Star Class Survey

[Smokey79]

Hey all,

 it’s getting close to time for our first Star Class cruise and we’re all terribly excited. However, I realized today that I never received the survey. We’re 25 days until we leave so there still time I guess but judging by others posts we should have seen it a month ago. On a more positive note, I did receive an email from our Genie (Nityam) a couple days ago and am currently waiting on the answers to the litany of questions I felt like we asked him. I’m not all that concerned overall with not getting the survey since we are in contact with the genie but I’m also curious as to the importance of its contents to having a more successful trip for both us and the genie. I am honestly a bit stressed about the trip overall as it’s our 20th anniversary but it’s the in-law’s 50th anniversary so I’m hoping that issues are at a minimum. 

[Lovetocruise2002]

I would not give much thought to the survey. Out of all the star class cruises we have done, we are about 50/50 for getting the survey. For the one coming up on Oasis in March, we did not get our survey but we already heard from our Genie. That is the important thing. Any requests you have, just send that directly to Nityam. He is great btw. We have never had him, but we know him and have sailed with him a few times. 

[SweetPea]

Agreeing with @Lovetocruise2002here. Last SC cruise, we skipped the survey all together. Once we heard from our Genie, i created a short and pithy note of our must dos and donts to help her Genie-up our trip.

She loved it and gave me a big hug and thank you for it when we met in person. Needless to say, we got along very well and had a very smooth trip. 

The survey is fun, once, sure. But definitely not a deal breaker by any means. 

[Smokey79]

Thank you both. 

[27th Lady]

We are cruising with Nityam as our Genie next week  I’ll let you know if we have any suggestions for you. We didn’t get the survey for this cruise either, though have for previous star class sailings 

[Babsy47]

I have received the survey each time, but I only sent it in the first time.  Since then, I have ignored it.  I send everything when the genie contacts me directly.

[SebagoSue]

We had Nityam as our genie on our first Star class sailing last weekend.  He was FANTASTIC!  We never received that survey, but found Nityam to be excellent with both pre cruise communication, as well as onboard communication using the WhatsApp app.  We absolutely loved every moment of our cruise with Nityam.  If Nityam is your genie, rest assured you will be very well cared for and he will make magic happen.

[Smokey79]

1 hour ago, SebagoSue said:

We had Nityam as our genie on our first Star class sailing last weekend.  He was FANTASTIC!  We never received that survey, but found Nityam to be excellent with both pre cruise communication, as well as onboard communication using the WhatsApp app.  We absolutely loved every moment of our cruise with Nityam.  If Nityam is your genie, rest assured you will be very well cared for and he will make magic happen.

Thanks for the info. Again I’m a noob at this so not expecting a fast turn time on communication from him at all so I’m trying to be as concise as I can when I answered his questions and when I gave mine to him. After all, I figure short sailings means his guests have an added urgency regarding wanting to check as many boxes as possible a few days, and that means he has less time than normal to respond to future guests.

We are normally very self sufficient and this has been a real adjustment for us and it’s hard to not feel like we’re imposing on someone when asking for something. My best example is the first suite we booked. We didn’t even see the concierge until debarkation morning much less ask anything of him. I’m a fast learner though.

[Smokey79]

8 hours ago, 27th Lady said:

We are cruising with Nityam as our Genie next week  I’ll let you know if we have any suggestions for you. We didn’t get the survey for this cruise either, though have for previous star class sailings 

That would be awesome. Thank you. 

[WAAAYTOOO]

Agree with the others.  They survey is lame and IMO, useless.  You direct comm with the Genie will be more than enough to convey all of your preferences and needs.

[SebagoSue]

@Smokey79 You sound just like me!  I am always the planner for our cruises and am used to being self sufficient and concise when I respond to the concierge email because I know just what I want.  So this first Star class cruise with Nityam was very different for me.  By the end of our 3 days, I enjoyed every moment of the pampering and felt confident Nityam would always be there and I could just relax.

He will definitely communicate more as you get closer to your cruise.  The other thing I would mention is to read the long email he sends at the outset very carefully.  I thought I knew the deal, but the day before the cruise when I reread that email I picked up a couple things that were helpful.

[kellu254]

 

Not to hijack this thread but we are 20 days out from sailing and we haven't received a survey or heard from a Genie. What's the latest they contact you? I feel like so many have already made contact. 

[Lovetocruise2002]

1 hour ago, kellu254 said:

 

Not to hijack this thread but we are 20 days out from sailing and we haven't received a survey or heard from a Genie. What's the latest they contact you? I feel like so many have already made contact. 

Usually the general time frame for contact directly from a genie is about 4 weeks out. Plus or minus a week. What can sometimes delay contact is if your sailing falls during a genie handover. That means that one genie is leaving and one is coming back to takeover. There have been cases where that has delayed things. What ship are you going on? There is a huge turnover of Genies on Oasis the next few weeks. If that is your ship, that could be why there is a delay.

