Sending luggage ahead

We are joining the Balmoral at Singapore for the return trip to the UK ( March 2015). We would like to put our luggage on the ship before it leaves Southampton in January so that we can take more than the flight allowance.

Has anybody had experience of this ?

Fred's office say all luggage labels will be sent to us before the ship leaves and we can simply send the baggage to the ship then. Anybody done this ?

Are the tickets and label for the later world sectors really sent out before the voyage commences ?

I think they may have misunderstood what you are asking.

Sounds like they are talking about the service that lets you send your bags to Singapore so you don't have to take them with you on the plane.

That is not what you want, but frankly I can't see Fred allowing you to put your bags on in Southampton, weeks before you are due on-board.

We are joining the Balmoral at Singapore for the return trip to the UK ( March 2015). We would like to put our luggage on the ship before it leaves Southampton in January so that we can take more than the flight allowance.

 

Has anybody had experience of this ?

 

Fred's office say all luggage labels will be sent to us before the ship leaves and we can simply send the baggage to the ship then. Anybody done this ?

 

Are the tickets and label for the later world sectors really sent out before the voyage commences ?

I'm sure I've heard that you can have your luggage stored on board for your later arrival, but check with FO or your agent. There would be a charge for that service, of course.

In response to your recent post we do offer this service. There are two ways in which you can do this.

Either you can take your luggage to Southampton on the 4th January or you may wish to choose to use a baggage handling service, details of which can be found on the website http://www.fredolsencruises.com/Cruise-Extras/Cruise-Extras/Baggage-Handling-Service/Baggage-Handling-

There is a charge for this service and it is £45 per case per continuous sector for storage of your luggage.

We will be sending details out in the next two weeks to all those guests booked on this cruise which will give full details of this and other pre cruise advice and services.

However in the meantime I do hope this helps.

Kind regards

Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines

Live and learn :)

Good to know the service exists, but I wonder how the 'continuous sectors' are defined on a world cruise where it is sold in a number of different blocks?

Have taken cases to Southampton a few times when joining world cruises. Very efficient service from Fred. The labels were sent to us 3 weeks before departure. Our cases were waiting for us in our cabin when we arrived on board. Would not hesitate to do this again. Hope this helps.

I have used the Baggage Handling Company a few times when taking sectors of Fred Olsen cruises. I can strongly recommend them for their efficiency and reliability.

Live and learn :)

 

Good to know the service exists, but I wonder how the 'continuous sectors' are defined on a world cruise where it is sold in a number of different blocks?

Good point actually. Previous World Cruises would typically be split into 4/5 sectors. Balmoral's 'Grand Voyage' (i.e. not a World Cruise) next January is comprised of 9 sectors, I think, so could be expensive???

wft

I have used the Baggage Handling Company a few times when taking sectors of Fred Olsen cruises. I can strongly recommend them for their efficiency and reliability.

We've used them a few times too but we did have one problem when the cases weren't collected on the agreed date and nobody got in touch. We now phone and check on the morning they're being collected but it's great to arrive and find our cases at our cabin door.

We have paid The Baggage Handling Company to transport two cases to Braemar for the 23rd November. We will be going south a few days earlier than the cruise, as we need to visit an elderly relative who lives in Hampshire and we will be travelling by train, so cannot vary our departure date. We were advised that we should have the cases taken two days earlier than needed to allow for a missed collection, which I was told sometimes happens. This was done and the date pre arranged, or so I thought.

We were in Hampshire for a week and returned Tuesday evening to find a letter from them which said, 'You will be notified nearer the time of the exact collection date for your luggage' and just one luggage tag and one security tag was enclosed. I rang them yesterday and to be honest the person I spoke to was very polite and said, 'It is not good enough', (with which I concurred), and told me she would send out a new letter with the pre arranged date confirmed and two new luggage labels and two security tags, (I was told to discard the original ones). There is still a week and a half to the collection date, so hopefully things will work out OK in the end, but it has left me somewhat nervous about the whole thing. Watch this space and I will post the final results.

Well we did get the correct documentation sent out, although I was a little uncertain as there was no code number on the luggage tags, but spare rip off numbers were on the securuty seals, so I rang to check. I was told it did not matter and that they sometimes suggested people kept the rip of numbers as a personal record, (as with luggage tags on a flight).

Feeling a bit uneasy about that, as a security seals could easily come adrift, we stuck the numbers on the couriers luggage tags anyway. We also made a note of the numbers for each of the two cases and put a Fred label on both handles, rather than just one. As usual we put a big piece of paper inside the case with the ships name, cabin no. and our name and mobile number - we always do something similar as we have had cases get lost on flights.

The collection was scheduled for this afternoon and the cases were picked up as arranged, so fingers crossed they will be onboard when we arrive on Sunday.

Well our cases were duly picked up as eventually arranged and were sitting outside our cabin when we embarked (fairly early) in Southampton.

A service which was very much appreciated by us, given that we were sailing out from Southampton and flying back to Manchester.