TWENTY-TWO ROYAL GENIES have joined Royal Caribbean International’s Oasis and Quantum-class ships.

Employed to look after passengers in the Loft Suites on these ships, they have been trained to offer a ‘Carson meets Mary Poppins’-style butler service – on hand to look after their guests but attired in an attractive purple/metallic blue uniform rather than black tailcoat and gloves.

More than 200 people applied to be Genies, but just 22 got through. After a week at the British Butler Institute learning niceties such as how to pour wine and gesture correctly, they spent two weeks learning the Royal Caribbean way of doing things.

Duties include meeting passengers at embarkation, unpacking and packing their luggage, booking restaurants and spa treatments, serving drinks and meals in the suites and escorting them to dinner.

The first Genies were on Royal Caribbean’s new Ovation of the Seas, which was in the UK in April and is now sailing to Tianjin in China, and took up duties on Oasis, Anthem and Allure of the Seas at the end of April. They will be on Harmony of the Seas when it launches in May.

Loft Suite prices start from £3,297 per person cruise-only for a seven-night Bahamas cruise round-trip from New Jersey on Anthem of the Seas.