Luggage Tags New Cruisers Beware

[Clarea]

I know they are not free but $35 is ridiculous for 2 sheets of paper with some glue. No wonder why they do whatever they want to do with us since we just take everything without an issue

Please see post #10.

[yuvraj]

A number of people are saying that labels are still mailed to suite guests. This is not the case in UK. Recent change which might follow elsewhere.

[Paulxyz2004]

I know they are not free but $35 is ridiculous for 2 sheets of paper with some glue. No wonder why they do whatever they want to do with us since we just take everything without an issue

 

That´s because this is not an issue! What issue should we take here?

 

You can Chose to get paper docs mailed to you for $35 or get edocs for free.

 

As they still have a way to get your luggage tagged for free at the port, I don´t see what the issue is.

[Aquahound]

I didn't know any mass market cruise line still

mailed luggage tags free.

 

On Celebrity, anyone can still request free luggage tags through their website.

 

I know they are not free but $35 is ridiculous for 2 sheets of paper with some glue. No wonder why they do whatever they want to do with us since we just take everything without an issue

 

It's been made pretty clear in this thread that luggage tags do not cost $35. It's the paper documents booklet that cost $35. Luggage tags are included in it.

[poncho1973]

If it's $35 for luggage tags and you don't like it, quit crying about it. No one needs to hear you complain when the alternatives are simple, easy and no cost. What's your point of continuing to nag on the $35?

 

In addition to Bob point out post #10, the price is basically set high to discourage.

 

 

If someone is willing to pay $35 for the document package/tags, they'll still send them out. They just don't want to send them out. I'd guess that means that 99.9999% of people will be like "Nah, I'll just print those out at home."

 

That is not a factual number, but it's likely that almost no one is going to pay $35 for paper they can print at home themselves. But that 1 person who is so firmly entrenched in getting that paper in the mail will spring for it.

 

It's easier and less wasteful to print what you need at home and simply view the rest on the screen.

 

 

 

 

SIDEBAR:

I had this conversation about light bulbs once. When you make it easier to do the right thing, you have *some* super-resistors at first who are going to protest how you are ruining their lives, then you have fewer and fewer people because you actually made it easier for them to do what you wanted them to do (hopefully for at least semi-altruistic reasons) than to oppose you.

 

About 10-12 years ago they announced the phase-out of incandescent light bulbs. PROTEST PROTEST PROTEST!!!

 

"Oh noes! We're all going to die!!! It's my right from GOD AND THE CONSTITUTION OF MURIKA to have incandescent bulbs!!!! I will die!!! I need to see in the pale yellow glow of a super hot bulb that wastes 97.4% of their energy on heat!!!!! I need them to live!!! GIVE ME MY BULBS!!! You can take them from my cold, dead hands!!"

 

There were people hoarding them. They were going to make millions on the black market after they weren't sold in stores! (I know a guy who has hundreds of bulbs he doesn't even use himself anymore, but he NEEDED them and has tried unsuccessfully to dump them on fellow hoarders several times)

 

The industry responded by first making CFLS (the mercury aspect isn't cool) and now LED bulbs that give off a full range of rich colors in a much more efficient use of energy. Bulb prices have dropped. Bulbs last years or decades instead of weeks or months. They do super cool things like change colors and cost you a fraction of old bulbs.

 

We have LED bulbs throughout the house (a few CFLs) it's remarkable how much cooler rooms are and how exact you can work it. You can get different lumens and different warmth levels that are light years ahead of the old 35W, 45W 60W 100W in soft white or bright white.

Edited February 26, 2016 by poncho1973

[Desert Cruizers]

If you print out your E docs it won't cost you a thing and you still can print your Luggage Tags, there is no need to spend $35. If you chose to spend the $35, then you would get some 26 pages of E docs and 4 luggage tags. Why not print out the Tags when they are ready at no cost to you. the only reason one would print out even the E docs is to print our Transfers and even then your only printing out the necessary pages, not all 26.

Edited February 26, 2016 by Desert Cruizers

[Robinhill]

My DH and I are scheduled for Grandeur of the Seas on March 20. We are Diamond members on Royal and the equivalent on Celebrity. We had not received our luggage tags yet so I called Crown and Anchor today. Was told it now costs $35.00 for luggage tags. We knew we could print them off or get ones at the dock. You can also buy cheap clear plastic tag holders on line. On our last Celebrity cruise, we got the nice tags in the mail so we were not aware this new cost! I asked to speak to the supervisor who gave me the same price. I was just shocked. New cruisers, dont spend the money. Not worth it!

Royal, shame on you as this is indicative of more penny pinching like the huge increase on alcoholic beverages on board with added 18% gratuity.

 

Just buy the clear ones from Cruise Critic. I have been using and reusing them for the past three years and they are great! The luggage tags you print will slide right in very easily. Enjoy your cruise- don't let this color it bad for you!

[champagne123]

In addition to Bob point out post #10, the price is basically set high to discourage.

 

 

If someone is willing to pay $35 for the document package/tags, they'll still send them out. They just don't want to send them out. I'd guess that means that 99.9999% of people will be like "Nah, I'll just print those out at home."

