what every cruiser needs to know about lost luggage

[Starry Eyes]

But you still haven't answered the question of what happened to the other bags of the members of your traveling party. Did they also leave the suitcase outside the night before and it somehow made its way to the airport bus?

 

RCI takes the responsibility to make sure that they get your suitcase from outside your cabin the night before and delivers it safely to the dock where it is your responsibility to then pick it up and make sure it gets to the airport (unless you sign up for Luggage Valet, which apparently is not available in Europe).

 

I think your legalese and inability to admit that some of this was caused by your inexperience is what has gotten all the posters here all riled up against you. You might find that a little contriteness goes a long way....

I agree, but I am not sure the OP has it in him/her;). Instead the posts read as if the OP believes the cruiseline should have sought out the OP and carefully placed the bag in the OP's hand in the morning. (Has anybody ever seen an airline or cruiseline or busline do that?)

 

Oh well, OP, you will get your luggage back. Please learn something practical from the experience.

[Big_G]

It's a shame all those people on your bus lost their luggage too. No wonder RCI didn't want to pay that bill. :eek:

[Shak]

First, about an hour ago I posted an update. Insurer and RCCL have agreed to ship me my suitcase at their cost. More importantly, you are mistaken in your comments, from a legal standpoint, Ideally, of course, a passenger should claim his or her luggage upon disembarking a ship. But not all ports are set up the same way, not all unloading procedures are the same, and let's face it, cruiselines screwup. If one is told to get on a bus, and luggage is later loaded by port stewards, one home and assumes one luggage is loaded there, too. I deally the luggage is unloaded from the ship and place next to the bus before people are directed to get on the bus. That did not happen in my case. I'm certain after the fact that luggage had not been unloaded when we were loaded on my bus. It was the first to be loaded with passengers so would make sense that luggage had not taken off ship before we were directed into the bus.

 

But main point is, that you are accepting the cruisleine posture, that is passenger does not have all luggage in hand before going to next destination, it is their negligence. That's simply false at law, and as a practical matter. If luggage is not available to take along, or if someone has overseas flight or some other connection, what is passenger to do if his/her luggage is not unloaded and can't be found. Just forget those other arrangements til it is found, if it is found. No. And as I posted, legal burden is on cruiseline to deliver over luggage or make available at a point where passenger cannot possibly overlook it.

 

For all I know, a steward placed my suitcase on one of the ten other buses waiting next to the boat. How does one find his/her bag in that situation, assuming one's bus has not already left for the airport.

 

My travel agent recommended putting the suitcase in the hall so RCCL could take off boat. In this case, a good idea, because it was heavy and I had two smaller bags to carry. Once RCCL picked it up, thye undertook the responsibility to be sure I received it the following morning. Obviously, they failed to do that. Under American law, that makes it their fault and their responsibility. And it suggests they need to come up with a better system to be sure everyone has his/her luggage before the board buses or whatever to leave the port.

 

Finally, I suspect this happens on all the other cruiselines and they all respond the way RCCL did. But givewn the comments I've seen to my posting, they know they can because apparently most passengers are misinformed about their legal rights.

 

 

I am happy to hear it has worked out. I was really surprised that RCI gave you a hard time to begin with since they had the luggage.

 

On my last cruise my cruise luggage tag was ripped off (I found this out after finding it) sometime after my luggage was picked up the night before debarking and it ended up in an area it was assigned to be in. Luckily my luggage is a unique color and after browsing other claim areas I easily spotted it only after a few minutes. If my luggage was black it would have taken much longer.

 

Shak

[boo214]

First, about an hour ago I posted an update. Insurer and RCCL have agreed to ship me my suitcase at their cost. More importantly, you are mistaken in your comments, from a legal standpoint, Ideally, of course, a passenger should claim his or her luggage upon disembarking a ship. But not all ports are set up the same way, not all unloading procedures are the same, and let's face it, cruiselines screwup. If one is told to get on a bus, and luggage is later loaded by port stewards, one home and assumes one luggage is loaded there, too. I deally the luggage is unloaded from the ship and place next to the bus before people are directed to get on the bus. That did not happen in my case. I'm certain after the fact that luggage had not been unloaded when we were loaded on my bus. It was the first to be loaded with passengers so would make sense that luggage had not taken off ship before we were directed into the bus.

