Which is best for you (Bags outside cabin last night OR self assist)?

[PTMary]

Several reasons:

 

- Keeping your bags in your room is safer. You're not subjecting them to the whims of any passing traveler who might have theft in mind. While theft isn't exactly common, it is quite possible.

 

Actually, there is a larger risk of hurting yourself trying to maneuver you luggage down crowded stairs or into equally crowded elevators than your luggage being tampered with.

 

- You will care for your luggage more gently than will the staff who will literally throw it down stairs /pack it into big canvas carts.

 

What cruise line do you travel on where the staff throws luggage "down stairs"? Maybe you need to cruise on better cruise lines!!!!!! Your luggage will be much more abused loading and unloading onto airplanes than on cruise ships.

 

- You won't have to leave at a specific time frame so that you and your luggage will "meet up" in the terminal at the same time, and you won't have to search for your luggage amongst a sea of black bags.

 

Or wait until the "got to get off first" crowd is finished with their stampede. Then you will have less luggage to look through - which isn't difficult anyway since yours will be in a designated area for people on your floor, etc., and not randomly placed anywhere in the retrieving area. And, here is a novel idea - buy luggage that is any color but black!!!

 

- With the advent of rolling suitcases, it's not exactly hard.

 

Yes, rolling the luggage isn't hard. What is hard is trying to avoid being knocked over by other self-disembarkers dragging theirs behind them. Some of the rudest people I ever encounter on a cruise are those who insist on pushing their way through the line towing their large suitcases that get in everybody else's way. Tripping on your suitcase is not fun for anyone who has to dodge your luggage trailing behind you.

Edited May 6, 2017 by PTMary

[Velvetwater]

And there are those of us who aren't paranoid that every possible thing that can happen to our luggage will happen. We have always left our luggage out the night before and have never had a problem. And this is over dozens of cruises AND organized land tours. We prefer to enjoy our vacation rather than worry about every little thing that could go wrong. But, that is just us with over 50 years of travel to over 40 countries all over the world, so what do we know? ;p

 

Its just takes one time for an opinion of security to change. Friends of ours have found this out.

 

Then theres us young mariners with a lot of strength that like piece of mind and a fun filled last day without packing probs. Maybe thats why weve speedily done over 40 countries in our 30 little years on this planet in various economic areas and forms.But yeah...what do us younguns know.

 

If people want to do bags out before the last day thats cool but there are so many cruisers that now don't (for varying reasons) and it shouldn't seem that strange. Carrying our bags everywhere is normal for us (especially as we love camping) so a big suitcase is no biggie. It also saves cruise ship staff stress as theres less bags to cart about on crazy turn around day.

 

Horses for courses.

Edited May 6, 2017 by Velvetwater

[slidergirl]

Is luggage handled differently on departure than what it is on embarkation? I know I saw some posting here on CC where luggage getting loaded ended up in the water due to loading mishaps. There was somewhere that they disembarked on a rainy day and got to the "pick up your stuff" area to find soaked bags.

 

Well, I'm over 60 and I've traveled enough to know what I can and can't handle. I can handle my 22" roller (up to 7 days or so) and my 24" roller (10+ days), depending on which one I want to take. I never take both. I will handle my own bag, thank you. I've always been pretty independent, so that independence carries on to any facets of my travels.

[easyboy]

Bags out at night for later flight. Don't want our last day to be stressful.

 

 

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[hapster85]

We've done it both ways. I'm personally fine doing walk-off, but it can be difficult on my wife with her rheumatoid. So we play it by ear.

 

The what-ifs do go through my head when put them out the night before. But there's really never anything irreplaceable in them, so I just shrug it off. Sure, it would be a hassle to have them go missing, but we'd manage.

[grapau27]

Several reasons:

 

- Keeping your bags in your room is safer. You're not subjecting them to the whims of any passing traveler who might have theft in mind. While theft isn't exactly common, it is quite possible.

