Port put bags on wrong ship

[RuthlessBoss]

OK, The porter gets so many questions they may have completely misunderstood or misheard the question. They probably don't even glance at the tags and just toss them into one of the bins. I would bet no one looked at the tags until the ships crew started to take the bags to cabins.

 

Even if the porter answered incorrectly, the passengers got on the correct ship right? Seems you would then realize your bags were dropped at the wrong place. Once you knew they were boarding at a different terminal wouldn't you think to mention at check in, 'Hey, I dropped my bags with the guy at that ship, will they still be transferred to this one? Find out what the needed procedure is. Do you need to go reclaim them, will they send them over, etc. If you don't get an answer you feel sure of, get a supervisor involved.

 

We've sailed out of Miami and even on the first time it was easy to figure out where our ship was. No problem with signage and the ships all have great big letters on them with their name. Not sure you're at the right spot, drive around again to confirm.

 

When my luggage went on Princess (thanks to the bus driver) and we were on another, there was ship to ship communication immediately. We had no luggage to give the porter when we found our stuff was not in the bus carrying area under the bus. They could not stop the loading process due to the volume of luggage being loaded to hunt for ours. It wasn't till both ships were at sea before ours was found after all the rest were delivered on Princess.

 

So, once luggage makes it onto the wrong ship, it's not retrievable until after the cruise. Princess did deliver it to MSC when they got back, and they stored it till we disembarked and claimed it.

[edinboro cruiser]

Since we live just over an hour from the POM that is where we cruise from most of the time. Signage is fine. I've never had a problem finding my ship or the correct porters to give it too. I do make sure I give it to porters directly in front of the ship I'm going on. Not off to the sides but in the middle

[gtalum]

So what happened when they submitted their clothing purchase receipts to their travel insurance provider?

[Heather1972]

If you are standing in front of a ship and it's not your ship... then your bags shouldn't be given to the porters that are there. End of story.

[SUSIEK]

Very unfortunate situation. I do feel it is more the passengers responsibility if they were at the wrong area and did not confirm their location with the porter who took their bags. Especially if they found it to be confusing to begin with.

 

My common sense tells me to speak with the porter and be sure he knows what ship I am on. Over 50 cruises and I do it every time and have never had my bags get on the wrong ship.

[wanman]

So what happened when they submitted their clothing purchase receipts to their travel insurance provider?

 

I would bet they did not have Travel Insurance and that is why the are upset with Carnival.

[sid_9169]

If you are standing in front of a ship and it's not your ship... then your bags shouldn't be given to the porters that are there. End of story.

 

This is exactly what I was thinking... I have never handed my luggage off to the porters anyway... I carry everything on and off myself...

[gtalum]

I would bet they did not have Travel Insurance and that is why the are upset with Carnival.

 

I bet you're right. This is a good reason to have travel insurance, though. They will reimburse you for purchases up to some set amount to replace items in lost or delayed luggage.

[Sparky2]

When my luggage went on Princess (thanks to the bus driver) and we were on another, there was ship to ship communication immediately. We had no luggage to give the porter when we found our stuff was not in the bus carrying area under the bus. They could not stop the loading process due to the volume of luggage being loaded to hunt for ours. It wasn't till both ships were at sea before ours was found after all the rest were delivered on Princess.

 

So, once luggage makes it onto the wrong ship, it's not retrievable until after the cruise. Princess did deliver it to MSC when they got back, and they stored it till we disembarked and claimed it.

 

That's always our fear that the shuttle driver (from hotel) will take our luggage off when he drops others at terminals before the one we are at. My husband always double checks to make sure our luggage is still on the shuttle. Usually, the shuttle driver packs the luggage according to first off, etc.

[Mary Ellen1]

When my luggage went on Princess (thanks to the bus driver) and we were on another, there was ship to ship communication immediately. We had no luggage to give the porter when we found our stuff was not in the bus carrying area under the bus. They could not stop the loading process due to the volume of luggage being loaded to hunt for ours. It wasn't till both ships were at sea before ours was found after all the rest were delivered on Princess.

 

So, once luggage makes it onto the wrong ship, it's not retrievable until after the cruise. Princess did deliver it to MSC when they got back, and they stored it till we disembarked and claimed it.

