Room Service In A Suite

[morfred]

If I order room service in a Suite (A pizza or a sandwich, snack, etc.) will it be brought to me by my butler or someone from the kitchen. The reason that I ask is.... I do not want to bother my butler in the middle of the day or at night if they are busy. I would probably jut skip it.

Edited November 29, 2022 by morfred
grammar

[CHEZMARYLOU]

We've always had room service delivered by the butler.  When he/she has been off duty there is someone covering. Even when we've arranged a small party and our butler was not available someone covered.  If you call your butler and he/she is not available the covering butler will answer the phone.

[morfred]

15 minutes ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

We've always had room service delivered by the butler.  When he/she has been off duty there is someone covering. Even when we've arranged a small party and our butler was not available someone covered.  If you call your butler and he/she is not available the covering butler will answer the phone.

I do not usually call the butler for snacks. I call room service. I am trying not to bother the butler but I do not know if that is possible.

Edited November 29, 2022 by morfred
grammar

[RichYak]

8 minutes ago, morfred said:

I do not usually call the butler for snacks. I call roon service. I am trying not to bother the butler but I do not know if that is possible.

A good butler might be upset if you call someone else to do his job. 

[Georgia_Peaches]

Not sure why you wouldn’t want to bother your butler. Serving you is their job. You paid for it and should feel encouraged to use their services. If you feel your butler has gone above and beyond or you feel you may have been a little extra needy, give them additional compensation in the form of a tip. 

Edited November 29, 2022 by Georgia_Peaches

[CHEZMARYLOU]

32 minutes ago, morfred said:

I do not usually call the butler for snacks. I call room service. I am trying not to bother the butler but I do not know if that is possible.

It is the butler's job.  As I said if he/she is not available someone will answer the phone and cover.  Just make sure to give a nice additional gratuity at the end of cruise if you feel you were a bother, or just because of good service.

 

[jelayne]

One afternoon we wanted a cheese plate and our Butler was working in Michael’s Club so the Butler covering got the call.  He explained he was too busy so he would tell our Butler who would be back in about 45 minutes.  I told him not to bother and then I called Room Service who told me since we were in a Suite we needed to order through a Butler.  So I called Guest Services and explained the problem, within 15 minutes we had a elaborate cheese plate and a very nice bottle of champagne.  Delivered by a Butler ( not ours or the one covering for ours).  We were 3 people in 2 Royal Suites which may explain the champagne😊.

 

One of the downsides of a suite is just trying to do something simple for yourself.  

[morfred]

1 minute ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

It is the butler's job.  As I said if he/she is not available someone will answer the phone and cover.  Just make sure to give a nice additional gratuity at the end of cruise if you feel you were a bother, or just because of good service.

 

I always tip the staff. I just hate to bother people especilly my butler. If I could I would probably go down to the kitchen and get the snack myself. LOL

[Georgia_Peaches]

9 minutes ago, morfred said:

If I could I would probably go down to the kitchen and get the snack myself. LOL

Now that would be way cool!

[Jim_Iain]

Definitely will be delivered by you butler unless possibly if a 2AM order.  

 

It's part of the Butler's job and I tip additional at the end of the cruise depending on how much and how well he takes care of us.

[morfred]

4 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Definitely will be delivered by you butler unless possibly if a 2AM order.  

 

It's part of the Butler's job and I tip additional at the end of the cruise depending on how much and how well he takes care of us.

As a different thought.... I usually tip the butler at the end of the cruise. Do some of you tip as you go along? ie snacks, ice, laundry etc.

[ETHTrader]

Not all butlers are same. I've had a butler who thanked me on the last day for not being needy as some of the other suite guests. I've had butlers who went above and beyond, and would have been hurt if I didn't call him/her first if I needed something. It's YMMV

[jelayne]

39 minutes ago, morfred said:

As a different thought.... I usually tip the butler at the end of the cruise. Do some of you tip as you go along? ie snacks, ice, laundry etc.

We don’t tip until the end. We tip based on our overall experience.  

[morfred]

Years ago I remember I tipped the butler after a later night sandwich and it just felt uncomfortable to me. now I wait until the end. Thanks everyone.

[JFontaine]

I always call Room Service to place the order, and it is up to them who delivers it. I wouldn't call the butler with my order for a few reasons: possibility of a mistake as it goes through multiple people, I often have special requests and I dont have to worry that its an inconvenient time. In dozens of high level suite cruises I've never had a butler say I should've placed the order with him/her. 

[Project_gal]

5 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Not sure why you wouldn’t want to bother your butler. Serving you is their job. You paid for it and should feel encouraged to use their services. If you feel your butler has gone above and beyond or you feel you may have been a little extra needy, give them additional compensation in the form of a tip. 

Because if you simply want a quick, informal snack, you do not always want the butler bustling and setting up the dining table with tablecloth, etc. It is the reason you will often see us making a run for the buffet and back when the coast is clear.

[Mark_T]

In our experience the butlers tend to get nervous if you are a few days into a cruise and you've not asked them to do anything...

