New Service Lets Cruise Passengers Travel "Bag-Free" in Florida

[IRL_Joanie]

Just got this via email today:

1/26/11 - New Service Lets Cruise Passengers Travel "Bag-Free" in Florida With Bags To Go, vacationers flocking to South Florida to seek fun, sun and relaxation on a cruise can start to shed their everyday cares long before they even set foot on board the ship.

Typically, airport travel to and from cruise ships can be hectic, especially during the high cruise season, which begins during the holidays and extends from January through mid-April. But Bags To Go, a leader in baggage storage and baggage claim and delivery services for cruise passengers, helps to make it a breeze. Bags To Go offers convenient luggage-free travel options to tourists bound for a South Florida cruise, and enables travelers to walk through airports, as well as sightsee and navigate cruise ports, without their burdensome baggage—making it so much easier to start, and maintain, a stress-free vacation.

“Traveling during the busy winter cruise season can be a challenging trial of long lines, hassles and delays—but with Bags To Go, travelers will marvel at how easy it is to travel luggage-free,” says Keith Wiater, founder and CEO of Bags To Go. “Our secure baggage handling services save time, reduce stress and help cruise passengers stay in vacation-mode just a little bit longer.”

Bags To Go offers convenient services to passengers both embarking on and disembarking from cruises. Passengers often disembark in the morning and have hours before their late afternoon or evening flights to enjoy popular Florida cities. For a fee of $6 per bag, customers get the freedom to enjoy that last little bit of vacation without the hassle of baggage.

Each of these services allows passengers to get around town luggage-free for the low $6 per bag fee.

• At Port Everglades, cruise passengers can leave bags with portside Bags To Go agents and have them securely stored at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL), giving travelers more precious time to enjoy the popular tourist hub without bulky baggage.

• Cruise passengers arriving at the airport can enjoy the Bags To Go Baggage Claim and Delivery service, and have their luggage claimed and delivered directly to their cruise ship at Port Everglades.

• Cruise passengers using Park ‘N Fly in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. can drop off bags with trusted Bags To Go personnel at the parking center and have them delivered directly to their cruise ship.

• Airline passengers departing from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) can store bags securely at the airport, before airline check-in.

• Services will soon be announced at Miami International Airport (MIA) and Port of Miami, as well.

Sounds like excellent news to me:)

Joanie

[sail7seas]

Sounds like it could be great.

I think I'll wait to get a few weeks/months of reports of how reliable they are before we have them handle the luggage. If they get good reports, might be something to think about.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Sounds great on paper.

Need to see how this works out.

Doubt if it would work out for us as we need a suitcase for the airport hotel here -- then a couple of suitcases for the 2 -3 days pre cruise and of course a suitcase for the post cruise hotels.

[bcd2010]

Sounds like it could be great.

I think I'll wait to get a few weeks/months of reports of how reliable they are before we have them handle the luggage. If they get good reports, might be something to think about.



Agree. It IS one more layer of baggage handling and therefore one another opportunity for luggage to get lost (a bigger concern before the cruise than after, I suppose).

Sounds great on paper.

Need to see how this works out.

Doubt if it would work out for us as we need a suitcase for the airport hotel here -- then a couple of suitcases for the 2 -3 days pre cruise and of course a suitcase for the post cruise hotels.

I fly in the day before and carry all I need for the one extra day in my carryon - if it were more than one pre- or post- day, I can see that you might need more than what you could put in a carryon.



Really hope this works out, though because it would be quite a convenience.

[bepsf]

Thanks for the info!

I may give them a try as I'm booked for an evening flight out of FLL on Virgin, which I understand doesn't participate in HAL's luggage forwarding service...

[Boytjie]

I don't see much that I would be interested in this service.

If I was disembarking and flying home later in the day I'd rather use Lugagge Direct which checks your luggage in for you - this service just stores it for you at the airport and most likely you will have to retrieve it and then check it in yourself.

As for using it at arrival: I'd rather see my bags in the hands of the handlers at the ship than add another place where it can get mislaid or go missing.

[IRL_Joanie]

... not for those of us who fly in a day day or so early or depart the day after our cruise.

I posted the info for those who are always asking about just such a service.

For people like Brian who has a late departure, for those who are arriving early in the a.m. and cannot check into their hotels or go right to the port. For those who wish to do an after cruise excursion privately before their flights leave...

For many of us, you are correct, this would not be of use. But for those who need it, I think it might just be a most welcome service and info we can pass on to future requests for this info.

Joanie

[Crazy Gramps]

I did it at the Park N Fly in Fll.
They were just trying it out .
I sort of went nuts until my bags actually got to my cabin.
I dropped them off at 11:00 AM and they didn't get to my cabim until 4:00 PM.

But they all arrived.

