Cruise to Mostly Nowhere--Part 3

[hankandteri]

This third and final installment of my reflections on our May 22 cruise from Barcelona to London aboard Riviera will be a departure from yesterday's incendiary offering. It's really only directed at someone who has sailed in a suite with Oceania, or has an interest in doing so.

 

I live in the wilderness. Literally. My property borders a national forest in Alabama. The county I live in has a total of three stoplights. The nearest one of those is 10 miles or from my front door. If I want a Big Mac or to see the inside of a big box store or have a medical emergency, I have to travel an hour or so each way. Between guests and crew, there are many more people on the Riviera than live in the five towns nearest my house--combined.

 

All that is to say this: in my very rural world, I don't often interact with butlers, and the few people living near me are forced by circumstance to handle most day-to-day tasks on their own. So when I learned my PH2 cabin would come with a butler, I wondered what in the world I would do with him or her.

 

Now that the cruise is over, I still don't know, and I have this nagging feeling that it's all my fault and that I somehow let both of us down.

 

We've had concierge service on prior cruises and on those cruises, our concierge always found little ways to surprise and delight us. I suppose I was expecting butler service to be like that, only more so. I can honestly say that our butler performed no meaningful tasks for us on this cruise and didn't add a smidgen of value to our overall cruise experience. I think that's on me somehow. Where did I go wrong?

 

Our butler was pleasant enough when we met him, and he looked every bit the part in his fancy butler livery. That's kind of where the relationship started and ended.

 

I asked two things of him on day one.

 

We were traveling with a party of 10 other people, and I asked him if he could help us snag the only 12-top in the Grand Dining Room. He told me that he only worked with the specialty restaurants and that we should go see the Maitre 'D for that. Oh. Okay. Mustn't ask for that.

 

I asked if he could ensure there was ice in the bucket when we returned from shore in the late afternoons and also when we turned in for the evening after the shows. This is something we ask for on every cruise, and having reasonably fresh ice on hand has never been a problem on prior cruises with Oceania or any other line. This time we were told that ice was refreshed on a schedule twice daily and we could call for more at any time. So, when we returned to an ice bucket filled with chilled water every afternoon and evening we exchanged wry smiles and thought wistfully of our butler.

 

At that point I was out of things to ask for, and it seemed kind of rude to keep asking for things outside his scope of service. Other than when he dropped breakfast off on a couple of days when we had early shore excursions or passing by him a handful of times in the corridor, we didn't see or hear from our butler again for the remainder of the cruise, and I couldn't think of a reason to page him. I don't think we saw him at all, even in passing, on the last three or so days of the cruise. We had the best and most attentive stateroom attendant on the planet, so our suite was always immaculate and I didn't feel as if I was missing out on anything. Except ice. Come to think of it, I probably should have asked her about that.

 

Still, I have this vague sense that I squandered a valuable resource that could have opened the door to special opportunities, privileges and experiences. So, for those of you who have had butler service on Oceania, what did I miss out on? How could I have better managed our butler service aboard?

[ak1004]

This sounds very familiar.. we had butler twice: once on our Regatta cruise when we booked a PH, and once on SS where every cabin has a butler.

 

Both times we hardly used them. We were told that "you have to ask for things. If you don't ask, they don't know". But what if I don't know what to ask? Aren't they supposed to offer things and anticipate our needs? Well, not in our case.

 

The only thing we asked the butler to do is bring us snacks every evening. That's it. 90% of the other tasks can be performed by the cabin attendant or the concierge.

 

One of our requests was having ice too, and I'm happy to report that we never had an issue, our cabin attendant always re filled our ice bucket. We concluded that butler is nice when included, but we definitely wouldn't pay extra to have one. The only reason we booked a PH on the Regatta was because the standard cabins are small and the showers and really tiny. Otherwise I'm perfectly fine with OV on the Riviera.

 

So don't feel bad about not utilizing a butler.. you are not alone.

[basor]

Thanks to a suggestion several years ago found on CC, we have typed up an introductory letter for our butler (when we have one).  This has been in PH's not upper suites, It includes our personal information, cruise history and a brief list of items we would like plus our usual daily schedule.  They all have appreciated this.  If we are going to want to eat in, we try to check with the butler a day ahead so he/we can pick a time that works for both...some times we find out he already has several suites requesting meals so we change to a different day.

