What does the butler do?

[rjp50]

We plan to book a PH2 and are wondering what functions the butler on O performs.  Our only previous experiences with butlers were three times on the Yacht Club with MSC.  Here are examples of what the butler did for us in the Yacht Club and I wonder whether the O butler performs similar functions or possibly more:

1) We were met at the embarkation point and escorted by a butler to a special area with drinks and snacks for the final embarkation process; then were escorted directly to our cabins.

2) Our butler would deliver a paper copy of the daily newspaper of our preference every morning.

3) Our butler or the concierge would handle any reservations that we needed

4) He facilitated bringing a special chair to our room that was easier for my wife to get out of

5) When we wanted to take a desert back to the room to eat later, they insisted that we should not have to carry this through the ship to our room and had the butler come and deliver it.

6) When my wife raved about the wine that she had at dinner, when we got back to the room a little later we found a full bottle of it on ice, delivered by the butler (all drinks in the yacht club were included).

7) For shore excursions we were escorted by the butler off the ship to either the head of the line to get on tenders or directly to the bus.

8  Upon returning from a a day on shore they would meet us for priority reboarding

9) On my wife's birthday, without even being told about it, he decorated our cabin with balloons and banners wishing her a happy birthday

10) Upon disembarkation, he escorted us off the ship with our bags to the taxi stand and told the driver where we were heading

 

I'm sure I am forgetting some of the other services that were provided and frankly some of what was done was a bit over the top.  So, is this comparable to what we should expect from a butler on O?

 

[Harters]

The only things we asked our butler to do was press three (? items of clothing on boarding, bring a wine cooler bucket one night and, on two nights, we asked him to bring canapes (they weren't that nice so we didn't ask for them again). I know he can do more, like helping to get additional speciality restaurant reservations, but we had no need for that. 

[Mrs f.]

I know many people live their butlers. Our butler was useless ..unable to make any extra specialty reservation.....which I was able to do. Unable to find the wine bag I left the previous evening at Red Ginger..which I found by going to the O lost and found and asking.  I guess we are not butler people. 

[Sthrngary]

@rjp50 The following is a section of my Journey document done for my recent Oceania Cruise 10 day Mediterranean Cruise sailed November 2023 on the Riviera. This Journey Document was created to help my guest since it was their first time cruising and with a Butler.  I hope this gives you so assistance. See below:

 

How To Utilize Your Butler:

·        Menus: Each morning, they will bring you that day’s “Grand Dining Room” menu.  The Specialty Restaurants Menus are in the suite, and I have digital copies. You MAY want to attempt to change your specialty restaurant booking that evening in the Specialty Restaurant based on “Grand Dining Room” menu. Make sure you can replace that reservation for another time that suits you before you cancel it.

·        Coffee: Bring your morning coffee and pastries if you like, even from the illy™ Barista Coffee Bar. Always give your butler good instructions, a head up, and time to prepare.

·        Reservations: Assist in making or changing Specialty Restaurant reservations.  Remember, “NO” guarantees especially on a sold-out cruise and that is why making those reservations pre-cruise as soon as you can, is important.

NOTE: When I upgraded to a “Vista Suite”, I got eight (8) guaranteed specialty restaurant reservations. I will attempt to have the butler add Winkler’s on the second four (4) reservations.

·        In-Suite Dining: Serve you in-suite dining from ANY restaurant.  The butler will do this course-by-course.  Please give your butler a fair head up and only order from one restaurant to avoid confusion.

·        Sweet Dreams™ Pillow Menu: Gain the pillow you want from the Sweet Dreams™ Pillow menu and exchange it for the pillow on the bed.

·        Afternoon Tea in your Suite: Oceania has Afternoon Tea daily in the Horizons Observation Lounge at 04:00 PM.  You may choose to have a personalized Afternoon Tea in your suite.  As with all uniquely special services, give the Butler a fair head-up.

·        Afternoon Canapes: Provide you with your afternoon canapes based on your selections provided to them in the morning.

NOTE: This seems great for a day or two then it can affect enjoyment of our dinner.  You can tell the butler to skip it.

·        Bubble Bath: Draw you a bubble bath at a specific time.

·        Escort: Escort you to the main theatre shows, restaurants and events upon request.

NOTE: A Butler is NOT your date.  They take you to the location and drop you off.

·        Laundry: Take care of your complementary laundry of three (3) bags of 20 items each or less.  There is a three-day turnaround time for return.

·        Shoeshine: Have a scuff on your shoes, give them to your butler.

·        Pressing:  You have up to three (3) days after embarkment to provide four (4) items per cabin for pressing.