 

That is not a factual number, but it's likely that almost no one is going to pay $35 for paper they can print at home themselves. But that 1 person who is so firmly entrenched in getting that paper in the mail will spring for it.

 

It's easier and less wasteful to print what you need at home and simply view the rest on the screen.

 

 

 

 

SIDEBAR:

I had this conversation about light bulbs once. When you make it easier to do the right thing, you have *some* super-resistors at first who are going to protest how you are ruining their lives, then you have fewer and fewer people because you actually made it easier for them to do what you wanted them to do (hopefully for at least semi-altruistic reasons) than to oppose you.

 

About 10-12 years ago they announced the phase-out of incandescent light bulbs. PROTEST PROTEST PROTEST!!!

 

"Oh noes! We're all going to die!!! It's my right from GOD AND THE CONSTITUTION OF MURIKA to have incandescent bulbs!!!! I will die!!! I need to see in the pale yellow glow of a super hot bulb that wastes 97.4% of their energy on heat!!!!! I need them to live!!! GIVE ME MY BULBS!!! You can take them from my cold, dead hands!!"

 

There were people hoarding them. They were going to make millions on the black market after they weren't sold in stores! (I know a guy who has hundreds of bulbs he doesn't even use himself anymore, but he NEEDED them and has tried unsuccessfully to dump them on fellow hoarders several times)

 

The industry responded by first making CFLS (the mercury aspect isn't cool) and now LED bulbs that give off a full range of rich colors in a much more efficient use of energy. Bulb prices have dropped. Bulbs last years or decades instead of weeks or months. They do super cool things like change colors and cost you a fraction of old bulbs.

 

We have LED bulbs throughout the house (a few CFLs) it's remarkable how much cooler rooms are and how exact you can work it. You can get different lumens and different warmth levels that are light years ahead of the old 35W, 45W 60W 100W in soft white or bright white.

 

LOVED your post and it made me laugh. I think all of us old fogies, set in our ways, hate change. I am one of those people that panicked although I did not hoard the "old school" bulbs. Great analogy. We actually went out and purchased a printer when they stopped sending the paper work via mail. (took me forever to figure out how to use a printer....lol...lol....) :D:D:D:D:D

[cruisenfever]

Just buy the clear ones from Cruise Critic. I have been using and reusing them for the past three years and they are great! The luggage tags you print will slide right in very easily. Enjoy your cruise- don't let this color it bad for you!

Even though I am able to order our luggage tags, I still put them in the clean plastic holders that I bought from CC. I use these holders for both embarkation and debarkation.

[Clarea]

... The industry responded by first making CFLS (the mercury aspect isn't cool) and now LED bulbs that give off a full range of rich colors in a much more efficient use of energy. Bulb prices have dropped. Bulbs last years or decades instead of weeks or months. They do super cool things like change colors and cost you a fraction of old bulbs....

I love the analogy, and am a big user of LED bulbs. However, did you mean to say that they cost a fraction of the energy of of old bulbs. Or maybe you are amortizing the cost over the much longer lifetime.

[davekathy]

I didn't know any mass market cruise line still

mailed luggage tags free.

 

Celebrity still does. Called the Captains Club desk and ordered them. The online system for ordering them doesn't work. Imagine that! Received mine the other day.

Edited February 26, 2016 by davekathy

[Keith1010]

Many lines no longer mail them.

 

Keith

[Thetrail]

My DH and I are scheduled for Grandeur of the Seas on March 20. We are Diamond members on Royal and the equivalent on Celebrity. We had not received our luggage tags yet so I called Crown and Anchor today. Was told it now costs $35.00 for luggage tags. We knew we could print them off or get ones at the dock. You can also buy cheap clear plastic tag holders on line. On our last Celebrity cruise, we got the nice tags in the mail so we were not aware this new cost! I asked to speak to the supervisor who gave me the same price. I was just shocked. New cruisers, dont spend the money. Not worth it!

Royal, shame on you as this is indicative of more penny pinching like the huge increase on alcoholic beverages on board with added 18% gratuity.

This is such old news, not an issue at all, you print them at home or have the porter do it, relax don't over stress yourself over something so foolish......:rolleyes::rolleyes:

[Thetrail]

I know they are not free but $35 is ridiculous for 2 sheets of paper with some glue. No wonder why they do whatever they want to do with us since we just take everything without an issue

Ranting and raving I see.....:rolleyes::rolleyes:

[Langley Cruisers]

When you fly, you use your phone screen or print your boarding pass at home.

 

Take a screen shot of it and you don't even have to turn on your data or wifi.

 

Celebrity does.

 

Yes, we think that might be why OP is upset - s/he usually cruises with Celebrity.

.

[mcatmcat]

That´s because this is not an issue! What issue should we take here?

 

 

 

You can Chose to get paper docs mailed to you for $35 or get edocs for free.

 

 

 

As they still have a way to get your luggage tagged for free at the port, I don´t see what the issue is.

 

 

The issue is that it was free by mail before they decided to charge 35$ for it. I get my insurance declaration every 6 months with more pages and is free. For some reason Royal decided to stop sending their documents for free and charge $35 for it. I still can figure out how 10 pages and 2 for luggage a tag plus envelop and stamp for regular mail cost 36$.

