Luggage questions

[beaming90]

I have only flown for overnight visits before, so this will be the first time I have checked luggage. We are flying Southwest early Saturday morning out of Kansas City into Orlando. My 74 year old mom will be with me. We will be taking a shuttle from the hotel in KC. What can anyone tell me about luggage? Do we have to lug it around? What are the curbside porters? Can we check our luggage there? I feel like a dummy but between the 2 of us we have 4 suitcases and one carry on and just don't know how we are going to do it. Thank you all for any help!

[cruisead]

Guess I'm not really understanding your question. Are you talking about checking your bags at the airport or when you get to the cruise ship dock? If it's the airport, a lot depends on your airport. At some places you have to go inside to check in and have your luggage xrayed. At some, you have to check your bags inside and then take your luggage to another part of the terminal to the big xray machines for security checks and for some you can check your bags curbside with the outside curbside porters. They will also check you in for your flight and give you boarding passes. A lot of what you do depends on the airport and the airline You usually tip those guys at least a buck a bag. Once you get to your destination you have to give the bags to the dockside porters who will take your bags to a large security scanner before bringing them to the ship.

[42trvl]

If your airport and airline offer it, then easiest thing to do is use the curbside check-in - well worth the extra tip. You get out of the car by your airline, and the porters should be right there. Once they take your bags, they will check them through and you usually don't have to deal with them again until you get to your final destination. Even if there is no curbside check-in, you should be able to find a porter at the curb who can take your luggage in for you to the check-in counter in the terminal.

 

At the other end, most airports have carts in the baggage claim area. They look like shopping carts - some airports provide them for free, most charge a couple of dollars. We find it easiest to get one or two of those, depending on the amount of luggage, and you can just wheel it out to your taxi/bus/shuttle whatever...

[beaming90]

We ended up getting to the airport before the curbside people opened up. So we lugged the suitcases inside and stood there with them waiting to check them. We flew into Orlando and while heading to the baggage claim, I saw the carts. They were $3.00 to rent, but WELL worth it!! What a great thing! So we were ok from then on. Thanks for your answers though! We were pretty dumb, but have learned a lot from this trip!:rolleyes: