Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

What does your butler do?

rimau

By rimau,
in Oceania Cruises

 Share

Recommended Posts

RJB

RJB

Posted
Posted
That’s the least important thing your butler can do for you, IMO.

 

See these threads for more discussion:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2383873&highlight=Butler

 

and

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2377663&highlight=Butler

 

Hope this helps

I think these threads pretty much sums it up. Very good posts. :):):)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Mura

Mura

Posted
Posted

We had the same question when we first had a butler, and we tended not to use them at all for the first cruises. But then we learned ...

 

Ditto that consulting these threads will answer your questions better than we can by repeating what they say!

 

You can use a butler or not, as you wish. But they can indeed make life on board easier ...

 

Mura

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Jay23

Jay23

Posted
Posted

Your Butler will come to see you when you first arrive in your Suite (he has more than one suite to service) He will guide you as to what he can do for you. Like you,I did not feel that I would want/need to use a butler, until I did.

 

eg. You feel like a cup of tea so you dial his number; you make your request and LO the tea will be brought to your door within minutes.

 

Or............... you would like to have your dinner in your suite. Your butler will serve it to you course by course or all at once whatever your prefer. Like others have said, once you have had a butler you will not want to do without. J

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Sny

Sny

Posted
Posted

He's your best friend on the ship. Get to know him. I'll bet you will have even more respect for him, when you know his story. I think the staff are a wonderful attribute on Oceania. My husband and I love to talk with them about their countries, their families, previous work experience and aspirations.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
RJB

RJB

Posted
Posted
Your Butler will come to see you when you first arrive in your Suite (he has more than one suite to service) He will guide you as to what he can do for you. Like you,I did not feel that I would want/need to use a butler, until I did.

 

eg. You feel like a cup of tea so you dial his number; you make your request and LO the tea will be brought to your door within minutes.

 

Or............... you would like to have your dinner in your suite. Your butler will serve it to you course by course or all at once whatever your prefer. Like others have said, once you have had a butler you will not want to do without. J

Vert true. They will take care of almost anything you need, even escorting you to dinner with your bottle of wine. Just knowing that they are there is great for us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Noxequifans Holiday Sharing Rare

Noxequifans

Posted
Posted

We always listen to the butler describe his services and then we tell him what we want. The butler is a big plus for us and on a ten day trip we like to dine in our suite about four times.Their knowledge of menu items is very helpful.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
bitob

bitob

Posted
Posted

We asked the same question the first time we had a butler. Now we will not book anything but a cabin with a butler. Amazing what you can get used to

 

Seabourn does not offer butler service and when we sailed seabourn we felt the loss

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Go-Bucks!

Go-Bucks!

Posted
Posted

I've only had one experience with a butler (on Celebrity) and found him to be no more than a glorified room service delivery man who expected a big tip. I have no desire for a butler to pack and unpack for me. We didn't need any reservations made and he gave us misinformation that led to us not eating in a special restaurant for our category for the first 3 days because he said we had to pay extra for it. We eventually found out we could eat there and the hostess said "Where have you been? We've been expecting you for the last 3 days." He brought snacks to our cabin in the afternoon and delivered our room service orders. That's all. And, toward the end of the cruise, he hinted that he needs a tip because butlers aren't included in the basic gratuities. We also had a cabin steward and his assistant - they did the work of keeping our cabin clean and comfortable.

 

I can't see paying extra gratuities just for someone else to make reservations, bring ice or carrying a bottle of wine. I'm capable of doing that myself (for no charge). ;)

 

Saw this in a thread: " Butler responsible for ice and refrigerator. Assist is the toilet person and vacuum. Housekeeper the bed and veranda." If you're not in a suite, does the steward do the ice and refrig for you?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Buryfan

Buryfan

Posted
Posted

Based on our experience last year on Sirena ... absolutely nothing ! The only one thing we asked of him was to rearrange a restaurant booking and he was unable to. He also insisted on escorting me to dinner one evening leaving my OH to trail behind. It was embarrassing.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Link to comment
Share on other sites
bitob

bitob

Posted
Posted

If u have a butler that does nothing and you do nothing then nothing will change.

