Suite butler pros and cons?

We have booked a Suite for the first time on Oceana for a Med cruise later this year. We are celebrating a major birthday.

My husband loves the idea of having a butler, especially as his/her services are included in the cruise price.

I'm not so sure.

What do experienced suite cruisers do? Butler or no butler and your reasons please?

First of all, the suites on Oceana are amazing, so enjoy that.

Butler-wise, we are not high maintenance, we order wine for the cabin with him, sometimes room service, and last December on Aurora we asked the butler to organise a party for the first time, which was brilliant, he set the cabin up, brought the food in, and served the drinks when our guests arrived.

I believe you can ask the butler to unpack and pack (but we never do) and probably lots of other things if you wish, perhaps others can help with that?

On our honeymoon on the old Adonia (Oceana 's sister ship) in 2004 there was a couple in the aft mini-suite above us who had the butler serve them breakfast and lunch on their balcony every day!

The butlers used to come and collect you from the embarkation lounge/restaurant and take you to your suite, but not anymore, however, Raj (Aurora in December-lovely gentleman) was in the corridor as we approached the room and introduced himself, if I remember correctly, then took my hand luggage and showed us to the suite.

I imagine you can use them as much or as little as you like. They will always say no if a request is not possible.

Have a great cruise. [emoji4]

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Congratulations on your big Birthday and celebration cruise [emoji4] Everyone has different views on this, but here are my thoughts: I love the benefit of a Butler because you can have breakfast from the MDR menu, what I don't like is the fact that despite this being listed as a benefit some Butlers do everything they can to avoid providing this service and instead direct you to the speciality restaurant, so you have to stand your ground - which annoys me because I'm on holiday and I've paid for the service. I know others haven't experienced this, but we have.

Other than that the only other thing I asked the Butler to do was bring ice and book cinema tickets on Arcadia.

To be honest I find the Butlers a little wearing and somewhat intrusive and in my opinion it isn't all it's cracked up to be - but we are both quite private people. Please don't think I'm ungrateful for being in a position of having a suite on occasion, I am just trying to answer honestly.

I know some Butlers are far better than others so the experience you have isn't necessarily the same as another person.

I have experienced two types of Butler one type who want to do as little as possible and the other type who are so desperate to do a great job they become over bearing - perhaps they worry when we don't want them to do much.

What I would say is don't worry, you can always leave your do not disturb sign on [emoji3]

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The butlers we have come across have all been great. They have never put us off when we have asked for anything. We always organise a party and they have all done a brilliant job in looking after us. They bring the ice and lemon each day and our little luxury is to get them to pour us a G&T. They will book anything on the ship which needs booking, spa, restaurants etc. If you have ordered DF they will collect it for you to save you standing in a queue.

And I agree the stern suites on Oceana are great. Massive balconies.

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The butlers we have come across have all been great. They have never put us off when we have asked for anything. We always organise a party and they have all done a brilliant job in looking after us. They bring the ice and lemon each day and our little luxury is to get them to pour us a G&T. They will book anything on the ship which needs booking, spa, restaurants etc. If you have ordered DF they will collect it for you to save you standing in a queue.

 

And I agree the stern suites on Oceana are great. Massive balconies.

 

 

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Oh yes, forgot about the ice and lemon delivery. That's probably the best bit!

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Oh yes, forgot about the ice and lemon delivery. That's probably the best bit!

 

 

 

 

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So true.

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Butlers are wonderful and should be used. If people don't use them they will take them away completely which would be a terrible shame.

We use them for everything: unpacking, packing, collecting excursion tickets, taking our post, bringing us Britain Today, bringing us any breakfast, lunch or dinner we want, ordering drinks during the day, arranging parties in our Suite, getting us priority tender tickets, booking select dining restaurants, etc etc.

When we first meet him on embarkation day we always have a list of things we require during the cruise, that way he knows we want him. I believe that if you say you don't want him, you don't get the use of him at all.

One of the best things is to order a bottle of champagne and have the Butler deliver it, get the glasses out of the cupboard, and pour it, usually on our Balcony in the sunshine. A wonderful experience!

Most Butlers will come in and out of your Suite all day checking on things, so if you don't want to be disturbed just hang the 'Don't Disturb' sign on the door.

One Butler told us to ring him for EVERYTHING. Never to contact Reception. So if a bulb goes somewhere in your Suite don't ring Reception, ring him. On Adonia once we had brown water coming out the taps in our bath and we rang him, he immediately told us what it was and sorted it out.