 

Something similar happened to us once, but we managed to get the luggage back before sailing. We were on one of those hotel/cruise-ship shuttle vans -- the kind that tow a small luggage trailer behind them. Well, we got to our ship and BIL's luggage was missing. The van driver took him back to the 3 previous ships where we'd let off passengers. Luckily they found it at ship #2 -- a Holland America ship -- where it had been set off to the side because it was carrying Carnival luggage tags. Thank God one of the porters noticed it before they loaded it on the Holland ship! Disaster avoided. :D (But if it had mistakenly been dropped off at another Carnival ship, it probably would have been loaded on the ship :eek:)

 

Moral of the story: if you're on one of those shuttle-vans (or buses) try to keep an eye on the luggage they're dropping off at other ships. But of course you're screwed if you're sitting on the wrong side of the bus... :eek:

 

I had another close call at an airport one time -- I watched the check-in agent absentmindedly put the WRONG AIRPORT tag on my bag. She was having a great time chatting with her colleagues... :rolleyes: Not paying attention. I watched in horror as my mislabeled bag (Houston! Not Atlanta.) went down the conveyor belt and I started saying "Grab that bag. Grab that bag! Somebody please grab that bag!!!" TOO LATE! My bag disappeared down the conveyor belt. Ugh. Thank God they managed to retrieve it, but they had to get on radios to talk to the baggage handlers, describe my bag, and wait for somebody to bring it back to the luggage counter about 20 minutes later. Ugh.

 

Moral of the story: make sure you look at the luggage tags they're putting on your bag.

[Davey Wavey]

Finally, the Baggage Handler is an agent for Carnival. The Baggage Handler may not be directly employed by Carnival, but they are indirectly employed by Carnival. I don't care how many companies removed the Baggage Handler is from Carnival. Carnival could contract with Ports-R-Us -> Port of Miami -> Docks-R-Us-Management-Company -> Bags-R-Us -> Employment-Agency -> Temp-Agency -> Long-Shoreman-Union ... Carnival is contracting with the Port for the dock and services. The services being provided to Carnival's Customers is thus an Agent of Carnival. Carnival has to hold those service providers to a certain level of expectations. Carnival is the only one who can demand that the Agents perform at a minimal level. If it is not part of the Baggage Handler's job description to know which ship he is loading, it should be. Maybe the guy who is pushing around the cart could care less, but the guys who interact with the passengers should know.

 

Port of Miami is a government entity that charges a fee. Your logic suggests that U.S. passport employees are MY agents because I pay a fee for a passport, or the TSA employees at the airport are agents of Delta or Southwest and the airline is responsible if TSA pats someone down the wrong way or gives incorrect instructions. Carnival has no more say or control over those employees than I do over the BMV employee that takes too long to renew my drivers license.

[Donray]

A lot of responses presumes the passenger knows what to do. When you are a first time traveler, you have no idea what to expect. I was a first time traveler last week, I drove myself to the dock, and it never occurred to me to look up at the ship for its name. I was looking all around the terminal itself, and saw nothing. The signage may be a lot better coming out of the tunnel, but when we drove, we came across the bridge and never went through a tunnel.

 

Also, the table mates DID ASK THE BAGGAGE HANDLER IF THEY WERE DROPPING THE BAGS AT THE RIGHT SHIP. The handler confirmed they were at the right dock and took their bags. The handler did NOT LOOK AT THE CARNIVAL TAG to confirm that the bags were tagged for the correct ship. IMHO, the baggage handler was 100% at fault. The Passenger did not blindly leave the bags, but made an affirmative inquiry. The Baggage Handler did not provide the correct information that should have been known by the Baggage Handler.

 

For those who think bombs are easy to detect: you don't need electronics and dense explosives for a WMD.

 

I do agree that when they arrived at the dock for check-in, and realized they dropped bags at the wrong dock, they should have notified the check-in person right away. However, consider this: Due to delays, it took them more than 1 hour from when they dropped their bags to when they arrived for check-in. Good luck in trying to find the bags at that point.

