FTTF luggage didn't come any earlier

[ncbrighteyes]

Just off the Liberty and I am a Diamond guest so we went directly to cabin....by 11 AM....which was nice......but our luggage and FTTF luggage in cabins near us didnt get delivered until after 2PM

 

So.....I'd be pissed if I had paid for that so-called perk....

 

Did the people with FTTF near you get on the ship at 11am also? The time they got on the ship is what you should be looking at. If they arrived later than you they received quicker. If I get on at 1pm and receive by 2pm I will be very happy. I am trying the FTTF on our next cruise and was told that the parking shuttle that we will be using will not start running until 11:30am so you will be on before me but would we receive our luggage at the same time? If so I'm very happy.

[august1963]

So, what time do the doors open to the cabin hallway now? Are they open to everyone or just the people that get into their rooms early?

[Tutankhamen]

Thanks for the info.

 

A few thoughts. The main reason I purchased f2f is so that I can get to my cabin early and change out of my travel clothes. I will just pack my clothes that I plan to change into in my carry on luggage. Won't be a problem being that I can go straight to my cabin and drop off that luggage. As far as getting the luggage at 2pm, still better then any other time I have ever gotten my luggage on any ship.

[gelo7]

So would I.

[Raven Days]

The main reason I bought it was in order to get to my cabin as soon as I board. I typically get to the port at 10.30 and I am usually on board by 11-11.30. Then I have to wait until 1.30 to get to my cabin. That has been the norm for me on all past cruises. I have tried sneaking in earlier (1ish) to drop bags and got shoo'd out by the cabin stewards. So I yes, I am happy to pay the $50 fee to get to my cabin quicker and drop my carry on's.

 

I get the impression from the the OP, who said he did not have a problem with the FTTF in his post, that he really does have an issue. Why even post when the bags were delivered for FTTF if it did not impact you directly? My bags were never delivered before we left port. Hell one time I had to go hunt them down. They were in a luggage cart sitting in front of elevators on one of the upper decks with no carnival person in sight. I saw my one missing bag and took it. It was nearly dinner time and all of our other bags had been delivered. So if I get my bags when I board or even at 2 pm it will be an improvement of what has been the norm for me.

 

And while I didn't know it at the time of purchase, the priority tender will come in handy at GC. My friend has a ship excursion and will want to be off the ship quite early. My only other tender experience was on HMC, where it took several minutes to an hour to get off. So again, if this speeds that up...then great!

 

I am sorry that those who have cruised several times and have indeed earned this perk are feeling left out by those who can now purchase it for less that what I am sure you paid for your cruises. But from what I understand, you are still 1st in all things with Carnival. Every question, I have posed to the CS at Carnival went beyond their explanations to state that FTTF perks are AFTER those of Platinum and Diamond and even suite guests.

[heatherandfred]

Who cares. As long as your luggage arrives!! That's the key.

[keystonemama]

Thanks for letting us know. Unfortunately no where is it stated what time "Express" time is for the FTTF. CCL:

Express Luggage

Your luggage will be expedited to your stateroom so you can unpack and get settled in for a great vacation!

 

We thought we try it on our upcoming Dream cruise so we could unsaddle ourselves with the carryon's and drinks quickly and get that DOD in hand, :p, on my Freedom cruise, luggage did not arrive until 5 p.m. Maybe some of it depends on how many Platinum/Diamond cruisers are on board a particular sailing? I have found on the smaller ships luggage tends to get there a lot quicker than a ship with 4-5 thousand.

Happy Sailing,

[WhoDat2009]

As a Diamond guest....I am ALWAYS among the first to board.......and I earned that perk the old way......

 

....by paying hundreds of times what I'll pay, and boarding with all the riff raff for like 9 cruises

 

Look on the bright side, boarding with all the riff raff is free for you now. PERKS!

[bguppies]

When we sailed the Dream, we boarded at 11AM (we were the first 4 -5 people after the wedding party) went straight to our Cove balcony.

 

4 out of our 6 bags were already at the cabin door.

The other 2 were there within the hour.

 

Don't know if being that low, helped get our luggage there sooner.

 

The only luggage we saw in the hall when we arrived was our cabin and two other cabins. (one of which, was FTTF. Didn't walk past the other)

 

Still lots of room cleaning going on.

 

Like someone statetd already, 2PM is still pretty expediated...

It doesn't guarantee it will be at your cabin before boarding begins. Just expediated.

 

Bill

[CRUZBUDS]

We'll be Platinum on our next Carnival cruise -- She is going to love expedited luggage more than any of the other perks.

 

DW's vacation doesn't start until she's fully unpacked. One time the bags didn't make it until after late seating dinner -- she was climbing the walls ;)

[RickinNYC]

I'm curious as to how the OP knows those bags were delivered through the FTTF program. Did you look at the tags? If so, why?

[vamartha]

For me the arrival time of the luggage is of no consequence. It gets there when it gets there and it isn't the reason I purchase FTTF.

 

We like to bring our own Diet Soda and it is worth 50% of the value to me just to be able to drop off my bags immediately after embarkation.

 

The other half of the value to me is the priority tender benefit. We frequent some tender ports and the benefit there can give me an extra 30 minutes to an hour underwater depending on the port.