 

- You will care for your luggage more gently than will the staff who will literally throw it down stairs /pack it into big canvas carts.

 

- You won't have to leave at a specific time frame so that you and your luggage will "meet up" in the terminal at the same time, and you won't have to search for your luggage amongst a sea of black bags.

 

- With the advent of rolling suitcases, it's not exactly hard.

Good answer.

[MrsPete]

Actually, there is a larger risk of hurting yourself trying to maneuver you luggage down crowded stairs or into equally crowded elevators than your luggage being tampered with.

I think you're reaching here.

What cruise line do you travel on where the staff throws luggage "down stairs"? Maybe you need to cruise on better cruise lines!!!!!! Your luggage will be much more abused loading and unloading onto airplanes than on cruise ships.

Well, we don't fly to cruise, but when we do fly we do carry-ons only. I do agree that airlines are not careful with luggage.

 

However, here's something we observed once: We always board early, and as we walked down the hallway we heard a LOUD thump, thump, thump ... a staff door was standing open, and we saw suitcases being tossed down the stairs ... they were literally just dropping suitcases down the stairs in a heap. We saw one of our suitcases, and we walked into the stairwell and took it. I doubt this was an isolated incident, and it was the last time we dropped off our luggage in the terminal.

Then you will have less luggage to look through - which isn't difficult anyway since yours will be in a designated area for people on your floor, etc., and not randomly placed anywhere in the retrieving area.

Our experience reuniting with our luggage has never been pleasant. It's always involved large numbers of people and loads of luggage and a search. Why bother when you can easily avoid the whole issue?

Yes, rolling the luggage isn't hard. What is hard is trying to avoid being knocked over by other self-disembarkers dragging theirs behind them. Some of the rudest people I ever encounter on a cruise are those who insist on pushing their way through the line towing their large suitcases that get in everybody else's way. Tripping on your suitcase is not fun for anyone who has to dodge your luggage trailing behind you.

This has not been our experience at all. Yes, we've waited in line, but I've not encountered people pushing and shoving with their suitcases.

 

I'll end with this: No matter how you handle it, Embarkation and Debarkation are not 'specially fun. Our plan to minimize the hassle is to pack lightly and manage our own luggage on both ends. If we eventually become too infirm to manage our own luggage, we will reassess our options, but that's far in the future.

Edited May 7, 2017 by MrsPete

[grapau27]

I think you're reaching here.

Well, we don't fly to cruise, but when we do fly we do carry-ons only. I do agree that airlines are not careful with luggage.

 

However, here's something we observed once: We always board early, and as we walked down the hallway we heard a LOUD thump, thump, thump ... a staff door was standing open, and we saw suitcases being tossed down the stairs ... they were literally just dropping suitcases down the stairs in a heap. We saw one of our suitcases, and we walked into the stairwell and took it. I doubt this was an isolated incident, and it was the last time we dropped off our luggage in the terminal.

Our experience reuniting with our luggage has never been pleasant. It's always involved large numbers of people and loads of luggage and a search. Why bother when you can easily avoid the whole issue?

This has not been our experience at all. Yes, we've waited in line, but I've not encountered people pushing and shoving with their suitcases.

 

I'll end with this: No matter how you handle it, Embarkation and Debarkation are not 'specially fun. Our plan to minimize the hassle is to pack lightly and manage our own luggage on both ends. If we eventually become too infirm to manage our own luggage, we will reassess our options, but that's far in the future.

We use cases that have 4 wheels and there are plenty of lifts so our cases are sealed in the cabin in the morning with everything in them so it is relatively easy for us to take our own luggage off the ship.

[iancal]

Completely self assist now. We completely migrated to carry on only when we retired. Not for everyone. Now that we are accustomed to this it has made our travels more enjoyable and more flexible.

 

We have never travelled with loads of shiny, expensive luggage. Too much of a draw for light fingered locals or crimes of convenience.

