Role of the Butler

[Annmeat]

Nevermind

Edited July 13, 2014 by Annmeat

[jackson bernard]

And they expect a tip....

 

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[rvsullivan]

Complaint against the passenger because they didn't know what the butler was and was not responsible for? NCL provides very little information about that on their website. If you don't frequent this specific forum, and certainly no one is morally obligated to, there's no way to know. Unless the butler clarifies. Doing THAT is part of their job. Not performing those extra tasks. Providing the information when asked.

 

 

Here is our experience after cruising pretty much exclusively in suites. Every Concierge, Butler and steward have stated at our first meeting, "call me if I can do anything for you". Period, end of story. If we have ever called the wrong one, they just handle it. If I ask a steward for something the Butler handles, the steward contacts the Butler who then follows up with us. Never and issue, never a problem. If you stay in a suite and need something, ask any one of the team handling your suite and it will almost certainly be done. If it is not possible, the appropriate one will tell you and offer an option. This does not require a lot of thinking! For every bad experience with a Butler/Concierge, there are hundreds of success stories.

Concierge- outside the room, reservations, boarding, shows etc.

Butler- inside the room, drinks, food and in suite dining are a few of them.

Steward- cleaning and room upkeep.

Pretty easy.

If anything is not satisfactory, talk to the Concierge, if the Concierge is the issue, talk to the Hotel Director.

 

Mostly, just enjoy the Suite Life!!

[lovetrauma]

I must have had an awesome Butler on my BA Cruise two weeks ago. She sat down with My Family and I and went over what we might need for the week. What snacks we enjoy for her to bring each day. She informed us to call Housekeeping for extra pillows, towels, blankets, ice and etc. she also stopped by or called the Suite phone to make sure we were good and received everything we needed. My Concierge on the other hand was the WORST I could ever imagine.

[DevonianCruiser]

I must have had an awesome Butler on my BA Cruise two weeks ago. She sat down with My Family and I and went over what we might need for the week. What snacks we enjoy for her to bring each day. She informed us to call Housekeeping for extra pillows, towels, blankets, ice and etc. she also stopped by or called the Suite phone to make sure we were good and received everything we needed. My Concierge on the other hand was the WORST I could ever imagine.

 

Sounds like the butler I'm hoping to get next month :D

[sverigecruiser]

The butlers are very different and how they do their job is very different too. I'm wondering if they all get the same instructions/information on how to do their job? How they shall approach the passengers, what they shall do, how they shall respond to requests thay aren't their responsibility etc.

 

We have had three butlers.

 

The first was correct and did what she should but didn't seemed interested to do anything special. Her instructions seemed to be, stay away from the passengers and don't disturb them unless they ask you for something.

 

Our second butler talked to us a lot and every day we had a dinnerreservation he called us and asked when and where he should pick us up to escort us to the restaurant. Not a perk we need and we shouldn't have thought about asking for it ourself but it was nice to be escorted.

 

Our third butler was nice but very absent-minded. For example he forgot to give us our invitation for the captains reception and some other things.

[TravelJoe]

The butlers are very different and how they do their job is very different too. I'm wondering if they all get the same instructions/information on how to do their job? How they shall approach the passengers, what they shall do, how they shall respond to requests thay aren't their responsibility etc.

 

We have had three butlers.

 

The first was correct and did what she should but didn't seemed interested to do anything special. Her instructions seemed to be, stay away from the passengers and don't disturb them unless they ask you for something.

 

Our second butler talked to us a lot and every day we had a dinnerreservation he called us and asked when and where he should pick us up to escort us to the restaurant. Not a perk we need and we shouldn't have thought about asking for it ourself but it was nice to be escorted.

 

Our third butler was nice but very absent-minded. For example he forgot to give us our invitation for the captains reception and some other things.

 

Our butler on the Breakaway (Roy) was amazing. We never ran out of ice in our room, had fresh fruit replaced as consumed, and had a nice variety of sandwiches and crudites delivered to our room every day.

 

 

But I started the cruise with an introduction to him, spoke about the daily snacks and asked that something gluten-free be delivered daily for my 25 y/o daughter. I also mentioned we loved the BLT sandwiches, and liked something sweet. The bowl of gummy bears and M&M's that was always full was a nice touch.

 

 

So on day one, I introduced my entire family, and gave him an advance tip (remember what TIP actually stands for). When we asked one afternoon if we could have our white wine chilled in advance of a dinner reservation, he took the wine from us and delivered it to the restaurant.

 

 

The butler will retrieve anything you order from any of the dining rooms (fee would apply if specialty). You don't call room service, you call him. My kids love the french onion soup from the MDR (that's not on the room service menu), and they enjoyed that a few times.

 

 

He could not have done more.