 

And a bonus is the Guest Services line. My DH is usually a frequent visitor - lost his debit card behind the desk and the wall, locked our safe then lost the card we used, lost his sign and sail card, you get the idea! :rolleyes:

 

Luggage - I could care less. I've got 7 days to unpack that stuff! :D

[WhoDat2009]

I'm curious as to how the OP knows those bags were delivered through the FTTF program. Did you look at the tags? If so, why?

 

All it takes is a quick check for an FTTF tag to make sure, on the off chance they accidentally make friends with someone, that they won't catch a nasty case of young or middle class :eek:

[wbc12345]

We purchased FTTF for our cruise this summer and I was curious what time the luggage would be delivered. Thanks OP for letting us know what your experience was.

 

Last summer we received all of our luggage by 3 p.m. It was wonderful, because we were totally unpacked before the muster drill! There is nothing better than that for me. :D

 

I hope that with FTTF we will be able to quickly unpack. I would be disappointed if we paid extra for a FTTF benefit and we didn't actually receive any benefit. I realize "expedited" isn't defined, but I would think that this meant it comes before others luggage who didn't purchase FTTF.

[barbatkins]

....by paying hundreds of times what I'll pay, and boarding with all the riff raff for like 9 cruises

 

Look on the bright side, boarding with all the riff raff is free for you now. PERKS!

 

Curious as to why some of you always feel the need to post mean or sarcastic replies that really had nothing to do with my original post.......which was just meant to be informational....

[beachbum53]

Question for Bashlin. Where did you find the "FTTF" logo to use as your avatar? I'm guessing you had to "cut and paste" from somewhere.

[zstell]

We sailed on the Dream last month and boarded around 12:30. Our room was ready and our by the time we were back from lunch, most of our luggage was there. The rest arrived before the muster drill. We are platinum, but if not, I would gladly pay the $50 to not have to drag our carry on bags around Lido deck.

 

My vacation officially starts when I am unpacked so I loved getting our bags earlier than usual. We have had to unpack after dinner more than once. Going on a last minute 3 day cruise (which is something I said I would never do), for my son's first college spring break. I don't think I'll even bother unpacking except for the couple of sundresses I am bringing. I have never lived out of a suitcase of vacation, but I think I will enjoy not unpacking and repacking!

[bonnys]

We used FTTF on the Imagination and were among the first 20-25 people onboard. We went straight to our cabin and our luggage had beat us there! So we were onboard, in our cabin, and unpacked by 11:40.

[NolaCayenne]

I too, do not understand why so many are upset over the ability to purchase FTTF. Did you cruise just to obtain the ability to board first, or have "special privileges or is it possibly that cruising is just your type of vacation? If the later is true you have been rewarded for doing something you wanted to do regardless of perks. My husband and I could be platinum if this is the only vacations we enjoyed. This is our 3rd Carnival Cruise and we cruised once on RC, but in between these we have been to the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Montana, 4 of the Hawaiian Islands and last year hiking Glacier National Park and later this year we will go whale watching and explore the Big Sur in California. We consider cruising our lazy vacations, which we enjoy time to time. So do not look down on me because I just purchased FTTF for my upcoming cruise. People purchase for many different reasons not just to have luggage on first. We are taking my elderly mother and her elderly sister and if I can afford to pay $50 to not have to worry about them standing in long lines I am more than happy. Some people do it because they are traveling with children so how nice for them to be able to purchase a convenience. Don't worry you other "platinum perks" are still safe from those of us that can afford FTTF.

[MMastell]

I haven't read all of the responses but I will say that we did FTTF on Glory and Imagination in January. On Glory we were in our cabin in about 30 minutes and our luggage arrived about 45 minutes later.

 

On Imagination we went from the cab to our room in about fifteen minutes and our luggage arrived less than ten minutes later. We were completely unpacked and having fun by 12:30 p.m.

 

The one difference between Glory and Imagination was that on Glory we didn't see the FTTF luggage drop off and the luggage went with everyone else's in our shuttle. I was still very happy with the speed that our luggage arrived. On previous cruises it showed up sometime around muster drill or later. On Imagination we saw the drop off and dropped the luggage off there.

 

We are now Platinum so we won't need to buy the FTTF but I think it's a worthwhile expense for those who are not Platinum and don't want to walk around with their carry-on bags for a couple of hours.

 

For those who think FTTF isn't fair; That's their problem. Especially since they limit the number of FTTF passengers.

 

Take care,

Mike

[Sh1035]

Glad this is the least of. My concerns on vacation. Now maybe by 5 I might be concerned. But that's when you go back to the bar and hope? Wait out of beer now we have an issue....

[onthehighseas606]

Just off the Liberty and I am a Diamond guest so we went directly to cabin....by 11 AM....which was nice......but our luggage and FTTF luggage in cabins near us didnt get delivered until after 2PM

 

So.....I'd be pissed if I had paid for that so-called perk....

 

FTTF = Faster to the Furious :D

[TMWTim]

This thread delivers! Diamond and Platinum mad because they earned their status the hard way while simple folks like myself paid $49 for it. Who really won? FTTF = FTTFFTW!!

 

:D

[lecach]

So, what time do the doors open to the cabin hallway now? Are they open to everyone or just the people that get into their rooms early?

 

On the Legend last week the hallway doors were closed when we boarded with FTTF at 11:30. But there was a sign that said Diamond, Platinum, and FTTF could enter. So we opened the door and went to our cabin which was ready to go.