Stolen items-Infinity 9053 Stateroom 6/29/12 sailing

We were on the Celebrity Infinity June 29 sailing, booked in Aqua Class cabin 9053. This theft occurred Thursday evening, last day of the cruise, when we were off the ship in Victoria. The items were taken from the bedside table top drawer. The staff advised that they would be cleaning out the AQ Class specialty items from our room. I think they decided to clean out some other things from our room as well. Stolen items included a kindle, an empty Maui Jim eyeglass case and a Camelback bottle. The most egregious act was stealing the empty Panasonic camera case that heartbreakingly held the memory card of our once in a lifetime Helicopter/ Glacier tour and Kayak excursions.

We KNOW the items were in the drawer when we left for Victoria, because my husband took the camera and sunglasses with him. These items were in the drawer when we left the ship to go into Victoria. Friday morning, hubby went to pack the drawer contents and the drawer was empty. He assumed I had packed them as I usually do.

When we were unpacking Saturday morning at our home, he asked what I did with the stuff from his drawer...I told him I didn't pack his drawer. We immediately called "Lost and Found" to file a stolen report. They said it would take 24-48 hours to get back to us. Today, Wed, I called again to follow up...they said they could not find the "lost" items...I told them again they were NOT LOST, they had been STOLEN on the last day of the cruise. I was advised that the person I originally spoke to did not call back because he has jury duty and that no one was handing his files. The call today, the woman gave me the number of the ship to call...at a cost to me of $7.95 a minute...seriously...Celebrity does not even seem to care that someone working for them went into a room and cleaned out a passengers items...yet if I want to talk to the ship...I have to call and an enormous cost to me. That is POOR customer service. I have also notified Customer Service and have sent a letter to the Celebrity President and CEO.

DID anyone else on this cruise or any other Infinity cruise have items stolen from their room? I am curious if this has happened to anyone else and if so what did you do and how did Celebrity respond to your notification.

The heartbreaking part of this is that the Memory Card with once in a lifetime activities can never be replaced. EPIC FAIL to Celebrity for your lack of follow up to an internal issue...awaiting a response!

Sorry for what happened to you.

You will get better replies from Celebrity cruises if you post on the Celebrity board, here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=28

Was there a safe in the room? You left the Kindle outside of the safe?

You may also want to post on the Roll Call from your cruise which is where members of cruise critic who were on your cruise post before the cruise but some people check it after the cruise.

This link will take you there.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1562641&page=4

Keith

While I can certainly agree that your loss of these items is heartbreaking, I think its a bit harsh to insist that they were stolen...it sounds more like they were forgotten by you and now you don't know what happened to them.

Believe it or not, stewards do not always check every single drawer for belongings. We found items on our RCL cruise in a drawer, and immediately turned them in. Who knows how long they were there?

Your experience is an excellent reminder to cruisers to utilize the safe that most every line provides in staterooms for items of value that one would be very upset to lose.

I'm sorry these items were lost, but if you think about it, cruise line jobs are very valuable, and it does seem a bit odd someone would risk getting fired for an empty eyeglass case, and empty camera case and a camelback bottle.

You honestly cannot say they were stolen by a cruise line employee. I hope you get them back.

And a kindle.

but remember the infamous iPhone case? The cruise line employee took pictures with the lost/found/stolen iPhone and the owner had the photos set up to go to iCloud. She was able to track down the employee since he has his name badge on in the pictures. So, yes they will risk their jobs.

OP, hope you get your items back. We normally don't lock the reader in the safe but after this we will. Not to say the steward took it but it annoys me how often I have come back to the cabin to find the door wide open while they ran down the hall to get something.

SunnySDmom -- I am so sorry to hear that your precious vacation photo/video card was lost -- I do hope that someone finds it for you. But I have to agree with 6Rugrats and others who have expressed doubt that your items were stolen by a Celebrity staff member. Even if (and that's a big "if" for me) an employee who had access to your room decided to steal from you -- just taking random objects from one drawer doesn't make much sense. Of the objects you listed, the only one that would warrant stealing is the Kindle -- and I can't imagine any crew member risking their job over that. Hopefully your possessions will turn up, and Celebrity will notify you.

