Luggage Valet

[Chorts]

Does Hal offer luggage valet service?

[jhannah]

Not certain what you mean. If you wonder whether or not they take your luggage to your cabin, yes they do. If you wait until cabins are ready to occupy (usually around 1:00-1:30) then you can take advantage of the "white glove" escort to your cabin, and the crew member will take your carry-on for you.

If you are asking about a place to store your carry-ons from the time you board until your cabin is ready, it depends on the ship. Some have reported that an attended storage spot has been provided. If you're in an S or PH suite, you may drop them off at the Neptune Lounge for safe keeping.

If you are asking about shipping your luggage to the ship and back home, no HAL doesn't offer this service. But some third-party vendors do.

[lougee1043]

if you are asking about someone unpacking for you on a hal ship the answer is no---unless you can talk the person you are sharing the cabin with to do it

[Krazy Kruizers]

Do hope you come back on and explain exactly what you are asking.

[Chorts]

I should have been more explicit. :o Does Hal provide the service of sending your luggage to the airline and provide you with your boarding pass? On another cruise line, if you had a flight with American, United, or Delta and the flight time was after 12:00, for a nominal fee, your luggage would be taken directly to the airport and a boarding pass would be provided to you. Of course, this was providing that customs didn't want to check your luggage. If customs decided they wanted to inspect your bag, then the luggage would be pulled from the airport bound luggage and the fee would be refunded to you.
Did I do better? :D thanks in advance for your answers. :)

[sail7seas]

Prior to 9-11, HAL used to have some airlines at the dock who would do what you describe.

Since 9-11, I have not seen this done.

I'm surprised any cruiselines still are able to offer that service. Which one(s)?

[bepsf]

I'm surprised any cruiselines still are able to offer that service. Which one(s)?



I think X does...

Wouldn't do me a bit of good, as it only makes sense if you fly in the day of departure instead of coming in a day or two in advance.

[sail7seas]

I think OP means for the luggage to be handled as we leave the ship......taken to the airport for the return flight to our home. :)

[bepsf]

I think OP means for the luggage to be handled as we leave the ship......taken to the airport for the return flight to our home. :)



Oh, that!
:o

OK - That I'd like
;)

[Chorts]

I think OP means for the luggage to be handled as we leave the ship......taken to the airport for the return flight to our home. :)



That would be a correct assumption :) . And it is X that offers this service.

[sail7seas]

That's a good idea for something to inquire why HAL never started up this arrangement with the airlines after it again became permissible. After 9-11, so much changed and if they are again permitting "X" to do it, I'm sure they'd allow HAL to do it.

Then again......if ONLY "X" is doing it, I wonder why all the others are not??

[elmorejj]

I really liked it when HAL was doing it pre 9/11. You would go to the Crows Nest or some other lounge and pick up your boarding passes etc. and then go straight to departures once you got to the airport.......Oh the good old days............jean:cool:

[Catnip]

Prior to 9-11, HAL used to have some airlines at the dock who would do what you describe.

Since 9-11, I have not seen this done.

I'm surprised any cruiselines still are able to offer that service. Which one(s)?



THe QE 2 offered that service as of last year!!! It was great!

[the2ofus]

Royal Caribbean also offers this service, but only on United and American Airlines, and only for a $10 per person fee. Your boarding passes are provided with your disembarkation documents.

You pick up your luggage after customs inspection at the pier. A porter takes it to the loading area. The next time you see it is when it comes onto the carrousel at your home airport.

At least that's the way it was done when we disembarked in San Juan on May 14th.

[Logoladytcs]

We just used cruiseshippers.com when we did the Panama Canal cruise on the Volendam and were very pleased.

I live in So. Calif. and we were sailing from Ft. Lauderdale - so they picked up the luggage at our homes and shipped it via FED EX - I think the charge was around $1.35 a lb. I had 2 bags. The charge was around $110.We were due to sail on a Sunday and they picked them up the previous Monday. And they were in our room by 4pm - it was great.

Would highly recommend them.

