Hi everyone,

My husband and I just returned from our first Radisson cruise on the Navigator last Wednesday. We sailed to Bermuda from NYC and plan to post a full review in the near future. We did have a Penthouse B and a Butler. Since the Travel Spies program was broadcast right before we sailed, we thought we would post our experiences and thoughts on this specific subject.

We have never had the services of a butler on a cruise ship and did not know what to expect. We have sailed on HAL in their full suites and were looking for a high level of pampering. HAL provides much of this via their concierge service and Neptune Lounge. These are exclusive services for full suite passengers.

Our butler served us very well. He was in the suite to greet us when we arrived and asked us if there were any special preferences were had. We discussed our liquer preferences, dining preferences, he made reservations for us at Portofino's, which he then changed at our request. He actually made a total of 4 reservations. We used 2 of them, cancelling the other two. The staff of Portifino were very gracious about this. They told us they wanted to be sure we were able to dine at a time that was perfect for us and the other people we were having dinner with.

He also brought our breakfast for us daily. He set a beautiful table for us daily on our verandah.He had our clothing pressed for dinner the first evening. His service was friendly and very professional.

There was one bit of service that definitly exceeded the expected level of service we expected and exemplifies the personalized service we experienced. Once we left port, I realised I had forgotten my cane. I needed to have it so that I could stabilize myself while the ship was in motion. Our butler told us he would see what he could do. Well, he not only got a cane for me, but he tracked me down at dinner to get it to me as soon as possible. We really appreciated the services of our butler.

One more thing. Our butler's name is Varghese. If that name sounds familiar to any of you it is because he is the butler who was made to look incapable on the show Travel Spies. Believe me, he was very capable and his service was wonderful. He is a gracious, competent, professional.

More to come in our review.

Linda and Lou

Linda and Lou, what a nice review of your butler! I can only guess he did not appreciate how he was portrayed on TV!

Thanks for posting that review and it is wonderful to hear that you actually had the same butler and found him to be good. Actually during that show sewing the emblems on the towels kind of blew me away that was an "over the top" request to say the least.

Linda and Lou - thanks for the mini-review and hope that we see the whole review at some point. Did you ever get to ask Varghese what he thought about his portrayal?

Masaki

Masaki-

Varghese had no thoughts since he had not seen the broadcast. In fact, none of the staff and crew had seen it. Some were aware of it, most new nothing about it. We learned that they were to get as copy of the broadcast when we reached New York which was
the day of disembarkation for us.