Bad start to a great week........

My wife and I were booked on the Radiance 12/5. Our trip also included a 1-night pre cruise stay at the Sheraton. While there, our travel documents were stolen. This included cruise-tix, my passport, wife's birth cert., marriage license, airline tickets, car rental reservations, and airline boarding passes, ect. I keep all my traveling papers in a 3 ring binder. I noticed they were gone at 10 pm. I contacted hotel security and the police- (filled out reports) After a sleepless night at 8:00 am I was able to call the port of Miami and talk to a RCI rep. named Sumii (SP). She sympathized with us and said she would call back. In five minutes she called back and said, ”I’ve got some bad news and some good news”. The bad news was we could not sail on the Radiance. The good news was we could sail on the Explorer. We would have same cat. cabin, same price, and totally different stops. We would do the western instead of the eastern. We were just ecstatic on being able to sail anywhere! We really wanted to sail on the Radiance but the Explorer did not let us down. Royal Caribbean did a great job bailing us out of a bad situation. We had to get to the pier early (9:30) where she met us took us right up stairs and processed our embarkation. Then we waited in the vip lounge and were among the first to board. Bad start to a great cruise!-Harry

thats great that it all kinda worked out

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Was there any reason they gave why you couldn't sail on the Radiance but you could the Explorer without documents??

 

Just curious.

which sheraton?

isujim-I was told St. Thomas would give me a hard time reentering the US after-Cocoa Cay

 

jdechter-Biscayne Bay-everyone was nice there but someone was a crook-our luggage was in the bell hop holding for an hour while our room was getting ready-Harry

I would never leave my passport, marriage license and cruise documents at the bell hop station!! YIKES!

 

I guess you'll live and learn. :p

OMG, this had to be a horrible expereince and a hard lesson learned. Glad it had a happy ending. :)

 

 

 

 

 

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I would never leave my passport, marriage license and cruise documents at the bell hop station!! YIKES!

 

I guess you'll live and learn. :p

 

The documents were in a suitcase in a locked luggage room. Next time I guess I will tye them around my neck while eating lunch. -Harry

I agree, what a horrible turn of events, glad everything worked out and you were able to enjoy your vacation time Harry :)

 

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I would have been devastated to lose all those documents! Thank heaven it all worked out for you. Being female, I carry them in my purse. Don't know how the guys do it.

i am so glad to read something positive about RCI customer relations. although i have never had as devasting experience as you (my sympathy for you and your wife) i have always had wonderful interaction with the folks at RCI!!!

 

thanks for posting your experience!

 

hope to SEA ya all , judy

Sorry to hear of your troubles Harry....glad things worked out in the end. What now? Do you have to worry about someone using your identity for the wrong reasions???

Amazing story! I am really surprised that RCCL let you cruise at all. :rolleyes: Was your air arranged through them as well? Just wondered how you were able to fly home.

Your papers were an odd thing to steal. Was anything else stolen out of your suitcase? As others have said, I never let our important papers out of our sight (or away from my body) until we get to our hotel room/stateroom and can put them in a safe. We also makes copies of everything and place the copies in a different bag.

Glad you had a good time and kudos to RCCL for working something out in a timely manner.

Air was through Spirit and they said no problem-The documents were the only thing missing-My wife and I both still had our pictured drivers liscense-We were told that passports are worth alot to the wrong people. I had to contact the State Dept, Credit rating companies,and others-The copying and packing seperate was a good idea. Woulda Coulda Shoulda-Harry

Sorry for your mess but glad to hear it all worked out. What did the Sherton Security have to say for themselves??, since it sounds like that is where the docs went missing??

Wow, so glad things worked out for you!!!!!!! I hope that if anyone tries to use your passports, that they are caught!!!! Hats off to RCCL for resolving a difficult situation for you!!!!!!

 

My DH makes fun of me because I guard our passports and travel documents like a crazy woman until we are at our destination!!!! Your experience is one of my biggest fears.

Hey Harry..Glad that RCI really cooperated in a bad situation!!If that would have happened to me,i would be so devistated.

 

Is there still some processes you have to go threw to try and make things rite again??

 

Oh Well,i heard the Explorer was really nice!!..Good luck,bro!!!

WOW! I am glad everthything worked out for you! Hope you got a good cabin!

