Is Luggage Direct FLL available following a TA crossing?

[cruisinsince75]

We have booked a TA crossing FCO to FLL and will be flying home on American.  Is luggage direct service available?  We are both mobility challenged and use scooters and this would be a huge benefit for us.  

[Gigi1977]

Sadly it has not been available after our TA’s on Rotterdam for the last few years.   I thought it might be because of customs but it was not available in FLL even when we went through customs in NYC first.   We were really hoping it would be as we love luggage direct and use it whenever available!  

[BaltimoreCruise]

The service was not available at Port Everglades after our October transatlantic on the Rotterdam.

[OlsSalt]

Been looking a the commercial luggage handling services myself, and found FedEx might be able to handle this, and it is cheaper than Luggage Forward which is the other major luggage handler others have used. 

 

(Not just the complimentary Port Valet that some ports offer- free from the ship to the airport.)

[Haljo1935]

@cruisinsince75 are you asking about Luggage Direct from FLL to your home airport or Luggage Forward to your house?

We use Luggage Direct from FLL to DFW every time our cruise ends there. Last time was Dec 2023 Nieuw Statendam (last month) on an FCO->FLL TA, flying American Airlines FLL to DFW. The process works flawlessly - we get the special luggage tags in our disembarkation packet, put bags in hallway by midnight like everyone else and don't touch them again until we grab them from the (extremely slow) baggage claim at DFW.

I have not used Luggage Forward, so cannot comment on it.

 

 

[Fitzroy 4]

I use Luggage Forward  home to ship  ship to home last 3 cruises Viking Alaska to Oregon Holland Konigsdam Italy. 

[cruisinsince75]

15 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

@cruisinsince75 are you asking about Luggage Direct from FLL to your home airport or Luggage Forward to your house?

We use Luggage Direct from FLL to DFW every time our cruise ends there. Last time was Dec 2023 Nieuw Statendam (last month) on an FCO->FLL TA, flying American Airlines FLL to DFW. The process works flawlessly - we get the special luggage tags in our disembarkation packet, put bags in hallway by midnight like everyone else and don't touch them again until we grab them from the (extremely slow) baggage claim at DFW.

I have not used Luggage Forward, so cannot comment on it.

 

 

Yes, Luggage Direct.  I thought I remembered you posting about it on your Live From NS Rome to FLL thread.  Thanks for confirming.

[Haljo1935]

12 hours ago, cruisinsince75 said:

Yes, Luggage Direct.  I thought I remembered you posting about it on your Live From NS Rome to FLL thread.  Thanks for confirming.

👍yes, I did and thanks for remembering my Live. Even though I never got the final pictures posted.

It was a great cruise, we enjoyed the architecturally rich ports.

I hope you enjoy your trip.  

[pmjnh]

Luggage Direct was not an option on the Oosterdam TA in November. I believe that it is available only on the "regulars" as far as ships coming in and out of FLL...ie Panama Canal, Caribbean sailings, etc.

Edited February 2 by pmjnh

[AKJonesy]

@Haljo1935 I never used Luggage Direct but getting to that point of not wanting to lug it around anymore.  Can you provide an url on finding information and cost?  

[Fitzroy 4]

Luggage Forward website do the booking it will help. Just booked 2 medium bags 50 pds around 900 $ round trip home to ship and home again

[DCThunder]

3 hours ago, pmjnh said:

Luggage Direct was not an option on the Oosterdam TA in November. I believe that it is available only on the "regulars" as far as ships coming in and out of FLL...ie Panama Canal, Caribbean sailings, etc.

I'm doing the Amazon River cruise RT from FLL (actually we leave from Miami, but return to Port Everglades) in two weeks on Zaandam.  I hope that we will have the Luggage Direct service for our American flight from FLL.  I don't know if Zaandam counts as a "regular" since it's often out on the wild blue sea.

[Haljo1935]

1 hour ago, AKJonesy said:

@Haljo1935 I never used Luggage Direct but getting to that point of not wanting to lug it around anymore.  Can you provide an url on finding information and cost?  

Here's the HAL link for the program: https://www.maketraveleasier.com/holland/order

I sign up for it on the ship using the form that's sent to the cabin; those are the pictures I posted. Happy to send again if you want them.

