Haven butler & concierge tipping

[Patchoguecruiser]

I know the prepaid gratuities do not cover the above.  What is customery tip for these positions?  Want to make sure we tip appropriately.

 

 

[cruiseny4life]

Oh nelly! You've opened pandora's box. Hehe....anyway, here's what I tip:

 

Concierge - $100 to whichever concierge helps more (assistant or concierge)

Other Concierge Staff - $0 - $50, depending on how often I speak with them. 

Butler - $50 - $100, depending on how much service I request. 

[jetact]

You are going to get many answers to that question as everyone has their own way of going about it. It really sort of depends on how much you use them to me. I have tipped my butler anywhere from $100-$200 for a seven day cruise and the concierge I have done from $0 (we never used him or talked to him) - $75.00 ( he got us show seats and a few dinners as well as taking us off the ship) . Its up to you but they do work hard and for the most part do a great job. We also tip our room steward $50.00 as he did a great job

[Two Wheels Only]

Option A - tip based on what others tipped after their expectations and experiences.

 

Option B - decide for yourself how much/little you tip based on your expectations and experiences.

 

Only you can decide what is appropriate. It's your money so you can't get it wrong even if other forum members tip more or less.

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, Patchoguecruiser said:

I know the prepaid gratuities do not cover the above.  What is customary tip for these positions?  Want to make sure we tip appropriately.

 

My standard tips are:

 

Room Steward: $5-$10 per person in room per days of cruise (regardless of Haven or regular room) 

 

Butler: $10-$15 per person per day 

 

Concierge: $5-$10 per person per day 

 

Others include: Haven Restaurant Maître D, restaurant waiters, bar waiters, bar tenders

[Yinster]

Tipping is so subjective.

 

Tip how much you want to whoever you want and you won't go wrong.

 

There is no right or wrong answer and don't let anyone tell you differently 

 

Edited October 20, 2023 by Yinster

[Monica887]

1 hour ago, BirdTravels said:

 

My standard tips are:

 

Room Steward: $5-$10 per person in room per days of cruise (regardless of Haven or regular room) 

 

Butler: $10-$15 per person per day 

 

Concierge: $5-$10 per person per day 

 

Others include: Haven Restaurant Maître D, restaurant waiters, bar waiters, bar tenders

This is close to what we did.

 

I struggle with the waiter part. There were so many good ones but we had different ones each day. There were a couple who seemed to look out for us extra so we just tipped them. Next time I would try to ID the good ones early on and try to request them so I can tip them individually more at the end. 

 

We don't drink much so we just tip per drink. I didn't tip the maitre d. 

[AlexandNessa]

4 hours ago, Patchoguecruiser said:

What is customery tip for these positions?

 

There is no customary tip, full stop. 

 

You tip with what you can sleep with at night, and leave it at that. There will always be people who tip more than you as well as people who always tip less so no need to worry about a customary standard because it simply doesn't exist. 

 

Happy cruising. 

[jlowe420]

I would consider myself a pretty good tipper on land and in restaurants, but for some reason on a cruise I have a hard time stomaching all of the tips we are "expected" to give.

 

Room Steward:  I do about $100 on a 10ish day cruise.

Butler:  Depends on how good the service as been, but assuming decent $100 on a 10ish day cruise.

Concierge:  Most times, $0.  I've given $50 a few when they did something helpful.  I frankly don't think making a reservation for you is special.  I mean thats literally their whole job. 

 

Maybe if they would kick the children off of the sundeck that would inspire a tip.

 

I'll typically make a small tip at specialty restaurants but really where most of the money goes is to the casino servers and bartenders.  I make sure on day one to introduce myself and make sure they know me and my drink.  I tip right off the bat so they seem me coming and are pouring my glass of wine ahead of the crowd.

[MoCruiseFan]

5 hours ago, Patchoguecruiser said:

I know the prepaid gratuities do not cover the above.  What is customery tip for these positions?  Want to make sure we tip appropriately.

 

 

1) There are no pre-paid gratuities otehr than on the FAS packages, etc.  You are thinking of the DSC.

2.  There is no such thing as a customary, suggested, usual, acceptable, coomon, or any other type of top.  The ONLY right answer to tipping is to tip who you want, when you want, in whatever amount you want.  No one will turn down a tip.  WHat oetrhs choose to tip is 100% irrelevant.

