luggage tag question---

On all the cruises we have taken, we always stay at a hotel the night before cruise day. I put the cruise luggage tags on then. So far, knock on wood, we have never had a problem with our luggage not making it to the cruise ship.

Today I received our luggage tags. Usually I just carry on the packet on the airplane. For some reason I glanced at it today, and noticed that Celebrity says to put tags on when you leave your home. Do they say that on the assumption that you are not staying at a hotel pre cruise? Just wondering what others on this board do. Put on the tags right away, even if staying at a hotel first? or Put on the tags right before you get ready to board the ship?

I don't put them on at all (I never order them so I don't get them) and ask for tags from the porters in port.

Just put them on before you leave for the cruise port. It makes it easy to just wheel your luggage over to a porter and then head to your cruise!!

Don't put them on if you are checking the same bags on an airline; they will almost certainly get ripped off by the handling and if they don't, they'll confuse the baggage handlers which can't be a good idea.

If you are going to put them on ahead of time, I would invest in those plastic luggage tag holders. You can buy them on Amazon, and they are less likely to come off your luggage.

Simple enough. Put the tags on before you leave the hotel. Should work.

Simple enough. Put the tags on before you leave the hotel. Should work.

Agree

On all the cruises we have taken, we always stay at a hotel the night before cruise day. I put the cruise luggage tags on then. So far, knock on wood, we have never had a problem with our luggage not making it to the cruise ship.

 

Today I received our luggage tags. Usually I just carry on the packet on the airplane. For some reason I glanced at it today, and noticed that Celebrity says to put tags on when you leave your home. Do they say that on the assumption that you are not staying at a hotel pre cruise? Just wondering what others on this board do. Put on the tags right away, even if staying at a hotel first? or Put on the tags right before you get ready to board the ship?

Hotel is fine. They just want to avoid arriving passengers holding up the process while they fumble to put on the tags.

Agree with all above. We never put them on before our flight, as they airlines sometimes remove them to avoid confusion. We put them on before we reach the port.

There is no confusion with airline tags -- the bar codes are completely different.

There might be some advantage to putting them on before your flight. I heard from one of the greeters in FLL a few years ago that if a bag goes astray and they see it circling the carousel unclaimed, and it has a cruise tag on it, they will do their best to get it to the correct ship. If it only has your personal tag on it, the airline personnel only have your home address and phone number, which doesn't help much. But the cruise tag alerts them to try to forward the bag to you.

And what if it does get ripped off by the baggage handlers? You are generally given so many extras that you can simply put another one on at the hotel.

I happened to call up Celebrity about another matter, and I mentioned what their package said. The customer service guy said-- message should be worded, "when you are getting ready to board the ship" and he advised against putting the tags on your suitcase if you will be at a hotel or residence before heading to the port--- which I have never done all these years- just never really thought about it.

If my suitcase is lost when getting of the plane, it would probably show up in time at the hotel. (would speak to the right people and simply tell them to send my luggage on to the ship's first port)

I also have from cruise critic the plastic tags for both Celebrity and Princess which I have used over and over again----

Again thanks posters for sharing your thoughts! Anita

Our airline said not to put them on before checking baggage. I guess it could be confusing to some…and I don't want my bag on a flight to Philadelphia!

It gives us something to do when we arrive and are waiting for the shuttle to show up. This works just fine for us.

NEVER, EVER put anything but the airline tags on bags that will be flying! NEVER!!!! They have enough trouble routing luggage with their own tags!!!

The cruise line is supposing you'll be coming straight to the ship.....they are idiots.

Wait until you've take all the flights to put ship's tags on!!!

Advice given by Celebrity CSR is, as so often, not correct.

No way the tag can be mistaken for an airline tag. It's fine to put it on before you leave home. Baggage personnel sometimes pull them off but usually don't.

Cruise tags in no way interfere with airline tags any more than airline tags interfere with cruise tags, bar code identifiers aren't the same at all

Agree...put them on just prior to leaving for the ship.

I also type up my entire itinerary, including any pre hotel stays and put a copy inside of each checked bag.

So, just to say this up front, DW and DDs all say that I'm overbearingly OCD. :D

Consequently, don't do what I do because it's probably (highly likely) to be over the top. However, I plead the fact that my surname is Murphy.

I print the luggage tag surrogate available from the cruise line and put one of those INSIDE each piece of luggage and carry-on. Cheap insurance. Then, on the last leg of the trip inbound, put the X-supplied tags on the bags. And, of course, our carry-ons. If someone can't figure out where to deliver my stuff, then there's not much else I could have done. :)

What difference does it make whether you put the tags on when you arrive at the hotel, during your stay at the hotel, before you leave the hotel, or after you leave the hotel? In other words, what does the hotel have to do with when you put on your luggage tags?

Always put them on in the taxi on the way to the hotel.:)

What difference does it make whether you put the tags on when you arrive at the hotel, during your stay at the hotel, before you leave the hotel, or after you leave the hotel? In other words, what does the hotel have to do with when you put on your luggage tags?

It has nothing to do with it.

The whole discussion was about putting them on for flying or waiting until flying was over.

Add me to the ones who don't put the tags on until we've completed all flights.

I put them on when I want to, cause I'm a rebel that way.

I put them on at the hotel. I also like to be safe rather than sorry so I put our name, cell phone #, Hotel name & phone number & "see outside pocket for travel itinerary" on top of our home information on our luggage tags.

Simple enough. Put the tags on before you leave the hotel. Should work.

Exactly what we always do, since we always spend the night before in a hotel.

Extra vote for doing at hotel. They only gets ripped off on the flight each time we tried.