Porter stole electronics voyager 12/9

I need some advice. We recieved all of our luggage outside our room by 5:30 or so, with the exception of my son's bookbag. We asked our room steward when we should expect a word about it and he said to give it to 9pm. If it wasn't there by then, then maybe the identification was removed or something and to go to guest relations.

With no bag by 9pm, I left dinner to go to the guest relations desk and sure enough it was behind the desk. I thanked them and was so grateful that they had it. When we got upstairs with the bag, we discovered that my son's psp ($200) two games ($90) and his ipod ($200) were all missing. I went back down to the desk to see if they had fallen out (wishful thinking) and they said that they had nothing. They suggested that I fill out a missing merch form, which I did. They then said for me to call RCI one week after we get back to see what they have to say.

I know for certain that he had these things in his backpack, as I made all of my kids double check their backpacks as we left the Holiday Inn.

What am I to do? Are they going to believe me? I wonder if anyone knows of anyone who may have had this problem and if theymight have a tip to help getting it reimbursed? Any advice would be appreciated.

I also left my camera under my seat at the early farewell show. I looked for me camera at dinner and couldn't find it. I immediatley went back to Le Scala and it was gone. Again, customer relations had me fill out a form. This however, I blame on me for being an idiot. (why would somene not at least turn in my memory card and then keep the camera?... evil people)

About an extra grand on a trip!!! Any advice or experience would help a ton! thanks.

Advice for the future.................dont ever leave anything valuable like that outta your sight.......if it was in a bookbag,why didnt your son carry it on???

Good luck getting it back,even though thats highly unlikely.....

I read a thread similar to this awhile ago--1st, you should NEVER leave anything of real value unlocked! If my son had wanted to bring alone an expensive item, and it wouldn't fit in my locked suitcase, he would have had to carry it around with him!

But, you should write a letter to RCI--explain the situation, and see what happens. Did you pay with a credit card for the cruise? Sometimes, they have travel insurance attached. Worth checking out. If you bought travel insurance, I'd check that also, as well as my homeowners (if you want to file a claim!)

I am sorry this happened to you, but I doubt RCI would be responsible for it.

Something as small as a backpack, especially one with expensive electronics in it, I would always carry on. I would NEVER leave it out of my sight. Would you leave an ipod by the pool? Why would you leave it with a porter?

The porters work for the port and not the cruise line. I would venture to say that you are out of luck. As stated, one should never leave that type of stuff in checked luggage. Live and learn.

I am so sorry this happened.

As ParrotHead said, it is a hard lesson, but hopefully someone else will learn from this and not let anything valuable out of your hands until you can lock it in your cabin safe. I have read that all bags go through x-ray when they come aboard, and I guess someone took advantage of what they saw.

I doubt if the ship will find it :( , but as CB suggested, maybe there will be some recourse through insurance. :)

Good luck!

I am sorry you had to experience this, but I don't think you have any recourse with the cruise line. As for the camera, it would be nice if people were thoughtful like that, but most aren't. As for the backpack of electronics, you never know where those went, but I definitely would not check something of such value with a porter. But as someone else said, the porters don't work for the cruiseline. And you really have no evidence of where it went.

Dear KKID432, I am the one the posters are referring to as having the same situation happen on our October sailing of Freedom of the Seas. Following is a copy of my post.

Hello,

My family and I just got back from a great cruise aboard the Freedom of the Seas. However, I wanted make everyone aware to be carefull with your belongings at the Port of Miami. When we arrived via taxi at the port of Miami we as usual tipped the attendant to take care of our bags. Our 12 year old son had a backpack that he also left that was tagged with the room tag. In my sons backpack he had his Play Station Portible (PSP), 3 games, sunglasses, and LOTS of homework.

Sunday evening after dinner we had received all of our luggage except for our sons backpack. When I asked the cabin steward about it he informed us that all baggage had been delivered. He then advised that we should check on deck Two for any non-tagged baggage. We checked there and sure enough our sons backpack was there and the tag was ripped off. My son then opened his backpack to find his PSP and three games all gone. The cases for the games were still there, but they stole the games out of the cases. Obviously the theif only wanted items they could put in their pocket.

