Lost Luggage

[HappiTravels]

I have tried looking to see if I could find any similar situations on this forum and couldn't so here goes.

We got off the Reflection on Dec 20th and when we went to pick up our luggage one of our suitcases was nowhere to be found. We filled out a missing luggage report on site but have been home for more than 2 weeks now and we keep getting told that they are still checking the warehouse for our suitcase. Has anyone else experienced this and did their missing luggage ever show up? If not, how did you go about resolving it with Celebrity.

[TeaBag]

I am very sorry to hear about your lost luggage. You might want to read this thread. I don't know if they ever got theirs back.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1917602&highlight=lost+luggage

[Jaxom37]

I experienced the same problem. A week after the cruise the person who picked up my luggage called. He asked me if I wanted him to get rid of it so I could collect $. I told him no thanks I had several tailored suits in my bag. Two weeks later it finally showed up.

[Project_gal]

We disembarked from Eclipse in Miami following her recent TA. We have VERY distinctive luggage so found a porter and just said "four cases like these" pointing to our carry-on luggage.

 

Our first three cases were found quickly, just one case apart on the carousel. [The advantage of distinctive luggage, baggage handlers recognise they belong together!] No sign of the fourth case. The porter was wonderful and searched behind the scenes and the other carousels. He came back with a case very like ours. It even had they same distinctive luggage case but I could see immediately it was not our missing case. [it was smaller and had one, rather than two, handles.] He returned it to the carousel but I took the details from both the Celebrity label and the luggage tag. Like us, the guest was from the UK.

 

After a couple of calls the owner of the case answered her mobile [cell] 'phone. I established that she was off the ship at a local hotel and had our case. I then passed the 'phone to the official at Miami responsible for lost luggage. She made it clear that it was the responsibility of the person who had taken to wrong luggage to cover the expenses of sorting the problem out. Eventually the woman's husband returned to the port in a taxi to make the swap.

 

Although we had a higher number for disembarkation, we were able to disembark at anytime from Michael's Club and disembarked early. The number on the other passenger's case was higher than ours. So, not only had the woman and her husband disembarked before their time [despite not having a flight until the evening] but had also picked up the wrong [larger!] case form the wrong carousel!

 

The moral of this story [although far too late for the OP] is that it is much better to resolve this issue before leaving the port. It is likely that, if your bag is missing, someone has collected the wrong one. Clearly this can happen no matter how distinctive you think your luggage is and not everyone is able to correctly identify their own luggage. While you are still at the port, you may be able to identify an unclaimed bag that looks similar to your own and get the contact details from the labels. If you do not do that, you are at the mercy of the person who has taken the wrong bag who quite probably [as they have taken the wrong bag] not bright enough to work out what to do with it!

 

Incidentally, there is no way the person in error covered the full expense of this incident. We felt obliged to compensate our porter for all the jobs he forfeit by looking after us for a long time, our pre-arranged transport had given up waiting for us [we had not realised that most business cell 'phone in the US have outgoing overseas calls blocked so a UK mobile 'phone is useless in these situations!] and we incurred additional taxi charges to Fort Lauderdale and the cost of international calls on my mobile 'phone! It would have been polite for them to have offered to cover our expenses.

[HappiTravels]

We disembarked from Eclipse in Miami following her recent TA. We have VERY distinctive luggage so found a porter and just said "four cases like these" pointing to our carry-on luggage.

 

Our first three cases were found quickly, just one case apart on the carousel. [The advantage of distinctive luggage, baggage handlers recognise they belong together!] No sign of the fourth case. The porter was wonderful and searched behind the scenes and the other carousels. He came back with a case very like ours. It even had they same distinctive luggage case but I could see immediately it was not our missing case. [it was smaller and had one, rather than two, handles.] He returned it to the carousel but I took the details from both the Celebrity label and the luggage tag. Like us, the guest was from the UK.

 

After a couple of calls the owner of the case answered her mobile [cell] 'phone. I established that she was off the ship at a local hotel and had our case. I then passed the 'phone to the official at Miami responsible for lost luggage. She made it clear that it was the responsibility of the person who had taken to wrong luggage to cover the expenses of sorting the problem out. Eventually the woman's husband returned to the port in a taxi to make the swap.

