Butler vs Cabin Steward

Question

Last cruise on O, we had a PH, so we had a butler.. The ONLY thing we had him do for us was to make sure the fridge had fresh limes in it for our Diet Coke. I think he was disapointed that's all we asked for:), but we needed nothing else.

This cruise we are in a Concierge stateroom. Is the fresh limes something we can ask our stateroom attendant to get for us??

Thanks.

You can always ask

Or ask at the bar for some & keep in your fridge

You can always ask

Or ask at the bar for some & keep in your fridge

…or ask your waiter in the dining room…or cadge several slices from the buffet… Will not be a problem. Unless there are no limes aboard!

To bad you didn't use your Butler last time--you missed out on some wonderful service.

Rick

Sorry the question---Just call room service............

Rick

I do think this is a good question. We had a Butler last cruise. About the third day he came into the room and asked if we were mad at him or were dissatisfied with him for some reason. We said no it was just we had no clue as to how we were to use his services. He responded "OK" and left.

The upcoming cruise is in an Oceania Suite on Riviera. Is there anything special they do in the upper suites?

Well, you name it, they can do it. We also refrained from using the butler when they came onto the scene. Then I tore my meniscus the day before boarding and used him a LOT. So now we do ...

These days, of course, they can do so much more than they did 10 years ago when we first realized how much they could help us.

If you've had a long day on land, it's really nice to be able to order dinner in your suite which he will bring course by course. (Sometimes you need to say you want one course at a time, if you don't you may get the soup and main course at the same time.)

They will pack and unpack your suitcase. (Okay, we don't use them for that!)

Once when we forgot to bring our wine to the restaurant DH went back to retrieve it but the butler insisted on bringing it to our table.

If you want extra SR reservations, the best thing is to go through the butler. Just tell him when you want, what you want, and if you want to invite others.

There's lots more they can do ...

They are there to help, so if you have a question ... just ask.

Mura

We have had butlers on our Oceania cruises and also Celebrity cruises. Once you get used to the idea of having one available to help you with things and also to make your cruise more enjoyable, you begin to utilize their services more.

Since I travel much during the year, we (wife and I) use the cruise for some relaxing and together time, thus we are in the cabin a great deal of time. It is great to have the awesome Oceania food brought to the cabin.

One of the areas we have always enjoyed the butler's services is when we are in port for a long day (like Mura indicated). We will speak to the butler before we leave in the morning and provide him with our meal selections for the evening and the time we would like to have dinner. There have been times when the butler has suggested a meal on the balcony while we are departing a port, which made the day and evening even better.

For a 14 day cruise, we will probably have breakfast brought to the cabin on port days and then will have 3-4 dinners served in the cabin. We have never used the butler for other items such as packing/unpacking, making additional dinner reservations, etc.

I went to the pool bar last cruise and just asked the bartender... She was super sweet and gave me a cup of lime wedges wrapped in plastic wrap to keep them fresh(ish). Did this a few times during the cruise and nothing was thought of it. :)

Also had our steward stock the fridge with the things we would drink (and mistakenly said "lots of diet tonic" and we actually always had TOO much of it! Kind of funny in actuality... Just one more reason why we love O so much. It's the little things that add up.

I went to the pool bar last cruise and just asked the bartender... She was super sweet and gave me a cup of lime wedges wrapped in plastic wrap to keep them fresh(ish). Did this a few times during the cruise and nothing was thought of it. :)

 

Also had our steward stock the fridge with the things we would drink (and mistakenly said "lots of diet tonic" and we actually always had TOO much of it! Kind of funny in actuality... Just one more reason why we love O so much. It's the little things that add up.

Thank you so much for a straightforward answer to my question. Will ask room service or a bartender as suggested.

We asked to have Diet Coke and DIet Sprite in our fridge before embarkation last trip and worked out great.

Thanks again.