Barbara

[Sage]

Yes, HAL does offer that service if you are disembarking and flying home the same day. You go to the front desk and ask for the service, and your luggage is picked up and taken to the airline, and you are given a claim check for your luggage and boarding passes, and you pick up your luggage when you arrive at your final destination. I don't have all the details, as we didn't use the service, but they were definitely offering it, and perhaps someone else can fill in the details. We were on the Volendam's April 22nd sailing as well as the May 10th sailing, and it was offered on both segments.

[NorthernNeighbour]

Not exactly the same service as is being discussed here, but CUNARD offer a home-to-ship luggage service. They will arrange for a company to pick up your luggage at home and deliver it to the ship. Or collect it upon disembarkation and ship it back to your home.

Great service for those rich Texas ladies who go on 90 day cruises and take 90 different outfits. My wife knows of one lady from Texas who booked two cabins -- one for herself and one for her luggage. She took a long voyage and wore the same outfit every night -- BUT in a different colour. God only knows how she got as many colours as days for a long voyage -- but I suppose there are hundreds of shades possible.

[Chorts]

Yes, HAL does offer that service if you are disembarking and flying home the same day. You go to the front desk and ask for the service, and your luggage is picked up and taken to the airline, and you are given a claim check for your luggage and boarding passes, and you pick up your luggage when you arrive at your final destination. I don't have all the details, as we didn't use the service, but they were definitely offering it, and perhaps someone else can fill in the details. We were on the Volendam's April 22nd sailing as well as the May 10th sailing, and it was offered on both segments.

Wonderful! That service is really nice to have. I will definately check into it when we are on the Volendam in Oct. Thank you so much for your response. :)

[gillianrose]

We just used cruiseshippers.com when we did the Panama Canal cruise on the Volendam and were very pleased.

I live in So. Calif. and we were sailing from Ft. Lauderdale - so they picked up the luggage at our homes and shipped it via FED EX - I think the charge was around $1.35 a lb. I had 2 bags. The charge was around $110.We were due to sail on a Sunday and they picked them up the previous Monday. And they were in our room by 4pm - it was great.

Would highly recommend them.

Was that round-trip delivery of your luggage or just to your port of departure?

[Logoladytcs]

The charge was for one way - on this cruise we left from Ft. Lauderdale and disembarked in Los Angeles.

Of course they do handle it both ways - when we arrived in port there was a representative from their company waiting to pick it up and ship it again. It wasn't necessary cause we live here.

They said our bags weighed in at 40 lbs each(I really thought they were heavier than that) So I had 2 bags and it came to $110 - one way

Barbara

[kryos]

[B]I think OP means for the luggage to be handled as we leave the ship......taken to the airport for the return flight to our home. :)

Maybe I'm dense, but I don't see why I would pay for this service. If I take a cab to the airport, or a HAL transfer ... I simply identify my bags once I disembark, get a porter to roll them over to the bus or taxi, and then go to the airport. Once I get to the airport, I just do curbside check-in. I actually need to handle the bags very, very little. So, why should I pay a fee for the cruise line to do it for me?

Am I missing something here?

Now if they were offering to ship the bags directly to my home ... for a reasonable fee ... then that might be worth spending some bucks for. But this sounds like little more than what I could do myself with very little effort.

Blue skies ...

--rita

[Logoladytcs]

I guess it all depends what shape you're in.

I have recently had a hip replacement, and for me to have to wrangle two heavy suitcases would be a bit much.Seeing we were gone 19 days, I have to admit I took alot of changes -and wore them all, I might add!!

I realize that some people are used to this, but I can't take a chance and lift something cumbersome and have to end up back in the hospital.

Also I was meeting someone in Ft. Lauderdale, so I was by myself, and even getting the luggage off the carousels can be difficult.

Be happy that you are able to manage it by yourself - I never thought the day would come when I couldn't, but I'll be darned if I wouldn't find a way around it!!

