Question about tipping butlers

[Pearl64]

We will have a butler for the very first time. On another line we always tipped the attendant who would bring us breakfast to our room. We also gave our attendant extra towards the end of our cruise as well. Our gratuities were part of a bonus from the line, buy we wanted to give our attendant extra for the great job he did. If we get breakfast delivered to our room, what is the going rate of tip for this service? I know it is included but we always like to do this. What if we would have dinner in our suite as well? Just trying to be prepared and not looking cheap. Also, if one tips extra what currency is appreciated most? We would have USD most likely or are euros preferred? We are doing a western Med plus a TA to Rio. Thanks for your responses.

 

Pearl

[fairbourne]

Pearl64

 

What we did was tip our butler at the end of the cruise, not every time he brought something. We also gave our room stewardess and the young man who vacuumed around after her a little something too via her. He came running along to thank us which was appreciated by us, probably more than he appreciated his token! :). We did it on the last evening on the way to dinner, as the morning of departure they are all rushing around.

 

But none of them were standing with their hand out, or acting like they expected anything at all.

 

Always in US $.

 

Others may do differently! :)

[JimandStan]

We will have a butler for the very first time. On another line we always tipped the attendant who would bring us breakfast to our room. We also gave our attendant extra towards the end of our cruise as well. Our gratuities were part of a bonus from the line, buy we wanted to give our attendant extra for the great job he did. If we get breakfast delivered to our room, what is the going rate of tip for this service? I know it is included but we always like to do this. What if we would have dinner in our suite as well? Just trying to be prepared and not looking cheap. Also, if one tips extra what currency is appreciated most? We would have USD most likely or are euros preferred? We are doing a western Med plus a TA to Rio. Thanks for your responses.

 

Pearl

 

The Butlers work very long shifts each day, so 90% of any meals which you eat in your cabin will probably be served by your butler. Tips given to a repeat server on a ship is typically given as a lump sum, rather than meal by meal, as you describe, for that reason.

 

Nobody can tell YOU what the appropriate tip is, because so much depends on how you use the service but I will warn you that the more that you USE your Butler, the more you will WANT TO GIVE HIM. I understand that charm is taught in Butler School, and it shows! :D

 

In our experience, the staff always wants the currency which is predominant in the area of the World where the ship is sailing at that time, so we try to tip with that in mind.

[Jancruz]

I also tip my butler at the end of the cruise but unlike Jim, I always tip in USD

I have breakfast in the cabin every morning and also a few dinners in the cabin, so I am very generous..

Jancruz1

[Mura]

Like Jan,

 

We tend to have breakfasts in the room on port intensive cruises, not so much on TAs. When we are in the top suites (which ain't that often, folks) where we can have dinner in our suite, then we tip accordingly for the extra service.

 

When we first had a butler we didn't use him at all. Then when I blew out my knee, we used him a lot!

 

We don't tip at the time of the service but at the end of the cruise. And I do think we tip in dollars, or on the ship's bill. We have them add on the extra charges. The currency we use CAN depend on where we are cruising.

 

Mura

[orchestrapal]

We also have many dinners, sometimes with guests, in our suite.

A note and a very generous tip is always given to our butler at the end of our cruises which are normally b/b.

We tip our cabin attendants at the end of each segment as well.

[Sherard]

An additional comment on this subject we generally give a tip very soon after boarding - maybe after a couple of days to see how they the staff provides any initial service. Also do the same with any favorite/attentive bartenders. We relate this habit to Las Vegas for improved seating. As always it can depend on the cruise line and size of ship. One can be lost on some larger ships. But also, it is amazing how often one runs into crew members on another ship or ashore. Can provide good remembrances as to their family and ports. But choose your own style.

:)

[LHT28]

In my experience we have never had a butler so not sure whether tipping in advance improves service or not

 

We have never tipped other crew members in advance & have gotten very good service & staff remember us from cruise to cruise ...maybe because we do not tip early :rolleyes: or maybe because we treat them with respect & are not demanding

 

It is a personal choice if you want to tip early & hope you get better service go for it...some people reported they got less service when doing so

 

YMMV

[orchestrapal]

An additional comment on this subject we generally give a tip very soon after boarding - maybe after a couple of days to see how they the staff provides any initial service. :)

 

The butlers are pretty smart and will know exactly what you are doing...

