RS Suite Butler questions, never had one before

[AZjohn]

Hi, just booked our first RS cabin for the Century next month and would like to ask what do we use our Butler for exactly? For example, will he/she deliver all our in cabin food/drinks? Do we tip on a per service event or wait until the end of the cruise? Is there a tip guideline? Besides the butler making reservations for us, how else do we use his/her services?

Feel kind of awkward asking these questions but never had a butler level cabin before and can’t find the search option anymore. :confused:

Thanks,John

[alwayshappytocruise]

I understand your angst!! We had our first butler in Jan. on Infinity (South America). Had no clue as to what to do....this is what we found to be true...there are tip recommendations (which we exceeded because Charles, yes can you believe we had "Charles, your butler ma'am/sir" was incredible). Eventually, after saying repeatedly we're Lynda and Phil we persuaded him to call us Ms. Lynda, Mr. Phil but that was as casual as he felt comfortable!! So that's a clue right there. Besides the butler you will have one or two (we had two) room stewards who clean the room, didn't know this either....thought the butler did it all, silly us!! He brought us our breakfast (not the room service people) and always called 5 minutes before he knocked on the door. He really did make my tea just the way I like it (once I told him!!), he brought afternoon hor's d'oevres and until we could convince him there was NO WAY we could eat petit fours since we had late seating, brought those at turn down time along with the chocolate. Oh, I forgot....afternoon tea. He brought that too....most of the time we weren't in the room so he would leave it....finger sandwiches and small pastries, hot/cold drinks if you wanted them. He will give you a telephone number to call him, we needed blankets to wrap around while on the balcony....was there in less than two minutes. So many more little touches, loved that personal touch. I was intimidated at first but no longer!! Have a fabulous trip.

[Present Monkey]

While we too have not had the pleasure of a Butler..yet. I plan on making a list throughout the year of things that pop into my head.

 

Make reservations at the Specialty Restaurant, spa, theater, rental car, or taxi/limo service, Excursions. etc.

Draw you a bubble bath

Bring your favorite desert and wine

Extra pillows, blankets

DVD's

 

If you need to speak to the service desk, ask him for suggestions to get what you need easier. With your list, you can go over it with him and see if anything is out of the question. I would think that they would enjoy having someone that is new to the "Butler" service rather than those that are used to it and become demanding.

 

The nicer a person is to you..........reflects back.

Enjoy your trip to it's fullest and remember..........if you don't ask...you will never know!

[Obiwon]

Hi, we had a butler on our Oceania Insignia cruise this past November, our first one. I as well was wondering what on earth to do with a butler! We were given a number to call and he would be paged. We never waited more than one minute for him to call back, it was amazing.

 

He brought us breakfast every morning, set everything up on our table, always phoned first to make sure we were up! We had party in our suite, 22 people, and he re-arranged the furniture and brought in snacks. He brought in extra bottled water, also sea-sick pills as one day the water was quite rough. As already mentioned, reservations in the specialty restaurants. We didn’t ask him to work on any shore excursion stuff as we did all our tours independently.

 

One of the dividing panels on our balcony was rattling and we mentioned it to him and he had it looked after. Laundry and pressing we would leave out for him. After noon hor's d'oevres at the time we asked for.

 

The only goof was, we had asked for an 8:00 pm wake up call (we were beat after a day of touring) and wanted to take a nap. Our reservation that evening was at 8:30 at one of the specialty restaurants. Well, he got called down to the main dining room as they were swamped and didn’t call till 8:30! We were sound asleep! A major panic getting our act together followed but there were no hard feelings. It was an honest slip and no harm done.

 

He was wonderfully warm and genuinely interested in helping us. We also respected the fact that we were one of over 12 suites he was looking after and kept our room tidy and uncluttered. We never once thought of him as our ‘servant’. He was a partner in our holiday and we hope his time with us was as enjoyable as our was with him.

 

We have the pleasure of another butler this August on our Alaska trip.

[AZjohn]

Thank you all for sharing your experiences. Like anything in life, there is always a first experience.;)

My wife and I are very down to earth and kind people and have never demanded anything. So asking a butler for something will be kind of strange. But, one thing I was wondering was will it be the butler that brings the cappuccino and café mochas to the cabin in the morning? If so, we get up really early (5:00 or so) and there is no way I want to wake someone up to get our coffee that early (lol).

So, I guess I just tip at the end of the cruise like everyone else? Sounds like we are in for a very special treat:D .

Thanks again!