We immediately went to Guest Relations desk and reported the theft. They asked us to fill out a report and then sent two housekeeping personnel to our room to search it for the missing items. (Not sure why they did this, but we did not care). After the search of our room we contacted guest relations and were informed that they would turn the information over to an outside agency who would "handle it". I asked several times to speak with the head of security but was told he was to busy to talk to us anytime durring the cruise. I was told that the outside company would contact me at home after the cruise regarding the "alleged theft".

I still do not know what will happen. But, be carefull. And by the way, no I did not have cruise insurance. I have cruised 9 times and have never purchased it. I thought it was more for emergency situations, not for cruise line employee theft!!!

If anyone has experienced this before, please let me know how I should proceed or if my son is just out of luck...

Since this post I sent a letter to RCCL regarding this and also filed a police report via telephone with the Miami-Dade Police Department. I was lucky enough to have the serial number of the PSP so hopefully if anyone tries to pawn it or etc it will be caught. To date I still have not heard back from Royal Caribbean. The feedback I have received has not been helpfull at all. Just a lot of folks telling me it's my fault that someone stole my stuff. Best of luck. I understand how frusterating it is. Tyler

The OP questioned why the camera thief didn't at least turn in the memory card to the desk. If they did that then when the victim showed up at the desk the staff might remember who turned in the card.

Anybody with a total lack of morality who could steal someone's camera is not going to be bothered returning your memories to you.

KKID432,

The contact information if you want to file a police "stolen property" report was:

Juan J, Perez, Lieutenant

Miami-Dade Police Department

Police Operations Bureau

Seaport Operations Section

(305) 347-4883 office

(305) 329-4059 main #

e-mail - j_j_perez@mdpd.com

They were real nice, maybe if enough people complain they can start stopping these crimes.

I had a problem with one of our bags. We got the electronic check-in information and of course the tags you had to use tape to keep them on the bags. Needless to say, mine tore off. I got my bag late on the first night, luckily I had personal luggage tags on the bag so they could check the manifest and get it to the correct room.

I didn't have anything taken out of the bag from what I can tell. The major thing that I had was a ring that I was giving to my wife on the cruise was in a bag that I had carried on.

Hopefully something comes out of this for you and you can get some if not all of your things back.

Good luck.

File a claim with your homeowners insurance and never let anything of real value out of your hands while traveling.

File a claim with your homeowners insurance and never let anything of real value out of your hands while traveling.

I agree: homeowner's or credit card used to pay for the trip, but that's a bit of a longshot. Homeowner's, however, usually does cover personal belongings away from home. Check your policy for the electronics rider and see what the limit is. It's probably enough to cover all your son's stuff and your camera, too.

To the OP, it isn't clear to me why your sons bag was with Guest Services and not delivered outside your cabin. Was it properly tagged?

Not that it changes anything, but it's odd that it wasn't delivered to your stateroom.

To the OP, it isn't clear to me why your sons bag was with Guest Services and not delivered outside your cabin. Was it properly tagged?

 

Not that it changes anything, but it's odd that it wasn't delivered to your stateroom.

I would image that like a previous poster indicated, the ID tag was ripped off.........so it would be more difficult to track who had it.....since it is now "lost".......and the owner does not discover the theft until much later than the normal delivery time.

Did you get travel insurance? Travel insurance is supposed to cover theft that happens during a trip.

Next time, don't leave anything expensive unattended.

I need some advice. We recieved all of our luggage outside our room by 5:30 or so, with the exception of my son's bookbag. We asked our room steward when we should expect a word about it and he said to give it to 9pm. If it wasn't there by then, then maybe the identification was removed or something and to go to guest relations.

 

With no bag by 9pm, I left dinner to go to the guest relations desk and sure enough it was behind the desk. I thanked them and was so grateful that they had it. When we got upstairs with the bag, we discovered that my son's psp ($200) two games ($90) and his ipod ($200) were all missing. I went back down to the desk to see if they had fallen out (wishful thinking) and they said that they had nothing. They suggested that I fill out a missing merch form, which I did. They then said for me to call RCI one week after we get back to see what they have to say.

 

I know for certain that he had these things in his backpack, as I made all of my kids double check their backpacks as we left the Holiday Inn.

 

What am I to do? Are they going to believe me? I wonder if anyone knows of anyone who may have had this problem and if theymight have a tip to help getting it reimbursed? Any advice would be appreciated.

