Bringing own case onboard in Southampton

[grapau27]

Has anyone brought their own suitcase on board a P&O ship in Southampton and if so how big was your case?

 

 

[Tablelamp]

I have only bought a wheeled flight bag through security.  A larger one would not go through the scanner.  I have seen suit bags go through.  I normally leave my baggage with the P & O porters, well labelled with the cabin number and it turns up outside my cabin.

[majortom10]

The largest I have taken is a suit carrier and never seen anyone take a full size suitcase. P&O recommend, and is stated in their excursion brochures sent out that all suit carriers are carried onboard as hand luggage. The following taken from their website under FAQ-

Suit Carriers

We would suggest you carry your suit carrier to avoid any accidental damage during the loading process along conveyor belts where straps, handles or the bag itself may get caught and tear.

 

[wowzz]

Why would you want to haul your own suitcase with you? It's a long walk both to get to the ship, and then to get to your cabin.

[Blodwyn]

I only carry my handbag.

Why would anyone want to carry their luggage?

[Balernocalling]

I usually take small cabin sized case on with me which will then ensure that I have a fresh outfit for the evening just in case there is any delay with main luggage.

[grapau27]

23 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Why would you want to haul your own suitcase with you? It's a long walk both to get to the ship, and then to get to your cabin.

Our cases have 4 wheels so easy to move and we self disembark.

Last time on P&O our cases came after 6pm which was very inconvenient.

On RCI site lots of people claim to carry suitcases on board in other countries without problems.

Our cases are 20 inches wide 33 inches long and 11 inches high.

We are Mediterranean tier so used to the sitting around before the card is called to check in and have always left our cases with porter's in 50 cruises but would carry them on myself if I could hence why I started this thread to see if anyone else carried cases on board at Southampton.

 

[wowzz]

I think you were pretty unlucky that your suitcases were delivered so late. I haven't been on sufficient P&O cruises to know if this is normal (perhaps more regular cruisers will comment), but on our last cruise we had our cases by 15:00.

[the english lady]

Our cases usually make it to the cabin just after us. If you have a 33in case , that would have to be lifted by you to go through the scanner in security. Not sure it would fit through those scanners. Plus while everyone is trying to get to the buffet etc  in the lifts etc, you would be trying to wheel your large cases among them. The other major thing would be you cabin would probably not be ready when you boarded so you would be wheeling round you big cases for a while.

I just feel you had a bit of bad luck when your cases did not arrive shortly after you.

Put the big cases through the hole in the wall and take a small wheeled case on with you ,with maybe 1 change of clothing...but as stated I think you were just unlucky.

[grapau27]

3 minutes ago, the english lady said:

Our cases usually make it to the cabin just after us. If you have a 33in case , that would have to be lifted by you to go through the scanner in security. Not sure it would fit through those scanners. Plus while everyone is trying to get to the buffet etc  in the lifts etc, you would be trying to wheel your large cases among them. The other major thing would be you cabin would probably not be ready when you boarded so you would be wheeling round you big cases for a while.

I just feel you had a bit of bad luck when your cases did not arrive shortly after you.

Put the big cases through the hole in the wall and take a small wheeled case on with you ,with maybe 1 change of clothing...but as stated I think you were just unlucky.

Thanks for your reply and concern.

It was the width size of the scanners which I was worried about and why I was wondering if anyone had any experience with larger cases to see if it was worthwhile carrying our cases.

Fortunately I am used to lifting heavy weights so no problem lifting the case.

Graham

 

[galeforce9]

1 hour ago, the english lady said:

Our cases usually make it to the cabin just after us. If you have a 33in case , that would have to be lifted by you to go through the scanner in security. Not sure it would fit through those scanners. Plus while everyone is trying to get to the buffet etc  in the lifts etc, you would be trying to wheel your large cases among them. The other major thing would be you cabin would probably not be ready when you boarded so you would be wheeling round you big cases for a while.

I just feel you had a bit of bad luck when your cases did not arrive shortly after you.

Put the big cases through the hole in the wall and take a small wheeled case on with you ,with maybe 1 change of clothing...but as stated I think you were just unlucky.

And it may arrive minus a wheel like mine did last time, or minus the brand badge the time before...

[the english lady]

We have 2 wheel cases and I always think when we have to replace shall we go 4 wheel....but they stick out so much...we'll probably go with 2 again. Anther good reason not to put drink in those cases.  Seen them delicately throw them on the moving wotsit to get them on the ship...then squashed in the lifts...

[grapau27]

1 hour ago, the english lady said:

We have 2 wheel cases and I always think when we have to replace shall we go 4 wheel....but they stick out so much...we'll probably go with 2 again. Anther good reason not to put drink in those cases.  Seen them delicately throw them on the moving wotsit to get them on the ship...then squashed in the lifts...

We always use 4 wheel suitcases as they are so easy to push.