John

[Oakview]

My friend and I had a Courtyard Villa on the NCL Pride of Hawaii last March and as wonderful as the suite was I discovered the bed did not split into two beds. Well, we're close friends but not THAT close so I asked for a rollaway for the living room. Later that evening we were back in our suite after the show and there was a ring on the door bell and there was our butler who very excitedly told us someone in a 2 bedroom Villa had moved up to the 3 bedroom Garden Villa and he was holding the 2 bedroom for us. I threw my stuff back into the suitcase faster than you could even blink. I was completely unpacked but my friend was not so she was inconvenienced less than I.

 

So thanks to Dennis our butler we sailed Hawaii in a 2 bedroom 2 bath Courtyard Villa. Obviously, I gave him a VERY hefty tip at the end of the week. Management was going to move someone from downstairs up to the private deck but thanks to him we enjoyed the upgrade.

[raudacruise]

Pretty sure the butler doesn't go on duty until 6am or so (thank god). We've been on X 4 times, 3 times with RS once with a PH.

 

As mentioned above, the butler will deliver your breakfast in room every morning. Don't worry about the menu card, if you want cappucino (or 3) write it on the card. Eggs benedict, no problem. Essentially anything they have in the main dining room you can have while sitting in your suite or outside.

 

You can do the same for lunch and dinner, just ask your butler for a menu. You can also have friends over for lunch/dinner.

 

There is the tea time where he brings the nice little sandwiches and cookies and more than likely if you are out he will leave a selection for you.

 

He refills the fruit bowl and brings hors douvers. You can also ask for a cheese plate to be brought in.

 

If you like bloody mary's (like we do), he would have a pitcher of tomato juice in the fridge for us to doctor up. We bought the vodka from X for those inquiring minds. You should be able to get other juices as well.

 

You can host a party which we have done several times. The last one for some reason got routed to guest services and they wanted $40 for a cheese tray. I talked to the butler, he had multiple cheese trays, hors douvers and other things.

 

If you use the auto tip thing your butler is included. However, we tipped along the way for sevices rendered (as in the aformentioned party, he got more than $40) as well as the recommend daily tip included in the auto tip.

 

Enjoy.

[chuckw]

The best thing, is fresh squeezed OJ in the morning.

[Wineguys]

Make sure he gives you the CC breakfast menu and pillow menu as well (in case they haven't gotten it together and put those into the suites yet)!

 

We're travelling in our first RS for 15 days next week on the Millie. We've had butlers in Sky Suites on the Connie and Century, so I'm used to it. This one will get worked extra hard, but rewarded appropriately. First, there is the hard tea (tea with wine and beer) the 2nd sea day for 35 of my closest CC friends (:rolleyes:). Then a couple on in room dinners (you GOTTA have at least one or two of those!). Probably an intimate farewell cocktail party for 15 or so near the end.

 

The only thing they say the butler does that I would never ask is packing/unpacking. That's something I would want to do (particularly unpacking!). Maybe you could twist my arm and he could pack for me! LOL!

[l_n_m]

We were just on the Summit PS and had Rikki as our butler, the first day he told us we were the Queen and King, and he really made us feel that way. In addition to the meals he brought to the room, he always brought little "extras", when he heard I liked chocolate covered strawberries, they were in the room, he arranged for food in the main dining room that was otherwise not on the menu(we had rack of lamb one night). He offered to take bring us to the Normandie the night we had reservations so we wouldn't get lost. He sorted laundry/dry cleaning we had sent out. If he saw us coming down the hallway from an excursion, he would meet us and take our bag, always opened the door for us. We had 2 small cocktail parties that he took care of everything for us.

We tipped him at the end of the trip, and he earned a lot more than the recommended tip for a butler.

 

He will let you know what his hours are and he carries a phone, so he will be at your cabin right away.

[steevsf]

Hi Oakview,

I happened upon your comment about this suite. We are booked in 1001 on the Sun for 14 days in South America next January. It sounds like you really enjoyed it.

I would love to hear more details about it when you get a chance.

Is the balcony large? Is the deck above open to passengers so that poeple can look down onto the balcony from above? How spacious really is the suite? I have been having a difficult time trying to see the layout; is the closet opposite the bathroom or on the same side?

 

I would really appreciate your response.

[steevsf]

Hi Oakview,

I happened upon your comment about this suite. We are booked in 1001 on the Sun for 14 days in South America next January. It sounds like you really enjoyed it.

I would love to hear more details about it when you get a chance.

Is the balcony large? Is the deck above open to passengers so that poeple can look down onto the balcony from above? How spacious really is the suite? I have been having a difficult time trying to see the layout; is the closet opposite the bathroom or on the same side?

 

I would really appreciate your response.