Dawn cruise problem...

[Zeno]

Oh come on people - the poor woman thought her luggage was lost. The front desk seemed pretty indifferent and almost rude. I know I would be p*ssed and upset.

 

Did she over-react a little - maybe. But could the front desk have handled it better - absolutely .

 

A couple of lessons:

1. Upset as you are (and I know this isn't easy), have an idea in your mind about what they can do to make it up to you. Just expecting them to come up with something isn't going to work - since they probably have some sort of standard list of what they can offer.

2. Demand to speak to a supervisor if you are not satisfied with what the desk is saying. If the supervisor is not there, get an appointment for a specific time.

3. Cross pack and bring critical items in your carryons!!!!

4. Try to calm yourself (again not easy) and remember that sometimes luggage is merely misplaced and not actually missing. Personally I would be pro-active and march through the decks looking for my luggage (BUT this is just something I would do (to keep me calmer) and I don't necessarily recommend it to everyone.

 

NCL:

Instead of having a stressed and possibly less than patient front desk person, ask an already upset passenger questions that they may interpret as rude - why not:

1. Have a standard procedure that combines a sympathetic attitude with a little common sense.

2. Front desk - "I am so sorry to hear this. We will do our very best to find it for you. It's our policy that all passengers with missing luggage fill out this form - it really does make the finding of missing luggage easier". I know some of the questions are a little much but we have to ask them, please bear with us"

3. THE FORM has the borderline rude questions.

4. Procedure: front desk checks back with passenger at hourly intervals to see if luggage has arrived

These are all really simple things and I think would be more calming than what they appear to be doing now.

 

My opinion anyway.

[LOWTYD]

It's got to be pretty upsetting to think about an entire cruise with only the clothes you wore on to the ship.:eek:

 

I think this person derserves some consideration for her feelings.....wouldn't you be upset, frustrated and maybe even scared, if YOUR luggage with ALL YOUR clothes didn't turn up until MIDNIGHT!

 

I wouldn't really need my clothes until morining and I would have said "OK, let's wait until morning to see what happens." Once that ship sailed, there wasn't anything you could do if that suitcase never made it on anyway. So go have some fun an worry about it in the morning. If it made it on, great...they woud find it.

 

Now, about consideration. Yes, the passanger's feeling should be taken into coondieration but if the passanger is ranting and raving and waving fingers, all bets are off. If people speak rationally to each other, thing tend to be resloved more efficeiently and everyone can go back to their happy place. I don't know if the OP was calm and rational. If the girl at the Customer Service Desk was the one to raise her voice first then that is wrong. I hope th OP got her name and will contact NCL about her behavior. Without really hearing from the other side, we cannot truely tell who was getting irrataded first.

So it all worked out in the end, suitcase found, world wide catastrophe averted. Cruise taken. Lesson learned...Always pack a change of clothes in your carry on and go with the flow. Life's too short.:)

[LouCap]

The utter lack of compassion and empathy here is embarrassing. C'mon people, we're better than that! And do we really need to attack someone's font selection?!? Seriously, we're that desperate to find something to harp on? :(

[CruisnGram]

NCL:

Instead of having a stressed and possibly less than patient front desk person, ask an already upset passenger questions that they may interpret as rude - why not:

1. Have a standard procedure that combines a sympathetic attitude with a little common sense.

2. Front desk - "I am so sorry to hear this. We will do our very best to find it for you. It's our policy that all passengers with missing luggage fill out this form - it really does make the finding of missing luggage easier". I know some of the questions are a little much but we have to ask them, please bear with us"

3. THE FORM has the borderline rude questions.

4. Procedure: front desk checks back with passenger at hourly intervals to see if luggage has arrived

These are all really simple things and I think would be more calming than what they appear to be doing now.

 

My opinion anyway.

 

Our experience with a missing piece of luggage was handled exactly as you describe above.

 

My husband (yes, he did it, not me :)) in the excitement of boarding, put his briefcase on the luggage cart........untagged. I hadn't tagged it because I ASSumed that he would keep it with him at all times. Of course, an untagged piece of luggage is a nightmare on a ship.

 

When it didn't arrive with our regular luggage, we went to the front desk and encountered who is probably the same "Maria" that the OP encountered. She was friendly, concerned, and very helpful to us. She told us to give it a couple hours and if it didn't show up, to come back to the desk to fill out the form for the lost luggage. She said she would make some calls to attempt to locate it in the meantime. After a few more hours with it not showing up, my husband went back down and filled out the form.