Barbara

[Krazy Kruizers]

kyros

Maybe some people like getting their boarding passes before they get to the airport to insure that nothing has changed in their flight schedule. Some people don't like to go online on a cruise ship, print out their own passes and check their schedules. Even if a person had a flight out late in the afternoon they could get on line (hopefully the internet isn't down on the ship) for late flights out.

We haven't flown out on the same day that a ship docks, but I am like you - I would not pay that $10 per person fee.

[kryos]

I guess it all depends what shape you're in.

I have recently had a hip replacement, and for me to have to wrangle two heavy suitcases would be a bit much.Seeing we were gone 19 days, I have to admit I took alot of changes -and wore them all, I might add!!

I realize that some people are used to this, but I can't take a chance and lift something cumbersome and have to end up back in the hospital.
But that's just the point ... I DIDN'T lift anything. I made the mistake of doing that on the trip down, and pulled my back ... so I made sure on the trip back home, I didn't lift a thing. I got in line for a porter when I got off the ship and had him pull my luggage from the holding area and put it on his cart. He walked it over to the HAL transfer bus with me in tow and the HAL people put it on the bus. When I got to the airport, they offloaded all the luggage right there at the curb. I did curbside check-in, and I took the porter over a few yards from his desk ... to where I had left my luggage ... and he tagged it, and took it off on his big cart with other luggage. I handled nothing.

Of course, when I got back to Philly, it was tough ... but I would have had to deal with it on the luggage carosel either way ... even with HAL's service. But even there, I pulled it off the carosel and then went in search of a porter to take it out to the taxi for me. I did very, very little luggage handling on that return trip at all. I only did it on the outbound trip because I was stupid ... and didn't take advantage of porter services that were available to me. Believe me, I learned.

Blue skies ...

--rita

[Logoladytcs]

Glad you could work it so you didn't have to lift anything -

My point is that I know in Los Angeles or Orange County, hell could literally freeze over before a porter could help you take the luggage off the carousel and I didn't know how it would be in Ft. Lauderdale so I opted for cruiseshippers.com and I'm glad I did. Even if I had not used their service, I would have had one heck of a time getting that luggage downstairs from my condo. So I didn't have to worry about it!!

This was my first vacation in many years and after being widowed, having breast cancer and then a hip replacement, I decided to make it as easy on myself as possible!! I deserved it!

Barbara

[Chorts]

Maybe I'm dense, but I don't see why I would pay for this service. If I take a cab to the airport, or a HAL transfer ... I simply identify my bags once I disembark, get a porter to roll them over to the bus or taxi, and then go to the airport. Once I get to the airport, I just do curbside check-in. I actually need to handle the bags very, very little. So, why should I pay a fee for the cruise line to do it for me?

Am I missing something here?

Now if they were offering to ship the bags directly to my home ... for a reasonable fee ... then that might be worth spending some bucks for. But this sounds like little more than what I could do myself with very little effort.

Blue skies ...

--rita

Rita, what you are missing here is this scenario.....when we were in Seattle, we left the ship at 8 a.m. but our flight wasn't until 3:30 pm. By using the valet service, we were free to roam about Seattle without having to drag our luggage with us. Without this service, we would have had to go to the airport and sit around for 5 or 6 hours until our flight left or drag our luggage around town. Not much fun since we each had two bags. So, there ya have it :D.

[kryos]

Rita, what you are missing here is this scenario.....when we were in Seattle, we left the ship at 8 a.m. but our flight wasn't until 3:30 pm. By using the valet service, we were free to roam about Seattle without having to drag our luggage with us. Without this service, we would have had to go to the airport and sit around for 5 or 6 hours until our flight left or drag our luggage around town. Not much fun since we each had two bags. So, there ya have it :D.
Ahhhhh, okay. Now the light bulb goes off.

Thanks for explaining that. Yeah, I guess in a situation such as yours, I would go for the luggage service too. Man, I would hate like you know what to have such a late flight out. I did that once, on a land trip to Maui back in 2001 ... and I swore never again. I'd sooner just spend the night and fly out the next morning. I hate waiting around in airports. :(

Blue skies ...

