Lost Bags before Cruise

[Rudolph38]

One of my fears about cruising, even when flying a day early, is that the airline will lose our bags, and we will have to begin our cruise without changes of clothes and other stuff in the bags.

 

Just curious about whether or not any of you experienced this. What happened? What did you do about it? What was your cruise experience like?

 

Rudy

[kiawah75]

I had the actual experience when we cruised on the Eurodam at the beginning of November. US Airways lost my bag and could not deliver it until Day 4 of our cruise. The agent for US Airways lost baggage told me to go shopping and gave me forms to fill out and send back in with my receipts. We ran around (major hassle) trying to get what I absolutely needed and boarded the ship with a couple of hours to spare.The airlines will only reimburse a specific amount per day but luckily I had travel insurance and was completely reimbursed for all that I bought. There was a cap on that amount too so when we shopped, we went to discount clothing stores to try to do it as cheaply as possible.

 

My advice, if you are travelling with someone else, pack some clothes in their suitcase (and vice versa). HAL did give me a toiletry bag and kept me informed about the status of my bag. It did arrive (with everything intact) but I would not want to go through that hassle again. It put a bit of damper on the first day of the cruise but since there was nothing that I could do about it, did not let it ruin my vacation.

 

Bernadette

[lettienets]

For my cruise tomorrow I put 2 evening dresses (the more expensive ones), bathing suit, undies, pool cover up, sling backs, curling iron etc in my carryon and the small toiletries you are allowed in the ziploc bag. A few other things. I always worry too. I have the carryon and a small back pack as my purse to get on the plane.

[carolmacey]

Packing a couple outfits in each other's suitcase is always a good idea. I do the same with our carry-ons. If all our checked bags gets delayed, we still have a couple changes in the carry-ons.

As I am a plus-sized gal, I also put in one formal outfit as that would be hard to buy in a hurry.

[cmdchiefthom]

It happened to me in Tahiti. We got off the flight from LA in Papeete at around midnight, and waited and waited for our bags. After about an hour, the bags stopped coming out, and the airport started shutting down for the night. We found an Air Tahiti Nui rep, and she took our missing bag reports for our 4 suitcases, including one containing all our SCUBA equipment, and underwater video gear. We were scheduled to board the Tahitian Princess the following evening, with a 0400 departure the following morning. We booked an over water bungalow at the Intercontinental for our arrival night, with visions of spending a leisurely day in paradise, instead we spent the day from hell, without bathing suits, shorts, sandals, etc, etc, etc. The Air Tahiti Nui agent understood our plight, I should mention this was a New Year's cruise, we're from frigid Indiana, were still dressed in Indiana clothing, and it was in the region of 85 degrees in the un-air conditioned airport, and offered us 15,000.00 French Polynesian Francs, to get us some clothing, and toiletries until our luggage arrived, possibly the following night. It seems Tahiti isn't serviced each and every day from the good old USA, and the last flight for several days was the following evening at 2300 (11PM), five hours before the Tahitian Princess left the dock.

 

With 15,000.00 Francs in hand, we got the last taxi at the airport, and headed to our bungalow at the Intercontinental. The hotel was nice enough to provide us with toothpaste, brushes, etc, and we found some great terry robes in the room. We went out on our private deck, and went swimming (can you say who needs a suit):eek: After our swim, we headed to bed, and figured we'd sleep in, and in the morning, pick out some nice tropical clothing to wear from the shops at the hotel with that 15,000.00 we got from the airline.;)

 

The next morning, we went to the hotel clothing shop, and found that the exchange rate of CFP's to dollars was something like 100 to $1.00, or what we received from the airline was worth a little over $150.00, in a country where a Pina Colada was $16.00, without the take home glass!:rolleyes:

 

We finally decided to head to the ship around 1600, and at least try to enjoy our owner's suite, and check out the shopping in the downtown area near the port. I sort of wish someone told us the shops close promptly at 5.

 

The front desk onboard the T Princess were great, and assured us that if:eek: our luggage was on the plane that evening, they would make sure it got to my stateroom. However, if it wasn't, the soonest it could catch up with us was in Bora Bora, several days later.:eek:

 

That evening, with jet lag catching up to me, I went to bed, but had a rough night, waking up probably every thirty minutes and going to the cabin door to see if the luggage had been delivered. By 0300, with the hallway empty, I gave up on sleeping, and waited by the door for any noise coming from the passageway. By 0415, I could feel the movement, and could see from our balcony, us pulling away from the pier. Still nothing in the hallway! Finally, around 0445, there was a stir outside the door. As I slowly opened the door to peek, sure enough there was one of our suitcases. Eventually, over the next fifteen minutes or so, one by one the other three showed up.