[grapau27]

1 hour ago, galeforce9 said:

And it may arrive minus a wheel like mine did last time, or minus the brand badge the time before...

We have had wheels damaged,straps missing and cases marked after leaving them with porter's and I have always given them £1 a bag tip too.

Edited August 10, 2019 by grapau27

[tartanexile81]

I don't find 4 wheel cases as easy to move around as 2-wheeled. Just saying

 

We send most of our cases wth the Baggage Handling Co and they're usually outside our cabin  when we go up as soon as we embark (priority embarkation). If we hand another bag over to the porters, it's usually there when we get back from lunch. Waiting till 6:00 p.m is exceptional and unlikely to happen again

[majortom10]

59 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

We have had wheels damaged,straps missing and cases marked after leaving them with porter's and I have always given them £1 a bag tip too.

Your suitcases might go through many pairs of hands after you have given them to a porter because all they do is take them to the hole in the wall and put them through there. They are then thrown. sorry loaded into cages and then fork lift puts them onto the ship. They then get unloaded and passed through many pairs of hands and chucked about so any damage might not be down to the porters who you gave them too and a tip at the terminal.

[grapau27]

14 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

Your suitcases might go through many pairs of hands after you have given them to a porter because all they do is take them to the hole in the wall and put them through there. They are then thrown. sorry loaded into cages and then fork lift puts them onto the ship. They then get unloaded and passed through many pairs of hands and chucked about so any damage might not be down to the porters who you gave them too and a tip at the terminal.

Yes that's true.

There was a long RCI thread on tipping porter's and what the Longshoreman get paid some supposedly $150,000 PA.

The chain of transporting cases to cabins was well documented and someone even witnessed 3 cases falling into the water and water pouring out of the cases when they were pulled out of the water.

This was another thread where people claim they carry their cases onboard and the catalyst to why I started this thread to see if many carried their own cases on in Southampton as we get on Ventura soon and have always just given our cases to the porter's.

Edited August 10, 2019 by grapau27

[majortom10]

40 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Yes that's true.

There was a long RCI thread on tipping porter's and what the Longshoreman get paid some supposedly $150,000 PA.

The chain of transporting cases to cabins was well documented and someone even witnessed 3 cases falling into the water and water pouring out of the cases when they were pulled out of the water.

This was another thread where people claim they carry their cases onboard and the catalyst to why I started this thread to see if many carried their own cases on in Southampton as we get on Ventura soon and have always just given our cases to the porter's.

There was an incident on the recent tv programmme regarding Princess cruises where a suitcase had fallen into "the drink" but wasnt Southampton so it does happen.

[Ataraxia]

I have taken a full size case through - the lock got caught on the car as we were unloading, and it had some expensive stuff in it. We cleared it with the staff who said that it had to fit through the x ray machine, which it did with ease.

 

[grapau27]

22 minutes ago, Ataraxia said:

I have taken a full size case through - the lock got caught on the car as we were unloading, and it had some expensive stuff in it. We cleared it with the staff who said that it had to fit through the x ray machine, which it did with ease.

 

Thank you I appreciate your post. 

Graham.

[Sarah1974]

Sorry I don't know if you can take your case on with you.

I sailed on Britannia in June and was given a boarding time of 3.30pm.  We got to Southampton by 2.30pm handed over our suitcases,, went in to the terminal to wait.  We were on board before 3.00pm and our cases were outside the cabin waiting for us.  I've never had that in all of my years cruising with RCI!!  I thought the service was great but maybe I was lucky

Edited August 12, 2019 by Sarah1974

[jh1809]

On one recent cruise, my case didn't arrive outside my cabin until after we had sailed, which was rather worrying. Reception assured me that it would eventually arrive, and thankfully it did. I wonder if they'd had a problem with the lift that they use for cases.

[AndyMichelle]

On 10 August 2019 at 8:15 PM, grapau27 said:

We have had wheels damaged,straps missing and cases marked after leaving them with porter's and I have always given them £1 a bag tip too.

See that's your problem Graham, £2 per bag would have got them there safely...😀

Andy 

[FangedRose]

4 hours ago, jh1809 said:

On one recent cruise, my case didn't arrive outside my cabin until after we had sailed, which was rather worrying. Reception assured me that it would eventually arrive, and thankfully it did. I wonder if they'd had a problem with the lift that they use for cases.

Had that happen a few times. 

[grapau27]

40 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

See that's your problem Graham, £2 per bag would have got them there safely...😀

Andy 

Nice one Andy.

Have you ever tried bringing your own cases on board?

Pauline gets stressed until ours turn up and several people on RCCL site said they always carried theirs on board.

We always carry ours off but in 50 cruises never carried them on ourselves as the porter's whisk them away usually while we are paying the taxi driver so I started this thread but only one poster so far has replied with a successful outcome.

Hope you are both well.

We get on Ventura next Friday.

Graham.