--rita

[Chorts]

Rita, since we used to live in Vancouver USA, we had been to Seattle many times so we didn't mind booking a later flight. We enjoyed our time at Pike Place Public Market. The best part is that it only cost us $1.25 each, by city bus, to get to the airport!

[crusingici]

Yes, Chorts, I did use this very service you are inquiring about and to DH and me it was WELL worth the price. We would have gladly paid more for it. We were on the May 10 Alaska voyage aboard Volendam.

I had read not-so-positive reports on the bus transfers so did not book those - we were planning to take a limo to the airport for our 1:00 flight out of Vancouver.

On board I saw the "commercial" in room on TV about the luggage transfer program - it was $15 per person - we each had 2 heavy suitcases plus one light carry on each - we did NOT want to have to struggle with luggage in the airport -- and upon hearing that we would be issued boarding passes on the ship we jumped at it....not having to deal with that at the airport was a plus for us. The bus transfer program sounded wonderful as well - but when we inquired about that we were told we were too late to participate.....but we could still purchase the luggage program -- so we did.

Disadvantage was we had to report to the lounge on disembarkation morning at 7:30am -- which we did - it was VERY organized - we were given a "coded card" and called by group. We were also told there were a FEW bus transfers left and we were lucky enough to be able to purchase one.

WE LOVED this method and would do it again in a flash. The kicker to this bus program is that you are on the bus with only passengers who have purchased this program - you are driven to the BACK entrance of the airport - you go thru customs on the bus as a group - and when we entered at the back of the airport we went thru a quick security check with our carry on and once at the top of the escalator we were right at our gate! NO walking around thru the airport or anything - it was such a nice surprise.

We felt it was worth every penny - I think the bus transfer was ~$18 pp -- a little less than a limo and about the same as a taxi - but NO HASSEL!!!

Our bus driver told us this program has been in the making for 2 (or did he say 3??) years - and this was the first year to do it completely -- they felt they had all the bugs worked out - and I'd say from our experience it ran perfectly smoothly.

I highly recommend it and will do it again each and every time we cruise, if it is offered......and of course if we are flying out on disembarkation day.

It was SUCH a much more pleasant experience than the dis-organized emabarkation day that we experienced getting onto the Volendam the Wednesday before.

Hope this helps - go for it! :)

[Chorts]

cruisingici,
What a great review of this service. We also paid $15 PP and it is definately worth it if we have several hours between disembarking and our flight. Thank you very much.

Paula

[nanashirl]

Cruisingici - what airline were you flying home on?
This sounds like a great idea. We are flying on Southwest Airlines.
Have not heard much about anyone using this airline. Just wondered if they offered this for all passengers?
Do I understand this correct. They picked up your luggage at your room and you did not have to do anything else about it. They took care of checking it in at airport for you or did they just unload it for you and you checked it in?
Sounds like it worked great for you. It would sure be worth $15 each.
Shirl

Cruisingici- What airline were you flying home on?

[crusingici]

<<<Cruisingici - what airline were you flying home on?
This sounds like a great idea. We are flying on Southwest Airlines.
Have not heard much about anyone using this airline. Just wondered if they offered this for all passengers?
Do I understand this correct. They picked up your luggage at your room and you did not have to do anything else about it. They took care of checking it in at airport for you or did they just unload it for you and you checked it in? >>>>

We flew Continental - but that had nothing to do with the program as the program is sponsered by HAL - the ship gave the "Guidelines" for qualifying for the program - I do not remember all of them off hand - I believe it was for US citizens only or maybe for those going to a US destination but you had to be flying out the day of disembarkation.

The ship porters picked up our luggage the night before -- we placed it outside our cabin door just like everyone else. I am sure the luggage tabs provided by HAL were coded to let them all know we were part of this special program and would not be claiming our luggage before heading to the airport. We never saw the luggage after that last evening till we got to our home airport......our final destination.