The Suites on Oceana are very nice, with large balconies. You should, at some point, try Aurora's Suites (all of them!) and also Adonia's Penthouse Suites - their balconies are actually bigger than Oceana's!

Have fun - you don't get Butlers at home, and you've paid an awful lot of money not to use him. :)

I agree with what's been said already. We have had suites on several of P&O's ships, the best, I agree, being the aft suites on Oceana, they're huge, especially the two on C deck. We've never asked the Butler to unpack or pack. I've always thought I'd never know where anything was if I asked him to unpack. We have had drinks parties organised by the Butler and that's always been amazing. It's lovely returning to the suite after dinner and all the glasses etc. have been cleared away and everything is neat and tidy - now if it was only like that at home - I can only dream. We have never had a Butler referring us to Room Service, in fact, as someone has said, the exact opposite. If we order anything from Room Service that has an extra charge we get charged, but if the Butler gets it we don't. Also one of the Butler told us that if passengers opt not to use the Butler then they can't opt to have a cooked breakfast in their suite as Room Service don't do that. We have never found a Butler to be intrusive so I would say yes use them, they do like to be as helpful as possible.

We have one for the first time in September, will be utilising him/her as its one of the perks you pay for with a suite.

Will they bring afternoon tea to you? Mdr evening meal?

We have one for the first time in September, will be utilising him/her as its one of the perks you pay for with a suite.

Will they bring afternoon tea to you? Mdr evening meal?

As far as I understand it, yes to the Afternoon Tea, although we've never used him for that as we always have lunch and can't manage it.

Certainly yes to dinner as we've had it. The only drawback with dinner is that it all comes at once, rather than course by course like on Seabourn etc.

...and I thought the butler would only be packing & unpacking which I would find completely unnecessary!

Thank you for so many helpful replies.

There is no chance of my wife ever letting the butler unpack or pack our suitcases,:o

Not Butler related but I thought I'd post some of the things about a suite that surprised me. There is a cupboard full of different sorts of glasses, a couple of small plates, a knife, a stopper for bottles of fizz etc. There is a trouser press and you get your own iron and ironing board, so no queuing in the laundrette. Quite a lot of storage and a separate dressing area. The fruit basket gets changed twice a week. There are binoculars, magazines that get renewed, a coffee machine (which I have never figured out lol). If you don't have an MDR menu in your suite just ask for it. Also you can order anything from room service without paying any extra charge shown on the menu. I'm sure others can add to the list!

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As far as I understand it, yes to the Afternoon Tea, although we've never used him for that as we always have lunch and can't manage it.

 

 

 

Certainly yes to dinner as we've had it. The only drawback with dinner is that it all comes at once, rather than course by course like on Seabourn etc.

On our last cruise on Aurora we had our dinner table mates round for dinner one evening. Our butler brought the starters then came back about 20 minutes later with the main courses. Our meal was ordered from the room service menu not MDR menu, I don't know if that would make a difference. Maybe it depends on the butler?

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We have only ever booked suites. I will say this that butlers vary, some are far better than others. I have never asked them to pack or unpack for me and none have ever offered. We've only been on the Aurora, Oriana and the Oceana. I found that although the balcony was large on the Oceana, the suite was the smallest of the three ships. Also because there is only one butler on the Oceana he isn't available all day. On the other ships there were two, so that when one was on a break the other filled in. We have only had the Penthouse on the Aurora and that of course had a large dining table so we could invite friends around for meals. On the Oriana there was a coffee table which could be raised up as a dining table. On the Oceana it's just a small coffee table and really not suitable (IMO) on which to have an evening meal. I remember Raj from our world cruise on the Aurora. He was wonderful unfortunately he was the butler on the Starboard side and we were on Portside with a not so wonderful butler.

We have only ever booked suites. I will say this that butlers vary, some are far better than others. I have never asked them to pack or unpack for me and none have ever offered. We've only been on the Aurora, Oriana and the Oceana. I found that although the balcony was large on the Oceana, the suite was the smallest of the three ships. Also because there is only one butler on the Oceana he isn't available all day. On the other ships there were two, so that when one was on a break the other filled in. We have only had the Penthouse on the Aurora and that of course had a large dining table so we could invite friends around for meals. On the Oriana there was a coffee table which could be raised up as a dining table. On the Oceana it's just a small coffee table and really not suitable (IMO) on which to have an evening meal. I remember Raj from our world cruise on the Aurora. He was wonderful unfortunately he was the butler on the Starboard side and we were on Portside with a not so wonderful butler.