Gramps

[euro cruiser]

We were going to use this service last week because our flight home was late in the afternoon and we didn't want to deal with the luggage all day. Ultimately we decided not to use it because they require you to be off the ship fairly early - they only pick up for a specified period of time - and we wanted to stay on board and have breakfast.

Instead, most of us stayed aboard while one family member got off and went to the airport for a rental car (actually a mini-van). While he did that, the rest of us ate breakfast, then disembarked around 9:30 AM. He was waiting to pick us up and we drove directly to the airport. Fortunately, we were able to check the luggage for a 5:30 PM flight at 10:00 AM and didn't need to drive around with it all day.

Whether or not we could check the luggage so far in advance was a key issue that was pushing us toward the Luggage Direct service. Maybe we were luckly, or maybe Continental always takes bags so far in advance, I don't know. I'm just glad it worked out for us.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We were going to use this service last week because our flight home was late in the afternoon and we didn't want to deal with the luggage all day. Ultimately we decided not to use it because they require you to be off the ship fairly early - they only pick up for a specified period of time - and we wanted to stay on board and have breakfast.

Instead, most of us stayed aboard while one family member got off and went to the airport for a rental car (actually a mini-van). While he did that, the rest of us ate breakfast, then disembarked around 9:30 AM. He was waiting to pick us up and we drove directly to the airport. Fortunately, we were able to check the luggage for a 5:30 PM flight at 10:00 AM and didn't need to drive around with it all day.

Whether or not we could check the luggage so far in advance was a key issue that was pushing us toward the Luggage Direct service. Maybe we were luckly, or maybe Continental always takes bags so far in advance, I don't know. I'm just glad it worked out for us.

Thanks for the information where you have to be off the ship early to drop off the luggage with them. Most people probably won't realize that at first.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I did it at the Park N Fly in Fll.
They were just trying it out .
I sort of went nuts until my bags actually got to my cabin.
I dropped them off at 11:00 AM and they didn't get to my cabim until 4:00 PM.

But they all arrived.

Gramps


Know what you mean -- we bring our luggage with us in a taxi from the hotel and many times we never see it until after lifeboat drill. And I worry as the ship is cloding up and getting ready to sail and we still have no luggage.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Agree. It IS one more layer of baggage handling and therefore one another opportunity for luggage to get lost (a bigger concern before the cruise than after, I suppose).



I fly in the day before and carry all I need for the one extra day in my carryon - if it were more than one pre- or post- day, I can see that you might need more than what you could put in a carryon.



Really hope this works out, though because it would be quite a convenience.

If we only could take advantage of 1 day precruise -- it would be a good idea. But we have to spend 1 day at a hotel near our airport before we fly out. Then we always spend 2 or 3 days pre cruise in the Embarkation port.

Also we don't have large carryons -- just small ones that we can handle.

[RuthC]

Ultimately we decided not to use it because they require you to be off the ship fairly early - they only pick up for a specified period of time - and we wanted to stay on board and have breakfast. ... Whether or not we could check the luggage so far in advance was a key issue that was pushing us toward the Luggage Direct service.
:confused: Luggage Direct? I thought Joanie was posting about something else that's similar, but not the same. A new program. I didn't see anything in her post that indicated you have to be off the ship early.

Are you confusing two different programs? Or is there more to the Bags to Go program that I didn't grasp?

[mikeqube]

I used it for my last cruise in San Juan. It worked pretty good, we were taking a later flight and didnt have to lug our bags around all day.

[bepsf]

Fortunately, we were able to check the luggage for a 5:30 PM flight at 10:00 AM and didn't need to drive around with it all day.

Really?
The past several times I've departed FLL, the airlines have refused to accept the luggage until 2 hours prior to the flight...

[Crusing Bob]

Bags to Go has been operating for some time now. We used them in '07, '08 and '09 out of Port Everglades. The difference being it was done thru the Westerdam at $19(2 bags) along with the Boarding Passes attached by us. Once outside the terminal, we just handed them off to the truck that was right there. Very easy and nice. No storage and claiming to have to do at the airport.

[topcop]

This is nothing new. We used them a couple of years ago at FLL. they were in the airport, near the baggage carousel and after talking to them we tried it and it worked well.

After the cruise, they we gave them out bags and they gave us our boarding passes.

However, on our last cruise there was a problem. We paid in advance online, but on our arrival at FLL we couldn't find a representative. The info desk woman told me she hadn't seen them in a few days.

Sure enough, when he disembarked there was no one to be found. I had a hard time contacting them and made a big stink about it on CC. I got my money refunded and they apologized saying there had been a mixup that day and no one was at the cruise port.

I think they are legit and normally very good at what they. I will try them again, but only if they have a rep. at the airport. NOT online.