 

But main point is, that you are accepting the cruisleine posture, that is passenger does not have all luggage in hand before going to next destination, it is their negligence. That's simply false at law, and as a practical matter. If luggage is not available to take along, or if someone has overseas flight or some other connection, what is passenger to do if his/her luggage is not unloaded and can't be found. Just forget those other arrangements til it is found, if it is found. No. And as I posted, legal burden is on cruiseline to deliver over luggage or make available at a point where passenger cannot possibly overlook it.

 

For all I know, a steward placed my suitcase on one of the ten other buses waiting next to the boat. How does one find his/her bag in that situation, assuming one's bus has not already left for the airport.

 

My travel agent recommended putting the suitcase in the hall so RCCL could take off boat. In this case, a good idea, because it was heavy and I had two smaller bags to carry. Once RCCL picked it up, thye undertook the responsibility to be sure I received it the following morning. Obviously, they failed to do that. Under American law, that makes it their fault and their responsibility. And it suggests they need to come up with a better system to be sure everyone has his/her luggage before the board buses or whatever to leave the port.

 

Finally, I suspect this happens on all the other cruiselines and they all respond the way RCCL did. But givewn the comments I've seen to my posting, they know they can because apparently most passengers are misinformed about their legal rights.

you still have not answered the question did you sign up for luggage valet (or whatever they call it) where they were supposed to take your suitcase to the airport or did you just assume they would take your suitcase to the airport?

[wavegoodbye]

I sailed with Celebrity cruises and in the situation that I was in, you didn't see your luggage from the time that you put it outside your room until you arrived at the airport. There was no portside collection of the luggage. In my situation, my luggage never did arrive at the airport. In fact, it never did show up again. Celebrity vehemently denied that the luggage was stolen thereby ensuring that I could not put in a claim on my home insurance. How am I to interpret this? Are they admitting they were negligent? The only sure way to protect your luggage is to carry it on and off the ship yourself. Maybe someday cruise lines will put in place some controls over the luggage so that their clients won't suffer loss and inconvenience. In this day and age of bar coding, you'd think they could easily put in place a system to protect passenger's luggage. I've experienced airline delays with luggage recently and because of the bar coding system, the airline was able to tell me exactly where in the world my luggage was and when it would be delivered to my hotel. So all of you who haven't yet had a cruise line lose your luggage, it may someday happen to you and you'll likely be shocked at how little sympathy and assistance you get from the cruise line. You'll look back at how carefully you followed the instructions you had been given and your only real regret will be that you trusted the cruise line to safeguard your luggage.

[S.A.M.J.R.]

But main point is, that you are accepting the cruisleine posture, that is passenger does not have all luggage in hand before going to next destination, it is their negligence. That's simply false at law, and as a practical matter. If luggage is not available to take along, or if someone has overseas flight or some other connection, what is passenger to do if his/her luggage is not unloaded and can't be found. Just forget those other arrangements til it is found, if it is found. No. And as I posted, legal burden is on cruiseline to deliver over luggage or make available at a point where passenger cannot possibly overlook it.

I want to understand this. If I check a bag with an airline, I get to my destination and simply walk out, then the AIRLINE is responsible for getting me the bag? I can walk by baggage claim (because I'll generally beat the bag there I can't overlook what's not there, right)?

 

I'd also like to know what your departure forms said regarding luggage.