Thanks Keith 1010 for the links. msmayor: the items (kindle, and cases) were taken from the drawer where they were left Thursday evening. We KNOW this because my hubby took the camera and sunglasses out the cases just before we went into Victoria. The drawer was emptied when my hubby went to pack them on Friday morning. He thought I had packed them up. The theft was discovered when we were home and unpacking on Saturday.

While I understand that these things are just things...well except for the SD memory card...my frustration with this issue is that Celebrity is so "ho hum" about this and trying to contact someone from the Cruise line or on the ship is nearly impossible. Of course I was told today that I could call the ship, at my expense for $7.95 a minute. Also, the person who took my report on Saturday is on jury duty and no one else is handling this claim. Seriously, if it were your stuff you'd be upset as well...so hopefully this will never happen to you.

Reading other threads, there seems to be an issue that the stewards leave the doors open and walk away. Open doors allow anyone to come into a room...maybe this open door policy needs to be looked at and updated. The stewards have a key...they should close the doors anytime they need to leave the room. It takes only seconds to reopen a door...if they are gone long enough for someone to be able to go in and "grab" what they want...that is way too long to be gone with a door open.

I agree, that this is ridiculous stuff to take...but it is also not unreasonable to think that they didn't know the cases were empty when they took them. I want to agree that it is not someone from the cruise staff. Our steward was a nice guy.

I leave Kindle, camera, other minor items out in the open. I would know if something was missing long before disembarking. Anything of real value and some not that big a deal is in the safe.

 

Was there a safe in the room? You left the Kindle outside of the safe?

Just today I was reading that cabin safes are NOT safe...........and there was a place to click on and get a short demonstration regarding this. It was on th Alaska Boards.

Just today I was reading that cabin safes are NOT safe...........and there was a place to click on and get a short demonstration regarding this. It was on th Alaska Boards.

I have heard there is a code for staff, very simple 1111 or 0000 or something like that. I would expect if that info has been published, something has been done to fix the problem.

Haven't heard of things being stolen from safes.

I'm sorry your lost items and I do believe that they were where you said they were and that your each of you thought the other one had packed those item it is easy for anyone walking down a hallway to slip into a cabin and "lift" something. Especially if the cabin attendant is busy cleaning the bathroom and their back is to the door.

So try not to point the finger directly at your cabin attendant. 99.9% of them are honest, hard-working individual who are just trying to make a living to help out their family members back home.

BTW Welcome to Cruise Critic.

I very much doubt the stuff was stolen by a cabin steward. let's say If you had noticed straight away (which you could have done) then the finger of suspicion would be at them, so would they take the chance to take it while you still had time to investigate? Probably not

Much more likely the stuff was taken by an opportunist when the door was left open, and this is the company's fault.

I think it is appalling the way the company are treating you. They should be phoning you! I think the best advice I could give would be for you to give up trying to phone them and write formally and give them a date when you will expect a response by.

Good luck.

We have noticed that this practice is quite common at hotels too.

You can walk down the hallway and see an entire section with the doors to the rooms propped open, a cleaning supply cart in the hallway, and nobody in sight.

Have you reported the theft of the kindle to Amazon? They will erase all the content if wifi or 3G is activated and de-register that device. You will have to replace the kindle, but all your purchased kindle books can be downloaded again without additional charge. That's probably the best you can do at this point.

Very sorry to hear about this. Hope you see a solution soon.

Fortunately, you will remember your "trip of a lifetime", even without the photos....I know...the pictures are nice, but your memories will stick with you....hold on to that.

This thread is over a month old, and the incident occurred on a cruise two months ago. I would hope that the OP would come back and tell us, if she had a satisfactory resolution to her problem. I hope she gets her vacation photos/video back, at least.

Backup, backup, backup.

Sorry for OP loss, but if I get some photos which I know I will value, I find ways to back up the SD card. After the San Diego Zoo, I took the card to a drug store and had all the files burned to a CD. Next day, the CD was in the hotel room and the card still had the photos.

Latest trip, I had the iPad and the apple dongle which reads off the SD card to it. So my iPad had all my photos and so did the Card. (Don't erase the card as you go or you still only have one copy.) I also found a few photos which really worked and so emailed them to myself for when I got home. This waited on a port day with free wifi.

There are always options to back up card but they need to be planned into the trip when you pack.