 

I also left my camera under my seat at the early farewell show. I looked for me camera at dinner and couldn't find it. I immediatley went back to Le Scala and it was gone. Again, customer relations had me fill out a form. This however, I blame on me for being an idiot. (why would somene not at least turn in my memory card and then keep the camera?... evil people)

 

About an extra grand on a trip!!! Any advice or experience would help a ton! thanks.

Years ago Mom taught me to put my name on a piece of paper, incase the outside ID tag came off. This way your stuff is identified as yours.

Shame on those scolding the people of the thefts, that are asking for help on this board.:mad:

Maybe hidden cameras placed at the areas where the luggage handlers have an opportunity to take out personal stuff, should be installed!?

Unfortunately you have no way to tell if it was a porter, a member of the crew that took the luggage on board, or the staff member that delivered your bags to your room. Others have posted to put anything of real value such as laptops, camera's etc. in a carry on. Each person can bring a carry onboard so you should have plenty of room to carry what you have. I'm sorry this happened to you and I can understand you being upset. I would suggest cruise insurance in the future but check the dollar amount it will cover and if it covers stolen possessions or just lost luggage. Not every policy is the same. Remember cruise insurance is not just for lost or stolen luggage, but for cancellation and medical bills. There are alot of health insurance policys that DO NOT cover you if you are out of the country. You would have still have to pay upfront for any medical care you would receive onboard or in a port but at least you could submit the bills to the cruise insurance carrier for reimbursement. That's the main reason we carry it to be sure medical evacuation and other bills would be covered in an illness or emergency. I hope RCCL does do something for you but I don't know if they will or not. Good luck:o

we left our camera on the d.r. table on the adventure of the seas once- it was turned in to lost and found so we were able to get it back-

sorry this happened to you- it really stinks that there are people out there who steal things- real shame-

I put a piece of tape with my room number and cell number and address. I lost my camera case at Universal studios and someone called me. Can't hurt.

I read a piece of advice once...............write your info(name,addy,phone#) down on a piece of paper....then take a picture of it................if some honest person finds it and looks at your pic(maybe to see if they recognize anyone),they will see your info...............wouldnt hurt.........

Thanks for all of the positive, helpful responses.

For those of you who are chastising, I assumed that it went without saying that we screwed up by leaving those things in the bookbag. I guess I was posting to see what I might do to remedy the situation, not to be scolded for have a lapse in judgement. I was relieved to be at the port and assumed that I would get the same RCI treatment I have always gotten and let my guard down.

I will contact my credit card, homeowners and then Miami police as you have suggested. I realize that my chances are very slim, but making more people aware might help them.

I must say though, as for the person who said why would someone return the memory card, they could easily just say that they found it on the ground, etc. To take the memory card, is just evil.

and it is too bad that some travelers insurance uses homeowners insurance as 1st used & they are 2nd. We are $1000 deductible since we make no small claims after being cancelled by AFI for a $375 jewelery claim when a diamond tennis bracelet was ripped from my wrist in Vegas.

RCCL VISA has no warranty extension & no travelers insurance unless you want to buy Access America (airport closed 24 hours for a claim) or some other very expensive bunch. So we use that for restaurants, groceries, and gasoline but not for appliances or other high priced merchandise which is AMEX only.

This is a little off topic, however it is a good ending to a bad story. We were in San Juan the end of November for our b2b Empress cruise, when I left a camera bag in a cab. We had left the Intercontinental Hotel to go to the pier when I left the bag in the taxi. The bag contained our camera ($400), two ipods ($300), several memory cards, and some cash. We did not realize that the bag was missing until approximately 30 minutes later (and 15 minuites prior to the terminal doors opening for boarding), so we called the hotel and spoke with the porter who got the cab for us and he took time out to go look for the taxi. It seems the guy was assigned to the hotel and was back outside at that time.

To make a long story short the cab driver returned to the pier with the camera bag and ALL of it's contents. When I tried to give the driver a tip he said no, that it was the right thing for him to do, and kept insisting that he did not even open it. I finally convinced him to let me pay him for the extra trip and the honesty, plus some extra for him.

That helps restore my faith in people, it certainly would not happen in too many other places.