NOW I have a problem with the new Suite policies

[sixpackeddie]

19 minutes ago, Shellyd22 said:

Same here I was looking forward to having specialty coffee delivered daily to be enjoyed on the balcony. Of course I can walk down and get my own but still kinda disappointed. Plus I had to “convince” my hubby to get a suite and that was one of the perks he thought was nice 😆

You basically have Aqua Class with priority boarding and access to Lumanie.

[tfred]

5 hours ago, TeeRick said:

Hotel and airline loyalty programs give you worthwhile benefits for frequent use like free flights, free nights, and upgrades to each.  Cruise loyalty programs give you next to nothing like this.  A free bag of laundry?

Airline and hotel programs used to have easily obtained flights and rooms- no more. Very high redemption rates and limited availability are the norm now. I have 1.5 million miles that are not easy to use. 
 

what those programs are good for is resolution of problems.  Missed or delayed flights. Sold out hotels. Loyalty programs there are made for heavy users at high fares generally on business 
 

I have yet to figure out why cruise lines still have loyalty programs. Free laundry or preferred reservations at specialty restaurants is good.  Free booze (which promotes a la carte trips with no AI) seems to be against the lines interest. 

[chemmo]

13 minutes ago, sixpackeddie said:

You basically have Aqua Class with priority boarding and access to Lumanie.

Can’t Sky Suite guests get speciality coffee delivered to their suites? I would have thought that was one thing they would continue. No reason why a Team member can’t be coordinating coffee deliveries.

[Shellyd22]

12 minutes ago, sixpackeddie said:

You basically have Aqua Class with priority boarding and access to Lumanie.

Yeah well the main appeal was the priority boarding and retreat deck because I hate crowded pools and not being able to find a seat. But with suites getting booked out who knows I probably will still have that issue 🙄 As others stated before maybe they are marketing to a younger crowd but I’m considered a young millennial and it’s all about perceived value. I can recognize the included premium bevs, gratuities, and OBC is actually being paid for in our ticket price. But to take away the butler it def gives the suite less value. To ge fair I don’t think I would ge a fan of the infinite veranda either way but for double the price I would expect a little better service 🤷‍♀️

[jelayne]

13 minutes ago, chemmo said:

Can’t Sky Suite guests get speciality coffee delivered to their suites? I would have thought that was one thing they would continue. No reason why a Team member can’t be coordinating coffee deliveries.

Yes.  There will be delivery of room service, one response from X said there would be a delivery team instead of a butler delivering orders.

[jelayne]

18 minutes ago, Shellyd22 said:

Yeah well the main appeal was the priority boarding and retreat deck because I hate crowded pools and not being able to find a seat. But with suites getting booked out who knows I probably will still have that issue 🙄 As others stated before maybe they are marketing to a younger crowd but I’m considered a young millennial and it’s all about perceived value. I can recognize the included premium bevs, gratuities, and OBC is actually being paid for in our ticket price. But to take away the butler it def gives the suite less value. To ge fair I don’t think I would ge a fan of the infinite veranda either way but for double the price I would expect a little better service 🤷‍♀️

Sky suites still have priority boarding, the Retreat Sun Deck, Retreat Lounge and Luminae.  The change went from a dedicated butler to a Tea. How that will impact the Suite experience remains to be seen.  

[padgman1]

but @jelayne, I don't want tea, i want my latte delivered to my suite....

(Know you meant "team" above, but could not resist...)

[jelayne]

11 minutes ago, padgman1 said:

but @jelayne, I don't want tea, i want my latte delivered to my suite....

(Know you meant "team" above, but could not resist...)

They will bring your latte with a side of tea😂.

[terrydtx]

I paid and booked my SS cruises on the basis that my dedicated butler would deliver my espresso every morning from Cafe al Bacio and it looks like that is not the case.  I am owed restitution by Celebrity.

[jelayne]

1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

I paid and booked my SS cruises on the basis that my dedicated butler would deliver my espresso every morning from Cafe al Bacio and it looks like that is not the case.  I am owed restitution by Celebrity.

Good luck.  
But it’s not all bad, in 2025 you’ll be on Oceania where your butler will catered to your every wish.

[phoenix_dream]

4 hours ago, sixpackeddie said:

You basically have Aqua Class with priority boarding and access to Lumanie.

And a larger room and balcony, premium drinks and internet, and access to the lounge. Not saying the current prices are necessarily worth it, but let's be honest about all the benefits.  

[terrydtx]

3 hours ago, jelayne said:

Good luck.  
But it’s not all bad, in 2025 you’ll be on Oceania where your butler will catered to your every wish.

We did not book a suite with a butler on the Oceania cruise, but its not like booking a Sky Suite with a butler that is not the same as we booked. We can live without a butler when we book a cabin that doesn't have one to begin with. If a SS had never had a butler not having one now would be no big deal, but we booked and paid for cruises with an advertised dedicated butler. We will be on the Apex in 3 weeks and will find out for ourselves what this new Team will do and will not do compared to our past butler experiences.  For example, when our butlers have brought our room service breakfasts to our cabin, they would set up our table with a tablecloth and even pour our first cup of coffee. From some current posts I have read the butlers no longer bring your breakfast to the cabin, regular room service personnel bring the breakfast on a tray and just leave it in the room with no set ups as in the past. It is the little things like this that set the Retreat apart from the service in the rest of the ship that we have paid to have.

Edited August 23, 2023 by terrydtx

[Sigyn]

I'm Gen X - age 55 - and I have no real interest in loyalty programs, other than Delta Airlines and that's because I can buy in with my purple AmEx branded card and get access to the lounges at the airport and other nice perks. I get upgraded quite frequently to first class just because I use my card a lot.

