Tipping the Butler

[bigal119]

Not travelled in a Penthouse before so not sure what to tip the Butler, anyone know what the norm is? I know that NCL will charge for general tips for the crew but I assumed most people give the Butler an extra payment?

[Manomet1]

Welcome to the world of penthouse cruising. :D Be aware you will never want to go back.

 

The butler and concierge are not included in the $10 per day. You would tip them according to how much use. We had only 1 meal in our room and only asked for chilled juice and water. Our tip was $400 for a 2 week cruise. The concierge will again be depending on how much use for reservations, etc, but I personally would never tip less than $100 with NO use at all.

 

Have a good time.

[cp556]

Welcome to the world of penthouse cruising. :D Be aware you will never want to go back.

 

The butler and concierge are not included in the $10 per day. You would tip them according to how much use. We had only 1 meal in our room and only asked for chilled juice and water. Our tip was $400 for a 2 week cruise. The concierge will again be depending on how much use for reservations, etc, but I personally would never tip less than $100 with NO use at all.

 

Have a good time.

 

Clarification needed, please: You tipped a total of $400, or you tipped the Butler $400?

 

Thanks

[JessLCH]

Clarification needed: You tipped a total of $400, or you tipped the Butler $400?

 

Thanks

 

Wondering the same.

[Kingmaker_inc]

For two weeks of good butler service, I think $400 is quite appropriate.

[JACruiser]

The concierge will again be depending on how much use for reservations, etc, but I personally would never tip less than $100 with NO use at all.

 

I don't necessarily agree with the concierge statement. There have certainly been cases where passengers in Penthouses are ignored for those in the Villas. In this case, those Penthouse passengers did not get what they paid for (the perks that go along with the accomodations) and should not feel obligated to tip the concierge for services they did not receive.

 

Many concierges can absolutely make a vacation though! :D In this case, you will certainly know how much to tip them but the general average seems to be $100 per cabin for a seven day cruise on a Jewel-class vessel (vs. one of the other ships were there can be as few as 18 suites and much more attention by the concierge).

 

Have a great cruise! What ship are you on?

[Kingmaker_inc]

There is another thread on this as well:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=701692

[Bigdog49]

Clarification needed: You tipped a total of $400, or you tipped the Butler $400?

 

Thanks

 

The Butler :eek: many tip more and many less it all depends on the services you consume. Too bad the search feature is not working there are some great threads on this exact subject. Never hurts to do a fresh one. For me the least I have tipped the butler was $100 the most $300. Lots off ways to get to a number so much for each meal servered or service provided. Some use a $7- $10 per day per person, some $10 pp per meal. no right answer.

[Manomet1]

I'm sorry. We tipped our butler the $400.

[JessLCH]

I actually wish the cruiseline would provide general guidelines on tipping the concierge and butlers.

[logcabin]

We usually use the Butler for breakfast in the morning each day. Maybe one dinner on the balcony during the week. Not much more then that. We tip between $100 - $150 for a 7 day cruise depending on how good they were. We also give them a pre-paid phone card so they can call home on us while in port. One butler we had, Corina, was GREAT, the best we've had!! We gave her $200..

 

Now, the conceirge.... I have yet to be impressed by a conceirge on any cruise we've been on. Yeh, they made dinner reservations a few times for us (never the time we wanted), but not much more... Perhaps our June cruise will be different and the conceirge will impress me more..

[JessLCH]

We usually use the Butler for breakfast in the morning each day. Maybe one dinner on the balcony during the week. Not much more then that. We tip between $100 - $150 for a 7 day cruise depending on how good they were. We also give them a pre-paid phone card so they can call home on us while in port. One butler we had, Corina, was GREAT, the best we've had!! We gave her $200..

 

Now, the conceirge.... I have yet to be impressed by a conceirge on any cruise we've been on. Yeh, they made dinner reservations a few times for us (never the time we wanted), but not much more... Perhaps our June cruise will be different and the conceirge will impress me more..

 

We sailed in an AB once on Dawn and I agree- concierge was not impressive at all. Butler was great though. This was three years ago though so I really don't recall how much we tipped. I would guess $100-250/week for Butler depending on usage and service. I cannot imagine tipping the concierge more than $5-10 per each service (reservation, etc).

[carontori]

Welcome to the world of penthouse cruising. :D Be aware you will never want to go back.

 

The butler and concierge are not included in the $10 per day. You would tip them according to how much use. We had only 1 meal in our room and only asked for chilled juice and water. Our tip was $400 for a 2 week cruise. The concierge will again be depending on how much use for reservations, etc, but I personally would never tip less than $100 with NO use at all.

 

Have a good time.

 

excuse me??? why would you tip the concierge "with no use at all".

[Manomet1]

We've have only been in one situation where the concierge ignored us completely. For the most part the services we utilized were done by their assistant - dinner reservations, tender tickets. Except for that one situation we at least had a visit or phone call every day.

 

The excellent concierge's are worth every penny. Years ago on the Majesty our concierge not visited with us evey day, she also stopped in on our mothers who were in an OV down the hall. Service like that does not exist anymore :(

 

Our last concierge was Ruth, who was excellent. I understand that Alex is on the Jewel now.

[carontori]

Yes, Alex is on the Jewel. I have been in touch with him and found out he will still be there when we cruise in August. He is by far the best concierge we have ever had. Very attentive to any and all requests. He made our cruise on the Pearl exceptional. On the other hand, we had one concierge that we never even met and one that was downright rude. I beleive in tipping well for good service but not for services I didn't receive!

[bigal119]

Thanks for all the useful information, looks like it is down to the butler as to how much they get and how helpful they are. I will be on the Gem in May so will let you know how I got on.