I work on locks and safes, the hotel safe in the room is not some wondrous vault but darned better than a bedside table. It only works if you use it.

.......I work on locks and safes, the hotel safe in the room is not some wondrous vault but darned better than a bedside table. It only works if you use it.

We had a couple of safes where you needed to apply gentle pressure to the door, holding it closed while it went through the locking cycle. Otherwise, you would hear the locking mechanism working and it appeared to be locked because the door was closed, but it really was not locked.

We were on the Celebrity Infinity June 29 sailing, booked in Aqua Class cabin 9053. This theft occurred Thursday evening, last day of the cruise, when we were off the ship in Victoria. The items were taken from the bedside table top drawer. The staff advised that they would be cleaning out the AQ Class specialty items from our room. I think they decided to clean out some other things from our room as well. Stolen items included a kindle, an empty Maui Jim eyeglass case and a Camelback bottle. The most egregious act was stealing the empty Panasonic camera case that heartbreakingly held the memory card of our once in a lifetime Helicopter/ Glacier tour and Kayak excursions.

 

We KNOW the items were in the drawer when we left for Victoria, because my husband took the camera and sunglasses with him. These items were in the drawer when we left the ship to go into Victoria. Friday morning, hubby went to pack the drawer contents and the drawer was empty. He assumed I had packed them as I usually do.

 

When we were unpacking Saturday morning at our home, he asked what I did with the stuff from his drawer...I told him I didn't pack his drawer. We immediately called "Lost and Found" to file a stolen report. They said it would take 24-48 hours to get back to us. Today, Wed, I called again to follow up...they said they could not find the "lost" items...I told them again they were NOT LOST, they had been STOLEN on the last day of the cruise. I was advised that the person I originally spoke to did not call back because he has jury duty and that no one was handing his files. The call today, the woman gave me the number of the ship to call...at a cost to me of $7.95 a minute...seriously...Celebrity does not even seem to care that someone working for them went into a room and cleaned out a passengers items...yet if I want to talk to the ship...I have to call and an enormous cost to me. That is POOR customer service. I have also notified Customer Service and have sent a letter to the Celebrity President and CEO.

 

DID anyone else on this cruise or any other Infinity cruise have items stolen from their room? I am curious if this has happened to anyone else and if so what did you do and how did Celebrity respond to your notification.

 

The heartbreaking part of this is that the Memory Card with once in a lifetime activities can never be replaced. EPIC FAIL to Celebrity for your lack of follow up to an internal issue...awaiting a response!

IF these were stolen why didn’t you report them before you left the ship?

You forget to pack them, got off the ship and home and discovered them missing and that you screwed up.

Why don't you blame the next people in your cabin for stealing them?

Good advice! But we learned that it is a good idea to give the door to the safe a little tug after you lock it to check and be sure the door is really locked.

 

We had a couple of safes where you needed to apply gentle pressure to the door, holding it closed while it went through the locking cycle. Otherwise, you would hear the locking mechanism working and it appeared to be locked because the door was closed, but it really was not locked.

I also give the door on the safe a little tug after I have locked it.

OP

I am sorry for your loss.

I really don't like the idea that the cabin stewards on ships and workers in hotels do leave the doors open while they are cleaning the cabins/rooms. And we all know that they leave to go and get supplies -- and anyone can walk into a cabin and take anything.

Lesson to learn -- we always on the last night go through all the drawers and closets to make certain that we have everything packed in suitcases and carry-ons. I never leave that to the morning when we get off the ship.

Sorry for your loss.

Another explanation maybe that the items fell behind the back of the drawer. I have found the drawers on cruise ships are very shallow and sometimes items can get pushed to the back and fall behind the drawer. It has happened to me. I am very careful with these shallow drawers.

There is a way to take the drawers out completely to check behind them.

I generally put small items in a plastic bag if I use the drawers, so I am sure things dong fall behind the drawer.

I hope you do get your valuable items returned.

My husband loss a diamond ring once at a pool in Las Vegas and some expensive sun glasses on a ship once when he left them up at the pool deck by accident. No fun.

I try to remember to lock up 'valuables' even if its in a suitcase with a TSA lock. The cabin doors are left open when the attendants are cleaning. It would not be impossible for another passenger to sneak in and do a quick look about for anything of value.