 

I really don't know what we would have, or could have done about the bags if they hadn't arrived, but it would have been a real thrash spending a New Years cruise, not to mention our tenth wedding anniversary sans clothes.;)

[Barocl]

Our mishap took place in 2005. A back to back on the Ryndam over Christmas. We arrived at the San Diego pier, and handed our suitcases to the porters. Two couples, 4 suitcases all tagged Ryndam. Three suitcases when to the Ryndam and one suitcase to the Amsterdam, dock beside us.

 

We travelled to Mexico and my wife's suitcase had a holiday in Hawaii. HAL gave us $100 shipboard credit to buy some things. Not much in the gift shop of use. They also offered formal wear for my wife free of any charges. At our first port we contacted our insurance company and were authorized to make purchases, keeping in mind we had to show receipts upon our return home. Her bag was waiting for us when were had completed the first of our ten days cruise in San Diego. The remaining ten days were a breeze compared to the first ten without her suitcase.

 

So it doesn't matter if you are a day early or not, suitcases may be lost at the pier. Take care.

[donaldsc]

not to mention our tenth wedding anniversary sans clothes.;)

 

Actually, a 10th anniversary cruise w/o clothes might have been very interesting.

 

DON

[pipedreams62]

[Krazy Kruizers]

Even when we did land cruises many, many years ago in Europe, etc., I always packed half of my clothes in one suitcase and the other half in the other suitcase -- were only allowed 1 suitcase per person on bus tours -- I can tell you we did only 3 pre-arranged tours like that -- after that we traveled on our own and took more suitcases.

And to this day we take 4 suitcases and split all clothes between all 4 suitcases. That way if a case gets lost, we don't have to replace everything.

[eh2zed]

pipedreams62, is there a reason they are standing over a floor drain? Are they just finding out their luggage has been lost and are about to lose control of a bodily function??? Love your art collection!!!

[caltnl]

Brings to mind our Easter cruise from Ft Lauderdale to Los Angeles.

We arrived at the Ft. Lauderdale airport baggage claim and here came the luggage except for the hanging bag with our dress clothes for the cruise.

 

Finally the only thing left on the carrosel is a flowered bag just like ours. It was tagged for the Westerdam.

 

Put in the lost luggage claim and let HAL know of the missing bag.

 

It showed up the next day at our cabin.

 

While checking at in the hotel I remembered I had forgotten our boarding passes and asked if they had a computer & printer I could use. The nice desk clerk said I can do it from here. Our day was made when I discovered we had been upgraded to a mini suite.

 

What a day.

[lettienets]

I checked in Air Canada web site tonite for my boarding pass for tomorrow's flight. For the first time I have ever seen this asked - when they ask where you are staying at your flight destination, it had cruise ship as a choice. They asked cruise line, name of ship and port. That's new to me. And great, because if you get separated from your luggage they know where it is supposed to go.

[Koshlong]

Oh, boy! I'd never thought about our bags getting lost at the pier. I guess we'll be packing half in each suitcase, even without flying. There goes our contest to see who can get the most in! My husband always claims that since guy clothes and shoes are bigger than women's, he needs more space. And he will claim that I am slandering him.

[cp556]

A very nice man in our small group on an Alaska Cruisetour in 2006 had all his bags in Fairbanks for the first two nights of the tour. Then, in our next stop, Denali, his suitcase did not appear! He went two days in Denali without his suitcase and joked that he hoped we all liked his outfit, since it was the only one he had at the time.

 

Magically, at our next stop, Anchorage, his suitcase reappeared.

 

Seems it had been delivered to the wrong room at the chalet in Denali (213 instead of 231 or the like...) and whoever was in 213 just stuffed it under their bed for the two day stay.

 

Fortunately, this man was among the nicest people you'd ever meet, and he didn't make a fuss. Me? I would probably have been an extremely squeaky wheel ...

 

That taught me to check other similar room #s when seeking a lost suitcase.

[midgecruiser]

We lost two of our bags flying from Seattle to San Diego before boarding the Odam. My husband and my step daughter's bags didn't not make the flight. We checked in and boarded the Odam and spoke to the staff in the Nuptune Lounge about the next flight coming in from Seattle and that our bags might be on it. They assured me that they already had some other passengers also expecting bags (or hoping for) on that flight and that they had someone there to pick up the bags. Well, I figured I could go and get back before sail away so took the short cab ride back to the airport. Leaving the family on the ship to have some lunch. Sure enough the bags showed up and I grabbed them and headed back to the ship with about 20 mins to spare. The others did not receive their bags until Cabo. There was a HAL rep collecting bags when I was at the airport but he just didn't get back to the ship in time so those folks were out of luck. My husband was very concerned about me getting back but with the airport so close I left enough of a window to have time to return with or without the luggage.

 

Wendy