 

Although we had a higher number for disembarkation, we were able to disembark at anytime from Michael's Club and disembarked early. The number on the other passenger's case was higher than ours. So, not only had the woman and her husband disembarked before their time [despite not having a flight until the evening] but had also picked up the wrong [larger!] case form the wrong carousel!

 

The moral of this story [although far too late for the OP] is that it is much better to resolve this issue before leaving the port. It is likely that, if your bag is missing, someone has collected the wrong one. Clearly this can happen no matter how distinctive you think your luggage is and not everyone is able to correctly identify their own luggage. While you are still at the port, you may be able to identify an unclaimed bag that looks similar to your own and get the contact details from the labels. If you do not do that, you are at the mercy of the person who has taken the wrong bag who quite probably [as they have taken the wrong bag] not bright enough to work out what to do with it!

 

Incidentally, there is no way the person in error covered the full expense of this incident. We felt obliged to compensate our porter for all the jobs he forfeit by looking after us for a long time, our pre-arranged transport had given up waiting for us [we had not realised that most business cell 'phone in the US have outgoing overseas calls blocked so a UK mobile 'phone is useless in these situations!] and we incurred additional taxi charges to Fort Lauderdale and the cost of international calls on my mobile 'phone! It would have been polite for them to have offered to cover our expenses.

 

You are so lucky that it ended so positively. My next purchase will absolutely be distinctive luggage. Definitely a great investment. Although my missing case is bright Red. We had a fantastic person helping us at the port and we spent a few hours trying to get to the bottom of it but unfortunately we were starting to get tight for time and had to get to the airport. Thanks for sharing your story. It is frustrating that you have to be out of pocket for these expenses.

[HappiTravels]

I am very sorry to hear about your lost luggage. You might want to read this thread. I don't know if they ever got theirs back.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1917602&highlight=lost+luggage

 

Thanks for sharing this thread. I wonder if their luggage ever showed up? At least we weren't dealing with a language barrier.

[ghstudio]

We have learned that the safest way to get our luggage is to pretty much ignore the time on your disembarkation form and just get off a little earlier. You get to your luggage section before most others and it's much easy to find and retrieve your luggage.

 

(I'm sure this is a sin....let the flames begin....)

[vulcan1971]

I have tried looking to see if I could find any similar situations on this forum and couldn't so here goes.

We got off the Reflection on Dec 20th and when we went to pick up our luggage one of our suitcases was nowhere to be found. We filled out a missing luggage report on site but have been home for more than 2 weeks now and we keep getting told that they are still checking the warehouse for our suitcase. Has anyone else experienced this and did their missing luggage ever show up? If not, how did you go about resolving it with Celebrity.

 

HappiTravels -

 

I'm a bit surprised that more folks have not posted here about their experiences. I'm guessing this is NOT a representative sample of how often something like this happens.

 

Interesting that you had this issue on the Reflection at the port of Miami.

 

I had an issue with lost luggage in 2013. I was returning from Europe on the Reflection 2013 westbound transatlantic. Since my partner and I were staying in Miami post-cruise, there was no need for us to rush off the ship. We signed up for the latest time possible as we were going to try to avoid the lines and then proceed on to our hotel and hope for an early check-in.

 

Anyway, I'll move things along here... we left the ship around 9:45 AM and went down to the area to collect our luggage. I had never disembarked anywhere that a series of carousels were used. Finally, we started to see our luggage appear. We found 3 of the 4 pieces pretty quickly. Unfortunately, the one piece that didn't show up was my carry-on piece. It was TUMI (quite expensive) in a color (Spruce) that is no longer available for sell. I have several pieces in this color. After 20+ minutes, the carousel stopped turning and no more luggage came out. At this point, all you can do is flag down an employee to fill out a form for lost/damaged luggage. My piece of lost luggage was probably filled with 500-700 USD of clothes and other irreplaceable personal effects. The piece of luggage alone is valued at $500 (if it could be replaced). If you don't have travel insurance, the most you will get from Celebrity is $300 (regardless of the value of the contents).

 

My baggage was clearly marked (inside and out) with my contact information. Had someone taken my bag by accident, they would have been able to easily contact me using my mobile number on the luggage tag. I would have been happy to have made arrangements to pick up the luggage myself (had it been someone local). Unfortunately, nobody called me during the 24 hours I was in Miami before catching my flight. I was heart-broken.