There's also a Seattle specific site, but the link didn't post. I'll grab it again and it separately. 

[Haljo1935]

1 hour ago, AKJonesy said:

@Haljo1935 I never used Luggage Direct but getting to that point of not wanting to lug it around anymore.  Can you provide an url on finding information and cost?  

Here's the Seattle specific link: https://www.portseattle.org/page/port-valet-enjoy-seattle-luggage-free

 

[Haljo1935]

3 hours ago, pmjnh said:

Luggage Direct was not an option on the Oosterdam TA in November. I believe that it is available only on the "regulars" as far as ships coming in and out of FLL...ie Panama Canal, Caribbean sailings, etc.

We used it Dec on New Statendam for Rome->FLL TA. It's great having over limit fees waived, allowed us to really stock up on the great wine while in Italy and Spain. Seriously, my suitcase weighed 90#. Did you fly a participating airline?

[DCThunder]

7 minutes ago, Haljo1935 said:

Here's the HAL link for the program: https://www.maketraveleasier.com/holland/order

I sign up for it on the ship using the form that's sent to the cabin; those are the pictures I posted. Happy to send again if you want them.

There's also a Seattle specific site, but the link didn't post. I'll grab it again and it separately. 

I tried to follow the links in that website and they seem to be very glitchy.

[Haljo1935]

3 minutes ago, DCThunder said:

I tried to follow the links in that website and they seem to be very glitchy.

Here's where I landed just now when I clicked the link from your quote. That was using chrome.

Edit: just reread your post. You're saying the links in the site...

Edited February 2 by Haljo1935
Additional comment

[DCThunder]

Yes, I got there, but then when I created an account and put in my information for the Zaandam cruise, I got a message from the site: "Can't find schedule for specified parameters".  I was using the Brave browser.  On MS Edge, I couldn't even get that far.

 

Oh well, I'll be talking to them on the ship about luggage direct.

[Fitzroy 4]

Luggage Forward 

[Haljo1935]

7 minutes ago, DCThunder said:

Yes, I got there, but then when I created an account and put in my information for the Zaandam cruise, I got a message from the site: "Can't find schedule for specified parameters".  I was using the Brave browser.  On MS Edge, I couldn't even get that far.

 

Oh well, I'll be talking to them on the ship about luggage direct.

+ @AKJonesy @pmjnh here are the Luggage Direct forms from Dec NS Rome->FLL.

 

 

 

 

[pmjnh]

39 minutes ago, Haljo1935 said:

We used it Dec on New Statendam for Rome->FLL TA. It's great having over limit fees waived, allowed us to really stock up on the great wine while in Italy and Spain. Seriously, my suitcase weighed 90#. Did you fly a participating airline?

Ohh, interesting. We were flying SWA. Guest services said that luggage direct was not available for that sailing. There were a lot of disappointed people.

[Haljo1935]

Just now, pmjnh said:

Ohh, interesting. We were flying SWA. Guest services said that luggage direct was not available for that sailing. There were a lot of disappointed people.

I imagine - you see SWA is clearly listed as a participating airline for FLL. Not Miami, though.

[pmjnh]

1 minute ago, Haljo1935 said:

I imagine - you see SWA is clearly listed as a participating airline for FLL. Not Miami, though.

Yes..and we have used it before in FLL. I wonder if the day of the week was a factor. We disembarked on a Wednesday. I love this service. It is so convenient and works like a charm.

[cruisinsince75]

Just to clear some confusion.  Luggage Direct is different from Luggage Forward.  Luggage Direct is from your stateroom to the airline direct and you collect your baggage at your home airport.  Luggage Forward is from your home to the ship or from your ship to your home.

 

[Haljo1935]

20 minutes ago, cruisinsince75 said:

Just to clear some confusion.  Luggage Direct is different from Luggage Forward.  Luggage Direct is from your stateroom to the airline direct and you collect your baggage at your home airport.  Luggage Forward is from your home to the ship or from your ship to your home.

 

Correct. And your original post asked about Luggage Direct. Then post #5 I asked to confirm if the question was pertaining to Luggage Direct and post #7 you confirmed it is. So I believe we're on the same page. 🤔