[Starry Eyes]

I sailed with Celebrity cruises and in the situation that I was in, you didn't see your luggage from the time that you put it outside your room until you arrived at the airport. There was no portside collection of the luggage. In my situation, my luggage never did arrive at the airport. In fact, it never did show up again. Celebrity vehemently denied that the luggage was stolen thereby ensuring that I could not put in a claim on my home insurance. How am I to interpret this? Are they admitting they were negligent? The only sure way to protect your luggage is to carry it on and off the ship yourself. Maybe someday cruise lines will put in place some controls over the luggage so that their clients won't suffer loss and inconvenience. In this day and age of bar coding, you'd think they could easily put in place a system to protect passenger's luggage. I've experienced airline delays with luggage recently and because of the bar coding system, the airline was able to tell me exactly where in the world my luggage was and when it would be delivered to my hotel. So all of you who haven't yet had a cruise line lose your luggage, it may someday happen to you and you'll likely be shocked at how little sympathy and assistance you get from the cruise line. You'll look back at how carefully you followed the instructions you had been given and your only real regret will be that you trusted the cruise line to safeguard your luggage.

We have used the luggage valet service twice. Each time the luggage appeared on the carousel at my home airport. So, DH loves it, while I have reservations. I can foresee a lot of finger pointing it the luggage ever goes astray. The cruiseline likely hands it off to a transport company who hands it off to airport porters, who perhaps transfer it to screening who likely hand it off the airline personnel. Then it joins the great masses of airline luggage, where it has all the same risk of going missing as a bag Ichecked at the terminal. There are just so many chances for something to go wrong, and no way I can track it myself.

 

Fortunately, our luggage itself is not expensive and the contents are just dirty clothes and some toiletries. While all those items add up, everything of real value (monetary or sentimental) is in my hand luggage (or at home).

 

I am sorry it happened to you, wavegoodbye.

[FLACRUISER99]

Don't leave the port without it!!:rolleyes:

[orville99]

I simply don't buy any of this. While I haven't travelled in Europe since 9/11 (my last trip across the pond was in 2000), I doubt security has gone anywhere but up since. No matter where I travelled, which country I was in, or what the conveyance was that I was using, I never encountered any situation where my luggage and I could be out of sight of each other when boarding a plane, train, bus, taxi, or any other third party transportation. If I wasn't there to point out and identify my luggage, it wouldn't be loaded.

[awhcruiser]

Like.

I simply don't buy any of this. While I haven't travelled in Europe since 9/11 (my last trip across the pond was in 2000), I doubt security has gone anywhere but up since. No matter where I travelled, which country I was in, or what the conveyance was that I was using, I never encountered any situation where my luggage and I could be out of sight of each other when boarding a plane, train, bus, taxi, or any other third party transportation. If I wasn't there to point out and identify my luggage, it wouldn't be loaded.

[rdeluxe]

Let me try it once more, in a different way. Setting aside that had I know what would happen to my suitcase, I would have not tagged it and put in the hall for RCCL to unload, what was it that I did or did not do that my mistake & my fault. To clarify one thing, I was traveling alone; no one else in my party.

 

1. I gathered at RCCL gathering point, was escorted off the boat with others, at the bottom of the steps instructed to get on board one of 10 buses sitting there(with the number of my group on it) and waited as others boarded and luggage was loaded underneath.(Quite a few took all their luggage of themselves so I don't know if it was only their luggage that was put on the bus).

 

2. the bus drove off when full. When it drove off, there was no luggage sitting on the port, it did not go thru customs - not required, and did not go thru any terminal. By the way, I arranged for this bus transport thru RCCL, when I first reserved the cruise. They made the arrangements to take passenger to the airport.

 

3. At the airport - with 3 hours before my flight left - I immediately asked RCCL rep where my suitcase was. He referred me to a room in the airport having nothing to do with luggage transfers, clearly indicating he knew nothing about that process.

 

4. With the help of an Air Canada rep, we tried to call RCCL office and sought phone number for ship itself which, in all the paperwork that accompanies the cruise ticket, RCCL does not provide.

 

So what else was I to do? It seemed safe to assume that suitcase might have been unloaded and taken to Air Canada desk, since I wrote Air Canada & Flight number on the RCCL I attached to the handle the evening before.

 

So please tell me, what is it that suggests that I am any responsibility for what happened. If RCCL had looked at that tag, or had they provided a phone number to the ship in their literature, or had they insured that no bus left the port until all baggage was unloaded from the ship and accounted for, none of this would have occurred.