 

We once and only once had a butler with whom we were dissatisfied. One word and we got a new butler

 

We hAve found the butlers on oceania and celebrity to be terrific and they enhance our experience tremendously

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Paulchili

Paulchili

Posted
Posted
. He also insisted on escorting me to dinner one evening leaving my OH to trail behind. It was embarrassing.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

I agree with the embarrassing part. Easy enough to say - No thank you, we'll be just fine :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MarkieMarkNYC

MarkieMarkNYC

Posted
Posted

I'm in the "no butler" camp. It has also been my experience that they are basically room service personnel.

I have no interest in having someone perform the functions advertised as I don't want people to do those things for me in my everyday life.

And the idea of having a multi-course dinner served in my cabin is not even remotely interesting to me. If I want a multi-course dinner, I will dine in a restaurant. If I want room service, it means I want to sit in my robe or in shorts and a t-shirt, get something delivered, and eat it without continuous interruption for additional courses.

I have also found that they aren't particularly helpful in securing additional reservations in specialty restaurants. And it's no great task to walk myself to a restaurant (or pick up the telephone - it's really not that heavy) and do it myself.

I get the interest in feeling pampered - but it seems like a fairly silly length to go to to forget my real life (which I actually enjoy) to feel ultra-wealthy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Buryfan

Buryfan

Posted
Posted
Obviously you are a Brit and therefore too nice & polite :D

We Yanks tend to be more firm (but hopefully still civilized)

 

 

 

You are so right🇬[emoji1058][emoji1058]🇧

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Catlover54 Great Review Rare

Catlover54

Posted
Posted

We just got off our first Oceania cruise on the Regatta, 7 days to Alaska in a PH suite. An additional service charge of $7/person/day for the butler is added to the $16/person/day ship crew service charge, on top of the high additional charge for being in a PH suite.

The butler introduced himself right at the beginning of the cruise and outlined the different ship venues for us, and some of the additional PH options, which were also on a printed form. He emphasized the ability to book 2 rather than 1 reservation in the specialty restaurants, the ability to have course by course service en suite including from specialty restaurants, afternoon canapé service, and how to reach him.

On a practical level, all we needed him for was 2 breakfasts of simple room service and one off-the-room-service menu dinner room service brought the last night when we were packing and DH was starting to come down with a cold he'd probably caught from others on the ship who were coughing. We had no interest in going for a 2nd time into a specialty restaurant (did not like the first round well enough to go again), no shoes to shine, and no desire to have him pack or unpack for us (nor did he offer). Excursion changes I had to make after one was cancelled had to be done in person anyway because there were some confusing issues, so he would not have been able to help there.

 

The one service he did not offer that we found out about on our own and were interested in is that PH pax can use the hot tub in the spa for free, 8AM-8PM, whereas regular pax would have to pay $25/person/day unless associated with a spa service.

 

He always timely brought the canapés at 5 PM, and brought room service on time (or early) but unfortunately the canapés were mostly pretty bad and cheap, so we could have skipped them.

 

If someone wanted to have an en suite group party with an up-charge for better canapés, or constantly needed tea or other things frequently delivered to the suite, there would be value in the butler.

 

Cleaning of the room was done by two other people.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
LHT28 Holiday Sharing Rare

LHT28

Posted
Posted

The one service he did not offer that we found out about on our own and were interested in is that PH pax can use the hot tub in the spa for free, 8AM-8PM, whereas regular pax would have to pay $25/person/day unless associated with a spa service.

 

It is on their website & probably in the brochures

Unlimited access to Canyon Ranch SpaClub® private Spa Terrace

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/ships/regatta/suites-staterooms/penthouse-suite/

 

Just to add anyone in Concierge cabin (A) & above get free access to the spa terrace

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Mura

Mura

Posted
Posted

Not sure about that! We've always gotten our own. The butler has a lot to do, especially in the morning when most tours leave, so it could be intrusive on his time to ask him to do THIS.

 

Mura

Link to comment
Share on other sites
LHT28 Holiday Sharing Rare

LHT28

Posted
Posted (edited)
HI everyone.

I am on a "anchor - intensive" cruise (5 ports of call).

Can the butler arrange the tender tickets and the timing ?

Many thanks

Brian

Just ask

 

they will tell you if it is possible or not

 

BUT usually you have to be in the lounge & ready to go when they call your ticket colour/number unless you are in a top suite then I think you can just show up when you are ready

Edited by LHT28
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...