Butler angst

[pavementends]

I suppose this is intended mostly for new SS cruisers, who are baffled and befuddled when first encountering their butler.

 

It's not much of a vacation if you feel an obligation to maintain/ keep busy your butler. So don't.

 

Now with a little bit of advance thought you can come up with a thing or two to ask for during your first encounter. I suggest thinking about this before boarding. A few easy ideas: a bottle of something you would drink; ice bucket refill every day; and (my usual) a fruit plate in the afternoon. And then explain that except for these things you will probably not need anything else. But if you do you will call.

 

Other than that, a pleasant greeting on encounters should suffice. Oh, and a photo with the butler goes down well, indeed, I think it might be what they call "instagrammable." Or "Xable," I don't do social media.

 

The only other thing I asked was an early-morning breakfast the day of departure.

[MBP&O2/O]

Other than the initial meet and greet and supply of a bottle or two,we have only once ever been proactive with a butler, and that was for a very early breakfast for an excursion at stupid-o'clock🙂

 

I always tell them we are extremely low maintenance and in the unlikely event of needing them we will call. 

 

I actually found the first one too intrusive so adopted this policy.

 

 

[cotto22]

Our butler last fall was very sweet, and did anything and everything we asked him to do, which was not much. We had a ventilation issue that we mentioned to him, and he had someone come and fix it. And toward the end of the cruise, I developed laryngitis, so he brought me his Mother's concoction of hot water and fresh ginger to make a kind of ginger tea. I am not sure it helped, but it tasted good and it was very thoughtful of him!

[drron29]

Well we are low maintenance but still chat with our butlers and room attendants. most have been wonderful and a few have gone above and beyond. What really pleased us was the last cruise on the Muse. We could hear the TV from next door and it was quite lound. Our butler went next door and they had it on very loud so it was turned down. It made little difference. Maintenance came up and couldn't fix it. So the next day whilst everyone else was out on excursions our butler and room attendant went next door and had a very good look at their TV. Turned out that someone had taken the sound bar down and then put it back the wrong way round. Could only hear the very slightest noise if you concentrated on that after they fixed the problem.

So butlers are very useful even if you don't think so. They are also able to progress. Our very first SS butler became an HD on SS and now has a senior management position at Viking.

[TwoNavySalts]

Butlers, the good ones, and most are on SS, tend to adapt to your need levels. 
 

Some memorable experiences: 

- A lock had jammed on our hardshell luggage. Butler brought up an engineering buddy who was apparently the “fix it” guy, and he got it unjammed. We made sure to get his name and mention it in cruise evaluation. 
- I had booked an all-day shore excursion which included a seafood lunch; I’m allergic, but really wanted this excursion. Not wanting to get “hangry,” I asked the butler if he could help me put together some small bagged-up snacks I could stick in my day bag that wouldn’t spoil. Marcona almonds, 2 little wax-wrapped cheeses (like BabyBel), petite baby carrots, a small apple, a few squares of dark chocolate (Valhrona!). Perfect. 
- Help with dinner reservations, times or adding people, etc. 

- My husband iced his knee every afternoon after a joint replacement wth the little cold bag we had brought. Without fail, the bag was there with ice ready to go on his knee the minute we got back from a shore excursion or other agreed-upon time. We just left him a note on the pad in the room with “ice time.”

 

They are problem-solvers! Take advantage of their skills - and ask about their families and home countries. 

Edited February 24 by TwoNavySalts

[Mayflower1]

Good Morning drron29 - I wonder if your reference to your outstanding Butler referred to Suthit ? - If so we would concur wholeheartedly. We knew him from his original days as a Waiter, then Bartender on The Cloud and watched his promotion to Guest Relations and eventually HD. Unfortunately he was not we fear as well regarded by Head Office and he was forced to leave Ss for Viking - a great loss in our opinion.

Its great to have such good memories of past travels on SS when it really was ' Special '

[Silver Spectre]

5 hours ago, Mayflower1 said:

Good Morning drron29 - I wonder if your reference to your outstanding Butler referred to Suthit ? - If so we would concur wholeheartedly. We knew him from his original days as a Waiter, then Bartender on The Cloud and watched his promotion to Guest Relations and eventually HD. Unfortunately he was not we fear as well regarded by Head Office and he was forced to leave Ss for Viking - a great loss in our opinion.

Its great to have such good memories of past travels on SS when it really was ' Special '

He did have a particular issue and got reported too many times for SS to run the risk of keeping him.

[Mayflower1]

Good Afternoon Mr Silver - Thank you for the further Information - its always the Case that there are two sides and often only one is known.