Butler?

[raiderette]

We have a butler on our upcoming cruise next week and I have a question. What exactly does a butler do that is different than your suite person? Will they unpack your suitcase? Just wondering, we had a butler on our first cruise and he did very little.

[Travelcat2]

Butlers will unpack or pack your suitcases if you ask. We prefer to put things away ourselves. We have them make or cancel our dinner reservations and excursions. He serves canapes at 5:00 p.m. We enjoy the crab claws. Also, if we have guests in our suite, we order more food and alcohol.

 

Trying to think of what else they do -- I'm sure others will chime in. We enjoy our butlers -- especially the proactive ones. They find things to do that will are helpful. We have even been escorted to dinner by a butler -- certainly not necessary but it was fun.

[debijaynes]

They bring you supper after a long day of touring and set up your dining table. They have also noticed that possibly a second toddy was in order and ran off to get it before I could say ""I'll get it myself"". They decorated the cabin for birthdays. And ice is never ending. A lovely touch to an already lovely cruise.

Debi

[vitacura]

I agree on the proactive Butlers, they are great. I unpacked and on the first excursion I had I noticed the Butler had taken my dress shoes, polished them and returned them, taken my dress shirts and had them pressed, all before I got back on the ship! Other nights he would have our favorite bottle of wine waiting for us at our dinner table in Compass Rose. (We always sat at the same table)

 

I have also had butlers who are pretty much invisible, unless you contact them. The last one only brought canapés if ordered by noon. But for the most part they are there to help make your trip enjoyable and help with any request you may have.

[Eager2Travel]

We have never experienced a proactive butler. They sound delightful. I can see where they would make having a butler a totally different experience from what we have had.

 

Maybe one day it will happen to us.

[georg0]

In my experience, generally a butler experience is what you make of it in terms of help and assistance, but generally not including arranging your clothes and dress. The main differences between a butler and a suite attendant are that a Butler generally comes around at cocktail time rather than cleanup time and can and will

1. act as concierges arranging dining reservations or liaison with other ship departments or give advice on what may be needed,

2. bring canapés;

3. Serve any room service meals requested

4. attend to any other reasonable requests and may suggest some requests for you.

5. be personable, helpful and sometimes assist serving guests in your suite

6. work wellin coordination with the suite attendant.

7. arrange for in suite wine and alcohol selections if available.

[AWED23]

Part of enjoying the services of a butler is understanding what a butlers' job is. Your butler is not a valet for instance. A Butler is the General Manager of your suite and directs all services you might need. Mention the canapes that you particularly enjoy and presto they appear at cocktail time. All are not created equal, they are individuals and their training varies greatly from line to line. Chat with them a bit on your first day aboard and you may be amazed at what they can and will do.

Edited June 5, 2014 by AWED23

[pingpong1]

Hi Cheryl - Our butler on our past October Voyager cruise around Italy was wonderful. Leslie. He was charming. He was there when needed and "invisible" when not needed.

 

Those folks really work long hours! I saw Leslie working early in the morning and late at night. He would eagerly do anything we needed "doing" - or he knew the contacts on the ship to make things happen.

 

We had original reservations at P7 one night for just the 3 of us and at the last moment, we wanted expand seating for some "new friends" we had met. Leslie was our "go-to guy". He contacted P7 for us and got the table seating expanded from 3 to 5 diners.

 

Another night, I was rather hungry for an evening after-dinner "snack" (like I really needed one :eek:) and asked if he could possibly round up some cheesecake with rasberry topping on it. 15 minutes later, he was knocking at our door (this was at 9PM) and brought in the cheesecake complete with raspberry topping and a few extra forks. Along with bottle of one of our favorite cabernets.

 

As Debi stated, the ice bucket was always full and there was always Carlsberg beer well-stocked in the frig. I jokingly asked Leslie if he wanted to come back to Arizona with us! :) We'll compare notes when we see each other. So looking forward to meeting you and David onboard.

 

10 days to go - Woo Hoo!:p

[josephone]

We have always had coffe and tea delivered in the morning and if we feel the urge for iced tea, we ask. After excursions, snacks always arrived before we returned. Nuts and special fruit was already in the suite! A mango was always waiting or a note indicating it wasn't up to standard!

