Luggage

On my last cruise out of New Orleans we received written correspondence daily, the entire ship did, in a separate letter from the caper, trying to help two cabins find their lost luggage. I was truly amazed that four days out people were on a cruise without ANY of their formal clothes and other things they had packed. I guess they could have shopped at the first port, but this would truly have ruined the cruise for me, even moreso than not having a working toilet. Has anyone else ever had luggage woes and if so, how did you resolve them?

When I got off the ship, there was one guy totally red in the face, screaming and swearing like mad because all of his liquor had disappeared. He had apparently put it outside his door with his luggage. The cruise director jokingly tells people not to do this when they give the talks, but I couldn't believe that somebody had actually done this. I was quite amazed that he expected Carnival to have assumed reponsibility or that it would have been waiting for him.

We got the same flyer in our Capers on the Victory last week about lost luggage. I feel so sorry for those who's luggage get lost - I have no idea what I'd do in that situation. I guess that's why I try to pack a mix of everyone's clothes in our 2 suitcases and 2 carry-ons, so that we're guaranteed to have at least something!

DH spoke to someone on our cruise last week who's luggage had been put on the Valor, which was "parked" behind us in Miami. The Valor was doing an eastern route and we were doing a western route, so the woman was not able to get her luggage until she returned to Miami on Sunday.

My husband and I carry-on only.

I've done ten days in Italy with a 22 inch pullman.

Well, we just got off of the Carnival Destiny on the 11th. We sailed out on the 4th, and we left out of Chicago flying United! We left on the 3rd, so we could have an extra day to relax before we sailed. Left Chicago, to Philly, then to San Juan. Well they left our luggage in Philly, and assured us that we would get it on the ship the next day by 2pm. We called @ 2pm asking about the luggage and was told they still had not shipped it??? So we were in the same clothes for day 2 now. They apologized, and said it would be on the boat in St. Thomas the next morning by 11am. We got off the boat, cause we were sick of wearing our jeans, and long sleeve shirts, and the same underclothes mind you to get some shorts, shirts, etc....we got back to the ship by 11:30am, and still no luggage. I was trying to enjoy myself even though we had the problems, but I was a little upset at this point. I went to the pursers desk to call the airlines, and was told that we wouldn't be getting our luggage till Barbados....two days later.....I was very upset by this! We told the pursers desk this, and I was almost in tears at this point. They took down the number for me, along with our luggage tag numbers, and lo and behold our luggage made it to the ship by sailing time that night! I thank Carnival for all their help. I couldn't stand the thought of another day in those jeans in all of that beautiful weather, much less not having any formal wear, or my own personal things! All the same, we still had a great vacation.

ccruise54

Sorry to hear about your luggage. It's a chance we all take when we check luggage on a plane, me included. Been lucky with that so far (and keeping the fingers crossed).

Looking forward to a review of your cruise. What kind of shape is the Destiny in since being in dry dock? We sailed on her in April 2004 and June 2005, and are returning to "home" in April 2006.

Do you know if they changed the shows, and is the guy who is an "original" member of the Platters still there on Tuesdays?;)

How about the CD? Is is still the "Steve Urkel" dude?

Welcome home anyway.

Habby:

Yes Marahscalh is still the director on the ship! I think he is a hit or miss with alot of people. I personally thought he was a little standoffish for me, but I guess he is probably too busy with everyone to really take a lot of time to talk to everyone! I thought the ship was very clean, and I always saw someone working on something, be it installing new carpet in the cabins....this was happening everyday! Nothing like leaving for an excursion only to come back to your room to new carpet! I loved the design and color too. Much brighter! I saw them working on repairs everywhere. Our room had the usual signs of wear and tear, but overall we loved it. I really loved the new bedding and beds. I slept great, and we are going to be ordering our own in the next couple of months. Duke Daniels from the Platter's is still singing if that is who you are talking about. I loved that show! We had a great time, and our room steward "Shaker" as he wanted us to call him was great! Our dining crew was okay, not as good as our first cruise's crew, and quite frankly I think we were spoiled on our first cruise by our dining staff, and will never be happy with any other's, but they were nice, but they really didn't speak english very well, being from Croatia, but they were fluent in Spanish as we heard them speaking with other guests. Overall the cruise was great even with the lost luggage, but at least they got it to us before the formal night. I would go on the Destiny again, but I have to say that we hated the debarkation. It was way, way longer than any other cruise I have done before. Just seemed a little unorganized. Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.