·        Port Reservations: Gains reservations even for port restaurants.

·        Luggage: Unpack and pack your luggage.  This is NOT something I have ever had done.  Those that have had it done seem to enjoy it.

NOTE: I do what is called a Butlers letter.  It gives information to the butler on minor requests, so they don’t have to read our minds.

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

[pinotlover]

I believe Gary gave a very good list of some of the possibilities. Actually they’ll attempt to achieve most any requests one has. There in lies the important part: requests. A lot of people are pure, or nearly so, DIYers. They’d rather sit on hold, and then talk to a perhaps untrained phone rep than use their TA. Except for a few perks, they never use their TA. We allow our TA to take care of any issues that might arise and never do the 1-800-thingy. There are a lot of things one’s TA can do if requested.

 

Same goes with the butler. Some people refuse to use any services they can provide, others might do so minimally. I’ve seen some that prefer to stand in the Specialty reservations line because they prefer to DIY as opposed to asking the butler. I’m not saying our butler is always capable of getting that extra reservation when and where we want it, but a no from him is typically 85% accurate and the wait in line isn’t typically worth success the other 15%. 
 

Long story short: It is what you make it. Mostly your choice. Ask and you shall receive. Don’t ask, don’t receive. Personal choice. Happy cruising.

 

[ronrick1943]

The list is good, but it's up to the person and what they ask.  For us I don't want to be escorted anyplace on the ship.  I remember once we send a main dish back as it was raw, not rare but raw.   All of sudden the waiter, the manager, the chef, and our butler--as bad as being serviced a raw veal chop we didn't need a parade and to be honest it was embarrassing.  I told them if that ever happens again the only person needed is the waiter to make the correction.

We do use the butler to bring coffee in the morning and afternoon.  Make dinner reservations for us.  They did meet us in the holding area before boarding the ship and checked us in and got us on the ship.  That was nice, but after that getting off and on is pretty easy and I wouldn't want someone to greet us for a tour.  So that said it's really what you need........

[lorimay]

5 hours ago, Mrs f. said:

I know many people live their butlers. Our butler was useless ..unable to make any extra specialty reservation.....which I was able to do. Unable to find the wine bag I left the previous evening at Red Ginger..which I found by going to the O lost and found and asking.  I guess we are not butler people. 

You are not alone with this experience. Our butler on the Marina was also useless. We don't ask a lot, but were very clear on the first day that we wanted sparkling water available (we don't drink alcohol) and ice at all times. By day 3, our ice bucket was never refilled daily and there was no more sparkling water. We asked the room attendant and she said that was the butler's job. He did get us a couple of extra dinner reservations, but we never even saw him most of the time. Never came to our cabin to check on us. We saw him once while we were dining in Red Ginger - it looked like he was picking up a meal for someone else - and he avoided eye contact and didn't even stop to say hello. This is one of the reasons why we have never bothered to pay for a PH again. 

[Mrs f.]

13 minutes ago, lorimay said:

You are not alone with this experience. Our butler on the Marina was also useless. We don't ask a lot, but were very clear on the first day that we wanted sparkling water available (we don't drink alcohol) and ice at all times. By day 3, our ice bucket was never refilled daily and there was no more sparkling water. We asked the room attendant and she said that was the butler's job. He did get us a couple of extra dinner reservations, but we never even saw him most of the time. Never came to our cabin to check on us. We saw him once while we were dining in Red Ginger - it looked like he was picking up a meal for someone else - and he avoided eye contact and didn't even stop to say hello. This is one of the reasons why we have never bothered to pay for a PH again. 

We were also on the Marina ... Barcelona to Rio.. several years ago 

[pinotlover]

16 minutes ago, lorimay said:

You are not alone with this experience. Our butler on the Marina was also useless. We don't ask a lot, but were very clear on the first day that we wanted sparkling water available (we don't drink alcohol) and ice at all times. By day 3, our ice bucket was never refilled daily and there was no more sparkling water. We asked the room attendant and she said that was the butler's job. He did get us a couple of extra dinner reservations, but we never even saw him most of the time. Never came to our cabin to check on us. We saw him once while we were dining in Red Ginger - it looked like he was picking up a meal for someone else - and he avoided eye contact and didn't even stop to say hello. This is one of the reasons why we have never bothered to pay for a PH again. 

The phone system has an easy paging system for one’s butler. I use it whenever I need him. In your case, I would have paged him concerning your needs. A nasty comment on the mid cruise survey would have likely corrected the issue also if continued.

 

We’ve only had one poor butler. Strange thing is we’d had him once before and he’d performed wonderfully. One never knows.