 

We loved our butler and used him. It was fun!

[debijaynes]

Oh--I forgot the best part! He kept my pitcher of decaf ice tea always topped up in the fridge!!!!!

Debi

[AWED23]

Hi Cheryl - Our butler on our past October Voyager cruise around Italy was wonderful. Leslie. He was charming. He was there when needed and "invisible" when not needed.

 

Those folks really work long hours! I saw Leslie working early in the morning and late at night. He would eagerly do anything we needed "doing" - or he knew the contacts on the ship to make things happen.

 

We had original reservations at P7 one night for just the 3 of us and at the last moment, we wanted expand seating for some "new friends" we had met. Leslie was our "go-to guy". He contacted P7 for us and got the table seating expanded from 3 to 5 diners.

 

Another night, I was rather hungry for an evening after-dinner "snack" (like I really needed one :eek:) and asked if he could possibly round up some cheesecake with rasberry topping on it. 15 minutes later, he was knocking at our door (this was at 9PM) and brought in the cheesecake complete with raspberry topping and a few extra forks. Along with bottle of one of our favorite cabernets.

 

As Debi stated, the ice bucket was always full and there was always Carlsberg beer well-stocked in the frig. I jokingly asked Leslie if he wanted to come back to Arizona with us! :) We'll compare notes when we see each other. So looking forward to meeting you and David onboard.

 

10 days to go - Woo Hoo!:p

:D:D Leslie is one of the best.

[purpleally]

We had a proactive butler on our Alaska cruise last May. Best ever! he was funny and soon figured out he could be less "formal" with us

 

He would call the chef on his phone in front of us with special requests - he could have been talking to his buddy or no one but it looked impressive!

 

He would pop up out of no where at the pool for lunch or at dinner and see how we are.

 

He ordered food he knew we liked for us in MDR. We also sat in the same area.

 

He brought ice cream and HOT toppings one night around 9pm

 

We had so much smoked salmon we got tired of it.

 

We had an incident, cannot remember what it was now, but handled it ourselves. When we mentioned it to him, he said he would have taken care of it for us.

 

He MADE the cruise!!!!

[spindrift]

I love reading about the Butlers. Our first O cruise (on Insignia) many years ago in South America, we had "Carlos." He was instrumental in our many cruises booked thereafter. What a butler. Of course, he has moved on up in the company, but if he were to train the butlers, eveyone would be incredible.

 

After that, we had William, etc. etc. They were all quite good, and we appreciated all they did. One time my Visa for China was not right, and I had to stay on the ship. Our butler kept checking on me while I was the only one (well, one other lady) was the only one onboard since I couldn't disembark. He really cared. I told him to forget about me--I was busy reading and watching TV while my husband was out doing the tours. He needed to enjoy a break with all the passengers gone for the day. He couldn't resist - later in the afternoon he showed up with a fantastic snack.

 

That is the mindset of the Oceania crew--all of them.

 

We have now decided that we really don't need that large of a stateroom so we have changed to Concierge, which is wonderful with the special room. We do, however, miss PH and our butlers, but we are just happy to be able to sail O.

[kennicott]

It is indeed an experience to be able to enjoy butler service. We did it once, on Regent, on a two week voyage to Alaska, San Francisco ending in Vancouver. Having said that, we have considered doing so again, and both of us agree, did that done that.

 

Our reasoning is pretty much summoned up by:

 

(1) For the most part, the suites are the same size with or without. Extra charges, with Regent seem to run generally an additional 4K for the same size suites. This also includes business class with air package. We like business class but they provide that for at an additional 2K, generally speaking. So the butler costs us about 2K more on a two or three week voyage.

 

(2) We did like the butler, but not for 1K a week, furthermore, the regular room steward/stewardess on Regent usually do an exceptional job, so being waited on hand and foot 7/24s was a drag. Maybe some prefer that kind of attention, but we like a little peace and quiet from time to time.