[Kingmaker_inc]

Thanks for all the useful information, looks like it is down to the butler as to how much they get and how helpful they are. I will be on the Gem in May so will let you know how I got on.

 

We asked Karan to arrange several of our meals, and he would have done that through Lisa, the acting Gem Concierge. We kept in mind that Karan ws providing a service in getting in touch with Lisa, but that Lisa was also performing a service for us.

[Len3]

We'll have to give this some thought. We're on the July 28th sailing on the Jewel - 12 days - doing N. Europe/Baltics. It will be our first experience with a Penthouse. We have always made our own dinner reservations and may do so on this cruise as well. We don't really know what we will even need the butler for - any thoughts? What exactly will he/she be doing for us? Breakfast is at Cagney's and we only have 4 days at sea.

[Rhian]

Our butler (Gem Penthouse) brought us fresh fruit daily, hors deuvres

in the afternoon and kept our coffee supply stocked and brought DVD's for the kids. We did not order any meals in our stateroom. He is basically there to take care of all your food and beverage requests.

 

Going back to the original poster, re: suggested tip for the butler. I was checking out Celebrity's brochure and they suggest $3.50 per person per day as a gratuity for the butler. I don't think NCL gives a suggestion in their brochure.

[Kingmaker_inc]

Going back to the original poster, re: suggested tip for the butler. I was checking out Celebrity's brochure and they suggest $3.50 per person per day as a gratuity for the butler. I don't think NCL gives a suggestion in their brochure.

 

 

Perhaps Celebrity's butlers share in the automatic gratuity charged per person and stateroom. On NCL the butlers and concierge do not. As such and with all due respect, I believe that a $73.50 tip (DH, I & DD for 1 week) to a butler for a week is inappropriately low.

 

That said, you will get great service from your butler no matter the quantum of the tip. They work hard, they greatly enhance the experience and they rely on tips.

[retiredonthesea]

We have had 3 parties, 3 different cruises and 3 different all amazing Butlers. From small groups 8 to large Halloween party over 20 people. You can't imagine the food they will lay our for you and your guests. They will do as much or as little as you want. We needed extra plates, glasses, silverware ect. They got people in to rearrange furniture bring more patio chairs onto balcony. If you like to entertain great---if not still use them for breakfast in room for a treat. Special foods or snacks you may want. They are their to serve you with a smile:) . We tip BIG because we use them BIG time!:D and tip as service is performed instead of end of cruise.

 

Enjoy your cruise,

Retiredonthesea

[cruzinaway]

We have had 3 parties, 3 different cruises and 3 different all amazing Butlers. From small groups 8 to large Halloween party over 20 people. You can't imagine the food they will lay our for you and your guests. They will do as much or as little as you want. We needed extra plates, glasses, silverware ect. They got people in to rearrange furniture bring more patio chairs onto balcony. If you like to entertain great---if not still use them for breakfast in room for a treat. Special foods or snacks you may want. They are their to serve you with a smile:) . We tip BIG because we use them BIG time!:D and tip as service is performed instead of end of cruise.

 

Enjoy your cruise,

Retiredonthesea

 

Anyone else tip the butler as services are performed? I always thought the tip came at the end of the cruise. With RCCI we always tipped the room stewards, dining staff, etc at the end of the trip. Of course, we never had a butler or concierge before so this is all new to me.:confused:

[Caroldoll]

We just made a trip on the Jewel in October. We too had Ruth for a concierge. FANTASTIC, but she isn't on that ship any more. My husband had his hand in his pocket all the time..but she was worth it. She even took care of getting my VAT tax back as the tax person was going to be there when we had something else planned. She made sure every day was a perfect day and did countless things for us. I can't even remember all of them. She escorted us off when we had a tight connection. She was just a really good person. We have never ever had anyone so wonderful. We mostly have cruised Celebrity in the past, but that is over. Our next trips are with Crystal and Silversea. I hope they have someone as good. I believe total we gave her over $300, but all through the cruise.

 

On the subject of butlers--we had an absolutely useless butler on the Jewel. His name was Henry, I believe. Our son was in a Penthouse suite and he had another Henry who was wonderful. What we usually do with a butler is START OFF with $100--right away, the first day, and then keep giving as he does his job. We send laundry, ask for computers in the room, etc., etc. Little stuff. For parties, a good butler is just perfect. We didn't have a party on the jewel just because we didn't have a cooperative butler. We had to beg to get the coffeemaker filled with water..we had to beg for our hors d'ouvres at 4..he insisted on bringing them after we left for dinner. However, we still ended up probably giving him $200, but that was on the low side.

 

If you want or expect good service, you need to pay. I think the pay as you go method is the best. Then they are more willing to help out.

[JessLCH]

Anyone else tip the butler as services are performed? I always thought the tip came at the end of the cruise. With RCCI we always tipped the room stewards, dining staff, etc at the end of the trip. Of course, we never had a butler or concierge before so this is all new to me.:confused:

 

We usually tip one big chunk at the end. It is a hassle to worry about always having cash on hand in the right denominations.

[crimmper]

Being that the search is down, I have been using GOOGLE to search. I typed NCL Pearl (or whatever ship you are on) and butler. I look for returned results that lists a Cruise Critic thread.

 

My DW & I are staying in a Penthouse stateroom for the first time. I don't understand the concept of partially tipping at the beginning. I mean, when I visit a restaurant, I don't tip the waitress/waiter partially at the beginning with the hopes of getting great service. If great, good or bad service is rendered, then I will tip accordingly. The same will hold true in July when we cruise the Pearl to Alaska.

But hey, thats just my opinion.

Whatever floats your boat I guess.