It was WONDERFUL not to have to lug it or fool with anyone else lugging that heavy luggage after we got off the ship! Yes, worth every penny! Especially for my DH!! But, what made it super nice was the extra service the bus program provided with customs, security and the "back door" drop off ---- we felt like "somebody" !!;)

If interested, you may be able to find out info ahead of time from your TA or by calling HAL before you leave home-- or at least the first day or 2 when you board your HAL ship. We did not know about it till about 2 or 3 days before the end of our week - they did not show the video on TV the early part of the week - that is why we were too late to buy the bus transfers......but it all worked out in the end.

[nanashirl]

Thanks so much for your quick reply. We are flying home that day so I will check on it. I bet I could check at the front desk upon boarding the ship and find out about it. My DH has a little problem getting around so this would be perfect. I guess they just give you your baggage claim checks when you get on the bus so you can pick up your luggage at final destination. Also it would be nice to have your boarding passes. I was going to try to get on internet and print them out the day before but this would be even better.
Hope you had a nice cruise. We leave on June 4 on the Westerdam. Hope they offer this service as well.
Shirl

[crusingici]

Yes, Shirl, you can certainly check with the front desk and they will give you all the info so you will know in advance of the "deadline"... :) I do hope your ship offers it for you.

I am on the cc board reading, as you can tell, since I am responding as you write. :) I had the most perfect cruise! It was a first for DH and me -- I had taken a 4 nighter in Feb on RCCl with just gal-friends -so that was really "my first" but I don't count it much since it was so short and we stopped at only 1 port -- this cruise to Alaska was even better than we had imagined - and well worth the 14 months of planning that preceeded it!

I WILL eventually get a review on the board - I took over 1,000 pictures that week so it has taken me awhile to process all of those and get back to reality - but I think I am ready to write up my review now - I seem to have my head back on straight!

I wish you a most delightful trip and hope you will post a report upon your return.

[crusingici]

I guess they just give you your baggage claim checks when you get on the bus so you can pick up your luggage at final destination. Shirl

I forgot - yes, they certainly do give you the claim checks - they take care of everything. Their few years of practice has made it "perfect" in our eyes and I do have to admit that my DH usually has a "Better Way" - but not with their plan - so they got an A+ from him!:D

I hope you have just as good of an experience!

[Bucky3]

Just back home today after a perfectly wonderful week on the Volendam. Will write more soon but just wanted to chime in since I saw your name here. I do believe that one couple in our group took advantage of this baggage service, but found that out at the last minute and didn't get any details. I'll be inquiring of them about it. Sounds like a plan. Of course, since we drove and parked right at Canada Place, the service wouldn't have been one we could use. However, to anyone who is driving, the parking at Canada Place worked out perfectly for us - easy in - easy out! More later - but I have nothing but WONDERFUL things to say! No negative comments will be coming from me! This was our 4th and BEST Alaska cruise! Bucky

[kryos]

Since we're talking about baggage services, I have a little question ... even though it is technically not HAL related.

Next April I'm doing a cruise on the Veendam to Europe, but I'll be returning to New York on the QE2. I'm okay for the outbound trip (I have to fly to Tampa) and will use a limo service to Philly International ... but on the return I will be coming from New York. What's the easiest way to get from the ship back to Philly with several pieces of luggage (these two cruises encompass almost a month)? I think Cunard's terminal is actually in a place called Red Hook ... which is in Brooklyn? Are cabs easy to get? I will probably take the Greyhound home since the train will involve too many steps to be lugging luggage up ... and figure I can get a cab right at the bus terminal here in Philly to my home. But is there an easier way I'm not thinking of? Group transport via a van-type arrangement all the way back to Philly?

Just trying to explore my options here.

Blue skies ...

--rita

[RuthC]

What's the easiest way to get from the ship back to Philly with several pieces of luggage?
The "easiest" way is to hire a private car. You will be met at the pier. The driver will take all your luggage for you and put it in the trunk. Then the driver will open your door, let you be seated comfortably, drive you home, and bring your luggage inside for you.
Hey! you didn't say "cheapest"! :D

Seriously, explore the costs. After a fling like you'll be having it's a perfect way to end the adventure.