Crew to Passenger Ratio / Cutbacks Impacting Service?

[buncosquad]

8 hours ago, Dolebludger said:

I have never seen a Silversea or Regent cruise close to $300,000 — unless it is a “world cruise” of over 100 days in the absolute top level suite of a few thousand square feet in size. Now, in the real world, we recently booked a 7 night Regent cruise in a 400 sq.ft. suite (SS size) for less than a comparable cruise in a SS, all included (shore excursions, mini fridge, tips, etc.). The room steward has only a few suites, and provides the same service as the SS butler did. Room service is fast and efficient. Restaurant and lounge service is prompt. Couldn’t find a line or a crowd if we looked for one. No sign of post-pandemic staff shortage. $1,000 room credit. Real balcony. If it was boring, I’d like to be bored that way for life!

Their door-to-door itineraries that include AA First and yes, top staterooms, will be at or near that price. Not even world cruise, but more than 30 days, true. Land extensions prior or following included.

 

You get what you pay for.

 

All perspective. 

[Dolebludger]

Of course, I was referring to the prices of SS suites in the Retreat vs comparable suites on Regent and Silversea, none of which included air or land accommodations. I looked at comparable itineraries and duration. Pre-pandemic, my comparisons of this type showed the Retreat to be the best bargain over those lines. And we found the Retreat experience to be equal to them. Now the price for a SS, on this basis, is usually higher than those lines. And according to consistent reports here, service and inclusions in the Retreat lag behind those lines. My only point is that the Retreat (even for a SS) is not competitive. And I feel that is a shame

[buncosquad]

1 hour ago, Dolebludger said:

Of course, I was referring to the prices of SS suites in the Retreat vs comparable suites on Regent and Silversea, none of which included air or land accommodations. I looked at comparable itineraries and duration. Pre-pandemic, my comparisons of this type showed the Retreat to be the best bargain over those lines. And we found the Retreat experience to be equal to them. Now the price for a SS, on this basis, is usually higher than those lines. And according to consistent reports here, service and inclusions in the Retreat lag behind those lines. My only point is that the Retreat (even for a SS) is not competitive. And I feel that is a shame

Truth. Sadness. Go big. Go bold.

[zgscl]

21 hours ago, markeb said:

 

I think there's a lot of individual variation on the Sky Suite butler/Retreat Hosts. Ours last week was pretty visible, but mostly as a room attendant. He never really offered anything, and we really didn't ask. Last cruise, our butler really asked what we needed and made suggestions. Not knowing what you don't know is an issue.

 

Down the hall from us, we noticed one of the butlers with trays of what looked like room service most afternoons. I suspect those were the canapes they used to deliver. We might or might not have eaten them, but we probably would have accepted if offered; they weren't offered and (our bad) we didn't ask.

I would guess that’s a celebrity or above suite. The butlers are still onboard, Celebrity has just deemed sky suites & aqua sky suites as unworthy. 

[markeb]

32 minutes ago, zgscl said:

I would guess that’s a celebrity or above suite. The butlers are still onboard, Celebrity has just deemed sky suites & aqua sky suites as unworthy. 

 

The 12th deck only has Sky Suites and now Aqua Sky Suites (and something called "prime concierge class". Looking at the deck plan, they were probably Aqua Sky Suites. That didn't exist that I can remember the last time we were on Equinox. I'd have to look at the different perks, but maybe it's a perk of the Aqua Sky Suite? Which is kind of funny because I liked our location much better than those cabins...

 

[RedIguana]

On 11/22/2023 at 7:22 PM, phoenix_dream said:

I guess it depends on how you define team. Primarily team means the room steward now does 90% of what the butler used to do, in addition to his/her other duties.

 

On 11/22/2023 at 10:34 PM, zgscl said:

According to celebrity it is now a “retreat team” and they provide the same service. 

 

On 11/22/2023 at 7:56 PM, Dolebludger said:

Just from the posts by those who have taken recent Celebrity cruises, it is apparent that the “butler team” concept is not producing the level of service as before, with assigned butlers. As it has been presented, the room stewards are staffed at a level allowing them to be only room cleaners. In the past, the assigned butler took care of everything else. The “team” is apparently not sufficiently staffed to take up the slack.

From my limited experience on this earth, I have learned that whenever management use the word "team", the lowest member of that "team" just had their workload doubled, with little to no effect on the other members of "the team". 

