Forgotten luggage on Solstice

[neverlaysup]

9 hours ago, Fly and Sail said:

Considering these ships pretty much have identical routes why would it take 5 days to reconcile passengers with their baggage? This must have cost X a pretty penny.

 

As for those who say this has to do with tipping, please... An employee who'd do this once would create a habit to do it frequently to non-tippers and it wouldn't even take three incidents until the individual is found out and severely punished. You bet that the cruise line will thoroughly investigate how this could have happened.

I'm sure it was a simple mistake that ended up with the bags being properly loaded onto the ship. 

[SbbquilterUT]

When we last sailed from pier 91 in Seattle we saw folks go to the wrong line to turn in luggage - easy to do there as both ships load side by side.

[abbydancer2003]

I remember a while ago on some Alaska cruise a couple of guys at guest services who didn't get their luggage.  Turns out it was on the wrong ship.  Due to an itinerary change, I think they got it earlier than they thought.

[Ferry_Watcher]

All the cruise lines have their own very distinct luggage tags.  Before Covid, passengers on HAL and Princess sailing on the same day at Pier 91, passengers could drop off their own luggage in the luggage hall.  Standing at the front door, I could direct passengers to the correct side of the entrance just by eyeing the tags on their luggage.  (The same could be said for Celebrity and Royal on same day sailings).

All the luggage collected by the porters is brought to the security scanner (one for each ship and set up on either side of the secured luggage hall) and each bag is individually put through.  If the longshore workers saw a HAL bag among all the Princess bags, they would walk it over to the HAL side and drop it off with the other HAL bags.

 

Mistakes can be made, but once the bags are put on those luggage carts, there are additional people who look at the bags and can catch any mistakes. 

Generally speaking, I think the success rate is quite high for getting the right bags to the correct stateroom in a timely fashion.

[itsanita]

The Ovation OTS and Celebrity's Solstice are both at Pier 91 on Fridays, going and when returning.  It was a cluster.  I have never had such a chaotic experience at a port.   

 

And it is true about the luggage missing on our cruise that departed on July 15th.  We spoke with a lady that had a missing suitcase...found on the Ovation.   She had only one suitcase missing from their party of 5.   All the suitcases were together and properly tagged. 

 

It was returned to her at our first stop, as that was also the Ovations first port.   They gave her a 200.00 voucher to spend on the ship for clothes etc.  They also gave her a little gift box with toothpaste, brush, deodorant, t-shirt etc.   

[carolina_yankee]

I used to think missing luggage on a cruise ship was unthinkable (I could see it being messed up at the airport. Now I've read so many reports that I'm fairly certain we will take a carryon with a change of clothes and extra underwear, etc., just in case. While we could buy some items, plus-sized (even if not dramatically so) is a bit more of a challenge for pants and shorts (less so for tops) on ships and in shops at ports.

 

Are you allowed to bring on carry-on sized bags when embarking? I'm assuming they use the typical airport scanners for passengers? It sounds like rooms are available at boarding, at least for leaving bags there?  Would both of these ben correct assumptions?

 

 

[itsanita]

1 minute ago, carolina_yankee said:

I used to think missing luggage on a cruise ship was unthinkable (I could see it being messed up at the airport. Now I've read so many reports that I'm fairly certain we will take a carryon with a change of clothes and extra underwear, etc., just in case. While we could buy some items, plus-sized (even if not dramatically so) is a bit more of a challenge for pants and shorts (less so for tops) on ships and in shops at ports.

 

Are you allowed to bring on carry-on sized bags when embarking? I'm assuming they use the typical airport scanners for passengers? It sounds like rooms are available at boarding, at least for leaving bags there?  Would both of these ben correct assumptions?

 

 

Yes you can bring carry on bags when embarking.  And it depends on how early you are on ship as to if you can drop off in cabin.   Most of the time cabins are open and available after 1pm.   

[canderson]

6 minutes ago, itsanita said:

Yes you can bring carry on bags when embarking.  And it depends on how early you are on ship as to if you can drop off in cabin.   Most of the time cabins are open and available after 1pm.   

No matter how early we've boarded, we have always headed directly to our cabin and dropped our carry-ons in a cabin closet (keeps them out of the way and out of sight) immediately upon boarding.  Then we stay out of the way (e.g. have lunch) until the crew is done.

 

One of the special treats of our "restart" cruise last year was having all cabins ready upon boarding, and being the first to sit our kiesters on our brand new furniture for a rest up before lunch ... like an inaugural cruise!