 

I suspect that my luggage was intentionally taken (STOLEN) by someone.

 

The Celebrity customer service for this part of the process SUCKS. They are not very helpful and do not follow up in a timely fashion. It's like you are left doing all the work and Celebrity doesn't seem concerned at all. After all, it wasn't their property and they seem fine with applying an amount of $300 to anyone/everyone regardless of the value of luggage and its contents. Probably one of the many things stated in the "cruise contract" that we are forced to accept whether we agree or not.

 

I am sorry to hear about your situation. I hope you receive some good news.

 

 

P.S. The moral of the story for me is that I no longer allow the ship to handle my luggage at the end of the cruise. Since NOV 2013, I have cruised twice and have self-disembarked with ALL of my luggage on each trip.

Edited January 6, 2015 by vulcan1971

[cb at sea]

I tie matching ribbons to ALL of the handles on all of my bags....That way, they are pretty distinctive. Hubby is awful at finding our bags, and he knows our "ribbon scheme"...he just has lots of trouble with colors, so a dark red bag looks black to him, I guess!

[Queen of Oakville]

I try to eliminate the chance of things going wrong. I like my luggage being in my control. I hate leaving it out in the hallways and rushing to get it packed the night before. It was mostly for this reason that I first tried self-disembarking - I just wanted more time to pack up my stuff.

 

The minor inconvenience of having to wheel off my own bag by far outweighs the chance that my luggage will go missing or get stolen.

 

 

OP - I hope your luggage turns up!

[HappiTravels]

What a coincidence that so many of the issues seem to be with the Reflection. Vulcan1971, one of the things that I wasn't sure of was the maximum that Celebrity covers. $300.00 is ridiculous. In most cases nowadays that barely covers the price of the suitcase let alone the contents. I would definitely be much happier to receive my luggage back than have to go through the hassle of an insurance claim. They are definitely very complacent about follow-up.

[phoenix_dream]

I understand wanting to walk off your luggage if you had a bad circumstance, I truly sympathize. At the same time, what if everyone did that? Disembarkation would be ten times the nightmare it already is. Can you even imagine trying to get an elevator?!? I confess the more I cruise the less I worry about bringing fancy and/or expensive clothes and other things. Some of this is due to weight (airline rules, not mine:)), but some is also due to this. I certainly don't want to go through the hassle of lost baggage, but being a bit frugal with clothes choices helps.

[Mr. Click]

I had a bag go missing in San Juan once....we had a late flight and were in a late departure group. All of my bags are black so I put big yellow tags on each handle. The staff was little help, kept asking me if I was serious....After 30 minutes of walking around the shed my bag magically re-appeared. Apparently some other passenger walked off with it thinking it was his, yellow tags and all......

[drarill]

We have learned that the safest way to get our luggage is to pretty much ignore the time on your disembarkation form and just get off a little earlier. You get to your luggage section before most others and it's much easy to find and retrieve your luggage.

 

(I'm sure this is a sin....let the flames begin....)

 

I'm not going to flame you because we do the same!!:D

To the OP, hope you get your luggage back.

[runnerandme]

My suitcase was not in the numbered area, only a few were left. One black with a silver ribbon two outside pockets almost like mine was left. Staff searched the area and mine did not turn up. I filed a report and copied the information on the tag. I tried to call them, but no answer. We needed to leave for the airport in Rome.

 

I called Celebrity on Monday and they had located my suitcase left on a shuttle bus. I had to fill out custom forms for unattended luggage. It took about a week for them to clear customs. It took only four days with a stop in Germany for my case to arrive at my door. All was intact and in good condition. Celebrity was very helpful and kept me informed during the process.

 

 

I now have a blinding bright suitcase.

[Du vent dans les voiles]

HappiTravels -

 

 

 

P.S. The moral of the story for me is that I no longer allow the ship to handle my luggage at the end of the cruise. Since NOV 2013, I have cruised twice and have self-disembarked with ALL of my luggage on each trip.