 

The next day, we were called 3 times by Maria, asking if the briefcase had shown up. When we told her it had not, she said they would continue attempting to find it. That night, it was delived to our cabin.

 

It was totally our fault that the briefcase was misplaced since it wasn't tagged and we found NCL staff to be extremely helpful in locating it. Sorry that the OP's experience wasn't the same.

 

CG

[Dolphins]

I don't see how the poor clerk could have done any more than she did. Do you realize how many complaints the people at the reception desk have to handle in a week, many from irate, rude passengers? She didn't loose the luggage but she made every effort to locate it. After it was found, she tried to make amends but was rebuffed. Try to put yourself in their shoes. Having sailed on the Dawn many times, I have yet to find a single crew member deserving of my ire. On the contrary, most were deserving of my praise.

[iheartbda]

I don't see how the poor clerk could have done any more than she did. Do you realize how many complaints the people at the reception desk have to handle in a week, many from irate, rude passengers? She didn't loose the luggage but she made every effort to locate it. After it was found, she tried to make amends but was rebuffed. Try to put yourself in their shoes. Having sailed on the Dawn many times, I have yet to find a single crew member deserving of my ire. On the contrary, most were deserving of my praise.

Yes, we have only one side of the incident.

 

On my last cruise, while waiting in line at the excursion desk, I witnessed and "incident" where a pax had a problem. The person trying to help him did her best to explain and help but the pax only ranted, raved and would not listen to anything she had to say. All I could think was, if he posted the story on CC, it probably would be that she was the unreasonable one.;)

[DWEEZE]

Six people, three cabins on the Sept. 6 Dawn sailing……….luggage for all three cabins was sitting outside our doors when we reached our cabin around 2:00 p.m. We couldn’t have asked for better service. This was our first Norwegian cruise and everything went so well that as soon as we arrived back home we immediately booked a 12 day reposition cruise on the Spirit!

[Zeno]

I guess perception is everything. Since we were not there, the only version we have to deal with is the OP's. In cases like this it would be lovely but not practical to have the "other side". I can sympathize with an overworked Front Desk person on departure day - dealing with "yet another problem" but I can also sympathize with an upset passenger contemplating living a week in the same outfit and not "perceiving" much empathy from the Front Desk person.

[circuitrider]

Here's what I do:

 

When everyone's luggage is all together, open them all and mix and match. It's much easier for everyone to initially pack their own luggage (so you just look in your luggage to see if you remembered everything you needed, instead of going through several other people's too). Make sure you have at least one complete outfit in everyone else's suitcase. With two people each taking one suitcase, this ensures you'll have at least one extra outfit at all times (I'd probably put a few more outfits in the other suitcase in such a scenario, but still...). If your luggage is lost, at least you have something. If the cruise line lost it, they should pay for an extra outfit or two plus laundry. If you have insurance they should reimburse a certain amount for new clothes (but read it carefully, it has to be missing for a certain amount of time first). A hassle, but everything works out in the end.

 

Pack extra underwear and jeans, but don't worry about shirts. At least if you plan on buying several for souvenirs.

 

Any must-have essentials that aren't easily replaced (contacts, medicine, special shampoo, whatever) need to be brought in your carry-on.

 

Before you leave, try living out of your suitcase for a day. When you're done with an item, immediately re-pack it. This way you shouldn't forget your special toothbrush, contact cleaner, etc. Try to arrive a day early, this will force you to live out of your suitcase an extra day/night. If you discover you forgot something really important, you might be able to get it resolved before you board (might be hard if you're boarding on a Sunday, but it can be possible to get a prescription filled at a local pharmacy, find some extra clothes at a nearby store, etc.).

 

Once you get on board, don't let things bother you too much. When we went on the Island Princess last year for an Alaska cruise, LOTS of things went wrong (toilets wouldn't work, we had to wait 30 minutes or so to be allowed back on the ship due to them not already having our cards ready for the second part of the B2B, etc.). We were steamed, but just wrote things down, made an initial complaint, and let it go at that. Glad to report we had a wonderful cruise, though we'll probably never sail on Princess again.

 

So, I guess in this situation I'd ask sometime after dinner if luggage still hadn't arrived. Then I'd just write down whatever bad happened (rude staff at desk, whatever). I'd check back sometime the next day, go to the lost-and-found luggage section if I was told about it, and at that point let it go (whether it's found or not). I don't want to spend an entire day or more of our cruise that we spent our hard-earned money for worrying about something that I can't do anything about. We'd just use the spare clothes we cross-packed, buy more in port, and send a letter once we got off the cruise. I'll do my stressing out when I'm not cruising!