Raj was our butler on Aurora last December, he was excellent. We're sailing on her again in a couple of weeks but I believe Raj is now on leave, his last contract ended after our cruise, so I don't know who our butler will be this time.

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Raj was our butler on Aurora last December, he was excellent. We're sailing on her again in a couple of weeks but I believe Raj is now on leave, his last contract ended after our cruise, so I don't know who our butler will be this time.

 

 

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Yes I saw your earlier post. When our butler was on a break Raj would often bring us lunch. He was excellent and our whole cruise we wished he'd been our butler. We did have an excellent butler on a previous world cruise and it can make all the difference to the enjoyment of the cruise in particular one of that length.

I agree with what's been said already. We have had suites on several of P&O's ships, the best, I agree, being the aft suites on Oceana, they're huge, especially the two on C deck. We've never asked the Butler to unpack or pack. I've always thought I'd never know where anything was if I asked him to unpack. We have had drinks parties organised by the Butler and that's always been amazing. It's lovely returning to the suite after dinner and all the glasses etc. have been cleared away and everything is neat and tidy - now if it was only like that at home - I can only dream. We have never had a Butler referring us to Room Service, in fact, as someone has said, the exact opposite. If we order anything from Room Service that has an extra charge we get charged, but if the Butler gets it we don't. Also one of the Butler told us that if passengers opt not to use the Butler then they can't opt to have a cooked breakfast in their suite as Room Service don't do that. We have never found a Butler to be intrusive so I would say yes use them, they do like to be as helpful as possible.

On the Oceana the butler was on a break from about 1pm until 4pm. So if we wanted lunch on the balcony we had to use room service and we were never charged. I have always understood there is no charge for room service if you are in a suite.

On the Oceana the butler was on a break from about 1pm until 4pm. So if we wanted lunch on the balcony we had to use room service and we were never charged. I have always understood there is no charge for room service if you are in a suite.

Yes room service is free, the charge gets added when they don't realise it's a suite and you can get it removed.

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Yes room service is free, the charge gets added when they don't realise it's a suite and you can get it removed.

 

 

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Now I did not know that. Of course apart from breakfast we do not eat in the suite so we would not know anyway.

We tend not to eat at lunch time at all.

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Now I did not know that. Of course apart from breakfast we do not eat in the suite so we would not know anyway.

 

We tend not to eat at lunch time at all.

 

 

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Yes it happened to us on our US cruise last year and they removed it [emoji1360]

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So can we insist on choosing from the MDR menu if we want to have lunch or dinner in our cabin even if it is not initially offered? On the other hand if we want to order from room service do we go through our butler?

We are both quiet people and don't want any battles on holiday!

If we use our butler are his tips added to the automatic tipping system as we are in a suite?

We were in an Oceana mini suite on our only other cruise and paid the automatic tip charge plus extra to our excellent cabin steward.

So can we insist on choosing from the MDR menu if we want to have lunch or dinner in our cabin even if it is not initially offered? On the other hand if we want to order from room service do we go through our butler?

We are both quiet people and don't want any battles on holiday!

If we use our butler are his tips added to the automatic tipping system as we are in a suite?

We were in an Oceana mini suite on our only other cruise and paid the automatic tip charge plus extra to our excellent cabin steward.

There will be no problem. The Butler will not offer the service when you first met but all you have to do is ask. Remember you do have to give him notice of your request. You cannot just order half an hour before you want to eat.

You should go trough him for everything, that is what he is there for.

As for the tips, he is included.

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So can we insist on choosing from the MDR menu if we want to have lunch or dinner in our cabin even if it is not initially offered? On the other hand if we want to order from room service do we go through our butler?

We are both quiet people and don't want any battles on holiday!

If we use our butler are his tips added to the automatic tipping system as we are in a suite?

We were in an Oceana mini suite on our only other cruise and paid the automatic tip charge plus extra to our excellent cabin steward.

As daib has said, you don't have to insist on anything, you just have to give them some notice for some things like parties or dinner that evening in your Suite.

So, yes, you can have dinner every night if you wish.

Yes, you order room service through your Butler, either from the Room Service menu, or from the Lunch or Dinner menus that he leaves in your Suite every day.

Yes, the tip for him is included within the autotip added to your on board account. We will tip him extra at the end of the cruise if we feel he has done an excellent job. We have only not given an extra tip to a Butler once.

Butlers across the World are there for you and should do whatever you want (within H&S constraints/reason of course).

There probably won't be an MDR breakfast menu in your cabin so ask for it [emoji1360]

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