 

Some of the things we have on our list:

 

1) Coffee, tea and fresh fruit delivered to the room around 7:30AM ( notify ahead of time if we are going on an excursion so time needs to be changed)

2) plate of grapes daily

3) his choice of our afternoon canapé along with fresh ice and fresh wine glasses

4) Perrier and lemon slices stocked in fridge daily

 

We also try to find about he/she and their life which has given us the ability to learn about their country, etc.  We have been lucky to have had the same butler on different cruises and ask about how family, children, etc, are doing.  Not intrusive just recognizing them as people not just butlers.

 

Hope this gives you some insight for any future cruise with a butler.

 

 

[sunlover12]

We book a PH for only one reason and that is the extra space. We don't ask much of our butler. It's up to the passenger how much or little of their services you want to use.  We'll usually ask for one breakfast in the cabin per cruise and most afternoons we'll ask for canapés.  That's about it. We've never requested extra specialty restaurant reservations.

 

The maitre d' at each restaurant is the correct person to talk to if you are requesting a certain table. We have also asked for ice at a certain time of the day which the butler directed us to call the stateroom attendant who did a great job each day and it only took one phone call.

 

[hankandteri]

3 minutes ago, basor said:

Thanks to a suggestion several years ago found on CC, we have typed up an introductory letter for our butler (when we have one).  This has been in PH's not upper suites, It includes our personal information, cruise history and a brief list of items we would like plus our usual daily schedule.  They all have appreciated this.  If we are going to want to eat in, we try to check with the butler a day ahead so he/we can pick a time that works for both...some times we find out he already has several suites requesting meals so we change to a different day.

 

Some of the things we have on our list:

 

1) Coffee, tea and fresh fruit delivered to the room around 7:30AM ( notify ahead of time if we are going on an excursion so time needs to be changed)

2) plate of grapes daily

3) his choice of our afternoon canapé along with fresh ice and fresh wine glasses

4) Perrier and lemon slices stocked in fridge daily

 

We also try to find about he/she and their life which has given us the ability to learn about their country, etc.  We have been lucky to have had the same butler on different cruises and ask about how family, children, etc, are doing.  Not intrusive just recognizing them as people not just butlers.

 

Hope this gives you some insight for any future cruise with a butler.

 

 

Great ideas! Like you, I always make a point get to know a little about the staff we interact with regularly in the restaurants and our cabins in a non-intrusive way, and I know that is always appreciated. 

[Sujormik]

I’ve never had a butler but as a literary fan, am dying to ask, at least once, for someone to draw me a bath.🤣🤣

[basor]

18 minutes ago, Sujormik said:

I’ve never had a butler but as a literary fan, am dying to ask, at least once, for someone to draw me a bath.🤣🤣

Sorry - never had a bath drawn or our suitcases unpacked or packed.......a little too personal .   but it does sound luxurious

[grifdoglover]

Butlers are not mind readers.  They will fill your fridge, bring snacks, answer questions regarding the ship, they can unpack and pack your clothes, have clothes to laundry, serve you meals, etc.
They usually introduce themselves on the first day along with room Stewart’s and have a number you may call them at. If they can’t answer or take care of your request they usually steer you to who can. They (unseen) come around and make sure the cabin is being taken care of.  I have seen people have them carry their snacks and drinks from the lounge to their room for them.  My personal experience with them has been limited.  Some were super friendly and hard working others were going through the motions and as with all staff and people in general you never know what they are going through.  We once had a cabin stewart who had a dying mother at home!  I am also one who shows interest and get to know these hard working people who work long hours months away from home.  My answer is yes maybe you missed out on some services that were available to you.  I don’t think you manage the butler but they are there to provide you extra service at your request.

[Psoque]

We have very limited experience with butler service, since we don’t book expensive cabins.  But we had two separate occasions when we were upgraded to cabins/ships with butler service, both on Crystal.  I find what I read about two requests refused by the butler (one about the 12 top table in the MDR and another about ice) to be somewhat odd and surprising.  When we had a butler on our previous cruises, they NEVER said no to us, either directly or indirectly.  It’s possible our requests were always reasonable (I doubt it!) or we were just lucky, but we were totally spoiled with our butler service on these sailings.

[no1talks]

On the subject of butlers...

 

For those who have the "anytime, any place" drink package, are butlers allowed to bring cocktails and such to one's cabin?

[julia]

Um, it seems to me that since the OP was already discussing two VERY BASIC requests with said "butler", Mr Butler's answers should have been "ice? yes, of course, I will advise your cabin steward of your request.  Dinner reservations? Yes, of course, I will contact the Maitre D on your behalf. Is there anything else I can assist you with?"   Not, "ask your steward, call for dining yourself."