My husband and I carry-on only.

 

I've done ten days in Italy with a 22 inch pullman.

I must applaud you....I could never do that...and doubt that I'd even want to try....did you launder clothes while on the trip....please tell me what was in that bag!

My husband and I carry-on only.

 

I've done ten days in Italy with a 22 inch pullman.

 

 

i did the samething when i went on my cruise in june, my son and i carried -on all of our bags, and it was no problem. 1 22inch pullman each and a shoulder bag, and we had enough clothes for our cruise. ( no lose bags)

How do you manage that? Seriously. I need one suitcase just for all of our shoes!! (And thats just on a 3 or 4 nighter)

Laura

On our Conquest cruise we received a note about 4 or 5 missing pieces of luggage, one of which apparently contained a large amount of jewelry. On the last sea day we got the same note, and all of the luggage was apparently still missing. Makes me seriously consider carry-ons only for our next cruise!

We were on Conquest last week and got the lost luggage memorandums daily and I felt sorry for the people. Well low & behold one of our pieces was missing when we got off and arrived via DHL Thursday PM. Another passenger took ours by mistake. I will strongly consider self assist next time. At least it happened at the end of the cruise not the beginning.

I'd love to do carry on only. That's how we usualy travel. But on a cruise I need a bag just for my wine.

How do you manage that? Seriously. I need one suitcase just for all of our shoes!! (And thats just on a 3 or 4 nighter)

 

Laura

 

i did the samething when i went on my cruise in june, my son and i carried -on all of our bags, and it was no problem. 1 22inch pullman each and a shoulder bag, and we had enough clothes for our cruise. ( no lose bags)

We called Carnival about something else, and mentioned that we usually do this and planned to for our upcoming Celebration cruise, and they said that the policy was being changed, it is no longer possible to carry on a bag that size--all luggage had to be checked, and nothing with rollers could be carried on.

We were shocked, because we prefer to control our stuff, and for a short cruise, we never need more than than just the one 22-inch case each.

How do you manage that? Seriously. I need one suitcase just for all of our shoes!! (And thats just on a 3 or 4 nighter)

 

Laura

I'm sure everyone is different, but here is what I am bringing for 4 nights:

I have to work the morning we leave, as we only live 2 hours from the port. And that helps, because we don't have the extra clothes from flying in someplace.

So I will wear on a business casual outfit, but with my closed toe hiking shoes that would be the bulkiest thing to pack, and also wear on my windbreaker.

For the first full day, it's just capris and a t-shirt for the shore excursion. For formal night, I have a black knit skirt and top (like most of the clothes, these will be rolled up and secured with rubber bands to prevent wrinkling and minimize space), a dressy shiny/metallic purple sweater, and a jangly purple necklace. I will wear black sandals with that.

For the second day, I will probably re-wear the pants from my business casual walk-on outfit, but with a different top.

The third day is a sea day, and I will wear a purple seersucker jumper, with a light purple t-shirt and the sandals.

For debarkation (and I have to work that afternoon), I will wear the same purple jumper, with the black knit top that I had worn at formal might.

So the only other items to pack are a long t-shirt for sleep, underwear, a swimsuit, and a one-piece shorts coverup (which is also what I use for working out at the gym).

I guess the key to this approach is layering and wearing a clean shirt everyday, but being willing to re-wear pants or a jumper

Talk about a near lugguage nightmare.... This is us on our short cruise last week....

We live in New England, and one day prior to our cruise there was a major snow storm brewing... They were calling for 10 inches and all flights grounded. We had booked a flight the day of the sailing, and so at the last minute (That would be one day prior to our cruise at 2:00 AM in the morning, because I could not sleep) I booked us a one way ticket to Miami, leaving a day early so we would not miss the ship.... Smart, right.. Well kind of...

We get to the airport and everyone and thier mother had the same idea to get out of dodge as we did..... The flights were delayed, overbooked, you name it...The girl behind the counter told us there was no way we would make our connection. We figured we had nothing to loose and decided to go for it... Well, she told us if we missed our flight our lugguage would go on without us, and we could pick it up the next day at the Miami airport.... Yea sure, what would be the chance of us ever finding our luggage.