[luvs2beachit]

We do both, depends on the cruise. If we have our larger cases with us we put them out the night before. If we are just traveling with carry-ons than we do self-assist. We are usually not in a hurry to get off the ship so with either choice we can still take our time. For those who are worried about someone going into your suitcase after you put them out the night before just lock them. We use interlocking plastic ties. Neither suggestion is absolutely safe as both can be cut but so far it's worked for us.

[Velvetwater]

I just thought of another reason to do self assist.

 

Pulling heavy luggage about burns calories gained on the cruise. :D

[SantaFeFan]

I'll end with this: No matter how you handle it, Embarkation and Debarkation are not 'specially fun. .....

 

Agree with you here. That is why we simply place our luggage outside and let someone else deal with getting it off the ship. While people are trying to get off the ship early, we're relaxing in a lounge until "last call", and then we saunter down almost alone, easily find our suitcases because the majority of the others have already been picked up, and out we go into the real world.

 

We make a "not 'specially fun" time the least fun we possible can. Much more fun than dragging our luggage off the ship like steerage class arriving in a new country. ;p

[no1racefan1]

We've always done self assist and probably always will, unless something happens that makes us physically unable to do so. We each pack one small rolling suitcase and have one personal item, so it's not hard at all. We don't have to have everything packed the night before and figure out which things to keep out for the morning. Plus, we don't have to worry about repacking the stuff we kept out before we check our luggage.

We don't do it to get off the ship early though. Usually, we will get our stuff ready, go find somewhere to eat breakfast, and then go back to the room to grab our bags and leave the ship in a leisurely fashion. Never any rush or stress and never caught up in the mad morning rush.

The only time it was ever kind of a pain was our first cruise when we got back from Alaska, because they were delaying debarkation for some reason but it was after everybody had left their cabins, so we were all sitting around in a dining room waiting with our luggage. Meh, whatever. Still would rather self-assist.

Our most recent cruise, we strolled off the ship past the terminal with the dozens and dozens of bags where everybody was waiting to be 'released' to find their bags and it looked like pandemonium waiting to happen. We commented that we were very glad that we weren't part of that madness!

[herbanrenewal]

We all have reasons for one preference or the other, and we are correct in what is best for us. I wouldn't want anyone to tell me how to travel, as I wouldn't tell anyone else the "correct" way to handle luggage.

 

BTW I am a single carry-on and small personal item traveler no matter how long the trip. I need the same things for 6 days as for 6 weeks - I just need to plan for laundry facilities during the trip. I've had enough luggage delays and losses to want to handle my own luggage. As long as I am physically able I'll be doing my own thing.

...68 and going strong...

[grapau27]

We all have reasons for one preference or the other, and we are correct in what is best for us. I wouldn't want anyone to tell me how to travel, as I wouldn't tell anyone else the "correct" way to handle luggage.

 

BTW I am a single carry-on and small personal item traveler no matter how long the trip. I need the same things for 6 days as for 6 weeks - I just need to plan for laundry facilities during the trip. I've had enough luggage delays and losses to want to handle my own luggage. As long as I am physically able I'll be doing my own thing.

...68 and going strong...

We saw cases left outside of staterooms at 2 pm on departure day on Independence May 1st and they were still there at 9 pm.

[feathersandnananose]

We always did self-disembark, but it's a real pain...so many crowded, cranky people, standing forever in hallways, stairwells, etc. On my last cruise, I opted to put the luggage out and wait until the last minute. What a breeze! Relaxing, and - after the masses had left - not so many pieces of luggage to look through to find my own.

 

Three points - yeah, I DO obsess/worry about theft or people taking my bags by accident, but that's a reality not just on the ship, but on planes, and trains, and hotels, and whatever. I've had luggage go AWOL twice (but located within 24 hours), and it's stressful, but.... I'm willing to take the risk. (That's twice in 40 years of travel.)