 

(3) Sometimes, butler service does include a considerably larger suite. Not necessarily on Regent though. We have only used Regent, HAL and Princess and have accumulated advanced perquisite status in all three. So, at this latter stage of our cruising days we are reluctant to try other lines and begin accumulating perks from scratch. However, we find Regent's service with their pretty much all inclusive base fares to be superior to the service and charges offered by HAL and Princess. Unfortunately, Regent has only three vessels, therefore their cruise itineraries are somewhat limited. Not long ago I began looking into a fourth option for our cruise experience and that was with Regent's sister line, Oceania. Now Oceania isn't all inclusive like Regent but they do have decent all around ratings and a broader selection of cruise itineraries. Their two flag ships, Marina and Riviera, are indeed appealing.

 

As I explored the Oceania option, I ran into two turnoffs. Number one, of course, was that we had to start from the bottom again acquiring longevity perks. Having past the 500 days at sea mark with the other three and getting rather "long in the tooth" we weren't enamored with the prospect of starting at the bottom of the heap again with another line. But what finally scotched the Oceania idea completely, was when I realized that the staterooms on Oceania's two largest ships, the top concierge level veranda staterooms, were not very large at all, slightly smaller than both HAL or Princess mini suites and much smaller than Regents, plus there were other limits on amenities one normally associates with rooms of that size offered by the other three. However, the very next level up of Oceania staterooms was their PH3 Penthouse suites, the size of which did make me salivate. Unfortunately, they only come with a butler. If one likes butler service, the extra charge which includes this sizeable stateroom may will be worth it. Not for us though, considering the circumstances, we bagged the idea.

[Travelcat2]

kennicott: I enjoyed reading your observations. Just want to comment on Oceania since we are Regent regulars with one cruise on Oceania's Riviera and other one booked. Like you, starting at the bottom of the heap in terms of loyalty benefits does not appeal to us. However, under certain circumstances, we feel it is worth sailing on Oceania. For instance, our Vista suite on the Riviera (1200-1500 sq. ft. depending upon location) is the price of a Regent cruise in a penthouse suite for our Caribbean cruise. While this is not the case normally, Caribbean cruises are typically less money and this one certainly is. With the suite comes 6 bottles of alcohol (we'll get almost all wine), the butler, and - most importantly on Oceania -- many specialty restaurant reservations. We find the food on Oceania the best we have had at sea (only at the specialty restaurants).

 

Also a comment on penthouse suites on Regent. They are the exact same size on the Navigator -- only 15 ft. larger on the Voyager but are much larger than regular suites on the Mariner (even more so considering that regular suites are smaller than either the Voyager or the Navigator).

Edited June 13, 2014 by Travelcat2

[kennicott]

but are much larger than regular suites on the Mariner (even more so considering that regular suites are smaller than either the Voyager or the Navigator).

 

Geeez, Travelcat2, 1500 square feet!! That does sound good. I better not think about it any further. For years and years we stuck with just outside views and no patios. Sort of had the idea though that once we did a patio, we would be hooked. Sure enough, one time just before we left Singapore, on the Amsterdam doing a 32 day Indonesia, Australia and Trans Pacific they offered us a patio. Never looked back, and I know we wouldn't even book a cruise now-a-days unless we get one.

 

Personally though, I don't particularly care if we are forward, mid ship or stern. It doesn't make any difference to us as we don't suffer from motion sickness. Matter of fact, being down lower has an advantage for me in that I like to stand on the patio and watch the marine life action, for hours, especially the flying fish (therapeutic). I get a better view being closer to the water. Up high has its advantages too though.

 

We really love the D category concierge suites on the Navigator and Voyager and were a little disappointed that the Mariner's like category weren't the same. I knew the Penthouse suites were larger though, but didn't focus on how much larger they were until you just mentioned it. Beginning October 3rd we are on the Mariner for 31 days. We booked this TA some time ago. If I could back-track we would take another look at Category C. Too late now, particularly since we originally booked the TA for a 21 day voyage and just recently they tacked on to the front part another 10 day segment. It was a heck of a deal that we couldn't refuse (Now leaving from Rome Instead of Lisbon). Not long after we originally booked I noticed "Sold Out" on everything above D, meaning, if we were in C, we might have had to drop down to D in order to get the extra ten days, which wouldn't have been much fun.

[Travelcat2]

Happy to hear that you were able to get an additional 10 days at a good price! Still, if there are upper level suites available, you could get an upsell offer for a penthouse suite. Crossing my fingers.