Tipping the butler and concierge

[petesweet]

Mine has made sure my adult kids had sack lunches for their early morning fishing excursions in Alaska . . . .

 

Winnie, I'm going to go off topic here for a quick question.

What type of lunch was provided for the kids? There is much discussion about taking food off the ship. I'm sure no fruits or veggies, but what else?

Thanks. This should clear up a lot of questions. (I realize this was ALASKA.)

Kathy

[mafig]

I agree!!! Thanks for making that point!!

 

At the very least the butler brings you hors de ouvres (sp) each night and replenishes your free soda's, water, etc.

 

 

 

:)

 

Free sodas, and water? Do all suites get this? AE?

[time2cruise1]

Free sodas, and water? Do all suites get this? AE?

 

No just AA Owners Suite and up.

[mickeysgal]

What does that mean? Did YOU use them? Did you ask anything of them? Did you make any requests and not get served? I think it's fine if you don't make any requests or don't make use of them and tip accordingly. :D

 

I'm curious. For those that did not use the butler or concierge at all, nada, nothing, what did you tip? Or did you not tip?

[time2cruise1]

I'm curious. For those that did not use the butler or concierge at all, nada, nothing, what did you tip? Or did you not tip?

 

nada is not possible. Very little is. Keep in mind you will see your butler every day if for no other reason then bringing daily treats. If you don't use your concierge at least for last minute dinner reservations you are being foolish. Keep in mind if you use the Cagney's perks the concierge will be there at breakfast and lunch and changes are they will over to help and make your reservations for dinner that day even in the MDR.

All that said the first time I ended up in a penthouse I used them both very little but still left a $50 tip for each.

[mickeysgal]

nada is not possible. Very little is. Keep in mind you will see your butler every day if for no other reason then bringing daily treats. If you don't use your concierge at least for last minute dinner reservations you are being foolish. Keep in mind if you use the Cagney's perks the concierge will be there at breakfast and lunch and changes are they will over to help and make your reservations for dinner that day even in the MDR.

 

All that said the first time I ended up in a penthouse I used them both very little but still left a $50 tip for each.

 

We had no problem with last minute reservations in the specialty restaurant of our choice. At least for our cruise, the specialties were dead as a door nail, while the MDR was packed. Maybe other cruises are different, but this was our experience. We ate twice in the MDR, and 5 nights in specialty restaurants.

 

We did see the concierge at breakfast sitting there for the 3-4 mornings we were there, but we just said hi. That was the extent of it.

 

Yes, the butler did bring us our treats every day, but there again, we didn't ask anything else of him either. We didn't order any room service, any movies, etc.

 

It's these type of circumstances where we didn't know how much the tip should be.

[njhorseman]

nada is not possible. Very little is. Keep in mind you will see your butler every day if for no other reason then bringing daily treats. If you don't use your concierge at least for last minute dinner reservations you are being foolish. Keep in mind if you use the Cagney's perks the concierge will be there at breakfast and lunch and changes are they will over to help and make your reservations for dinner that day even in the MDR.

 

All that said the first time I ended up in a penthouse I used them both very little but still left a $50 tip for each.

 

 

If the butler only delivered the daily treats, personally I would give him no more than $20...comparable over a week to giving $2 or $3 to a room service waiter each time they delivered something to the cabin.

 

If the concierge didn't even make any dining room reservations for me, I wouldn't give him anything.

 

Just my opinion...and we are normally generous tippers in restaurants at home, and give our cabin stewards and waiters something extra at the end of the week if their service has been up to or above par. I just have a problem with tipping someone who does absolutely nothing for me, or tipping at a level that is out of proportion to the amount of work done.

[sunshine nana]

To clarify the 0 comment. The consierge sent us to our cabin on embarkation with someone who did not know where the cabin was. I had to direct him. The consierge never came to our end of the ship (aft) to escort us anywhere. She left her card 2 days when we were on day long excursions (this was the Med). We did not need her for dinner reservations. We made our own. When we did see her at one of the parties, she didn't know us and fell all over our friends that we knew had been upgraded at the dock for free to a penthouse. We had paid extra for our suite. We all laughed about it after she left. When the toilets quit working we called the butler. When they w ere still not working, we called him again. After another hour, I went to the purser's desk and they said they had not been told. Who knows? My DH is a very generous tipper. But we felt we got nothing from the consierge and we tipped the butler $2 for each time he brought the goodies to our room. We tipped each steward $20. This was a 7 night. We had a great time. Everything went well once the toilets were fixed. We loved the aft suite. We loved eating at Cagney's, but since we were on several early excursions, we didn't get there every morning and were never on the ship at lunch.

[suzyed]

Ah Come On! All this nickle and dime regarding tipping. If they do a lousy job, adjust your tip, maybe even down to zip. If they do a good job, tip them as you see fit. Done deal.

I'm with you! ;)

[RichNY]

As suite passengers we are already paying extra to have concierge and butler service...with that in mind, we don't plan on how much per day we should tip. Our theory is ..." what did they actually do for us" ??..and what was their attitude At the end of the cruise my wife and I put our heads together and make a decision as to how much, if any, to tip....keep it simple.

[suzyed]

This was our recent experience on the Star with Belkys. Her assistant made a few dinner reservations for us and then that was kinda messed up. He called us one night to confirm our reservation for Le Bistro at 7:30 for 4 people, only problem was that our reservation for that night was in La Trattoria at 6:00 for two! :rolleyes:

 

Then Belkys called us at the end, asking if we got our VIP tags and if we would be doing VIP disembarkation... she did the escort us off the ship, which basically meant that she slipped us by about 5 people...no big deal! When DH handed her a tip, she at first refused it (she KNEW she didn't do anything for us), but then took the tip and thanked us.

ABSOLUTELY AND COMPLETELY DIFFERENT EXPERIENCE THAN WITH SIMONE LAST YEAR!

 

The butler did nothing for us except bring our snacks each night, which is included with a suite cabin. He never did give us a "menu" of snack choices like we got last year.

Then the one time we ordered breakfast in the cabin...well....we ordered it for 6:30 am because we had a 7am shore excursion....which we noted on the order form. We waited as long as we could for it to arrive, even called room service-but no one answered. Then at 5 minutes to 7 as we were leaving the cabin, he showed up. I told him we didn't have time to eat it now, since we had to be on the dock at 7 and his excuse was that he had 3 other breakfast to deliver. So I just took my yogurt off his cart and we dashed off....he made a face at us...but oh well. :(

[snorklinbarb]

suzyed,

 

Just so you (and others) won't be disappointed, they've done away with the snack "menu" from last year and returned to the previous daily treat system. One evening it is an appetizer (like little canapes or cheese plate) and the next night is a sweet like choc. covered strawberries or fruit tarts. The butler can make any substitutions you require or bring you something additional.