[zgscl]

13 hours ago, markeb said:

 

The 12th deck only has Sky Suites and now Aqua Sky Suites (and something called "prime concierge class". Looking at the deck plan, they were probably Aqua Sky Suites. That didn't exist that I can remember the last time we were on Equinox. I'd have to look at the different perks, but maybe it's a perk of the Aqua Sky Suite? Which is kind of funny because I liked our location much better than those cabins...

 

That is really interesting then, perhaps Aqua gets something extra, or a “retreat host”/cabin attendant going above and beyond. 

[zgscl]

16 minutes ago, RedIguana said:

 

 

From my limited experience on this earth, I have learned that whenever management use the word "team", the lowest member of that "team" just had their workload doubled, with little to no effect on the other members of "the team". 

This is very much my experience as well. 

[Shellyd22]

14 hours ago, zgscl said:

I would guess that’s a celebrity or above suite. The butlers are still onboard, Celebrity has just deemed sky suites & aqua sky suites as unworthy. 

 

This has caused some confusion for me. Lots of people saying canapés are no longer delivered daily for sky suites. But what is daily delivery of afternoon savories upon request really mean? That you can call room service? Complementary 24 hour room service is already listed as an amenity. Just seems like they’re fluffing up what they’re offering and it’s not really matching the product. I have never sailed in the sky suite before so I will just have to see how it is on my sailing in April. If I hadn’t done any research, I wouldn’t have known about all of this stuff (butler cuts for instance) part of me wishes I didn’t, because I don’t wanna go in with a negative attitude… but at the same time, I think, if I was expecting all that I would’ve been pretty disappointed. 

 

 

 

[Dolebludger]

On the subject of passenger to crew ratio, I did some math on the subject. The Edge has one crew per about 2.3 passengers. The Regent Splendor has one crew member per about 1.3 passengers. These figures assume 100% occupancy. That is, of course, if the cruise lines are staffed to the published level. My recent experience with Regent tells me that they are fully staffed. I purposely looked for signs of under staffing and found none. But these ratios alone tell me that, at published levels, the Edge (for example) is staffed closer to RCI than to Regent, Silversea, and the like.

[Mimiya11]

On 11/24/2023 at 1:00 PM, Shellyd22 said:

 

This has caused some confusion for me. Lots of people saying canapés are no longer delivered daily for sky suites. But what is daily delivery of afternoon savories upon request really mean? That you can call room service? Complementary 24 hour room service is already listed as an amenity. Just seems like they’re fluffing up what they’re offering and it’s not really matching the product. I have never sailed in the sky suite before so I will just have to see how it is on my sailing in April. If I hadn’t done any research, I wouldn’t have known about all of this stuff (butler cuts for instance) part of me wishes I didn’t, because I don’t wanna go in with a negative attitude… but at the same time, I think, if I was expecting all that I would’ve been pretty disappointed. 

 

 

 

I am not sure which ship you are sailing on but we were in a Sky Suite on the Apex a few weeks ago and really enjoyed the suite experience, taking full advantage of the Retreat area (both lounge and outdoor spaces).   

So instead of having daily canapes (that were pretty eh anyway) delivered to your cabin at a given time, you can go to the Retreat Lounge, where they have a nice small self serve area set up for continental breakfast (including breads, cheese, meats, muffins, yogurts, fruit for example) in the morning (if you choose not to go to Luminae or the Oceanview Cafe), afternoon tea (anywhere from small sandwiches, scones, cheeses) and evening pre-dinner snacks (charcuterie, chips, nuts).   There is also a full bar, coffee, and drink fridge. 

Having access to the Retreat, which we spent a lot of time in, for us was way better than the old product.        

 

[jmdlv1]

Just got off the 4 night sailing on the Ascent .

We were in a CS on deck 11.

Overall ,the service was very good and we really enjoyed the short cruise.

The butler and room attendant were spot on.

We ate in Luminae every night and the service was als very good.

I did notice a couple things but they were not terrible.

1.There seemed to be fewer servers on the Retreat sundeck.

2.The service at the bars was slow although it is a brand new ship .

3.Friends ate at Fine Cut steakhouse and had a two hour wait for their food.

That is terrible.

 

Again overall ,we loved the ship and will be back.