[bigbenboys]

My experience is on the E Class ships and Millie after boarding you go to your cabin/suite and pick up your seapass card. Drop off your carry-ons and go have lunch. This might be only E Class and ships that have been revolutionized. We will be on Solstice Sept 9th Seattle to Vancouver. We might do carry-on only.

Now I know why so many shorts on the 1st night in the MDR. Lost luggage at the pier, luggage sent to luggage jail or airline losing luggage. 😉

[itsanita]

Interesting, as last week the large 'water doors' that lead to the halls to the cabins were closed and locked as the crew were cleaning the rooms.  Unlocked only when done.   The bartenders just asked for room numbers when ordering drinks if you had the drink packages, as we did not have our sea passes yet.  

[canderson]

3 minutes ago, itsanita said:

Interesting, as last week the large 'water doors' that lead to the halls to the cabins were closed and locked as the crew were cleaning the rooms.  Unlocked only when done.   The bartenders just asked for room numbers when ordering drinks if you had the drink packages, as we did not have our sea passes yet.  

Any chance the prior cruise was particularly late arriving in port?  

[CMW5060]

56 minutes ago, itsanita said:

The Ovation OTS and Celebrity's Solstice are both at Pier 91 on Fridays, going and when returning.  It was a cluster.  I have never had such a chaotic experience at a port.   

 

And it is true about the luggage missing on our cruise that departed on July 15th.  We spoke with a lady that had a missing suitcase...found on the Ovation.   She had only one suitcase missing from their party of 5.   All the suitcases were together and properly tagged. 

 

It was returned to her at our first stop, as that was also the Ovations first port.   They gave her a 200.00 voucher to spend on the ship for clothes etc.  They also gave her a little gift box with toothpaste, brush, deodorant, t-shirt etc.   

We were on same cruise departing 7/15 and concur that it was a cluster at the pier. People in a rush to board, just dumping and running. I saw many people just attaching tags at last minute. I can see how things can get confusing.  Take a minute and confirm with porters you are on the Celebrity side before handing over … no need to rush at 11:30 am - the ship isn’t leaving without you! 

[itsanita]

9 minutes ago, CMW5060 said:

We were on same cruise departing 7/15 and concur that it was a cluster at the pier. People in a rush to board, just dumping and running. I saw many people just attaching tags at last minute. I can see how things can get confusing.  Take a minute and confirm with porters you are on the Celebrity side before handing over … no need to rush at 11:30 am - the ship isn’t leaving without you! 

Yes!   There were long lines of people waiting to fill out their luggage tags at the pier....made things even more congested.   I don't remember that happening when they used to just mail you your luggage tags.  

Maybe staggering the ships departure and arrival days would be helpful.  I'm sure Celebrity has thought of that...must be reasons that they are on the same day.  

[Ferry_Watcher]

1 hour ago, itsanita said:

Maybe staggering the ships departure and arrival days would be helpful.  I'm sure Celebrity has thought of that...must be reasons that they are on the same day.  

There are cruise ships at Pier 91 six days a week during the Alaska cruise season.

Mon (Quantum); Tues (Splendor) Wed/Thurs alternates (Spirit)

Double ship days on Friday (RCI & X)

Sat & Sun (HAL & PCL)

That's 9 ships over 6 days from Pier 91.

[itsanita]

2 minutes ago, Ferry_Watcher said:

There are cruise ships at Pier 91 six days a week during the Alaska cruise season.

Mon (Quantum); Tues (Splendor) Wed/Thurs alternates (Spirit)

Double ship days on Friday (RCI & X)

Sat & Sun (HAL & PCL)

That's 9 ships over 6 days from Pier 91.

Sounds a lot like the port of Fort Lauderdale!  Not sure if Seattle is in the same boat, but FL cruise port is way understaffed.   Can't find people to work.  

 

I think a lot of the confusion is that we all don't read all the emails and instructions that are sent to us.  And not sure that the staggered arrival times are working either.  A lot harder to get on a ship than it used to be pre covid. 

[Ferry_Watcher]

1 minute ago, itsanita said:

Not sure if Seattle is in the same boat, but FL cruise port is way understaffed.   Can't find people to work.  

 

I think a lot of the confusion is that we all don't read all the emails and instructions that are sent to us.  And not sure that the staggered arrival times are working either.  A lot harder to get on a ship than it used to be pre covid. 

So true my friend!