 

Only option was to assume the worst, get cab, return to boat, and hope my suitcase was there, pick it up and return to airport. But suppose RCCL did not have it there, had misplaced it. Would it then have been my fault?

For the critics, how do you know that that is not what happened, and they located it only after I was long gone from the airport.

 

And this is why this is all their legal responsibility. Only they can account for what happened to the suitcase after the picked it up. So far, their explanation, that I was to pick it up after going thru customs - when there are no customs between EU ports - shows they have no clue what happened during that period of time, or if they know, they're not saying.

[awhcruiser]

The points you have not considered are listed below

O Y

 

 

why were we directed onto our assigned bus, and driven off, and never advised to be sure we had grabbed our suitcases, etc etc.

I would have made sure we had all our suitcases before boarding the bus

 

why did RCCL, before disembarkment, not say besure to grap your suitcase outside on the dock before getting on the bus.

They are not responsible for your belongings...

 

why did RCCL not supply a phone number for the ship so passengers in my situation could call and if need be return to get whatever

From where?

 

As to the law, the cases I cited in my letter are US cases. Some materials I read said at least British law may be different. But in any event, is the choice supposed to be between a passenger missing an overaseas flight because the cruiseline has "lost" his bag or is it for the cruiseline to make good by shipping it overseas, if and when they find it? And for the record, under the law, "lost" does not mean, in this context, something has totaly disappeared. It means, according to may court decisions, in a location where it is not readily retrievable by the owner. A US law pertaining to railroads provides that a bag is considered lost if not delievered over to the passenger within one hour of leaving the train.

US Law will not hold up in a foreign country

 

So you skeptics out there ought to study this further, rather than relying on preconceptions of passengers rights and responsibilities.

 

Put the blame where it belongs.

 

[rdeluxe]

I'm the OP and have posted 3 follow up extensive responses to the people who don't buy what I've said. it appears you have not seen any of those. Please search for them and read what I wrote. Then see if you agree with the critics or with me. I must say, it is odd how so man are taking RCCL's side, without having any understanding of the facts or the law, and why the law is what it is(i.e. who better to know what happened to a piece of luggage than the last person who had exclusive possession of it).

[rdeluxe]

Does that mean you would have gotten up and instructed the bus driver, with a full bus, that he was to go nowhere until you could be sure all your luggage was on the bus? Or that you would have advised the employee who instructed me to get on the bus that I would not get on until I knew my suitcase was on, even though at that point no suitcases had been unlaoded(other than by apssengers carrying their own). Please advise

[mommabean]

The day often comes when people become too old to travel. At whatever age that may be.

 

Now I've heard it all. And way too much of it.

[FLACRUISER99]

I'm sure the port agent was provided by RCI For any day of travel concerns you may have,"please contact our local cruise line representative, Aloschi Bros. at +39.06.420.20.498 or us at 1.800.256 6649 or +1.305.539.4107". The number shown is for the Port of Civitavecchia. The Next time you cruise make sure you have the number of every port agent.

[S.A.M.J.R.]

OP, I appreciate you coming back and providing more details.

 

A couple things I'm wondering about though...

 

1) What did the disembark paperwork say would happen to luggage? The day before we got off Oasis, we got a sheet of paper detailing what would happen... wait in a lounge until called, go into terminal, find luggage, go through customs. Is there no paperwork on a European cruise?

2) You said you wrote your airline & flight number on the RCI luggage tag. Was there a designated place for that information on the tag?

[bigque]

I simply don't buy any of this. While I haven't travelled in Europe since 9/11 (my last trip across the pond was in 2000), I doubt security has gone anywhere but up since. No matter where I travelled, which country I was in, or what the conveyance was that I was using, I never encountered any situation where my luggage and I could be out of sight of each other when boarding a plane, train, bus, taxi, or any other third party transportation. If I wasn't there to point out and identify my luggage, it wouldn't be loaded.

 

I didn't even think of that...You are right otherewise they could be loading anything onto those buses!

[labeachcomber]

For the OP, if you are familiar with Internet forums, sometimes people are writing responses simultaneously while you are writing as well. So if it appears that they aren't reading what you are writing, then you might consider this as a possibility.

