P&O Suite - How can we best make use of the butler?

[ItReallyDoes]

Hi all. My partner and I have been on a few cruises but decided to upgrade to a suite for a Christmas cruise later this year (Iona). One of the apparent perks is a butler, which is going to be quite a new experience so we wanted to find out from other folks that have had the pleasure of a cruise butler - how did you make use of them? And is it expected to drop them a tip each time they do anything for you? (Being British this isn't something we're used to doing!)

Looking forward to hearing your Butler tales!

[Harry Peterson]

Others will give you far more tips on this than I can, because although our last few cruises have been in suites we did that primarily for the other benefits. The butler was just a bonus, and we didn’t use them that much. They will happily unpack your clothes, though, make reservations, or act as a link if there’s any kind of problem.

 

We did use them for room service, though, and to bring the occasional meal - they’ll set the table for you. They’ll also look after and top up the coffee machine with pods. They bring your lunch and dinner menus in advance, along with the classically dull and boring P&O canapés. Quite a few people tell them not to bother with these, because they’re so poor.

 

No need to tip every time, but we always leave something when we leave. Not strictly necessary now on P&O, but just personal choice.

[ziggyuk]

17 minutes ago, ItReallyDoes said:

Hi all. My partner and I have been on a few cruises but decided to upgrade to a suite for a Christmas cruise later this year (Iona). One of the apparent perks is a butler, which is going to be quite a new experience so we wanted to find out from other folks that have had the pleasure of a cruise butler - how did you make use of them? And is it expected to drop them a tip each time they do anything for you? (Being British this isn't something we're used to doing!)

Looking forward to hearing your Butler tales!

 

I always have mine peel my grapes and feed them to me mid afternoon, it's wonderful, I'm bringing him a roman toga costume next time.

[ziggyuk]

Now it's past noon I must apologise for my April 1st frivolity.

Of course I never require my grapes peeled 😂 

But I do get him to polish my golden laurel wreath.

[Selbourne]

We have found that there are pros and cons with butlers and the quality of them varies quite a bit. The main advantage that we have found is the ability to have meals (other than from room service) in the suite or on the balcony. My wife cannot use tenders, so at times when I had been ashore the butter brought her lunch from the main dining room. When we’ve had aft suites (Britannia and Arcadia) we had a few meals on the balcony whilst cruising down fjords etc. It’s not perfect as the food has often lost some temperature by the time it gets to you and often courses are brought together, but it’s a service unique to suites with butlers.
 

If you want anything from room service that would usually be chargeable, it is all free if you order via your butler. Good butlers have extended that privilege to our daughters who were in the adjacent (non-suite) balcony cabin. 

Beyond those few things, we find that they can be quite obtrusive, turning up regularly checking on things that don’t need checking (call me a cynic, but contrived to appear useful to get a tip at the end of the cruise IMO) and we have found this to be a real pain.

 

We don’t book suites now as we have to have a fully accessible cabin and there are very few accessible suites and the few that do exist aren’t in positions that we would choose. However, the main advantages of a suite for us were the extra space (we would often retreat to our suite at times when the ship felt busy), bigger balconies and access to a select dining restaurant for breakfast. Butlers were never a reason for booking them. 

[Camberley]

Our butlers have always been unobtrusive but they have been invaluable for information, for getting some restaurants booked that were apparently full, a few entertainments booked and ordering extra canapés for those very rare days when the P and O canapés were actually decent. But other than that we rarely use the butler to be honest.