[lilcruzr]

Hi baarb, It was nice meeting you and your mother. Did you ever get a chance to talk to Hugo, the hotel director? He's a great guy. I know you were going to talk to someone, but I forgot who it was. Glad you made it home safely. Please, tell your mom I said hi and she looked great on Halloween!

Jolena

[tonit964]

On our last cruise we were in the cabin waiting for luggage to arrive and all but one made it in a very short time from boarding. We went and ate lunch and went back to the cabin and my suitcase was still not there. While in the cabin the steward brought our last red suitcase and I looked carefully and noticed the luggage tag was not our cabin number 8201 but was close to it 8210. Now if we had not been in our cabin that bag which belonged to someone else would have stayed outside our door until we noticed it so I can see how this could happen as well.

 

I think they do a great job considering the amount they have to deal with.

Happy Cruising! :)

[Ontheotherhand]

For all those who are defending the attitude of the desk clerk, wouldn't this;

 

She told us that there was no name on the suitcase... We then showed her the tag!!!!! She said nothing.....

 

I know I'd be pretty mad by that time, her still insisting it's somehow the passenger's fault that the bag was mislaid. But then, that's what customer servic has come to in a lot of venues lately.

[2Cruise4Ever]

Two words: travel insurance...never leave home without it and we always have backup plans for situations like this.....'nuff said.

[scchasgal]

Barb sorry to hear about mom's luggage mishap. I would have been upset too.

 

I think in this case I can see how it happened, you said the luggage was found on deck 5. You were originally booked on deck 5 up until a week or less from cruise date right?

[*Wink*]

Two words: travel insurance...never leave home without it and we always have backup plans for situations like this.....'nuff said.

 

Wow.. for a scary, skeletal terrorist you are remarkably smart. lol

 

I think in this case I can see how it happened, you said the luggage was found on deck 5. You were originally booked on deck 5 up until a week or less from cruise date right?

 

I bet you'd be good at 'Clue'! :D

[iheartbda]

[quote name='*Wink*']


I bet you'd be good at 'Clue'! :D[/quote]
I think Mr. Green originally took the bag since he's from a fanily of shysters and he was going to sell the contents. However, Colonel Mustard was on to him, got the bag and hid it in the library. Professor Plum was in the library at the time catching up on some academic reading when he saw Colonel Mustard hide the bag and retrieved it from it's hiding place.

Mrs. White, being the old biddy that she is, and secretly having a crush on Colonel Mustard, had followed him to the library, demanded to know what was going on. Miss Scarlet, who was passing by at the time, heard the commotion and popped in. All the while, Mrs. Peacock was highly engrossed in reading up on the latest manners book but was rudely interrupted by all the unnecessary talking in the library.

At this point, she joined the group to look at the bag in question, saw that the name on it did not match any of the people present and being the proper mannered lady that she is, took the bag to guest services. By this time it was about 12ish.

It wasn't really on deck 5, it was in the library all the while.

[bplazo]

Does anyone remember the story about the person who was on his honeymoon and his luggage was lost for a few days and then they finally found out that it had been in another cabin in the closet. I am sure that this happens quite a bit. I know that on one cruise we did not receive some of our luggage till have 10:00 pm. No big deal.

[LOWTYD]

[quote name='iheartbda']i think mr. Green originally took the bag since he's from a fanily of shysters and he was going to sell the contents. However, colonel mustard was on to him, got the bag and hid it in the library. Professor plum was in the library at the time catching up on some academic reading when he saw colonel mustard hide the bag and retrieved it from it's hiding place.

Mrs. White, being the old biddy that she is, and secretly having a crush on colonel mustard, had followed him to the library, demanded to know what was going on. Miss scarlet, who was passing by at the time, heard the commotion and popped in. All the while, mrs. Peacock was highly engrossed in reading up on the latest manners book but was rudely interrupted by all the unnecessary talking in the library.

At this point, she joined the group to look at the bag in question, saw that the name on it did not match any of the people present and being the proper mannered lady that she is, took the bag to guest services. By this time it was about 12ish.

