Need to input credit card to get luggage tags?

[Earthworm Jim]

I'm inside 75 days now, and my cruise personalizer says I have to input my credit card info in order to get my boarding pass or print my luggage tags. Now the boarding pass part makes sense. If you were reluctant to input credit card info on line or whatever, you could just do your card info on check-in and they'd presumably give you your boarding pass then.

 

But why hold your luggage tags hostage? Since I assume you'll give your luggage to a porter long before you check-in, you'll need the luggage tags before then. This pretty much forces everyone to input your credit card info online. Heck, don't some people not even have/use credit cards and put down cash deposits for onboard charges?

 

Personally, it doesn't bother me to input the credit card info and I will do so. It just seems strange that they force you to because you need the luggage tags.

[Pam in CA]

Either put your credit card info in or when you get to the pier, you can get luggage tags from the porter. Of course, this will take a little extra time and chances are your luggage will be delayed getting to your cabin because it won't have the bar code and printed information.

 

If you choose to pay your onboard account with cash, just go to the Passenger Services Desk and give them enough cash to cover your expenses.

[Earthworm Jim]

OK, you do have an option to get tags from the porter. That's good. But without a boarding pass, how does the porter know you are supposed to be putting suitcases on the ship? That could be a security risk.

 

They must have a passenger list and hopefully check your ID your make sure you are the passenger you are claiming to be.

[rdsqrl]

But why hold your luggage tags hostage? Since I assume you'll give your luggage to a porter long before you check-in, you'll need the luggage tags before then. This pretty much forces everyone to input your credit card info online. Heck, don't some people not even have/use credit cards and put down cash deposits for onboard charges?

 

I suspect you're over-thinking this. They probably found it easier when building the system to just disable all "printing" in general if there's no credit card on the reservation, without parsing the details of okay to print this doc but not that one.

 

Also, I don't recall the porters asking me for ID or my boarding pass the one time I filled out a luggage tag with them, but I could be wrong since it was two years ago. They do have a master list should you have forgotten or not been assigned a cabin yet, but again, I knew my cabin number so there was no need for him to consult it.

[Earthworm Jim]

Well, I guess even if someone who wasn't really a passenger tried to get luggage on the ship by giving it to a porter, it would still have to go through the security screening before it made it onboard.

[Nomsayin]

Have never tried it, but seems like you could enter a CC number in your Cruise Personalizer, print your luggage tags and boarding pass, and then edit the Cruise Personalizer to remove it. Just a thought.

[shofer]

I forgot our luggage tags when we did our Panama Canal cruise. This was when Princess still sent them to you. The porter checked our boarding pass before giving me the tags.

 

One of our friends has a phobia about putting in his CC info before boarding. He only relented when I told him that they wouldn't let you in the terminal w/o seeing your boarding pass. At least this was in FLL. He couldn't print the boarding pass w/o his CC info entered into the Personalizer.

 

Sue

[Pam in CA]

Have never tried it, but seems like you could enter a CC number in your Cruise Personalizer, print your luggage tags and boarding pass, and then edit the Cruise Personalizer to remove it. Just a thought.

I agree that I think the OP is over thinking this. When you enter a credit card number, nothing is being charged, not even after you check-in and board the ship. It's no different from booking a hotel and giving your credit card information to hold the room. You can always change your onboard payment options after check-in. Like the luggage tags, you don't have to have the boarding pass to check in. But it will significantly slow down the check-in procedure for you and everyone behind you as they check your passport and credit card. I guess I don't see what the big deal is with putting the CC info in. You can't book any travel these days without one.

 

Princess is far more liberal than some other cruiselines are. For instance, HAL also requires a CC number to print the boarding pass but as soon as you do, a hold is put on your card for $60/pp/day. Princess doesn't do that. A hold is put on your card only for the actual onboard account amount the first night after boarding. If you've put cash on the account or you have an OBC, there's no hold.

[Flyer]

I might add. I have a friend who refuses to input credit card information on line. When it comes to cruises he calls Princess with the credit card Info and then went to his personalizer to print his documents. Worked for him.

[Pam in CA]

I might add. I have a friend who refuses to input credit card information on line. When it comes to cruises he calls Princess with the credit card Info and then went to his personalizer to print his documents. Worked for him.

They'd rather call a person and give them all of their credit card information rather than enter it on a secure website? I don't get it.