But then again, that's just my two cents.

[basor]

1 minute ago, no1talks said:

On the subject of butlers...

 

For those who have the "anytime, any place" drink package, are butlers allowed to bring cocktails and such to one's cabin?

Yes - they can bring anything....also so can room service (if butler not available)

[ak1004]

6 minutes ago, julia said:

Um, it seems to me that since the OP was already discussing two VERY BASIC requests with said "butler", Mr Butler's answers should have been "ice? yes, of course, I will advise your cabin steward of your request.  Dinner reservations? Yes, of course, I will contact the Maitre D on your behalf. Is there anything else I can assist you with?"   Not, "ask your steward, call for dining yourself."

But then again, that's just my two cents.

 

On our SS cruise, one of the restaurants was fully booked. On our first day we asked the butler to get us a reservation. His answer was "Yes, of course". For the next 5 days, nothing happened. On the sixth day we visited the restaurant personally and were able to get a reservation for the same day.

 

I'm not sure what's better - to say "yes of course" and let you wait, or to say "see the Maitre 'D for that".

 

[CurlerRob]

8 hours ago, hankandteri said:

Now that the cruise is over, I still don't know, and I have this nagging feeling that it's all my fault and that I somehow let both of us down.

 

Your writing style reminds me of a now-retired columnist in one of our national papers - you have the same wry, clever humour.

 

@basor's suggestions are excellent, but FWIW, a butler who responded to two basic requests by telling me to "do it yourself" would find himself on the sharp end of a direct complaint - I get testy when I don't get what I pay for - even if I don't want it. 🍺🥌

[schmerl]

We didn't ask much of our butler, but he checked in with us about twice each day to see if we needed anything.

I loved ordering the canapes he brought each day. He also got us three extra reservations in the specialty restaurants. 

He brought us an Ipad and set up the wifi. He delivered the wine we brought on board to whatever restaurant we were visiting that night. 

He made sure we had the soft drinks we wanted in our fridge. 

We never had a butler before, but it was a very nice experience. 

[hankandteri]

34 minutes ago, CurlerRob said:

 

Your writing style reminds me of a now-retired columnist in one of our national papers - you have the same wry, clever humour.

🍺🥌

Thanks. As a matter of fact, I did spend a chunk of my squandered youth as a newspaper reporter and editor. You’d never know that from all of the punctuation and other errors in my posts. 

[hankandteri]

8 hours ago, Sujormik said:

I’ve never had a butler but as a literary fan, am dying to ask, at least once, for someone to draw me a bath.🤣🤣

That would be very elegant and oh so Downton Abbey, except it would be quite a feat. The PH bathtubs were removed in Riviera’s recent dry dock refits. The new bathrooms are fantastic, though, even if no butler is required to operate the shower for you. 

[basor]

17 minutes ago, hankandteri said:

That would be very elegant and oh so Downton Abbey, except it would be quite a feat. The PH bathtubs were removed in Riviera’s recent dry dock refits. The new bathrooms are fantastic, though, even if no butler is required to operate the shower for you. 

Luckily, they did leave some PHS with bathtubs so the opportunity is still there for some lucky soul!

Penthouse Suites and Staterooms with the bathtub and shower:

PH3: 9138, 9145, 10002, 10003, 10004, 10005, 10008, 10009, 10010, 10011

[julia]

Speaking to the "drawing the bath/butler" discussion here...  Sir John Gielgud stole the entire movie with just one line in 1981. I'm still laughing.  Arthur.  😲😅⬆️🎶

[Cruzin Terri]

There are Butlers and then there are Butlers.

We have had the good fortune to have some wonderful Butlers and the misfortune to have some that have been all but invisible.

It is just human nature.  

Like others, we book a PH for the room size and the Butler comes with it. 

We do like interacting with the staff and getting to know them.  Some are friendlier than others.  However, some really make themselves scarce.  The last two butlers were of that nature.  We hardly saw them and when we did it was for only a minute.  

On our last cruise on the Sirena we asked to have dinner in our suite one night and ordered Dover Sole.  The butler acted surprised when we expected him to filet the fish.  As a matter of fact, he seemed to be bothered that he had to serve us dinner en suite.  Others have always made us feel that it was their pleasure to do so.

When we asked for extra reservations, we were told that we had the number we were entitled to.  The only way we got more was to go to the reservation desk on Deck 5.  

