Ncl Butler Tipping

[Tralfie]

8 hours ago, Kirk2121 said:

If we get the owners suite, Could we add two more people? Wondering what that would cost.   We got our bid accepted a week before this last cruise. 

You can add people, but you'd have to pay the associated fees. Taxes, port fees, etc. And I believe they would have to separately purchase any drink/dining package, if I'm not mistaken. 

[RocketMan275]

great thread

[mrshorsy]

Not sure if its a Brit/USA thing but I firmly believe that a tip is earned its not an expectation and that goes across the board eg restaurants, hotels, taxis etc 

On our last Cruise we nicknamed our Butler The Stealth Ninja as we hardly saw him and he certainly didn’t do anything that would have earned him a £40 per day of cruise tip !(there were 4 of us). However the young lad who serviced our cabin everyday was amazing. He was really personable chatted to us every day about what we’d been up to offered tips on what to see at each port, sorted a birthday surprise for my son (we couldn’t get hold of the butler to sort it) So we tipped him quite well. We even (and not sure this is strictly allowed) bought his lunch when we bumped into him on shore! 

So the crux of my message is though I get some people may appreciate a guideline I will always tip what I think is deserved x

[MoCruiseFan]

These "how much should I tip" threads are so silly.  The only correct answer is to tip whomever you want however much you want whenever you want.  When you go out to dinner, do you poll all of the other patrons to ask how much they are tipping?  There is no standard, suggest, or usual amount to tip.  What others tip is none of your business...

[Kirk2121]

6 hours ago, MoCruiseFan said:

These "how much should I tip" threads are so silly.  The only correct answer is to tip whomever you want however much you want whenever you want.  When you go out to dinner, do you poll all of the other patrons to ask how much they are tipping?  There is no standard, suggest, or usual amount to tip.  What others tip is none of your business...

I've found this thread & Gary's on secrets of the Haven really making our haven stay more enjoyable. 

[Kirk2121]

11 hours ago, mrshorsy said:

Not sure if its a Brit/USA thing but I firmly believe that a tip is earned its not an expectation and that goes across the board eg restaurants, hotels, taxis etc 

On our last Cruise we nicknamed our Butler The Stealth Ninja as we hardly saw him and he certainly didn’t do anything that would have earned him a £40 per day of cruise tip !(there were 4 of us). However the young lad who serviced our cabin everyday was amazing. He was really personable chatted to us every day about what we’d been up to offered tips on what to see at each port, sorted a birthday surprise for my son (we couldn’t get hold of the butler to sort it) So we tipped him quite well. We even (and not sure this is strictly allowed) bought his lunch when we bumped into him on shore! 

So the crux of my message is though I get some people may appreciate a guideline I will always tip what I think is deserved x

I've had better service tipping people each day.  They seem to kind of find me that way. 

[LGW59]

7 hours ago, MoCruiseFan said:

These "how much should I tip" threads are so silly.  The only correct answer is to tip whomever you want however much you want whenever you want.  When you go out to dinner, do you poll all of the other patrons to ask how much they are tipping?  There is no standard, suggest, or usual amount to tip.  What others tip is none of your business...

Just don't remove the pre-paid

[RocketMan275]

7 hours ago, MoCruiseFan said:

These "how much should I tip" threads are so silly.  The only correct answer is to tip whomever you want however much you want whenever you want.  When you go out to dinner, do you poll all of the other patrons to ask how much they are tipping?  There is no standard, suggest, or usual amount to tip.  What others tip is none of your business...

The wife and I believe in 'tipping big, tipping early, tipping often'.

[Kirk2121]

11 hours ago, mrshorsy said:

Not sure if its a Brit/USA thing but I firmly believe that a tip is earned its not an expectation and that goes across the board eg restaurants, hotels, taxis etc 

On our last Cruise we nicknamed our Butler The Stealth Ninja as we hardly saw him and he certainly didn’t do anything that would have earned him a £40 per day of cruise tip !(there were 4 of us). However the young lad who serviced our cabin everyday was amazing. He was really personable chatted to us every day about what we’d been up to offered tips on what to see at each port, sorted a birthday surprise for my son (we couldn’t get hold of the butler to sort it) So we tipped him quite well. We even (and not sure this is strictly allowed) bought his lunch when we bumped into him on shore! 