[BirdTravels]

2 hours ago, Monica887 said:

There were so many good ones but we had different ones each day. There were a couple who seemed to look out for us extra so we just tipped them. Next time I would try to ID the good ones early on and try to request them so I can tip them individually more at the end. 

Yes. We have had Haven waiters that will check in with us, even if we are not sitting at one of their tables. Or just proactively get us our favorite drinks, even if we're not in their section. At the end of the cruise, we hand them an envelope and make sure to write an onboard Hero card and send in a Hero recommendation for them once we are back home (both email to the Hero desk and on our post-cruise survey - Triple Hero). 

Edited October 20, 2023 by BirdTravels

[Girr]

Daily Service Charge ($25 per person/per day) you're paying goes to room steward, wait staff, and "behind the scenes" (laundry, etc.) personnel.

 

20% gratuities added to FAS beverage goes to bartenders.  20% gratuities added to FAS specialty dinning goes to wait staff.

 

So, in theory you do not need to tip additional to room steward, wait staff, or bartenders.  However, if you receive great service, an additional tip isn't going to be rejected.  Also, please fill out Hero Cards on the staff - no one really knows how the DSC is fully distributed, but Hero Cards do put them in line for bonuses.

 

So back to tipping the Butler and Concierge. 

 

There isn't one right answer.  Normally I tip the butler $10-$15 a day/per person.  However, it really depends.  My last cruise we had not one, but two, invisible butlers (they traded out mid-cruise).  As we had breakfast delivered most morning but didn't ask for anything else I ended up tipping each one $100 (nine-day cruise for three) for a total of $200.  For truly great service I do exceed $15 a day/per person plan. 

 

For the concierge I keep track of how many times I have them change reservations, book excursions, and escort on/off the ship and tip a minimum $5 per service.  (I also tip the Haven staff who assist in getting us on/off ship at ports-about $10 per port for the family.)

 

On the Epic in July the Haven staff (with the exception being the butlers) were rock stars.  The money I had budgeted for the butler ended up going to our room steward, a waitress in the Haven (who absolutely made the cruise A+ for my husband), Haven maître de, and bartenders.  Actually, we spent well over what we'd budgeted as the service was so fantastic.  

 

Added: on the subject of Haven waitstaff at our first meal we had a waitress who we immediately clicked with and requested to be seated in her section for the rest of our meals - our request was accommodated.  Due to her schedule, she wasn't always available but for the most part she was.  

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 21, 2023 by Girr
Adding info.

[BmanOnTheSea]

I usually give $100 cash to each of the Buter, the room steward, and the Concierge.

[graphicguy]

-$100 for the Concierge who I interface with the most

-$100 for my room steward

-$50 for my Butler (unless I request en suite meals then I double it)

-$1/drink for waitstaff or bartender in the Haven Bar

 

Tough to gauge the Haven Restaurant Staff.  I usually don't have the same wait staff and rarely eat every meal there.  If someone goes above and beyond during the week then $20.

 

Do what you want.  You'll find as many opinions as there are Haven guests.

 

[mertziek]

Tipping is very personal.  You decide what you can afford.  Also, we save our tips to the end of the cruise for our butler, steward and concierge.  Some tip them as they use them.  Many use the $10 pp per day rule for the butler and adjust up or down based on service.  Room stewards’ tips based on service.  We often tip them the same as the butler despite being part of the DSC since they do the most to keep our room tidy and clean with the concierge getting about half as much.  We tip bartenders as we are served and same for waitstaff in restaurants - Haven, included restaurants and specialty ones.  Haven Head maitre D’ at the end of the cruise and amount less than our butler.  Around the ship, we tip as drinks are served or for dining service at the time.  Again, you tip what best fits your service and your custom.

[Peachypooh]

The last cruise we went on was a 7 day cruise. We had our two grand children in the cabin with us. I tipped the butler $400 and the room steward $400. In other words  $100 per person in the cabin for the week. I gave the concierge $100. They earned itby really going above and beyond but $900 put a serious dent in my wallet LOL  

[juliet]

When tipping the waiters, do you tip their assistants?  

[cruiseny4life]

39 minutes ago, juliet said:

When tipping the waiters, do you tip their assistants?  