Treat them with the respect they deserve and thank them at the end of your cruise. On O you will get outstanding service from your butler and room attendants without a bribe.

[Mura]

We also wait until the end of the cruise to tip, but if we were ever to do something special -- like host a large cocktail party as I know Jim/Stan have done -- then we probably would give something extra that night. Because that really is service above and beyond the call of duty. Especially when you waltz off to dinner and come back to find your room has been meticulously cleaned!

 

Mura

[orchestrapal]

we also wait until the end of the cruise to tip, but if we were ever to do something special -- like host a large cocktail party as i know jim/stan have done -- then we probably would give something extra that night. Because that really is service above and beyond the call of duty. Especially when you waltz off to dinner and come back to find your room has been meticulously cleaned!

 

Mura

 

ditto !

[traveler916]

We will have a butler for the very first time. On another line we always tipped the attendant who would bring us breakfast to our room. We also gave our attendant extra towards the end of our cruise as well. Our gratuities were part of a bonus from the line, buy we wanted to give our attendant extra for the great job he did. If we get breakfast delivered to our room, what is the going rate of tip for this service? I know it is included but we always like to do this. What if we would have dinner in our suite as well? Just trying to be prepared and not looking cheap. Also, if one tips extra what currency is appreciated most? We would have USD most likely or are euros preferred? We are doing a western Med plus a TA to Rio. Thanks for your responses.

 

Pearl

 

To join in the rest of the posters...

 

The butlers are there to serve and make the cruise go better for you....and I am sure they appreciates the tips.

 

On our last TA in May, we had the same butler we had back in November. He was glad to see us and we were glad to see him.

 

He brought breakfast, snacks, filled the fruit bowl, kept the fridge stocked with water, made specialty restaurant reservations for us and served us dinner in our suite many nights (Jody wasn't feeling well most of the cruise) and then brought desert.

 

We hope we have him again in November and I am sure he hopes he sees us again :)

 

We tipped in USD although on our previous cruise, we also had some Euros that we put into the envelope.

 

Since I am a very early riser, i had early morning coffee from the "assistant butler" who was a butler in training. I also tipped him at the end of the cruise, and his eyes were pretty wide when that happened!!

 

We always tip at the end of the cruise. Not during. To agree with another poster, none of the butlers have their hands 9ut oir expect anything....at least the butlers we have had have not. They get a lot of satisfaction from serving...and they have done a good job. But they do appreciate the financial recognition as well.

 

It's hard to put a specific dollar figure on what amount you tip...it really is a personal thing and it does vary based on how much you do or don't use the butler.

[RJB]

I do not quite understand most of these posts. No one has talked about the gratuities that Oceania adds to your account. When you have a butler it comes to 22.00 per day per person. Our next cruise will be 18 days, so that comes to 792.00 for both of us, of which the butler gets 252.00 or 7.00 per day for each of us. Sounds like a fair amount of money for tipping. We usually leave some more since the butler does a lot for us. i do not want people to think that the cash tips are all the butlers get. :)

[HeatherInFlorida]

Tipping at any time other than after a service has been performed is not a tip; it's a bribe. Posters in other forums berated me for that opinion, but there's no question for me that giving someone money before they've done anything for you does a few things, but most important it insults the recipients by suggesting they won't give you good service without payment.

 

One of the things I loved about our Butler and our Stewards was they honestly seemed to enjoy what they did and at no time were their hands out for anything. I believe the gratuities that are charged go a long way to rewarding them for their amazing service, but I still believe when they are so good to us that they deserve something more at the end of our cruise as an extra thank you.

[RJB]

Tipping at any time other than after a service has been performed is not a tip; it's a bribe. Posters in other forums berated me for that opinion, but there's no question for me that giving someone money before they've done anything for you does a few things, but most important it insults the recipients by suggesting they won't give you good service without payment.

 

One of the things I loved about our Butler and our Stewards was they honestly seemed to enjoy what they did and at no time were their hands out for anything. I believe the gratuities that are charged go a long way to rewarding them for their amazing service, but I still believe when they are so good to us that they deserve something more at the end of our cruis:)e as an extra thank you.

Could not agree with you more. When it is deserved we will give extra towards the end of the cruise. Some of the crew are better than others and they deserve to get extra tips. Some of the resturant managers can be very helpful and we will give them extra tips from time to time. We have found the whole crew to be very good, but some work better for us and deserve a little extra. :)