So the crux of my message is though I get some people may appreciate a guideline I will always tip what I think is deserved x

So was your plan to tip big at the end? Or did you give the butler a couple bucks when you met them? How did the big tip at the end work out for you & the butle?

[mrshorsy]

2 hours ago, Kirk2121 said:

So was your plan to tip big at the end? Or did you give the butler a couple bucks when you met them? How did the big tip at the end work out for you & the butle?

Sorry I’m not sure I understand your comment ? We didn’t tip our butler as we barely saw him we did tip our room steward. 

[wolft927]

So I always tip the butler $100 on meeting him. Giving him or her our likes and dislikes. I have never had a bad butler so far. At the end of the cruise I tip another $100. We do not overly utilize our butler but we feel it’s right. 

[rick160158]

On 1/14/2022 at 7:27 PM, pcakes122 said:

Sorry. Not the same thing as the NCL DSC (ask your Oceania rep - mine made a point of calling this distinction out without me even asking since she knew I primarily cruised NCL. She wanted to make sure I knew it was different.)

 

People come here to ask for an NCL butler tipping GUIDELINE.  Sometimes they are thinking of putting in for an upgrade and want to estimate how much additional they would be paying for Haven tips or maybe they are cruising in a suite for the first time.  I've seen ridiculously high estimates here for a supposedly "average" butler tip and I think it scares some people off.  Any butler would be happy to get $7 per person, per day. That's $112 for a couple or $224 a week for a family.  If people can afford more and the service is outstanding, great. But we shouldn't make people feel that if they can't do more than then they aren't doing enough.

One thing comes to mind looking at this. Your cabin steward does a lot more physical work than the butler, yet, the cabin steward gets tipped a lot less. Should be the other way around. All the butler does( the majority of the time) is place an order and delivers it. Not to hard to do. 

[pcakes122]

9 minutes ago, rick160158 said:

One thing comes to mind looking at this. Your cabin steward does a lot more physical work than the butler, yet, the cabin steward gets tipped a lot less. Should be the other way around. All the butler does( the majority of the time) is place an order and delivers it. Not to hard to do. 

Are people not tipping their room stewards?

[wolft927]

3 minutes ago, pcakes122 said:

Are people not tipping their room stewards?

I always tip room Stewart extra as well as tip the buttler

[LGW59]

15 minutes ago, rick160158 said:

One thing comes to mind looking at this. Your cabin steward does a lot more physical work than the butler, yet, the cabin steward gets tipped a lot less. Should be the other way around. All the butler does( the majority of the time) is place an order and delivers it. Not to hard to do. 

totally agree re the cabin steward, but we utilize the butlers all the time, every day, we tip them equally.

[Kirk2121]

2 hours ago, LGW59 said:

totally agree re the cabin steward, but we utilize the butlers all the time, every day, we tip them equally.

Yeah tipping gets expensive.  We have incredible service.  I'll have to go work some more to get some more money for next haven🙂

 

Or back to interior room :). Or buy my own sailboat. 

 

The people that seat us in the haven restaurant.  Maitre d.  Is that a tipped position?

[RocketMan275]

1 minute ago, Kirk2121 said:

The people that seat us in the haven restaurant.  Maitre d.  Is that a tipped position?

I've tipped the maitre d when he's done something special.  We had an exceptional waiter and dinner at a specialty restaurant on Oasis.  The waiter indicated that they might be fully booked the next night. As we left I slipped the matre d a 10 and asked if we could have the same table/waiter the next night.  It happened.

 

I've seen reports of as much as $40 for the matre d and assistant.  That seems a bit high but depends I guess on the service.  My issue is tipping the wait staff.   On Holland, suites have breakfast in one of the specialty restaurants.  Do you leave a tip each time or leave more at the end of the cruise?  We compromised and put it in an envelope which we gave to the matre d explaining we would like him to distribute as he thought appropriate.  (we made sure there were witnesses from the wait staff) and hen we gave him a separate envelope for himself.   

[LGW59]

16 minutes ago, Kirk2121 said:

Yeah tipping gets expensive.  We have incredible service.  I'll have to go work some more to get some more money for next haven🙂

 

Or back to interior room :). Or buy my own sailboat. 