 

 

But as I've learned after many years of travel and being in a services business, sugar goes a long way over vinegar. And if you're not happy or expectations aren't being set, speak up nicely -- and if your butler doesn't respond, he has a manager he reports into. At our meet and greet, the crew were very clear to us -- if you're not happy, please don't blog about it afterwards, tell us immediately so they can fix it.

[sverigecruiser]

Our butler on the Breakaway (Roy) was amazing. We never ran out of ice in our room, had fresh fruit replaced as consumed, and had a nice variety of sandwiches and crudites delivered to our room every day.

 

 

But I started the cruise with an introduction to him, spoke about the daily snacks and asked that something gluten-free be delivered daily for my 25 y/o daughter. I also mentioned we loved the BLT sandwiches, and liked something sweet. The bowl of gummy bears and M&M's that was always full was a nice touch.

 

 

So on day one, I introduced my entire family, and gave him an advance tip (remember what TIP actually stands for). When we asked one afternoon if we could have our white wine chilled in advance of a dinner reservation, he took the wine from us and delivered it to the restaurant.

 

 

The butler will retrieve anything you order from any of the dining rooms (fee would apply if specialty). You don't call room service, you call him. My kids love the french onion soup from the MDR (that's not on the room service menu), and they enjoyed that a few times.

 

 

He could not have done more.

 

 

But as I've learned after many years of travel and being in a services business, sugar goes a long way over vinegar. And if you're not happy or expectations aren't being set, speak up nicely -- and if your butler doesn't respond, he has a manager he reports into. At our meet and greet, the crew were very clear to us -- if you're not happy, please don't blog about it afterwards, tell us immediately so they can fix it.

 

Are you saying that I wasn't happy? (Since you quoted my post.) We were happy and I never said anything else. I just said that the butlers were very different and because of that I'm wondering if they get the same intructions/informations.

 

I'm 100 % sure that we are sugar!

[goldmom]

When we were recently on the Sun, we had an excellent butler. He had a person he was training to be a butler and asked if we minded if he had him set up our breakfast. Of course we said yes. He let the trainee do things and then showed him the things that weren't done to his liking. It was really little things like lining up the salt and pepper shakers and putting the cups to the correct side of the plates.

 

Our butler really worked patiently with his trainee and you could see that he wanted him to learn the proper way to do things as our Butler himself was pretty meticulous and was teaching his trainee to be the same way.

 

Some of it could be who trains a butler. You would hope that NCL would only use really experienced and excellent butlers to train others, but that may not always be the case.

[TravelJoe]

Are you saying that I wasn't happy? (Since you quoted my post.) We were happy and I never said anything else. I just said that the butlers were very different and because of that I'm wondering if they get the same intructions/informations.

 

I'm 100 % sure that we are sugar!

 

Nope -- not saying that all -- just a general comment -- apologies if it came across that way.

[Fishbait17]

Wow. For someone who has not yet cruised in a suite, but hopes to some day, this entire protocol seems way too complicated. It appears that I would be paying for three (count 'em -- THREE) people to serve me (concierge, butler, steward), yet I would have to know exactly whom to ask for what, and if I asked the wrong person, I would either not get service in a timely manner, or get no service at all. This doesn't sound like the "suite life" I imagined. It seems as though it's the passengers, not the staff, who are the ones who need training to figure out how to get the services they are paying for. All the explanations/apologies/excuses presented on this thread about why passengers don't get the service they ask for, though undoubtedly reflective of reality, simply diminish the value of the high cost of a suite.

 

I don't understand pax who are happy to pay for a particular level of service and equally happy to make excuses for the cruise line when they don't get the level of service they paid for. Many then go about giving all kinds of explanations to other pax about all the valid reasons why they also should not expect to receive the services they, too, have paid for! Sometimes they even blame the passenger for not getting the service they paid for because they "asked the wrong person" or "expected too much." The mind boggles.

 

It's really not as complicated as it sounds. It generally works fairly seamlessly on board. Different butlers and concierges do things differently, but they usually get it done in the end. For example, about the Boarding Passes - if you didn't know who to ask and asked your butler, several things could happen. He could simply go to the concierge and take care of it for you. He could tell you to have the concierge take care of it. He may completely ignore the request (this is rare, but could happen if he saw a note in the suite but didn't know it was for him). The concierge could take care of it, or perhaps refuse - some concierges are more limited in what they offer due to time restrictions, direct orders from their supervisors, airline restrictions, etc, etc etc. it sounds far more complicated than it is, and for requests you do generally get directed to the correct person to give you an answer.