So here is how we looked at it... We had a cruise booked, and we had no way to get there... If we missed the boat we would be out a lot of money. We thought it was better to be on board with no luggage than to be at home with luggage!... We figured we could buy shorts and a bathing suit on the ship, and at least be on the ship..... Prior to this trip I would of been really pissed to loose luggage, but when these situations come up it is amazing how quickly you find a way not to care and deal with it all...

Can you beleive it, we caught a break..... Luck would have it that the next flight was also delayed..... We ran off the plane, onto the next gate, and ran into a bunch of really unhappy people due to a flight delay.... We were soooo happy, and we just kept looking at each other and shaking our heads about our good fortune.... We could not believe that we made the connection, and our luggage was still with us!! We were laughing alot, and I am sure the other ticket holders thought we were out of our minds! We were really glad we did not listen to the girl behind the counter...

Wrapping up this long post here.... We went on to our 3 day cruise on the Fascination, and had such a great cruise... Came home with a suntan glow, in the middle of another snow storm, wearing shorts! Still a bit to much of a close call for my husband and he has told me NEVER book a December cruise again!

I rolled on a small suitcase boarding the Miracle in October. It just has to be small enough to fit in the x-ray machine, but I had enough in it so that if my larger bag(s) were lost I would not be completely out of luck.

We called Carnival about something else, and mentioned that we usually do this and planned to for our upcoming Celebration cruise, and they said that the policy was being changed, it is no longer possible to carry on a bag that size--all luggage had to be checked, and nothing with rollers could be carried on.

 

We were shocked, because we prefer to control our stuff, and for a short cruise, we never need more than than just the one 22-inch case each.

Well that doesn't make sense? Why would carnival say no carry-on rollers? :confused: Heck, I was planning on one of my carry-ons to be a roller. I like to carry on all of our formal wear and a change of clothes for the first night in case our luggage doesnt find us.

Laura

 

laura= i wore capris, t-shirt,and sneakers w/socks every day, for dinner i would put a little nicer shirt on. for formal night , i have a sleek black dress that do not wrinkle, stockings and a pair of black fancy shoes, and i pair of casual pair for dinner.

 

my cruise was a four day cruise, so, i had four outfits, formal wear, i pair of black shoes, casual shoes, and stockings, underclothes and nightwear in the pullman. my sneakers was new and they was on my feet. shoulder bag had all my personal, haircare, documents and meds in it.

 

 

that is how i travel, very lite. Note: i did wash all my clothes on the last night of the cruise.:)

Thanks!! I wish I could that! I just finished packing up the suitcases for my 16 yr old daughter. We filled a large suitcase with just her stuff plus 1/2 of a smaller one (And that doesnt count the formal wear and change of clothes I carry on plus all of our bathroom supplies ,makeup,curling irons, etc. I dont think we've ever gotten away with less than 3 suitcases plus 2 carryons. :o And it really isnt over packing per se' because we do end up wearing all the clothes we bring.

Laura

I carried on a 22-inch bag with rollers on the Victory last week without a problem. Several others had luggage larger than mine that fit through the x-ray machine just fine. I think someone was pulling your leg.

On our Conquest cruise we received a note about 4 or 5 missing pieces of luggage...

Similar experience here.

Both intercom announcements and a full sized sheet of paper received with but separate from the Capers, reading:

We hope you are enjoying your cruise...

Two of your fellow guests are ... missing a peice of their luggage since the beginning of the cruise...

Below please find the description of two missing bags:

Seems that somewhere in the baggage handling proccess, Carnival Conquest has sprung a leak! :mad:

Thanks!! I wish I could that! I just finished packing up the suitcases for my 16 yr old daughter. We filled a large suitcase with just her stuff plus 1/2 of a smaller one (And that doesnt count the formal wear and change of clothes I carry on plus all of our bathroom supplies ,makeup,curling irons, etc. I dont think we've ever gotten away with less than 3 suitcases plus 2 carryons. :o And it really isnt over packing per se' because we do end up wearing all the clothes we bring.

 

Laura