 

I shop around with hotels and cruises and rental cars and everything else and never stick to one thing. I do the same with airlines, too, if there's more than 25% or so difference in fares. It's not worth my upgrades and free luggage and such if it's more than that. I just don't care about free water and free laundry and a few extras like that from a cruise line if I've gone on 10 or 20 cruises. That seems like a ridiculous amount of buy in for very little reward. 

Edited August 23, 2023 by Sigyn

[abbydancer2003]

1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

For example, when our butlers have brought our room service breakfasts to our cabin, they would set up our table with a tablecloth and even pour our first cup of coffee. From some current posts I have read the butlers no longer bring your breakfast to the cabin, regular room service personnel bring the breakfast on a tray and just leave it in the room with no set ups as in the past. It is the little things like this that set the Retreat apart from the service in the rest of the ship that we have paid to have.

I've done most of my cruises in Sky Suites, and I've had butlers lay out a full continental breakfast (one), drop a tray with no set up (one) and everything in between.  So that can even vary with a dedicated butler.

The question will be, if you ask for it to be set up, will they do it?

 

Edited August 23, 2023 by abbydancer

[Suite Susie]

7 hours ago, terrydtx said:

We did not book a suite with a butler on the Oceania cruise, but its not like booking a Sky Suite with a butler that is not the same as we booked. We can live without a butler when we book a cabin that doesn't have one to begin with. If a SS had never had a butler not having one now would be no big deal, but we booked and paid for cruises with an advertised dedicated butler. We will be on the Apex in 3 weeks and will find out for ourselves what this new Team will do and will not do compared to our past butler experiences.  For example, when our butlers have brought our room service breakfasts to our cabin, they would set up our table with a tablecloth and even pour our first cup of coffee. From some current posts I have read the butlers no longer bring your breakfast to the cabin, regular room service personnel bring the breakfast on a tray and just leave it in the room with no set ups as in the past. It is the little things like this that set the Retreat apart from the service in the rest of the ship that we have paid to have.

I was wondering how they deliver breakfast. I will be extremely disappointed if the table is not set up as before for room service breakfast.  This is what you are paying for and if the retreat team cannot provide this along with our specialty coffees, they are not providing when I booked and paid for my SS 4 weeks ago. I had no idea about this new policy when we booked, it was still advertised as previous cruises. I have mobility issues, so just popping up to Al Bacio when I wake up is not an easy task. We sail 3 weeks on Saturday, so will report back. 

[Oceangoer2]

2 hours ago, Suite Susie said:

I was wondering how they deliver breakfast. I will be extremely disappointed if the table is not set up as before for room service breakfast.  This is what you are paying for and if the retreat team cannot provide this along with our specialty coffees, they are not providing when I booked and paid for my SS 4 weeks ago. I had no idea about this new policy when we booked, it was still advertised as previous cruises. I have mobility issues, so just popping up to Al Bacio when I wake up is not an easy task. We sail 3 weeks on Saturday, so will report back. 

In the past we have not had our breakfast set up WITH a table covering, but if asked, I'm sure he would have done so.   He set the table nicely and we didn't have to pick it up off the tray and do so ourselves.  Hopefully this will still be the practice.  I brought my own cloth however, for those special (to us) occasions which called for it IMO.  😉

[jelayne]

We have had a table cloth for dinner in our suite on the ships that have a decent table for eating.  But for breakfast it has been placemats rather than a table cloth.

[bnurick]

11 hours ago, terrydtx said:

We will be on the Apex in 3 weeks and will find out for ourselves what this new Team will do and will not do compared to our past butler experiences.

Looking forward to your updates. Need to also get info on your TA person. Cheers.

[terrydtx]

6 minutes ago, jelayne said:

We have had a table cloth for dinner in our suite on the ships that have a decent table for eating.  But for breakfast it has been placemats rather than a table cloth.

On the Reflection and Equinox we had a large round table on the balcony that the butlers would set up for our breakfasts. 

[jelayne]

38 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

On the Reflection and Equinox we had a large round table on the balcony that the butlers would set up for our breakfasts. 

We did also, set with placemats for breakfast and tablecloth for dinner.

[abbydancer2003]

Going back to something that flitted across this thread (I think) a couple of weeks ago ...

 

Someone on that other site posted a picture of the description of Michael's club on the either the Eclipse or Reflection that didn't list sky suites.  I went through a bunch of cruises, and it was just those two ships.

Today, someone said that they are charging 2.00 + tax for for cookies in the Gelateria on the Eclipse, so I went to the current cruise to see if it was listed somewhere (it wasn't), but for grins I looked at Michael's Club.  Now, for current cruise and the same cruises I looked at before, sky suites are listed as included.  (Reflection still doesn't have them).

 

Just thought I'd share.  I guess.I need a life.

[emmas gran]

A thought about the Butlers and Retreat team, I have 40 nights on Edge and travelling solo in a Sky suite the gratuity for this will be $50 per day so $2000 for the cruise, who will be getting this??

[wineoclock]

Very good question emmas and one that hadn’t really occurred to me. 

 

[Mark_T]

49 minutes ago, emmas gran said:

A thought about the Butlers and Retreat team, I have 40 nights on Edge and travelling solo in a Sky suite the gratuity for this will be $50 per day so $2000 for the cruise, who will be getting this??

Logically it would go to the pool for the 'Team' and housekeeping as usual.

Edited August 24, 2023 by Mark_T

[terrydtx]

3 hours ago, emmas gran said:

A thought about the Butlers and Retreat team, I have 40 nights on Edge and travelling solo in a Sky suite the gratuity for this will be $50 per day so $2000 for the cruise, who will be getting this??

The gratuities are included in your SS with the standard Retreat amenities and only a portion goes to the Butler team.

Edited August 24, 2023 by terrydtx