It wasn't really on deck 5, it was in the library all the while.[/quote]


you win!!!!!:d

[*Wink*]

[quote name='*Wink*']

I understand the stress, but you are very lucky. There have been posts on these boards about luggage not being found until the last day.. in another person's closet, no less. lol

[/QUOTE]

[quote name='bplazo']Does anyone remember the story about the person who was on his honeymoon and his luggage was lost for a few days and then they finally found out that it had been in another cabin in the closet. [/QUOTE]

Yup. ;)

[*Wink*]

[quote name='iheartbda']I think Mr. Green originally took the bag since he's from a fanily of shysters and he was going to sell the contents. However, Colonel Mustard was on to him, got the bag and hid it in the library. Professor Plum was in the library at the time catching up on some academic reading when he saw Colonel Mustard hide the bag and retrieved it from it's hiding place.

Mrs. White, being the old biddy that she is, and secretly having a crush on Colonel Mustard, had followed him to the library, demanded to know what was going on. Miss Scarlet, who was passing by at the time, heard the commotion and popped in. All the while, Mrs. Peacock was highly engrossed in reading up on the latest manners book but was rudely interrupted by all the unnecessary talking in the library.

At this point, she joined the group to look at the bag in question, saw that the name on it did not match any of the people present and being the proper mannered lady that she is, took the bag to guest services. By this time it was about 12ish.

It wasn't really on deck 5, it was in the library all the while.[/QUOTE]
LMAO!!!

Remind me to not get together with you on "game night."

[2Cruise4Ever]

[quote name='*Wink*']Wow.. for a scary, skeletal terrorist you are remarkably smart. lol:D[/quote]

Silence!!! I Keel You!!! LOL

Clinky!

[Cruiser#5]

[quote name='2Cruise4Ever']Silence!!! I Keel You!!! LOL

Clinky![/quote]

Too Funny,

Where's Walter when you need him. I'm sure he'd have a good response :D

[Sally Forth]

[quote name='jmcdon7230']Did anyone else.....get a headache.....reading this thing?[/quote]

Yup! The letters danced all over the place.

I think I have some insight into the casual attitude of the person at the desk. A friend of mine used to arrange incentive tours and you wouldn't believe how many people leave bags in cabs, at the airport, on the curb, in their trunk, etc. She said that if there were more than 50 people on a tour, chances were she'd be Fed-Exing luggage someplace.

Viv

[Ontheotherhand]

[quote name='Sally Forth']Yup! The letters danced all over the place.

I think I have some insight into the casual attitude of the person at the desk. A friend of mine used to arrange incentive tours and you wouldn't believe how many people leave bags in cabs, at the airport, on the curb, in their trunk, etc. She said that if there were more than 50 people on a tour, chances were she'd be Fed-Exing luggage someplace.

Viv[/quote]

That may well be true, but the job of the person at the desk is to help passengers having problems, not chastise them for what they might have done (or even interrogate them about it). How much better it might have been if she said:

Oh, you luggage didn't come to your room? I'm so sorry about that. Usually when this happens it's because the luggage went astray on the ship and most passengers get their luggage delivered to them in a couple of hours. In the meantime, is there anything you need--at toothbursh, razor, or whatever? Let me take your name and I'll call your cabin by ___ o'clock and see if it showed up.

Then at __ o'clock: It still didn't come? I'm sorry, but we do have a lost luggage room where suticases which lost their tags are kept; let me stop by your room and we can go check the lost and found right away.

Then after checking: OK, we'll have to start looking for the luggage more closely; many times luggage is delivered to the wrong room and is recovered by the stewards and forwarded to the owner. It could take a little time, but I will file a report to be certain all are aware of it and keep an eye out. Now, forgive me for asking, but this can be important--exactly what sort of ID did you have on the luggage--NCL tag? Your own ID tag? Did you have any identifying information inside? Also, we will contact the pier to see if it was located there, so I will have to ask how you checked it--did you use a red cap or bring it to the check in yourself. And how did you arrive? sometimes luggage is left in taxis and they bring it to the pier, so we need to know. We'll keep working on it and I'll call to update you by ____; in the meantime, do you need toiletries or anything else for the interim.

And when it's found--I have your luggage at the desk, would you like to come up and get it or have me send it to your room? I'm not really sure what happened but it was located by the stewards on another deck; yes, it has the tag with your room number on it, so we really don't know what happened, but rest assured we will look into it. I know it's no consolation to you, be we handle thousands of pieces of luggage a week and we want to avoid this happeneing every time. If you'd like to fill out a complaint or speak with the hotel director stop by the desk and we can arrange it. And again, on behalf of NCL we are all very sorry for your inconvenience.

Is it really that hard? Even if the cutomer is screaming, it is the responsibility of the desk clerk to try to defuse the situation and, at all times, to treat the passenger with respect. My guess is that, if it were handled this way, no talk of compensation would even have come up.

[martinchem]

Cute stuff