[Smokey79]

12 hours ago, kellu254 said:

 

Not to hijack this thread but we are 20 days out from sailing and we haven't received a survey or heard from a Genie. What's the latest they contact you? I feel like so many have already made contact. 

I received my initial email 29 days out. I didn’t receive the response to my response until 20 days out. Judging by what he was able to do in the time between my response and his reply and the enormous amount of questions we presented him, I panicked for no reason .  It’s our first cruise post Covid, first Paid as Oasis, and first Star class cruise so there was a lot of questions that we had come up with in the 18 months this has been planned . There’s not much left to go over now and honestly we could have easily worked with an initial greeting email with a note saying we will go over the details of our cruise 10-14 days before sail date. However, I do totally understand the panic that comes with the clock ticking down and no contact being made. There’s a lot of expectations and money on the line and that does add a lot of stress to the situation. Also, if you haven’t done so, check your spam folder jic your email decided that it didn’t like the sender address. Nityam’s is pretty generic looking. lol

[kellu254]

Thanks, it is Oasis. When I read that others on the sailing have already heard, some a long time ago, it makes me nervous that we won't get the times we want because other SC will have taken them. I'll give it another week before I worry.  (and have checked spam)

[Lovetocruise2002]

8 minutes ago, kellu254 said:

Thanks, it is Oasis. When I read that others on the sailing have already heard, some a long time ago, it makes me nervous that we won't get the times we want because other SC will have taken them. I'll give it another week before I worry.  (and have checked spam)

While when others have heard is sometimes a good indicator, a few genies are also known well for reaching out closer to the sail date. You don't need to worry about getting the times that you want, they will make that happen. 

Are you on the March 10th sailing by any chance? Cause that is that sailing that I am on. I know that my genie reached out a while ago, but another group who has a different genie just heard a few days ago. The other two genies are part of the turnaround over the next two weeks. If you don't hear over the next few days, send me a PM. I will see if I can reach out for you.

[WAAAYTOOO]

13 hours ago, kellu254 said:

Not to hijack this thread but we are 20 days out from sailing and we haven't received a survey or heard from a Genie. What's the latest they contact you? I feel like so many have already made contact. 

While there is certainly no reason to panic, I totally understand your anxiety.  It would not hurt to reach out to them.  I would say something like, "I may have received my initial Genie contact and not seen it.  Would it be possible to have the Genie re-contact me ?"

Unfortunately I do not have any email address for you.  Hopefully someone else does.

Enjoy your SC cruise !!

[Smokey79]

57 minutes ago, kellu254 said:

Thanks, it is Oasis. When I read that others on the sailing have already heard, some a long time ago, it makes me nervous that we won't get the times we want because other SC will have taken them. I'll give it another week before I worry.  (and have checked spam)

Going by what I am being told, if you want Izumi or Chef’s table, book it online and pay for it with an expected refund of OBC once on onboard. Nityam said he doesn’t have access to book seats until the day prior to our sailing so they might be gone by then. Considering the only times for Izumi that are available currently are 9pm or later, I’d say that they’ll be gone soon enough. Which in my case the older crowd doesn’t really care for sushi so we may ask for it to be in-room dining if they are agreeable to teppanyaki. I don’t see us taking up a table there. 

side bar- has anyone been able to order items from a restaurant’s dinner menu for lunch? 

 

[WAAAYTOOO]

8 minutes ago, Smokey79 said:

side bar- has anyone been able to order items from a restaurant’s dinner menu for lunch? 

 

Yes.  You can order any food from any specialty restaurant as long as the restaurant is open.

[Lovetocruise2002]

24 minutes ago, Smokey79 said:

side bar- has anyone been able to order items from a restaurant’s dinner menu for lunch? 

We've done the reverse. Hubby had a lunch item from Chops for dinner. Just give you Genie advance notice so that they can try arrange.

Also, YMMV, but in all of our SC sailing, pre and post pandemic, we have never once reserved Hibachi ahead of time. We have gone with a group as small as 2, and as large as 10 and our genies have never had difficulties getting us a table between the 5:30-7pm times. However, if you are super picky about a specific time, then yes, you should book ahead of time on your own and let them refund you once on board. 

[WAAAYTOOO]

@Smokey79, I apologize.  I read your post too quickly and just realized I hadn't answered your question at all !!!

I have never tried to order anything that was not on the applicable menu.  I really have no idea but I think it would be presumptuous to ask for something at dinner (or lunch) that isn't on the menu.

[AshleyDillo]

1 hour ago, Smokey79 said:

Going by what I am being told, if you want Izumi or Chef’s table, book it online and pay for it with an expected refund of OBC once on onboard. Nityam said he doesn’t have access to book seats until the day prior to our sailing so they might be gone by then. Considering the only times for Izumi that are available currently are 9pm or later, I’d say that they’ll be gone soon enough.  

If you want any of the times available in the Cruise Planner for Izumi Hibachi or Chef's Table definitely pre-book those. Those two venues have fixed seating and fixed times so the Genie can't do anything if the time you wanted gets booked by others through the Cruise Planner.  