[tserface]

I think that's the point. They are hoping that the price is so high no one will want to do it, which is probably true most of the time.

 

Tom

 

The issue is that it was free by mail before they decided to charge 35$ for it. I get my insurance declaration every 6 months with more pages and is free. For some reason Royal decided to stop sending their documents for free and charge $35 for it. I still can figure out how 10 pages and 2 for luggage a tag plus envelop and stamp for regular mail cost 36$.

[goneclear]

The issue is that it was free by mail before they decided to charge 35$ for it. I get my insurance declaration every 6 months with more pages and is free. For some reason Royal decided to stop sending their documents for free and charge $35 for it. I still can figure out how 10 pages and 2 for luggage a tag plus envelop and stamp for regular mail cost 36$.

 

I guess it was part of Royals cost cutting exercise that stated a few years ago. There are printing cost and stuffing envelopes etc to be added to the cost you mention but agree still not $35 worth. I guess the fee is more of a deterrence.

When it comes to your insurance, believe me you are either paying or have paid for the documents to be delivered to you somewhere along the road. Insurance and free are never used in the same sentence :)

[Ocean Boy]

I probably wasnt very clear. As I stated, we know we can print them off or get ones at the dock. And as you can see by my signature, we havent sailed with Royal lately have been sailing with Celebrity, her sister line. My point was that $35 for luggage tags is crazy under any circumstance.

 

But at least RCI hasn't added 18% gratuity onto the cost of the tags....yet.

[mek]

We used to really enjoy get our doc packet in the mail. We used to do the "Doc Dance" when we got the package. That's one of the joys they took away... kind of like the joy we got with handing out the tips on the last day of the cruise.

 

We also miss the midnight buffet even though we never ate much that late (we took a lot of pictures). I'm sure they wasted a lot of food.

 

I guess it wasn't such a big deal to us since we weren't willing to pay the $35 for the package, but we still miss it. I'm pretty sure it doesn't cost RCI $35 to create that booklet. We're over it. Now we do the "eDoc Dance".

 

For the tip thing we just decided we could still hand out tips at the end of the cruise if we want and we just consider the pre-tips another fee on the cruise.

 

I guess the good part to this is not mailing all that paper does help the ecology a bit. I'm not sure that's the reason they stopped doing it, but.

 

The tag holders from Amazon work really well. We have some for RCi and another set for Princess and we can reuse them for every cruise.

 

Tom

 

Like most of us, I used to enjoy getting the docs in the mail, so now I just have my own ritual. I have my own folder that I put my docs in and then I go to Kinkos and laminate the bag tags. it only costs a few $'s and when I do it, I know my cruise is right around the corner.

[Clarea]

But at least RCI hasn't added 18% gratuity onto the cost of the tags....yet.

Here's someone who always sees the positive in things.:)

[bobmacliberty]

Bulbs last years or decades instead of weeks or months. They do super cool things like change colors and cost you a fraction of old bulbs.

 

We have LED bulbs throughout the house (a few CFLs) it's remarkable how much cooler rooms are and how exact you can work it. You can get different lumens and different warmth levels that are light years ahead of the old 35W, 45W 60W 100W in soft white or bright white.

 

I'm mostly with you, but the prices and bulb formats aren't quite there yet. We have an open kitchen/family room area that has 17 recessed can fixtures that use PAR30 short neck halogen floods. I'd want to replace them all at the same time so that they all looked the same when turned on. That would cost me $350-400. I'll just keep buying replacement halogens for $6 each as long as my Lowe's still carries them. I wonder if we'll start using lumens rather than referring to equivalent incandescent wattage levels in my lifetime. :)

 

Back to the original thread of making fun of the OP... :D

[Paul65]

I think that's the point. They are hoping that the price is so high no one will want to do it, which is probably true most of the time.

 

Tom

 

Yep. People don't seem to be grasping that point that has been made several times in the thread now. It's not $35 because that's how much it costs them to print and mail it. It's $35 because they wanted to get out of the business of printing and mailing all that information, so they priced it high to discourage people from requesting it. If they charged $3, they still be dealing with printing out and mailing quite a large number, I suspect.

 

Don't know how many people still request it at the $35 price tag, but I suspect it is very few.

[ladytaekwondo]

Thank you for being so gracious and understanding about my ignorance. Our last few cruises have been with Celebrity and they indeed have sent us the luggage tags. It was fun to do the doc dance. I am sure Celebrity will follow soon with the same policy to save money. I was suprised about how some of you (not all) were very rude. I truly appreciate those who were polite and informative. Thank you!

[Clarea]

Thank you for being so gracious and understanding about my ignorance. Our last few cruises have been with Celebrity and they indeed have sent us the luggage tags. It was fun to do the doc dance. I am sure Celebrity will follow soon with the same policy to save money. I was suprised about how some of you (not all) were very rude. I truly appreciate those who were polite and informative. Thank you!

Don't take it personal. Many times you have to filter the helpful responses from the unhelpful.