 

A question, to which I’ve never contemplated or inquired, are the ships likewise carbonating and producing their own sparkling water? In the dining venues , I often see sparkling water poured from a jar similar to the still water. Other times it comes from a commercial retail bottle. I always assumed it was done by guests requests or possibly the shortage of ship generated sparkling. The two tastes very differently. Anyone know for sure?

[Harters]

37 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

I always assumed it was done by guests requests

I do not know for sure but would also make the same assumption. Sparkling water is my usual drink with dinner and it always came in the same bottle as does still water. I did see the occasional branded bottle (Perrier?) but was never served it, so do make the assumption a guest had requested it. I'm not that fussed - at home, I drink the supermarket's own brand sparkling (£0.45 for 2ltr) rather than a branded product (San Pellegrino - £1.75 for 750ml.)

[lorimay]

I understand we could have phoned the butler. But my point is that I shouldn't have to. On cruise lines without a butler, the stateroom attendant has no trouble keeping our ice bucket full every day. So I was getting a downgrade in service with the butler.

 

Don't get me started on the sparkling water issue. The Vero water system is great, but in all the eating areas they seem to fill up the bottles at the beginning of the day, so by dinner time they are flat. In the room, they usually leave us small bottles of Perrier or a large San Pelligrino. I'm not picky, even club soda will do. A lot of times they don't even bother with the Vero sparkling water.

 

But worse, when they fill your water glass at the beginning of the meal and you ask for sparkling, the next person who comes along tries to fill your glass with regular water. It was so annoying on our last Oceania cruise that we ended up putting a paper cocktail napkin over the top of the glass so they had to ask. We suggested that they do something so the waiter knows the difference, but it never happened.

[Jim_Iain]

We are not big Butler users but I have to admit we have had some incredible Butler's.   An incredible Butler is very observant and give you as much space as you want but at the same time pick up on your personal likes and habits.   One example is that my Husband drinks British Strength Tea and usually brings his own.   The butler noticed the teabag in the pot and after there he had it prepped with Teatley British Strength Tea. 

 

Another example is that I had become extremely dehydrated and brought some VitaWater.  Next morning the room was stocked with it.

 

A final example on Celebrity where I'm a Zenith and unlimited laundry.   At the end of the cruise he dropped by and said he would like to take all of our dirty clothing to be laundered and folded to make our packing easy.    Something I would have never even thought of doing.    It was indeed much easier to pack.   No -- I don't have a butler pack or unpack. 

[zalusky]

Our butler worked with the head chef to get my wife Low Carb / Keto solutions.  They initially made almond flour bread which she found too heavy and then she gave them a recipe with cheese and egg that was acceptable.  The butler actually searched the ship for us to get us to try out one of the solutions.

 

We had a late night excursion one night and when we returned the butler had a bunch of snacks and low carb desserts in our stateroom.

[pinotlover]

One of the things butlers do:

 

On our last cruise, the lady next door died of a heart attack on day 5 or 6. Starting the next day, while still attending to passengers ice and water needs, the butler had the pack every thing up of what was supposed to be a 51 day cruise by the couple.

 

Not only did everything have to be packed, but a complete inventory made of what went into each suitcase. Likewise, security had to be called and the safe opened. Everything therein was inventoried and signed off by him and security. Those items, in the safe, were combined with valuable items such as cameras, iPads, and other items to valuable to go into a suitcase.

 

The room stewards were only available a short amount of time to assist him, as they had other duties on a full ship in their areas. This was a tedious time consuming task. She was one of 5 that I know of that left the ship unexpectedly to not return. No clue who performed those functions for the other passengers.

 

Sometimes, even when they try, our simple concerns aren’t at the top of their bucket list.

[AMHuntFerry]

1 hour ago, pinotlover said:

A question, to which I’ve never contemplated or inquired, are the ships likewise carbonating and producing their own sparkling water? In the dining venues , I often see sparkling water poured from a jar similar to the still water. Other times it comes from a commercial retail bottle. I always assumed it was done by guests requests or possibly the shortage of ship generated sparkling. The two tastes very differently. Anyone know for sure?

A year of so ago I was interested in the behind the scenes process and managed to find some interesting info about not only the Vero water but other processes.

The 2019 O PR for the new Vero water:

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/media/2019/OCEANIA+CRUISES+TO+ELIMINATE+PLASTIC+WATER+BOTTLES+IN+PIONEERING+GREEN+INITIATIVE+-+Partnership+With+Vero+Water+Will+Save+More+Than+Three+Million+Plastic+Bottles+Per+Year/

Edit: forgot the Vero Water link: verowater.com

Go to the following page, then click on the link to open a pdf with environmental info. Water info is on p. 24-25 of the pdf.

https://www.nclhltd.com/sustainability/environmental

Without reading all of the details, I am not clear as to what the source of water for the Vero system is. I don't have a problem with treated water, but hey, I drank out of streams in the pre-giardia days.