 

Second, it pays to try to make your case look different for any mass pick-up situations.... and since mine are basic black, I got creative with red book repair tape (yeah, I'm a librarian who inherited lots of rolls of old-fashioned red repair tape! It's strong and sticky and oh-so-visible.)

 

Third - I vacate the room itself as early as I can - taking pity on the staff that have to do the cleaning / turn-over.

[Meamat]

We self-debark, it works fine for us and I personally feel more comfortable with it.

 

Both of my kids each have one wheelie bag and a backpack. Hubby and I have one or two cases each and I usually carry a purse. That's perfectly manageable and means our stuff doesn't leave our sight. Yes, I know nobody wants my dirty laundry, but if someone accidentally grabbed my snorkel gear and expensive prescription mask I'd be out hundreds of dollars. Plus I can pack at my leisure anytime before we need to leave, grab an extra layer of clothing if it's surprisingly cool in port, etc.

 

Yes, I know technically we've paid for that service and it's available to us if we need it, but for now we're young and healthy and can manage our own gear so we'll keep doing that until we need to change our routine.

[lenquixote66]

I surely don't want to start a 'feud'.:) Because up till out last cruise (March/2017) we've always done the 'self' thingee,. But this March we though, 'What the heck, we've got an extra day to get home, let's be wild and crazy and just leave the 2 bags outside the last night, keeping our important items-i.e. meds,paper work, passport, documents for ICE and toiletries with us in the carryon. And if debarking hadn't been pushed back an hour because of mechanical problems with the Port Auth Blg at Port Canaveral, I didn't see where it held us any longer than self assist. Of course we STILL had the long lines, both to get off the ship and passport but it seems like that's a fact of life regardless of which choice you take. Just wondering what the 'peanut gallery' choice and thoughts would be. :)

 

Mac

 

If you are physically able to take your own luggage ,do so.

[subtchr]

Until our last cruise, from San Juan in December, we always set our bags out, and never had issues other than having to search for bags in the terminal a few times. (Either their tags had come off or they were sorted incorrectly.)

 

But we had an 11:15 flight at the end of our latest cruise, so we decided to give self-disembarkation a try. Wow, it was so easy! We had breakfast in the Windjammer at 6, were in the line in the theater by 6:40, were off the ship and through customs by 7:10, and at the airport via taxi by 7:30. TSA Precheck had us at our gate by 7:40. Crazy!

 

A couple reasons why it is the right choice FOR US...

 

- We are naturally early risers, even on vacation. Getting up in time for a Windjammer breakfast before 7:00 is not an issue for us.

 

- We really enjoyed not having to pack and think about what we needed in our carryons the night before. Not a big deal, but being able to take a shower in the morning and have all our toiletries and everything else with us to throw into our checked bags was great.

 

- We are not particularly worried about what might happen to our bags if we set them out at night -- life is too short to worry about things like that -- but having total control of them through the process is reassuring nonetheless.

 

- Lines for passport control/customs were non-existent when we came through. That was never the case for our other cruises, when we disembarked in the middle of the crowd.

 

- Even on a longer cruise, we each have one rolling suitcase, and one backpack, and we are both perfectly capable of handling them.

 

Our flight from Newark after our next cruise isn't until 12:30, but we still plan to do self-assist just because it was so easy last time.

[h_blond2]

We always carry our luggage off with us. We usually have something planned to do after we get off the ship and then we have an 8 hour drive home, so we like to be off the ship as early as we can.

[TNcruising02]

I prefer self-assist when we have early flights because getting off of the ship is much quicker. One our next cruise our flight isn't until 4:00 pm, so I will take my time getting off of the ship. Given the choice, I would pick self-assist and an early flight home. The majority of the time, I can't fly direct so an early flight means I will eventually get home in the afternoon and not evening.

[MrsPete]

Agree with you here. That is why we simply place our luggage outside and let someone else deal with getting it off the ship. While people are trying to get off the ship early, we're relaxing in a lounge until "last call", and then we saunter down almost alone, easily find our suitcases because the majority of the others have already been picked up, and out we go into the real world.