Harry0, Sorry to hear about your misfortune! We missed you at the Meet and Mingle. We too were at the Sheraton but fortunately nothing went wrong for us. However, my friend did leave her backpack in the back seat of the cab! We went to the concierge who tried to call the cab company but for some reason they could not or would not call him on the dispatch...we had his name and cab number. Nothing terribly important was in it, so she pretty much figured it was lost! Anyway, the next day in the cab on the way to the port, she happened to mention to the cab driver about what had happened. He asked the other cabbie's name and as it turned out, he knew him. He took the cell phone number and when we got on the ship, there was a call back saying the original cab driver had found the backpack! We made arrangements to get it on the day we returned. We felt like the cabbie had gone way beyond the call of duty....however were not impressed with the concierge at the hotel

 

Again sorry for your hassle and sorry we didn't get to meet.

So sorry we missed you on the Radiance it was a wonderful week.

 

They were right to tell you about the hassle at St. Thomas though. We had a passport for my 3 year old (had gotten it to go to Fanning Island 2 years ago) and it wasn't signed. The customs person starting asking all these questions held us up and eventually made me sign for him. We had used the passport several other times to enter the country and never had a problem.

 

Glad to here you had a great time though!! :D

The documents were in a suitcase in a locked luggage room. Next time I guess I will tye them around my neck while eating lunch. -Harry

 

 

Well, I think that your situation confirms that there is no safe place for these types of documents other than on your person. Therefore the lesson to be learned by reading about your is misfortune is don't let them out of your sight if you want to reduce the chances of having these documents disappear. It's a shame, but it's reality.

I would never leave my passport, marriage license and cruise documents at the bell hop station!! YIKES!

 

I guess you'll live and learn. :p

Not so fast...while travelling in Europe, I was warned to a) never keep the passport in the hotel room, and b) never keep the passport on my person. Go figure! So I kept it in my hotel while in Holland, kept it in a "travel wallet" in London...and wouldn't you know...was pickpocketed while in London and had the passport stolen. Literally, someone stole it out of an inside jacket pocket while I was sitting in the corner of a Starbucks with my husband sitting across from me. I had it when I sat down, it was gone when I stood up. It was definitely a professional job (they charged $10k worth of airline tickets from Switzerland to Nigeria in the hour or so between the theft and my calling the credit card company).

 

So carrying it with you isn't always a guarantee. As a matter of fact, the guy at the Embassy chewed me out for carrying the passport on me as apparently there had been a rash of such tourist thefts in London. This was in April of 2001.

 

Anyway, what I DO suggest is that when travelling, make copies of your license, ticket and passport, and store it in a place other than your travel docs. This way, if you are the victim of a robbery, getting new docs is easier. Luckily I had the copies in my hotel room and it made the replacement process much faster.

 

Harry, that was a bummer about your vacation but I think your positive attitude went a long way towards enjoying your cruise! I can imagine a very different post from someone complaining that they missed out on their "cruise of a lifetime" by going Western instead of Eastern. The fun is not just the location you're in but your state of mind, right? :)

 

And I also think that given the circumstances, RCCL exhibited great customer service by helping them get on another ship with the same class that quickly. They came through when it counted.

 

Cheers,

Esther

Not to purposely cause you more anxiety, but if I were you I would contact one of the credit counceling services to see what you might need to do regarding identify theft!

 

With that level of information it would be very easy to request new credit cards, and even get information about existing cards (with a birth certificat it's even possible to request a driver's license with the thef's picture, making further ID theft easier).

 

At the very least I would register with one of the new Credit Reporting services that notify you via email any time an inquery is posted to your credit report. This would really help you track any changes to your credit history (new card requests, etc.).

 

I would also contact my LOCAL authorities to see if there's anything you can post in their records that might help with things like protecting your drivers license, vehicle registrations, etc.

 

You should also call all of your existing credit cards and have them make a note on their records about limiting any address change requests, etc.

 

Identity theft has definately become the new "house robbery" of the 21st century. Why steal someone's old used stuff, when you can steal their identy and thus ability to buy all new things and even get cash!

 

I hope it all works out for you!

-Zac

So carrying it with you isn't always a guarantee. As a matter of fact, the guy at the Embassy chewed me out for carrying the passport on me as apparently there had been a rash of such tourist thefts in London. This was in April of 2001.

 

Esther

 

You're absolutely right, there are no guarantees in life (other than death and taxes perhaps). So you can only take action to REDUCE the liklihood of any given event. I believe that keeping your passport on your person as opposed to handing it over to another person who should be honest but who in reality may not be is more likely to result in a better outcome. Guarantee? Sadly, no.

 

I also agree that the OP certainly had a great attitude which enabled him to overcome his disappointment and frustration and go on to have a wonderful trip. I can't honestly say I would have handled the situation with the same amount of class.

Harry,

 

So sorry that this happened to you, but I'm glad you had an enjoyable cruise on Explorer. I'm quite impressed with the good job of RCI customer service. I'm doubly impressed by your very positive attitude.

I could certainly use a lesson from you. :)