 

The people that seat us in the haven restaurant.  Maitre d.  Is that a tipped position?

 

I don't, not unless I ask the Maitre'd does something special, like finagle a very hard to get reservation, though I ask my butler to those things for us.

[Kirk2121]

17 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

I've tipped the maitre d when he's done something special.  We had an exceptional waiter and dinner at a specialty restaurant on Oasis.  The waiter indicated that they might be fully booked the next night. As we left I slipped the matre d a 10 and asked if we could have the same table/waiter the next night.  It happened.

 

I've seen reports of as much as $40 for the matre d and assistant.  That seems a bit high but depends I guess on the service.  My issue is tipping the wait staff.   On Holland, suites have breakfast in one of the specialty restaurants.  Do you leave a tip each time or leave more at the end of the cruise?  We compromised and put it in an envelope which we gave to the matre d explaining we would like him to distribute as he thought appropriate.  (we made sure there were witnesses from the wait staff) and hen we gave him a separate envelope for himself.   

Thanks.

 

Service has been great.  We've been tipping $5 for breakfast $5 lunch $10 at dinner.  Our logic is if there is any in world of tipping.  We tip additional at specialty restaurants & already have gratuity on specialty. The food is better in haven so why wouldn't we tip similar to specialty. 

 

I know people will come along & say there is no guide.  tip who you want. when you want.  how much you want. 

 

& yet all the tickets at bottom say something like 15% 18% 20%......

 

I have this discussion with a buddy.  Family has a special dinner celebrating something.  But can't afford tip.  I'm like i wouldn't go if i couldn't afford to tip.  Tipping is part of price.  

 

Another guy i was talking about hiring people from foreign country to crew on my charter sailboat (if i bought one) .  He's like I would never pay them less than what someone in us gets paid.  Probably another rabbit hole to avoid lol 🙂

 

We'll probably go down to interior or balcony.  For future.  been great experience.  Maybe special future occasion.  Or maybe go make more money 🙂

 

I'm most likely way over thinking this. 

[ColeThornton]

50 minutes ago, Kirk2121 said:

Maitre d.  Is that a tipped position?

 

I don't even know what that critter does or actually who it is, so..no.  Nothing.

[c-cruise]

We only tip at the end of the cruise (last night or last morning).  Just got off the Breakaway and I tipped the Haven Restaurant Maitre'd as he did a bunch of custom pre-orders for us for things not on the menu due to picky eaters (kids) and food allergies. Room steward did a lot more for us than the butler so we tipped him extra as well. Gave the butler a small tip for bringing the snacks, but we didn't really utilize him for anything beyond that. Had we asked for more we would have tipped more for those services. I'm assuming cash tips are likely pooled anyway, but who knows. I would say just do whatever feels right to you based on the service you receive.

[BirdTravels]

5 hours ago, pcakes122 said:

Are people not tipping their room stewards?

Our room steward, regardless of cabin type, gets a nice tip at the end of the cruise. (As does the housekeeper at our pre-/post-cruise hotel). 

[Kirk2121]

18 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

Our room steward, regardless of cabin type, gets a nice tip at the end of the cruise. (As does the housekeeper at our pre-/post-cruise hotel). 

Hi Bird. 

 

Part of my problem? Good problem to have is! I've got 6 cruises booked hopefully 7 in next year (hopefully Australia opens up) .  None more in Haven.  Next is 4 day $200 carnival interior witg stop in cozumel.    But multiply by 7 tips, ubers, hotels, flights, parking start adding up.  Have to work more! (next year :)) 

 

Definitely will still take care of service people tho. 

[FLcruisergrl]

10 hours ago, ColeThornton said:

 

I don't even know what that critter does or actually who it is, so..no.  Nothing.

We have tipped a Maitre’d previously. Our daughter has celiac and she did a really great job of making sure she had anything she ever wanted to eat, such as standing orders of the gluten free cheese rolls from Moderno delivered to wherever we were eating every night. Things like that got her a really good tip.

[Trimone]

I don’t understand this tipping phenomenon, a person is employed to do a professional job, if they go above that criteria then I will tip, I will not tip anyone for the sake of it…