Celebrity Lost all my Luggage. Am I screwed?

[Arizona Wildcat]

6 minutes ago, osborne66 said:

The morale to the story and glad they found your bags always walk off with your own bags and never tag them and place them outside your state room. We learnt the hard way back in 2003 and have never tagged them since. We keep them in the room and leave on embarkation day at our time and leisure and never have to wait for bags in the hold area. See so many people hunting for bags and getting upset. Normally from the time we walk down the gangway we're gone within 10 to 15 mins from the terminal 

Agree.  Always walk off with your bags.  When flying go immediately to the baggage claim so nobody else can take your bag.

[WestLakeGirl]

Thats fine if you can manage your own bags but people who use canes or walkers or wheelchairs simply can’t

[osborne66]

41 minutes ago, WestLakeGirl said:

Thats fine if you can manage your own bags but people who use canes or walkers or wheelchairs simply can’t

Very true - on a 7 day cruise we just take backpacks so no luggage involved 

[chemmo]

7 hours ago, tallyho8 said:

Good news. Celebrity emailed us and said they found our luggage. Of course Hop on Hop Off says it is our fault for not picking it up at the airport but since we never booked HOHO we never knew where to look for it and besides we had an earlier flight. They want us to pay for the shipping from Canada to Louisiana which I will grudgingly do although it was celebrity's fault for giving us the wrong luggage tags.

 

They say it wil be two weeks before we get it so if there are any changes we will reply later.

Great news! Thanks for reporting back.

[hcat]

Glad they were found..Someone  at X really goofed by giving you those tags!.

I'd pay  the fare and get the bags home safely asap..then argue with X over reimbursement.

 

On our last few cruises we stopped doing walk off because it is a total  cluster....unless you are a suite guest. Our next cruise is only for 5 days and we are in a suite so we will walk off with our luggage and a small carry-on or maybe just take carry ons!

 

Will also look into the size bag we can carry on.. does anyone know?

.(X is  not so great distributing bags once you are on board,...dh has had to search for them a few times!)

 

The tags suggested by Jim,,sounds like a very good idea

[WestLakeGirl]

The luggage screener machine  for carryon is similar to what you see at an airport.  Full-size bags won’t fit

[mfs2k]

12 hours ago, WestLakeGirl said:

Always check that the luggage tag number you are given is the number you need!

How do you check this 

[WestLakeGirl]

They give out a sheet of instructions for the disembarkation procedures, what time the breakfast options are open, where to wait for your number to be called, how to close your account and so forth.  That sheet lists all the tag numbers and what they correspond to.  Some are for Celebrity transfers. Some are for excursions, some are for Celebrity transfers to hotels and so forth.  

[Mark_T]

34 minutes ago, WestLakeGirl said:

That sheet lists all the tag numbers and what they correspond to.  Some are for Celebrity transfers. Some are for excursions, some are for Celebrity transfers to hotels and so forth.  

Exactly, that is our final check that we have the right tags for the disembarkation option we selected.

 

Mistakes happen, but that sheet is a great way to verify.

[Fly and Sail]

On 7/1/2022 at 11:59 AM, abbydancer said:

I hope they find the luggage.  Here's a true story to give you hope.

 

Many years ago, my sister, her now thankfully ex husband and their small daughter went skiing in Utah for a week (they live in NY).  It was early March, and my sister being both brilliant and a dingy, didn't realized DST kicked in, and they missed their flight (ex wasn't a big believer in getting to the airport early.  They booked through SF to New York on United, but then changed to a nonstop on a different airline.  They made it but their luggage didn't.  The airline had no idea where it was, as they said they never had it.  My sister was distraught, not because of all the expensive skis, but because the baby Cabbage Patch Kid I'd given my niece when she was born and her stuffed animal (both of which she slept with) were in the luggage.  

 

Five days later, she goes into her building, and her doorman tells her a lot of stuff has arrived.  Turns out it was all the luggage.  Apparently United put it in their lost luggage place and eventually got it sorted out.  The toys never traveled again.

 

 

The luggage assignment and tracing systems of airlines have absolutely nothing in common with cruise lines. Airlines issue a personalized baggage tag with barcode and tag number that is rather difficult to rip off a bag (although it is possible). Airlines are also subject to the Montreal Convention when it comes to reimbursements for lost luggage.

 

Cruiselines have no such safeguards in place. If the flimsy little tag comes off or someone steals your bag then you're f'ed and there isn't even any proof you gave them a piece of baggage.

