tips for butler

[wintertexancruiser]

I am just trying to get an average of what people tip their butler. We are about to take a 16 day cruise and have a penthouse room.

We really don't use the butler other then filling our coffee machine and bringing in the daily snacks they give you.

We of course will base it on the service but just trying to see what others do. Thanks much!

 

[pcakes122]

Before this thread becomes a runaway train full of crazy tipping recommendations....I want to make one with regards to utilizing butler service.   If you haven't already, please read the threads on the topic "what does a butler do" so that you can see all of the wonderful things your butler can do to personalize your trip and make it an over-the-top  experience!

 

Have a great cruise! 😁

 

[BNBR]

For a 16 day cruise, if you aren't utilizing them, I would tip $100 for the length of the cruise.  Maybe $150. 

 

Please ignore a couple posters who always suggest outrageous amounts, that if each cabin would give, would make the butlers paid like LeBron James.

 

Keep in mind the butlers service 10 - 15 cabins.

Edited September 14, 2019 by BNBR

[lovetoofli]

BNBR, is the $100 - $150 suggestion per cabin or per person?

[Peachypooh]

We tip $140 per cabin for a 7 day cruise if we don't utilize the butler for anything extra.

We once tipped $200  total for the week when we had the butler set up a small  party in our room. For a 16 day cruise  if the butler is a good one I would tip more. Only once when our butler did a disappearing act

did I tip less. Aprox. $50. for a 7 day Alaska cruise.

Edited September 14, 2019 by Peachypooh

[Ptroxx]

Is this on top of the dsc?   

[NLH Arizona]

17 minutes ago, Ptroxx said:

Is this on top of the dsc?   

Yes, the Butler and Concierge are not included in the DSC.

[Beachiekeen]

Wow I had no idea, I’m glad I read this. Is a butler in addition to a room steward or in place of it? We will be in a penthouse on the POA.

[Two Wheels Only]

4 minutes ago, Beachiekeen said:

Wow I had no idea, I’m glad I read this. Is a butler in addition to a room steward or in place of it? We will be in a penthouse on the POA.

 

You will have both.

 

Don't worry about what others tip. Give however much or little that YOU want to give.

[Sauer-kraut]

9 minutes ago, Beachiekeen said:

Wow I had no idea, I’m glad I read this. Is a butler in addition to a room steward or in place of it? We will be in a penthouse on the POA.

 

Also factor in the Concierge, if you use them for bookings or taking care of other requests for you.

Someone explained it best here once, The Butler takes care of you inside your stateroom, the Concierge takes care of everything else.   The steward will be resposnible for cleaning your stateroom.

[NLH Arizona]

12 minutes ago, Beachiekeen said:

Wow I had no idea, I’m glad I read this. Is a butler in addition to a room steward or in place of it? We will be in a penthouse on the POA.

The Butler and Concierge are in addition to the Room Steward.

[wintertexancruiser]

3 hours ago, pcakes122 said:

Before this thread becomes a runaway train full of crazy tipping recommendations....I want to make one with regards to utilizing butler service.   If you haven't already, please read the threads on the topic "what does a butler do" so that you can see all of the wonderful things your butler can do to personalize your trip and make it an over-the-top  experience!

thanks so much. Yes. I know all this but we don't use them often

 

[wintertexancruiser]

3 hours ago, BNBR said:

For a 16 day cruise, if you aren't utilizing them, I would tip $100 for the length of the cruise.  Maybe $150. 

 

Please ignore a couple posters who always suggest outrageous amounts, that if each cabin would give, would make the butlers paid like LeBron James.

 

Keep in mind the butlers service 10 - 15 cabins.

sounds fair so we rarely use our

[wintertexancruiser]

15 minutes ago, Two Wheels Only said:

 

You will have both.

 

Don't worry about what others tip. Give however much or little that YOU want to give.

Not worried one bit. Just trying to gauge a fair amount like I saID

[BNBR]

2 hours ago, lovetoofli said:

BNBR, is the $100 - $150 suggestion per cabin or per person?

 

Per cabin.  Think about what the butler does. If you aren't utilizing them for anything extra, then they will do little more than stock coffee and drop off snacks in the evening. $100- $150 is already more than you would tip for room service, all things considered. 

 

This number is just my opinion, of course.  We gave them $70 on our 7 day cruise. Felt $10/day was more than fair to drop off snacks that we didn't necessarily want and were nothing special. 

 

Keep in mind, these are NOT butlers just because NCL calls them so.  They are essentially food runners who may do a little extra. "Butler" means something and has specific standards and services that these don't do. It's not the same. They load up a cart with 10 cabins worth of snacks and drop them off.  Maybe setup a table for dinner if you want to dine in... Which food runners do at fine hotels as well.

