Princess Alaska luggage handling for 2005

[JacquieP]

We just finished a cruise on Sun Princess Monday, and I can't help but be concerned how they are handling luggage this summer. All luggage for passengers leaving Anchorage after a predetermined time was off loaded outside onto the circle drive of the Anchorage Marriott. We were told that we must show "Homeland Security" a picture ID when we collected our luggage, but none of our party of four was given a chance to show picture ID or saw any security personnel. Everyone was grabbing luggage and leaving. My main suitcase is still missing, and nobody knows anything about it, even though I filed a report. The moral to the story is " be careful, and don't put anything in your luggage that you don't want to lose".

[Tarheelbelle]

I am trying to understand---were you coming off the ship at Whittier and going to Anchorage by shuttle for a post-cruise package?

[JacquieP]

We came off the ship at Whittier and went to Anchorage for the night, before returning home on Tuesday. My main concern was the lack of security in Anchorage. Luggage leaving the ship was piled on the Anchorage hotel circular drive, along with luggage going to the ship in Whittier. Anyone could pick up any luggage that was out there, and it would have been very easy to have some nutty terrorist to add whatever he wished to the luggage stack going to the ship.

[spongerob]

I hope you communicated your concern to those in charge. The only time we've been in a similar situation, our bags were collected then locked together with others using long cable locks (similar to computer security cables). We had to identify our bags before boarding buses for embarkation, and once again before turning them over to the longshoremen before they were sent to be loaded. I was quite impressed. Your situation sounds like someone completely dropped the ball.

[Cruizer_J]

JacquieP,

 

We were on the Sun with you, ended up being misdirected downtown instead of directly to the airport and we also were upset at the way that the luggage was all left outside on the curb. You didn't happen to be on the shuttle with James did you, the one on which he turned around in somebody's front lawn?! We thought that, in general, Princess handled disembarkation well, but our being misdirected downtown and then finding our luggage on the curb was a downer to end the cruise.

[northwoods2]

We will be docking in Whittier on June 4th and have booked the Princess transfer to the Anchorage airport where we will pick up a rental car.

 

Do you know how our luggage will be handled?

 

Do we claim it when we get off the ship and put it on the bus we board?

Or does it go in some other truck?

And then how do we claim it when we get to the airport?

[Cruizer_J]

We will be docking in Whittier on June 4th and have booked the Princess transfer to the Anchorage airport where we will pick up a rental car.

 

Do you know how our luggage will be handled?

 

Do we claim it when we get off the ship and put it on the bus we board?

Or does it go in some other truck?

And then how do we claim it when we get to the airport?

The main thing that I would urge is that, as soon as you get your luggage tags for disembarkation, check them to make sure that they are correct for what you want to do and immediately go to the front desk to ask about them if they don't look right; we waited too long and were sorry that we did. We wanted to go directly to the airport and rent a car, but we first were issued tags for the wrong airline, then when we enquired about it later at the front desk, were given the wrong tags again even though we stressed that we wanted to go directly to the airport!

 

They will handle your luggage for you all the way to where ever you are being transferred, but I'm sorry to say that I can't answer your question about where the direct airport transfer luggage ends up because we didn't make it. When we disembarked and were transferred downtown, the luggage had been carried ahead of us and was waiting on the curb. When we were shuttled to the airport from downtown, our luggage went with us on the bus and was dropped off with us at the curb.

 

Hope this helps.

[JacquieP]

No, we weren't with James, and from the sounds of it, thank heavens! We have tons of communication with Princess, by letter, email, and telephone and it seems like the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. Our last call was yesterday from an Anchorage Princess rep who was asking if my husband's suit bag had been found. It had also been missing, but we were called at the hotel on that Monday evening around 10:00 pm, and were told that it was on it's way to our hotel. It didn't arrive that evening, but we were paged at the airport just as we were boarding the plane, had to get out of line, go to the ticket area, check it in, go thru security again, etc. They made no mention of my missing suitcase at all, and said they were not aware of the problem. I filled out two reports, and have made numerous telephone calls, but I WILL NOT give up. With any luck at all it will be found in Vancouver on Monday when the ship docks. I am still appalled at the lack of security, and yes, that is definitely outlined in my letter to Princess. What a lousy end to a wonderful cruise!