Luggage Forwarding

[papaflamingo]

We will be debarking Navigator in July in Southampton UK.  We plan to visit friends for about a week and need to send at least 2 suitcases home from the ship.  I know there are a number of luggage forwarding companies out there, does anyone have any experience and recommendations?  How does it work with pickup from the ship?  Do we simply leave them at the port with Regent, or do we need to wait until they're picked up?

Thanks for any input or advice. 

[Brownie54]

Currently Regent has a relationship with Luggage Forward. We haven’t used them yet, but we will for the WC 2023. You can find more information of this in the FAQ’s under Resources on the Regent website.

For the WC 2017, Regent used Luggage Free, and their system worked very well.

[Ladys Mom]

We used Luggage Forward for the ill-fated 2022 World Cruise.  We were in the group that cancelled and went home from SF.  Luggage Forward was very prompt in returning our luggage.  There was some damage on our luggage but it was not worth making an issue about.  We will definitely use them again on the 2024 WC.

[Brownie54]

Papa flamingo,

For the 2017WC, the luggage folks were waiting in Miami just outside Customs and Immigration to take our bags. Remember, a good chunk of the passengers were world cruisers, so most of us had luggage to pass off to them. We have not experienced passing off luggage when we alone were using a luggage service.

[Pcardad]

5 hours ago, Brownie54 said:

Currently Regent has a relationship with Luggage Forward. We haven’t used them yet, but we will for the WC 2023. You can find more information of this in the FAQ’s under Resources on the Regent website.

For the WC 2017, Regent used Luggage Free, and their system worked very well.

Both fine great companies. Regent recommends the one that bids highest for the recommendation (as per a Luggage Free supervisor).

[labonnevie]

There is a thread over on the Seabourn boards by sharkb8 about Luggage Forward that would give anyone pause. Have never used this service myself but did experience a one week ski trip to Colorado without my luggage. Not a fun way to go. 

[papaflamingo]

Thanks, all for the responses.

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

We used luggage forward for our ill fated March 2020 Splendor cruise. We had our luggage shipped to our hotel in San Diego, across the street from the pier. 
Since we never got to California from Florida, I phoned the hotel and luggage forward and arranged to have our luggage shipped home. 
No problems. I would definitely use them again. 
sheila

[Mahogany]

The thread on the Seabourn site about Luggage Forward explains what today's problems are, with DHL, Covid, etc. that may be more accurate now than pre-Covid.

[mungojerrie]

We have used Luggage Forward many times and have used them twice in the last six months, shipping our luggage to Silversea and to Regent. I saw nothing to make me feel that their service has degraded during covid.  I have read the account on the Seabourn thread, and it does sound like a nightmare but… not our experience. In fact, LF went out of their way for the Regent cruise. I had shipped our luggage on Dec 22^nd for the Jan 3^rd Explorer cruise. About a week after shipping, we started to get uneasy about going through with the cruise and ended up rescheduling. Luggage Forward provided excellent support and communication to us in locating our bag, intercepting it, and returning it to us. 

 

You asked about debarking, and that is the only area I wish were handled differently. But I suspect it would be the same process with any luggage service. Ideally, I’d just like to leave the luggage to Regent to forward on. But the protocol (at least for US and Canadian ports) has been to walk the luggage yourself through customs/border control and then meet up with a Luggage Forward rep outside for the transfer. It works smoothly most of the time, but we did have once in Vancouver where it was a total zoo and it took more than 30 minutes of back and forth calls to find each other.

[LvnCruisin]

Will be following this thread. What are experiences shipping to Europe and back? I don't mind taking it with us but would really like to just ship it back from Barcelona and not have to deal with it.