooky981]

The room is big enough but we think with the help of Aquanauts we can probably handle the kids ourselves.

[Miloomar]

On 7/15/2021 at 12:28 PM, forgotmyCCname said:

They will provide you with a weekly and daily schedule of activities that will be discussed before you ever step on the ship and confirmed by email.  

 

I've never stayed in a suite and still don't plan to, but this is the first I had heard of this perk. Do these ever leak online? It would be kinda nice to see a full schedule instead of just that day's (and the next by dinner time)