[Flyer]

Pam,

 

I agree With you 100%. But each to their own. :)

[RickEk]

They'd rather call a person and give them all of their credit card information rather than enter it on a secure website? I don't get it.

 

My thoughts exactly... doing it online at least assures that a human isn't involved. Can https: transmissions be cracked? Assuredly, but considering the amount of traffic on the 'net, the chances of that are way slimmer than someone in a call center writing down your credit card number...

 

OP, I wouldn't worry about putting in your CC number on Princess' site as long as you are using a current browser and your operating system is current too...

[robtulipe]

You can set your onboard account as a cash one in the cruise personalizer and this allows you to print out your boading documents and luggage tags.

[teacherman]

1. I do not get the big deal about having a luggage tag. I believe we have not done luggage tags on our last 8 cruises. We give the bag to a porter, tell him our cabin number, watch to make sure he writes the number correctly on the tag, and watch him put the luggage in the carts. It takes less than 1 minute. We have always received our luggage in a reasonable amount of time.

 

2. I have no problem with putting my CC through the computer, BUT it does bother me that I am not required to SIGN MY CC AUTHORIZATION at check in. On our last cruise we found several charges to our shipboard account. it took much too long to resolve it at guest services, basically because there was no signature on file. On other cruise lines, we sign our name at the counter when checking in.

 

Enjoy your cruises, as we hope to enjoy ours next week on Emerald.

[robtulipe]

I have no problem with putting my CC through the computer, BUT it does bother me that I am not required to SIGN MY CC AUTHORIZATION at check in. On our last cruise we found several charges to our shipboard account. it took much too long to resolve it at guest services, basically because there was no signature on file. On other cruise lines, we sign our name at the counter when checking in.

 

It may have been an error on the part of the check in agent in that they forgot to get you to sign the authorization. I can not recall not having to do so when I have provided a credit card to establish a shipboard account. In fact I've also had to provide the actual credit card I wanted to use upon checking in.

[Earthworm Jim]

I guess I don't see what the big deal is with putting the CC info in. You can't book any travel these days without one.

 

Not as big deal at all to me. As I said in my original post:

 

Personally, it doesn't bother me to input the credit card info and I will do so.

 

But we've all heard of people that cut up all their credit cards because they've had trouble with them, or just don't trust credit cards, so it seemed odd that those people would be blocked from printing luggage tags. but Robtulipe points out there is a way around it for those people, so there is no problem for anyone.

 

Thanks for the input all. I've more than beaten this subject to death by now, it just seemed odd to me.

[KarenMF]

They'd rather call a person and give them all of their credit card information rather than enter it on a secure website? I don't get it.

 

The person that they are calling is entering it into THEIR computer!

[caribill]

It may have been an error on the part of the check in agent in that they forgot to get you to sign the authorization. I can not recall not having to do so when I have provided a credit card to establish a shipboard account. In fact I've also had to provide the actual credit card I wanted to use upon checking in.

 

In the past year the procedure was changed so that at checkin if you are not changing the credit card to be used for onboard charges from what was entered on the personalizer, there is no need to show the credit card at checkin.

[Nomsayin]

In the past year the procedure was changed so that at checkin if you are not changing the credit card to be used for onboard charges from what was entered on the personalizer, there is no need to show the credit card at checkin.

 

That was our experience on the CB last month.

[robtulipe]

In the past year the procedure was changed so that at checkin if you are not changing the credit card to be used for onboard charges from what was entered on the personalizer, there is no need to show the credit card at checkin.

Thanks for this information. For our Grand Pr. TA last Spring I set our account as a cash one since we had lots of US dollar traveler's checks on hand and some OBC. We board Emerald in two days and have set up this cruise with a credit card.

[MizzouMary]

You can set your onboard account as a cash one in the cruise personalizer and this allows you to print out your boading documents and luggage tags.

 

I am working on this right now, and do not see anywhere in the cruise personalizer where you can choose a cash option.

[robtulipe]

In the past year the procedure was changed so that at checkin if you are not changing the credit card to be used for onboard charges from what was entered on the personalizer, there is no need to show the credit card at checkin.

 

That was our experience on the CB last month.

For our recent Emerald cruise I had to provide the same credit card again even though I had entered that information when filling out the cruise personalizer.

[robtulipe]

I am working on this right now, and do not see anywhere in the cruise personalizer where you can choose a cash option.

I recall it was a drop down option where the credit card shows as the default. Look for drop down option arrow or some other way to change that setting on that page of the cruise personalizer.