 

Put Air Tags in your bags but then you just have an idea where the bags are. Still gotta get them back which is a different matter entirely

[phoenix_dream]

11 hours ago, osborne66 said:

The morale to the story and glad they found your bags always walk off with your own bags and never tag them and place them outside your state room. We learnt the hard way back in 2003 and have never tagged them since. We keep them in the room and leave on embarkation day at our time and leisure and never have to wait for bags in the hold area. See so many people hunting for bags and getting upset. Normally from the time we walk down the gangway we're gone within 10 to 15 mins from the terminal 

And if everyone chose to do this just imagine the chaos of 2500+ people schlepping their luggage on elevators and trying to haul it to the customs area.  Not to mention many of Celebrity's passengers are seniors of rather significant age who would struggle mightily trying to do what you are suggesting, potentially hurting themselves and causing massive logjams of passengers.  (and I'm not picking on seniors - I am one myself - but facts are facts)

 

Years ago they used to require you to prove an early flight in order to walk off with luggage.  I sincerely wish they still did that as too many people just do it for their own convenience with no regard for others, and create great difficulty and stress for the people who truly need that early morning walk-off to catch a flight.  (my particular favorite is the Florida passengers getting off in FLL who just want to get home a few minutes earlier, and the heck with everyone else).  These days you don't always have options for flight times and on more than one occasion recently we've had the airlines change our flight times, sometimes later but sometimes earlier so we didn't have a choice but to rush to the airport.  

 

If nothing else, if you must walk off do as you indicate you do - take your time and wait until the frantic early flight people have time to disembark.  

[LGW59]

11 hours ago, WestLakeGirl said:

Thats fine if you can manage your own bags but people who use canes or walkers or wheelchairs simply can’t

One should acknowledge their limitations and plan accordingly 

[jelayne]

1 hour ago, LGW59 said:

One should acknowledge their limitations and plan accordingly 

I do, I use the service provided so as not to create a possible hazard to myself or others.  I can’t carry my bag down stairs or manage a suitcase on a escalator and I can’t pack for 3-6 weeks with a carry-on.
 

[PRH]

We were given luggage tags #13 which were in the number range for our disembarkation time.  But when we got to the terminal, there was NO #13 luggage area!  We asked several people where they were—turns out there were a number of us looking.  They finally found our luggage under a stairwell out of the way!  This took almost an hour to sort out—no excuse.  So, it isn’t always possible to cross check your luggage tags………

[Mark_T]

48 minutes ago, PRH said:

 So, it isn’t always possible to cross check your luggage tags………

That is a rather different problem though, failing to put out the bags for collection isn't the same issue as getting completely the wrong tag numbers for your requested disembarkation method.

[Kate-in-Canada]

Are you always allowed to disembark with your bags yourself and not put them out the night before?

[TeaBag]

18 minutes ago, Kate-in-Canada said:

Are you always allowed to disembark with your bags yourself and not put them out the night before?

Yes.  We are able bodied seniors and we get up really early on disembarkation day to get near the head of the line and off quickly so we don't hold anyone up.

 

[WestLakeGirl]

Assuming you can move all your luggage without help from Celebrity staff, so no mobility or strength impairments, aren’t on a post-cruise excursion or Celebrity airport or hotel transfer, yes, you can self-disembark

Edited July 3, 2022 by WestLakeGirl

[Kate-in-Canada]

4 hours ago, WestLakeGirl said:

Assuming you can move all your luggage without help from Celebrity staff, so no mobility or strength impairments, aren’t on a post-cruise excursion or Celebrity airport or hotel transfer, yes, you can self-disembark

Good to know.  I only pack what I can manage myself through airport, so I’m sure I can manage off the boat.  When I get off in Seward, I’m just hanging out for a few days, so no excursions or transfers or anything.   

[crusinthrough]

Glad your luggage was found.  I take pictures of my bags for identification purposes when I leave them outside the door.  I also have an Apple AirTag (https://www.apple.com/airtag/) in all my bags.  It''s not perfect but it's a great start if my bag goes missing.  The air tag works with iPhone and Android phones.  

[tallyho8]

Since my wife is handicapped and uses a scooter, I am unable to assist her and also carry off our own bags forcing me to place them outside my stateroom for pickup. I don't like doing this because twice in the past passengers picked up my plain black bag only to return it to the terminal to get their bag after we searched for ours for over an hour.

 

Since then, we have very distinctive colors and painted designs on our bags where no one can possibly mistake ours for theirs. We also have permanent name tags on the outside of bags plus a "return for reward" letter inside. We have photos of our luggage on our phones to show attendants who may have to look for them. The first photo on the memory card of our camera is of a sign with all our info and the offer of a reward for return of camera or even just the memory card with all our photos on it if they insist on keeping the camera.

 

We are very careful to fill out all forms with our correct Airline flight number and time and final destination and cell numbers.

 

Yes, there are many new employees on the ships right now and our stateroom attendant was so nice and helpful the whole trip that I do not want to press Celebrity to pay for shipping my bags for fear he might get in trouble over delivering the wrong bag tags. I will be more careful in the future double checking my bag numbers to insure they are not linked to special excursions.

 

You would think that after 50 something cruises that I would have all my ducks in a row when embarking or debarking but every now and then you run into a lame duck.....

Edited July 5, 2022 by tallyho8

[abbydancer2003]

Thanks to this thread, I just ordered air tags.  

 

In 2007, we couldn't find DH's bag.  We found it with a group's other bags.  It was black.  Never cruised with black bags again, and we now have distinctive suitcase locks on them.