SS Splendor Butler Deepak Chandra also symbolises style – he was trained at ITC MAURYA SHERATON in Delhi. One morning, before a 12-hour excursion, he brought a perfect 6.30 am breakfast. Every morning he took put-out laundry before nine, changed the fruit bowl and replenished the ice bucket about ten. Every day he asked, fruitlessly, if Girlahead would like canapés that evening (some evening he brought the requested cocktail at ten minutes’ notice). Whenever the printing of the entire edition of The New York Times was finished, he brought it, heavily stapled. He never got in the way. Somehow he discreetly returned laundry; smaller items came wrapped in white tissue in a rotable black box, larger items were on hangers.
When butlers were first introduced into the cruise sector they were a disaster, often rivalling Uriah Heap when it came to over-the-top obsequiousness. Now they have found their niche, enhancing the lifestyle life. Deepak Chandra is, by the way, helped by room attendant Emmalyn Asiatico Udall – both their names are listed on the big Samsungs’ home screen, unlike the equally charming terrace cleaner, whose name I never found out.
Style is service that is only obvious when you need it.