 

Here is the perfect example of what can happen with a request with an excellent butler and concierge. On our last sailing, we had six in the Garden Villa. Post-cruise, five of us were continuing our vacation, but my daughter had to fly home after disembarkation to return to school. We knew about the "BAGS" program, and so when the disembarkation paperwork showed up in our suite a couple of days before disembarkation, we filled it out and were planning to bring it to the concierge later that day. Our butler saw the paperwork on the desk and offered to bring it to the concierge for us, and we gratefully accepted. Later that day, the concierge called us and said she had to make sure DD's flight qualified for the BAGS program and we would know at about 24 hours prior (airline restrictions). We knew she would have no baggage charges, so told the concierge that. At about 23 hours prior to her flight, the BAGS program went through, and we had her bag tags. If it had not worked out (like boarding passes, airline restrictions often prevent it from working), we simply would have altered our plans and taken her directly to the airport to check her bag and then dropped her in town to wander until her afternoon flight. But it worked out pretty seamlessly, and the concierge and butler earned an extra tip for wonderful service.

 

Other things are pretty intrinsic as well. If you see the steward bringing ice to your cabin, you might ask him for extra. If you do not see who delivers it and assume it's the butler, you might ask him, and he in turn would either speak to the steward, or tell you to speak to the steward, or perhaps return with the steward and the ice and introduce you and together they would tell you the fastest way to get more ice.

 

By the middle of your first suite sailing, you become pretty accustomed to who does what, and with each subsequent suite sailing, things get easier. Yes, on occasion a request might slip through the cracks - it happens. But a friendly reminder usually takes care of it.

 

Robin

Edited July 14, 2014 by Fishbait17

[sverigecruiser]

Nope -- not saying that all -- just a general comment -- apologies if it came across that way.

 

Ok!

[SeagoingMom]

It's really not as complicated as it sounds. It generally works fairly seamlessly on board. Different butlers and concierges do things differently, but they usually get it done in the end. For example, about the Boarding Passes - if you didn't know who to ask and asked your butler, several things could happen. He could simply go to the concierge and take care of it for you. He could tell you to have the concierge take care of it. He may completely ignore the request (this is rare, but could happen if he saw a note in the suite but didn't know it was for him). The concierge could take care of it, or perhaps refuse - some concierges are more limited in what they offer due to time restrictions, direct orders from their supervisors, airline restrictions, etc, etc etc. it sounds far more complicated than it is, and for requests you do generally get directed to the correct person to give you an answer.

 

Here is the perfect example of what can happen with a request with an excellent butler and concierge. On our last sailing, we had six in the Garden Villa. Post-cruise, five of us were continuing our vacation, but my daughter had to fly home after disembarkation to return to school. We knew about the "BAGS" program, and so when the disembarkation paperwork showed up in our suite a couple of days before disembarkation, we filled it out and were planning to bring it to the concierge later that day. Our butler saw the paperwork on the desk and offered to bring it to the concierge for us, and we gratefully accepted. Later that day, the concierge called us and said she had to make sure DD's flight qualified for the BAGS program and we would know at about 24 hours prior (airline restrictions). We knew she would have no baggage charges, so told the concierge that. At about 23 hours prior to her flight, the BAGS program went through, and we had her bag tags. If it had not worked out (like boarding passes, airline restrictions often prevent it from working), we simply would have altered our plans and taken her directly to the airport to check her bag and then dropped her in town to wander until her afternoon flight. But it worked out pretty seamlessly, and the concierge and butler earned an extra tip for wonderful service.

 

Other things are pretty intrinsic as well. If you see the steward bringing ice to your cabin, you might ask him for extra. If you do not see who delivers it and assume it's the butler, you might ask him, and he in turn would either speak to the steward, or tell you to speak to the steward, or perhaps return with the steward and the ice and introduce you and together they would tell you the fastest way to get more ice.

 

By the middle of your first suite sailing, you become pretty accustomed to who does what, and with each subsequent suite sailing, things get easier. Yes, on occasion a request might slip through the cracks - it happens. But a friendly reminder usually takes care of it.

 

Robin

Thanks for the "blow by blow" report. It must be nice to be able to find out how things work by being able to have "subsequent suite sailings!" :D We haven't had our first yet (as you know from what I posted...)

[DaisyGoldberg]

Don't feel awkward asking -- if it makes it less painful for you, ask "Who should I speak to about _____?" and the butler will either say "I can take care of that" or "I'll ask ______ to take care of it" or "If you dial ___ on your phone Housekeeping/engineering will send somebody right away."

 

If he says he'll take care of it and then doesn't, it doesn't necessarily mean he's awful -- I've had my fair share of forgetful moments at work. A simple "I was just calling to check on ____?" should get things taken care of. If nothing happens after that, or a lot of things seem to be falling through the cracks, then you might have a service problem, but I think that's unusual for most travelers.

 

We also found it helpful to have a little pad of sticky notes and when in doubt we'd just put a request to both butler/steward on the note on the mirror or someplace prominent when we left for the morning or for dinner and knew it would be spotted and addressed during makeup/turndown.