Needless to say, we were not too generous with an extra gratuity with that type of service.

 

[mancunian]

Our two cruiselines are Silversea andOceania.  Never had a butler on O as we are in balcony cabins.  Our first time on SS we had our first butler which bothered us.  What on earth would we do with him.   Turned out to be her and she was great.   We declined the unpacking - did not fancy a holiday with the hunt the thimble game wondering where things were.   She served two dinners in our cabin, sorted out my wifi, cleaned shoes, sorted dining bookings.

 

One thing I have noticed on SS is how few people use guest services including us.  Butler seems to sort most queries.   I believe on Silver Dawn they draw you a special bath too as part of the new Otivum package.   Waiting to try that in August.

 

One butler and cabin steward on SS used to dash to unlock cabin door if they saw me approaching (I am disabled).  The butler used to always ask if I would like a pot of tea at this point.   Husband thought we ought to accept her offer once to show we appreciated her which we did.  Not sure of reasoning here.  Not accepting was probably more appreciative.

 

Our last trip we came to earth with a bang as we got a poor butler.   Our two first and main requests of the cruise is now always for one of the deep egg crates for the bed for my spine and a stool for the shower.  This time the stool did not appear and the egg crate cover was the narrow one.  We pointed this out and the egg crate was replaced, but went into bathroom and still no stool but he had brought a raised toilet seat instead!!!  By this time I had realised that the cabin steward, whose English was in fact not as good as the butler was in fact brighter.  Within ten minutes the offending article was removed and I had a stool in the shower.  You cannot win a good butler every time but three out of four times is pretty good I feel.

[hankandteri]

7 hours ago, julia said:

Speaking to the "drawing the bath/butler" discussion here...  Sir John Gielgud stole the entire movie with just one line in 1981. I'm still laughing.  Arthur.  😲😅⬆️🎶

His line from that film that I use to this day is “I will alert the media.” What was the line you’re referring to?

[jondfk]

Three sailings on Regatta last year (2 of which were B2B) so two butlers.  I too was a bit unsure how to use them, and two more different fellows you couldn’t find.

 

The first guy was very personable but just reluctant to help even when directly ask, two examples, I asked for club soda in the minibar - he firmly insisted that the only sparkling water he could supply was the bottled variety from the machines on board, I had no particular objection except that the bottles don’t seal and the gas quite quickly escapes.  I took to gathering a can of club soda every time I passed a bar, by the end on the cruise I had collected a stock of 12 which I lined up across the desk as a sort of object lesson.  Second, I asked for lime wedges for said club soda, these were supplied, but never refreshed without an explicit request - in my mind simply returning the empty container should have been sufficient prompt.

 

Butler number two stocked soda within 5 minutes of my request and, seeing me consume 3 each day took to keeping 4 in the fridge.  Seeing I used all of the supplied limes on day 2 found a larger bowl which was refreshed daily onwards.  This fellow also went so far as to lend me his personal USBC charging cable when I realized I left mine at home while unpacking.  After repeated reassurances that it caused him no difficulty I cancelled my planned last minute run to the San Pedro Target to get one before sail away.

 

Guess which guy got a very generous tip?

 

People vary, especially in the service world.

 

[Harters]

19 hours ago, hankandteri said:

when I learned my PH2 cabin would come with a butler, I wondered what in the world I would do with him or her.

Exactly the question we've been asking ourselves about our upcoming cruise in a PH. Using the forum search facility, I've read just about every post in the last couple of years that mentions "butler" to gain an idea what they might be able to do. And I think we've pretty much concluded that there's really nothing that they do, that we want her/him to do for us. Maybe press a pair of trousers if needed when we first unpack but that's it. Don't want them doing the unpacking. No need for extra speciality restaurants - the four reservations will be fine (and maybe more than we want). No need for afternoon chocolates, or whatever. No need for this , that or the other. So, s/he's going to find us very low maintenance.

[godfreyb]

I think it's all about whether the butler wants you to feel 'looked after' or is just going through the motions.  On our first Oceania PH cruise the butler appeared to want to help but just got into arguments with me or gave us information we didn't ask for or need (our travel companions had a wonderful butler who 'looked after them').  I gave our butler a small tip.  On our second cruise we had a butler who, from the first instance, 'looked after us', starting with running around the ship to find a piece of luggage that had been delivered to the wrong cabin.  He got a very large tip at the end of the cruise.

It seems to be the only way to deal with this 'problem'.