However, there are some times held back from the Cruise Planner so the general public doesn't have access to prior to boarding. Those are usually the slots the Genies use..but they don't want folks to miss out if they want those super early or super late times that are in the Cruise Planner. 

[Smokey79]

24 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

@Smokey79, I apologize.  I read your post too quickly and just realized I hadn't answered your question at all !!!

I have never tried to order anything that was not on the applicable menu.  I really have no idea but I think it would be presumptuous to ask for something at dinner (or lunch) that isn't on the menu.

No worries and I share your opinion. It doesn’t matter in this instance as I realized I messed up the schedule and no one wants to do Izumi right after the sushi class. So I’ll take a chance on a random dinner slot if available. If not, there’s always CK. 

[27th Lady]

We just got back from our sailing on Allure with Nityam as our genie. You have nothing to worry about he is fantastic and extremely detail oriented! I think they are a little backlogged with communication pre cruise because of the increased turn over with guests now that they are doing 3-4 night sailings. It won’t affect your experience, once on board. 
 

we were instructed to book chefs table or hibachi in advance if we wanted them as was stated by someone above. 

[Smokey79]

20 hours ago, 27th Lady said:

We just got back from our sailing on Allure with Nityam as our genie. You have nothing to worry about he is fantastic and extremely detail oriented! I think they are a little backlogged with communication pre cruise because of the increased turn over with guests now that they are doing 3-4 night sailings. It won’t affect your experience, once on board. 
 

we were instructed to book chefs table or hibachi in advance if we wanted them as was stated by someone above. 

Thank you. I’m at ease currently with how things are going. He’s been awesome with his communications with us and I’m more than willing to cut him some slack on the time between emails as I know he’s busy with his current guests. Our time is coming soon enough. 
 

We have chefs table booked but Izumi only has late night availability left online so if he can’t get us in then we’ll just order to the room or simply forgo it this time. We will be fine either way. 

[27th Lady]

We had Izumi a couple of times as a late night snack which was fun, and asked him to order it for us at their last call

[Smokey79]

Interesting idea. Overall thank you to everyone here. I’ve learned a lot from you all and I truly appreciate it.

[Smokey79]

Just wanted to resurrect this thread to give a heartfelt thanks to all of you for your advice. Nityam was simply amazing and set the standard for which our future genies will be judged. I want to hope he enjoyed us as well. Considering he wasn’t calling security on us, we were an improvement over the previous passengers at a minimum. lol

 

[Smokey79]

On 2/20/2024 at 11:23 AM, WAAAYTOOO said:

@Smokey79, I apologize.  I read your post too quickly and just realized I hadn't answered your question at all !!!

I have never tried to order anything that was not on the applicable menu.  I really have no idea but I think it would be presumptuous to ask for something at dinner (or lunch) that isn't on the menu.

It was not on purpose, but on day 1, I was chatting with the manager? of Giovanni’s and mentioned that I was disappointed that chicken Alfredo has disappeared from all the menus He just laughed and said that if I wanted it when we came to just let the genie know so they would have time to prepare it for me.

It was wonderful. LOL

Can’t say the same for my wife’s eggplant Parmesan. It was just gross. Bad enough we may not go back. 
 

My daughter ordered steak, shrimp, and scallops at Izumi. Not that big a deal but it was nice to be able to do so. 

[WAAAYTOOO]

4 minutes ago, Smokey79 said:

It was not on purpose, but on day 1, I was chatting with the manager? of Giovanni’s and mentioned that I was disappointed that chicken Alfredo has disappeared from all the menus He just laughed and said that if I wanted it when we came to just let the genie know so they would have time to prepare it for me.

It was wonderful. LOL

Can’t say the same for my wife’s eggplant Parmesan. It was just gross. Bad enough we may not go back. 
 

My daughter ordered steak, shrimp, and scallops at Izumi. Not that big a deal but it was nice to be able to do so. 

Yikes....talk about a mixed blessing !  Glad you were able to get it though....sorry your wife's EP was bad.  UGH

[Islandtime]

We received the survey 40 days prior to cruise.  We are now 26 days from cruising and no Genie.  I am very concerned. Has anyone not heard from their Genie? How long should I wait to contact Royal direct?

[KristiZ]

As mentioned above: “Usually the general time frame for contact directly from a genie is about 4 weeks out. Plus or minus a week. What can sometimes delay contact is if your sailing falls during a genie handover. That means that one genie is leaving and one is coming back to takeover. There have been cases where that has delayed things.”

Based on what people who sail Star class regularly have said, I would not be worried yet. 

[TXCoastPatriot]

In 2025, will be upgrading from Sky Class Suites to Star Class on the Harmony or Odyssey.  My question is, what is a fair cash tip for the Gene and the Suite Attendant on a 7-night sailing?

[smokeybandit]

There is no recommended tip. Some tip nothing. Some tip insane amounts.  It's up to you to decide.