I like the sparkling Vero water and have never had it flat in the restaurants. If it sits in our room for a day it loses is sparkle though. The still water attempted refills are annoying, but typically (not always), the waiter or other water server learns quickly...I'll keep putting this issue on surveys in order to affect change.

Edited May 16 by AMHuntFerry

[lorimay]

My suggestion on the plain water vs. sparkling water refill situation was that they should  have a different color paper coaster for those of us with sparkling water, so the server can see at a glance who has what.

 

Believe me, this little annoyance doesn't ruin my trip or turn me against a cruise line. And it happens everywhere - it happened on Regent too.

[WildWanderers]

Hi All,

 

We have had the assistance of a butler on situations that arise that you could never itemize.

 

On our first Marina cruise, from Trieste to Rome, just as covid restrictions were allowing cruising with mask-wearing, we left our camera in the washroom at a glass factory while on an Oceania tour.  Our butler always seemed to know when to check in on us, and appeared when we got back.  We told him what we (were pretty sure we) had done.  He said ... leave it with me.

 

He appeared at our dinner in the Polo Grill that evening to say that he had contacted the glass factory who checked the bathroom and confirmed that no camera had been turned in.  He also contacted the tour company who reported no camera left on the bus.  Plus he checked with reception to find out if anything had been dropped off at lost and found.  OK, we didn't get our camera back, but we were so impressed with the lengths our butler went to, to find it.

 

This same butler would track us down at dinners, always looking to see if there was anything he could do, and surprisingly there was often something on our minds that he was able to answer, resolve or follow up on.

 

While I quite like @Sthrngary's list earlier in this thread, I find it difficult to prepare an exhaustive list, when for us so much of the use of a butler is to help us with something at that moment.

 

Cheers from Greg of the WildWanderers.

[rbtan]

They kind of make your life easier by doing things for you such as reservations to the various dining salons, excursions etc.On Cunard ours brought my spouse Caviar every night.Not sure if Oceania's will do that.

[Torquer]

We have had great butlers, and some not very good.  The worst one happened to be when we were staying on a cruise in the owners suite...it definitely detracted from the experience.

 

Interestingly on our last cruise, there was a 5-day art scavenger hunt where you were given 50 photos of paintings and other art work on the ship, and had to identify where on the ship it was located.  It was quite challenging since each photo only showed a tiny portion of the artwork.  Anyway, we saw one couple who had their butler touring the ship with them to try to complete the scavenger hunt.  Although it was nice to see a butler willing to do that, we thought it was cheating.

[Tr1v1alCru1ser]

We ask our butler to bring us tea in the morning, and sometimes we order canapés.

 

We’ve never had the butler bring us GDR menus, accompany us anywhere, or serve dinner course by course.

 

On our last cruise, we ordered dinner in the cabin, and it was all brought at once.

 

When my husband got Covid on board, I had to move cabins, and had to shift everything by myself.  I understand the butler not wanting to be in the cabin, but I had to make a few trips to move everything.  I can honestly say, even prior to that, he was the worst butler we’ve ever had.  Surprisingly, he was the Head Butler too. The butler in my new cabin offered the service we usually got, he would knock to check if I needed anything, stop by to ask if I was ready to order dinner, asked what I’d like for breakfast, and generally couldnt’t do enough.  

 

Thankfully, we’ve only had the 1 really bad butler, the rest have been lovely, and usually comment that they feel badly we’re not asking them to do more for us.  

 

 

[GeezerCouple]

23 hours ago, Torquer said:

Anyway, we saw one couple who had their butler touring the ship with them to try to complete the scavenger hunt.

 

Heck... why not just relax in one's suite, with some champagne and caviar or such, and let the Butler just do the scavenger hunt on your behalf.

 

Better yet, ask the Butler if they can first draw you a nice bath, and *then* head out on *your* scavenger hunt!

[We make good use of our Butlers, and yes, we do show our appreciation.  It really does make a difference to us.  But I've *never* understood how someone other than *me* could draw a bath.  Okay, I guess the late Queen Elizabeth had a standard water temperature for all baths (?), but I doubt that is what I do even for myself.  I'm guessing it depends upon the season, plus how warm or cold I feel at that particular time.  So no, that's not among the niceties that we ask for. 🙄 ] 

GC