We tip whomever we establish a relationship with. Sometimes that's the assistants. Sometimes it's the servers. It all depends on the rapport we establish. Back in March we didn't establish a rapport with anyone, so we didn't tip any of the restaurant staff. I'm hoping next month we find three or four to tip!

[CatBoiler]

We just returned from 9 nights on Prima. It was a port intensive trip (no sea days) but still spent a large amount of time in the Haven lounge. We really got to know & like the crew there.

 

2 bartenders - Cristian & Maria - $200 each

2 lounge servers - Alejandro & Mary Ann - $20 each (we always sit at the bar, so we had very little table service, we mostly just chatted with them while they were waiting for their drinks to be made)
1 restaurant hostess - Juliet - knew our names by the second meal - $20
steward - John - $100, we ordered breakfast in our cabin 4 times, at least 2 were delivered by John rather than Davy
butler - Davy - $100, we had only 1 extra request (potato chips on night 7! we were craving salt)

 

We considered tipping the Haven restaurant servers but we had so many different ones over the course of the 9 days, we either couldn't remember names or never saw them again.

 

As others have mentioned, people tip for different reasons. If you never use the concierge (we only used them for priority disembarkation twice, and even then, it was the outdoor Haven bartenders that led us down), I don't see the need to tip. If you are making requests of your butler twice a day, certainly tip based on that. These were just our numbers.

[juliet]

Thank you so much.

[Sand and Seas]

On our first Haven cruise, we didn't meet our Butler until the third day.  We got the impression that he had some very 'difficult'  cabins that kept him too busy to do anything else.   However our steward, concierge and the Haven restaurant staff were outstanding.  You can guess how we distributed our tips for that cruise.

 

Now that we have taken a few more Haven cruises, we have learned there are all types of Butlers😊

 

On our most recent cruise, we finally decided enjoy breakfast deliveries for a few mornings.  We had the two room suite and could let our butler deliver to our outer room without us having to let him in.    Our butler was amazing!  He really made our cruise extra special and our tip reflected that.  He was devastated that he was unable to provide Hash Browns for us....but we convinced him we would be just fine without them😉  

 

Also, we had a new room steward on her first cruise. (We were outside Haven proper in a two room Forward Facing Suite).   She took care of our simple requests for extra towels and extra laundry bag, and we could see how hard she was working every day.   It was a joy to hand her a nice tip on that last day and see her face light up as she told us "This is my very first tip!"

 

We had great meals in the Joy Haven restaurant, however we never got to create a relationship with any of the staff .  On a twelve day cruise, and eating at least one meal in Haven each day, it's strange we never had the same server twice.    

[jetact]

I have already chimed in on this but just getting back off the Bliss last week I also added 1 not mentioned and its another one of those that if you use them then its your choice.  I tipped the sommelier $50.00 as we used him 4 nights for bottles of wine and had him choose 2 of the bottles.

[RocketMan275]

9 minutes ago, Sand and Seas said:

We had great meals in the Joy Haven restaurant, however we never got to create a relationship with any of the staff .  On a twelve day cruise, and eating at least one meal in Haven each day, it's strange we never had the same server twice.    

We've had the same experience.  We decided to leave a small tip at each meal, $3-$5, just leave it on the table as we leave.

[Sand and Seas]

I forgot to mention a couple of others from our recent Joy Haven.  We did not have the drink package, so we didn't expect to utilize the Haven bar that much.  (Free drinks in casino.)   However, did have the 'soda' package and a couple of the bartenders would see me, smile, and promptly hand me two Diet Cokes!  Needless to say, they added to our experience and I handed out some tips on the last couple of days.

 

Also, we enjoyed a couple of Haven courtyard pool side lunch deliveries.  Great burgers (with onion rings) and really awesome tempura vegetables delivered pool side.    There was also a couple of friendly & helpful attendants that worked in the Horizon observation lounge.    The attendants in these areas definitely contributed to our experience and deserved recognition 😎

[rbxlady]

On 10/20/2023 at 8:03 PM, Girr said:

On the Epic in July the Haven staff (with the exception being the butlers) were rock stars.  The money I had budgeted for the butler ended up going to our room steward, a waitress in the Haven (who absolutely made the cruise A+ for my husband), Haven maître de, and bartenders.

 

We will be on the Epic in the spring. I know personnel may certainly change between now and then, and not to hijack the thread, but what was wrong with the butlers?