 

From their perspective no requests = no opportunity to deliver excellent service = reduced chance of extra tips.

 

 

[wineoclock]

We ordered room service once & was told to go through the butler. I did ask her when she slept as she was always around 😊 

[Georgia_Peaches]

6 hours ago, Project_gal said:

Because if you simply want a quick, informal snack, you do not always want the butler bustling and setting up the dining table with tablecloth, etc. It is the reason you will often see us making a run for the buffet and back when the coast is clear.

I get that but the op specifically said the reason was he didn’t want to bother the butler, not that he wanted it faster without all the fuss. 

[Oceangoer2]

11 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Definitely will be delivered by you butler unless possibly if a 2AM order.  

 

It's part of the Butler's job and I tip additional at the end of the cruise depending on how much and how well he takes care of us.

I'm sure we went into the butler's bad books during our past cruise.  The only thing we requested from him was an early coffee run.  Each morning he brought us our morning coffee/juice/pastries around 6:30 am....like clockwork.  Sometimes we really wanted them earlier or later but we stuck to the time agreed for 3 days.  So....we stopped asking the butler (via the door card not being left out night before) and I went myself to the OV and brought them back when it suited us.  The butler was frosty after that.  Now I know why.  He was offended. We like the suite life but prefer to look after ourselves for the most part. He was left a VERY healthy tip so he should have known then that we still appreciated his effort even though he wasn't asked to do anything further for us. 

Edited November 29, 2022 by Oceangoer2

[Georgia_Peaches]

5 minutes ago, Oceangoer2 said:

The butler was frosty after that.  Now I know why.  He was offended.

I think some of it may be due to Celebrity's rating system and the pressure that goes with receiving a 10 on the survey card.  Pure speculation on my part but if your butler thought he/she had done something wrong they may have thought they were going to receive a poor service survey.  

 

The thing I'm learning most from this thread is that the communication between the passenger and the butler on embarkation day is key.  I've scoffed in the past at people who say they provide their butler with a list of requests and likes/dislikes on day one.  I thought this was so pretentious.  Now I'm beginning to realize that such a thing can really make for a much smoother and less stressful experience for all parties because everyone gets on the same page from day one.  Should I create such a list for our upcoming cruise I would probably indicate that I won't be requesting personal escorts around the ship but would enjoy a plate of cheese and crackers delivered to the room in the afternoon.  I think now I may need to go back and re-read what others have prepared in advance for their butlers.  

[Oceangoer2]

1 hour ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

I think some of it may be due to Celebrity's rating system and the pressure that goes with receiving a 10 on the survey card.  Pure speculation on my part but if your butler thought he/she had done something wrong they may have thought they were going to receive a poor service survey.  

 

The thing I'm learning most from this thread is that the communication between the passenger and the butler on embarkation day is key.  I've scoffed in the past at people who say they provide their butler with a list of requests and likes/dislikes on day one.  I thought this was so pretentious.  Now I'm beginning to realize that such a thing can really make for a much smoother and less stressful experience for all parties because everyone gets on the same page from day one.  Should I create such a list for our upcoming cruise I would probably indicate that I won't be requesting personal escorts around the ship but would enjoy a plate of cheese and crackers delivered to the room in the afternoon.  I think now I may need to go back and re-read what others have prepared in advance for their butlers.  

I agree...however, we did say we're 'easy' and only requested the b'fast and cheese and crackers/fruit in the afternoon.  Now I remember we stopped that also, as there is SO MUCH FOOD at every opportunity;  we found it wasteful.  He did receive full marks as did all the staff who so graciously helped make our vacation.  I only hope our butler receives notification, by cabin, how they were rated and we did mention him by name in the survey.  I don't like to think we did offend him, just saved him some work early in the day and during his afternoon quiet time.

[PKB]

Here is my preference sheet for our butler in our Celebrity Suite in February on Reflection.  We like our own mimosa concoction with pineapple juice and champagne.  

 

 

Morning Beverages

1 large coffee

1 large hot water

1 café mocha with whipped cream (still debating if I want the butler to deliver or get it from Al Baccio)

1 large Pineapple juice

 

Breakfast

One or two days on balcony

 

Afternoon plates – any of these

We like an assortment of meat and/or seafood, cheese, and crackers.  Seafood on separate plate. 

Small plate of fruit.  We like strawberries, pineapple, watermelon, and whole bananas

Small desserts or cookies

 

 

Stocked in cabin

Still water

Ice

Champagne

[kenb]

14 hours ago, RichYak said:

A good butler might be upset if you call someone else to do his job. 

The butler on my last cruise politely reminded us that we should be calling her.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

We don't like to pre schedule morning coffee. We confirm with our butler on embarkation day that we'll be calling in the morning when we are ready for a pot of coffee and maybe fruit or pastries. So far that's worked.  On our last cruise I think he was lurking outside our door waiting for the call. 

Edited November 29, 2022 by CHEZMARYLOU