 

May I ask if you are a seasoned traveler? You mentioned that it was only your second cruise. But have you travelled much by air, train, or automobile?

 

I think a seasoned traveler wouldn't have allowed this to happen.

 

Thank you for clarifying the details of disembarkation. So you got off the shop, and went to your bus with your group number. You mentioned there was no luggage being loaded, but you said some people had their luggage and were getting it loaded but you said this was because they carried it off themselves. Did everybody have luggage that they were loading? Or just a few? Were there people just like you with carry ons and no big suitcases?

 

What was your understanding as to what would happen at the airport? You mentioned there was an RCI rep. Did everyone get off the bus and then wait for their luggage to be unloaded? Was everybody traveling on Air Canada? did the bus make one stop at the international terminal and the entire bus unloaded? Was it your understanding that they would check your bag directly with the airline? How would RCI even do this for everyone for all the multiple airlines, attest that there is no illegal items or contraband, and get your baggage claim ticket?

 

Most telling, was your understanding the understanding of everyone else on your bus? Did everyone just expect their luggage to be waiting for them? Or because you were traveling alone you have no idea what everyone else did?

 

A lesson to be learned and I'm sure you won't let it happen again.

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[orville99]

Does that mean you would have gotten up and instructed the bus driver, with a full bus, that he was to go nowhere until you could be sure all your luggage was on the bus? YES!! Or that you would have advised the employee who instructed me to get on the bus that I would not get on until I knew my suitcase was on YES Again!!, even though at that point no suitcases had been unlaoded(other than by apssengers carrying their own). THREE FOR THREE!!!!Please advise

 

Or, and this is probably the best advice...don't travel overseas anymore:)

[cmaygar]

I don't think that RCCL offers the direct transfers for any foreign ports. I believe that they offer this service for R/T U.S. ports only (i.e. Port Everglades, Miami, Seattle, etc.). I've been on a few Med cruises and the direct transfer option was not available. Each passenger is required to either carry off their bags or retrieve the bags before loading the bags in the shuttle bus (or private car) to take you to the airport.

 

There has always been ample written instructions to notify all passengers about locating and taking their own bags from the baggage claim area. This seems like a horrible (and expensive) oversight by the OP. It's hard to believe that the OP didn't see others seeking their own bags and the OP should have asked someone from RCCL what to do before boarding the transport bus.

[boo214]

I'm the OP and have posted 3 follow up extensive responses to the people who don't buy what I've said. it appears you have not seen any of those. Please search for them and read what I wrote. Then see if you agree with the critics or with me. I must say, it is odd how so man are taking RCCL's side, without having any understanding of the facts or the law, and why the law is what it is(i.e. who better to know what happened to a piece of luggage than the last person who had exclusive possession of it).

but you still did not answer the simple question did you sign up for luggage valet (or whatever they call it if it was even offered) where they were supposed to take your suitcase to the airport or did you just assume they would put it under your bus going to the airport?

[reallyitsmema]

The OP obviously has never traveled if they think they can write their flight information on a cruise luggage tag and their bag will magically appear at the airport. They also didn't read any information left in their cabin explaining disembarking.

 

Time to accept a little responsibility and stop blaming their TA and the cruiseline for everything.

[PhillyDad]

Such hostility here...Sheesh! Did some of you get up on the wrong side of the bed today? First of all, the OP came back and replied...3 times now. Cut him some slack. Second of all, hiding behind an internet personna and being rude is really a form of bullying. It's not a nice thing to do.

 

Play nice...please...for the sake of all of the lurkers who have never posted (and now are afraid to).

[varoo]

After getting off an airline flight or a cruise, passengers routinely claim their checked luggage at the baggage claim area.

 

If the luggage does not show up there, they report the missing luggage before leaving the airport or cruise port.

They don't wait until after they return home before deciding to report that the luggage was missing.

 

It is understandable that in an emergency situation they would not be expected to claim their luggage.

 

But that does not appear to be the case reported here by the OP, who by his own admission simply walked right out of the cruise terminal without even bothering to look for his own luggage.