 

Finally, the Baggage Handler is an agent for Carnival. The Baggage Handler may not be directly employed by Carnival, but they are indirectly employed by Carnival. I don't care how many companies removed the Baggage Handler is from Carnival. Carnival could contract with Ports-R-Us -> Port of Miami -> Docks-R-Us-Management-Company -> Bags-R-Us -> Employment-Agency -> Temp-Agency -> Long-Shoreman-Union ... Carnival is contracting with the Port for the dock and services. The services being provided to Carnival's Customers is thus an Agent of Carnival. Carnival has to hold those service providers to a certain level of expectations. Carnival is the only one who can demand that the Agents perform at a minimal level. If it is not part of the Baggage Handler's job description to know which ship he is loading, it should be. Maybe the guy who is pushing around the cart could care less, but the guys who interact with the passengers should know.

 

Did you ever think that the person telling you this tail is not telling the whole truth???

 

They could be exaggerating on what they asked and what they heard.

[simplelife]

Sounds like Carnival was more than accommodating in a situation that was not even their fault.

[cherbear4000]

I have to say, I have sailed out of Miami numerous times and I have never had any problem figuring out what terminal my ship was at. I really don't blame the porter. Sure, he could have been more observant, but all of the Carnival tags look alike and there are thousands of pieces of luggage. I can't understand why these people didn't say anything to anyone before sailing once they realized they dropped their luggage off at a different terminal.

 

Once when we were sailing out of Port Canaveral, my sister's luggage was nowhere to be found at Orlando's airport. She waited in Orlando as long as she could for them to track down her luggage, but ended up having to get on the last shuttle to Canaveral so she didn't miss the ship. It turns out her suitcase got put with the Disney cruise luggage at the airport and made its way on board one of the Disney ships. I guess Disney must have a program that takes your luggage directly from the airport to the ship. Luckily for her, a Disney worker noticed the Carnival tags. Disney actually called her cell while she was on the shuttle to let her know they had her suitcase and would deliver it to her Carnival ship for her. Sure enough, her suitcase was delivered to her cabin embarkation night.

[cdnmr]

wow...what a heartless bunch.

Of course it's passenger's responsibility to drop off int he right area BUT...

 

I could easily see a 1st timer, maybe not familiar with the port area, maybe cab driver drops them off nearer the wrong ship....etc...etc.

 

Most of us would never make the same mistake but to say the Porter shouldn't be assisting people by at least confirming the ship listed on the luggage tag is a bit much.

[loxley]

wow...what a heartless bunch.

Of course it's passenger's responsibility to drop off int he right area BUT...

 

I could easily see a 1st timer, maybe not familiar with the port area, maybe cab driver drops them off nearer the wrong ship....etc...etc.

 

Most of us would never make the same mistake but to say the Porter shouldn't be assisting people by at least confirming the ship listed on the luggage tag is a bit much.

Number one, who said they were first timers?

 

Number two, there is only the word of the people making the mistake that they actually said anything.

 

Embark day is hectic and they do not have people holding people's hands.

 

The fact this is not a common occurrence says most people get it figured out.

 

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

[Boozebabe]

If you are standing in front of a ship and it's not your ship... then your bags shouldn't be given to the porters that are there. End of story.

 

OK so we just cruised on the Glory 2 weeks ago. I have cruised out of Miami about 12 of my 19 cruises. The sign for the Glory was about 5 ft long and only about 2 feet off the ground. That sign was right next to where people on the Breeze drop their luggage. I totally see their confusion. I wasn't even sure where to take our luggage and I've been there a dozen times. It took us a few minutes to figure it out. I can 100% see how they dropped their luggage at the wrong spot, then went to drop their car somewhere other than the port lot. Obviously the cab or shuttle driver knew EXACTLY where to take them.

 

That being said I think they should have done everything possible to rectify the mistake. Of course we are getting the story 3rd hand so we don't know exactly what was done. The OP was only chatting with someone and got the story. It didn't happen to her first hand.

 

I know I will really be much more careful myself from now on too.

[Bobby_Mac]

The best sign at the port is the one on the side of the ship that is docked by the building were we drop our bags.

Edited March 9, 2016 by Bobby_Mac