 

Edited September 14, 2019 by BNBR

[Beachiekeen]

Well we’ve already booked our excursions and made our dining reservations so not sure we will need anything. But good information, glad I know now.

 

We have some OBC and we were going to get a good bottle of champagne for the Napali coast sailby. Is that something he could do, get us that and some glasses?

[fabnfortysomething]

I've had a couple of occasions where had VIP status in a standard cabin and had the daily "treats" dropped off which I assume are the same as suites get and their butler delivers

 

 

I have absolutely no idea who actually delivered them as were in room when we got back and it wasn't our room steward 

[pcakes122]

5 minutes ago, fabnfortysomething said:

I've had a couple of occasions where had VIP status in a standard cabin and had the daily "treats" dropped off which I assume are the same as suites get and their butler delivers

A little different.  I've had VIP status and did get a plate of canapes delivered around 4 pm (also not sure who brought them.)  The butlers deliver those also (to folks who want them - not sure many do lol), but the snacks they bring are more like shrimp cocktail, various kinds of sandwiches, cookies, truffles (the candy kind lol), nuts, etc.  And not just at 4 p.m. - but however often you want.

[DebQ5]

I also didn't think I'd use the Butler for much, and I didn't on our first "suite" cruise, but last cruise was somewhat different.  Although we didn't ask him for too much (a few breakfasts in the room and one dinner), when I mentioned that my son was a bit seasick (they always were asking about him) the next thing I knew there was ginger ale and crackers and seasick medicine.  I didn't ask for any of that.  He and our steward really just wanted to make sure everyone was having a great trip. When he learned what snacks the kids (adult kids) liked that's what was brought afterwards.  We didn't ask for anything special.  It was all sorts of small things like this that made our trip extra special.   

[BirdTravels]

On a 7-night cruise, we tip our butler around $150-$200 (more if they do something above and beyond). We tip the concierge around $100 (again more for going above and beyond). And we tip our steward between $80 and $100 depending on their performance (on top of whatever they get from the DSC). After spending thousands of dollars on a cruise, a $100 tip to someone who did a great job, working hard all week, is a drop in the bucket.

Edited September 14, 2019 by BirdTravels

[NCLetscruise]

Depends how good (or bad) they are. I have had some good ones that I tipped very well. I also had Ahmed on the Dawn who absolutely SUCKED, and he got a crisp $1 bill in an envelop. 

[gmbhardy]

16 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

On a 7-night cruise, we tip our butler around $150-$200 (more if they do something above and beyond). We tip the concierge around $100 (again more for going above and beyond). And we tip our steward between $80 and $100 depending on their performance (on top of whatever they get from the DSC). After spending thousands of dollars on a cruise, a $100 tip to someone who did a great job, working hard all week, is a drop in the bucket.

 

You pay a premium to stay in the Haven and part of that payment is for an enhanced level of service. Tipping an additional $500 on top of that is simply not necessary, but hey, you can tip whatever you want. It’s your money.

[Hotspring]

56 minutes ago, gmbhardy said:

 

You pay a premium to stay in the Haven and part of that payment is for an enhanced level of service. Tipping an additional $500 on top of that is simply not necessary, but hey, you can tip whatever you want. It’s your money.

Good point.   That and tipping them as much as BirdTravels does would the being tipped over $118K/year for a souped up waiter/waitress job (52 weeks times a average of 13 cabins).   

But remember, they also are the ice runners and stock your refrigerators with your requests.   

On our last cruise are only special request to the butler was to exchange one of our unopened bottles of liquor for another and

deliver one breakfast before an early morning excursion.

We ended up tipping the steward more than the butler since we were in the OS, a larger room and balcony, and actually increased the tip for the concierge team because of additional help we needed because of Dorian.    We did tip all extra when we for the two extra sailing days we got out of the Breakaway, but the butler only only got about 2/3 of what Birdtravels recommends and we can sleep nights.

 

We aware that you can buy the tip vouchers from the Haven concierge and you really need to buy a separate voucher for each member of the concierge team that helped you.   They apparently do not share their tips as we assumed in the past, we have tipped the head concierge $75 for a week when he did absolutely nothing for us---assuming he share with his hard working team.

[NLH Arizona]

18 minutes ago, Hotspring said:

Good point.   That and tipping them as much as BirdTravels does would the being tipped over $118K/year for a souped up waiter/waitress job (52 weeks times a average of 13 cabins).   

 

They work 52 weeks a year?  Don't they every go home?

[Hotspring]

34 minutes ago, NLH Arizona said:

They work 52 weeks a year?  Don't they every go home?

Of course they do, I was just making a point.    Similar some (but not most) teachers and professors complaining about being underpaid or working 9 months out of the year.   On top of that they get free living expense and round trip air home and do get to see the entertainment and travel that the cruises offer.   That 100K+ USD

 is a substantial amount to make in their home countries.