 

We make a "not 'specially fun" time the least fun we possible can. Much more fun than dragging our luggage off the ship like steerage class arriving in a new country. ;p

So you're saying you choose the "not 'specially fun" choice of standing around in the terminal waiting for your luggage to show up /hoping someone else hasn't taken it.

 

Most people on this thread seem to be saying they opt for the "not 'specially fun" choice of rolling their luggage off the ship.

[SantaFeFan]

So you're saying you choose the "not 'specially fun" choice of standing around in the terminal waiting for your luggage to show up /hoping someone else hasn't taken it.

 

Most people on this thread seem to be saying they opt for the "not 'specially fun" choice of rolling their luggage off the ship.

 

If you had actually comprehended my post, you would have understood that we don't "stand around in the terminal waiting for our luggage to show up". We wait in the comfort of one of the lounges or by the pool until the last minute, and then find our bags AFTER the majority of them have already been picked up by their owners. We are looking at the few that remain, not the entire ship's worth.

 

We also don't have look-alike black luggage. Instead we deliberately choose luggage in colors or with bright patterns that aren't the norm, so the chances of someone else taking our luggage is extremely slim. And, we much prefer to let the crew deal with our heavy luggage as long as possible.

 

If you think that due to the number of comments on this thread from people who prefer lugging (is that why it's called "luggage"??? :D) their things off the ship that it indicates the majority actually do so in real life, just look at the hallways on the night before disembarkation. The vast majority of staterooms will have luggage sitting in the hallway. No the other way around.

 

This makes it a simple physics situation - if most of the staterooms have their luggage outside to be picked up, then there is no way that most of the passengers are carrying their own off the ship.

 

But, if you prefer to carry your own, good for you. If it makes you feel more in charge, then do it. For us, we have never worried about our luggage being accidentally taken. And we have been traveling several times per year for decades without incident. We aren't planning on becoming paranoid now.

[MrsPete]

If you had actually comprehended my post, you would have understood that we don't "stand around in the terminal waiting for our luggage to show up". We wait in the comfort of one of the lounges or by the pool until the last minute, and then find our bags AFTER the majority of them have already been picked up by their owners. We are looking at the few that remain, not the entire ship's worth.

 

We also don't have look-alike black luggage. Instead we deliberately choose luggage in colors or with bright patterns that aren't the norm, so the chances of someone else taking our luggage is extremely slim. And, we much prefer to let the crew deal with our heavy luggage as long as possible.

 

If you think that due to the number of comments on this thread from people who prefer lugging (is that why it's called "luggage"??? :D) their things off the ship that it indicates the majority actually do so in real life, just look at the hallways on the night before disembarkation. The vast majority of staterooms will have luggage sitting in the hallway. No the other way around.

 

This makes it a simple physics situation - if most of the staterooms have their luggage outside to be picked up, then there is no way that most of the passengers are carrying their own off the ship.

 

But, if you prefer to carry your own, good for you. If it makes you feel more in charge, then do it. For us, we have never worried about our luggage being accidentally taken. And we have been traveling several times per year for decades without incident. We aren't planning on becoming paranoid now.

Clearly you're defensive about your choice. Your issue, not mine.

[PTMary]

Clearly you're defensive about your choice. Your issue, not mine.

 

You have a problem with facts? You seem to be having a difficult time accepting that someone enjoys a different process than yours and isn't shy about explaining why. Tossing insults like "Clearly you're defensive" and "Your issue, not mine" barks of desperation to defend your own choice. :rolleyes:

 

Setting the luggage out and getting off the ship later seems a reasonable way to deal with luggage - wait until the crowds go first, and then simply walk up to the last few bags and there yours are. This is exactly what my family does. And it is completely stress free. This process works well for those of us who use it. This process needs no defending.