 

We are pretty new to cruising, last year we did self disembarcation because we were planning to rent a car and enjoy a full day in Fort Lauderdale before catching a flight early evening. Our flight this year is at 3 pm so no need to leave early, is it possible to let Celebrity know that we'll do self disembarcation again but we'll leave the ship more around 9 and carry our luggage with us for a while.

 

Thanks for your advice,

Josée

[vulcan1971]

We are pretty new to cruising, last year we did self disembarcation because we were planning to rent a car and enjoy a full day in Fort Lauderdale before catching a flight early evening. Our flight this year is at 3 pm so no need to leave early, is it possible to let Celebrity know that we'll do self disembarcation again but we'll leave the ship more around 9 and carry our luggage with us for a while.

 

 

 

Thanks for your advice,

 

Josée

 

 

At some point during the cruise you will find paperwork left in your cabin at turndown regarding your disembarkation plans. On this paperwork you specify what time your flight is and any other comments or notes for the ships crew to be aware of so they can pick the appropriate time for you to leave the ship. Most likely with a flight time this late in the afternoon you will be given one of the last times to depart the ship.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6 Plus on the T-Mobile 4G LTE Network using Tapatalk Pro

[Du vent dans les voiles]

Most likely with a flight time this late in the afternoon you will be given one of the last times to depart the ship.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6 Plus on the T-Mobile 4G LTE Network using Tapatalk Pro

 

But is it acceptable to keep our luggage with us even if we leave the ship late?

Other people do that?

 

Josée

[vulcan1971]

But is it acceptable to keep our luggage with us even if we leave the ship late?

 

Other people do that?

 

 

 

Josée

 

 

Yes.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6 Plus on the T-Mobile 4G LTE Network using Tapatalk Pro

[Du vent dans les voiles]

Thanks Vulcan.

[HappiTravels]

We have learned that the safest way to get our luggage is to pretty much ignore the time on your disembarkation form and just get off a little earlier. You get to your luggage section before most others and it's much easy to find and retrieve your luggage.

 

(I'm sure this is a sin....let the flames begin....)

 

Our disembarkation was a little different than any that we have experienced. My 12 year old daughter picked up a nasty cough that was running rampant through the ship and one night in the OceanView she coughed so hard that it caused her to vomit. I am not sure if anyone else has been in this predicament but the staff go into overdrive as soon as someone vomits. We were sent straight down to the ships doctor and after examining her they determined that she definitely didn't have Noro and wasn't confined to the room. They still did a thorough sanitization of our room and took her clothes and laundered them. They were following protocol.

We were given luggage tags # 14 for disembarkation but when we went to put out our luggage they told us to not use them and gave us luggage tags # 66. This was all new to me but it means that they wrap the luggage in plastic and put it separately. There must have been a lot of Noro on the ship as there was a lot of wrapped luggage. The person attending to these bags searched high and low and could not figure out what could have happened to our suitcase.

[Wastegirl]

I have been on the other side of the coin. At an airport my DH picked up our bags as usual, I noticed mine was missing its ribbon but being distinctive suitcases we thought it had just been ripped off. There was even a tag on it like mine.

 

We wandered down to the Hire Car area and at that point I turned my phone on only to be called by the airline asking if I had the wrong bag. I double checked and noticed the name in the tag was different so apologised profusely and headed to the Service Desk to return it to the person and retrieve my bag. This all took about half an hour.

 

I was feeling very silly and as approaching the woman whose bag I had was getting ready to apologise when she started yelling at me. I had caused the person picking her up to have an extra half hour on their parking bill and was I stupid. She just kept on yelling, the Airline rep was looking at her shocked and I was beginning to feel threatened. I whipped open my purse and stuffed $20 in her hand and said to her this will more than cover your car park cost, at this she glared at me and walked off muttering, taking the money with her (the extra cost would have been about $5 at the most).

 

At this point the poor Airline rep is apologising to me and I was shaking. Lesson learnt I now turn on my phone as soon as I am able and I give my bags a real good 'once over' because no matter how distinctive your bag is there is someone else out there with the same one and ribbons, attachments etc can and do come off.

[Elusive_Cruiser]

Lots of great information in this thread. Sorry to the OP for their dilemma.

 

This thread has answered a question I was going to post. We've self-disembarked the last two cruises due to flight times and we really enjoyed being able to hang onto our luggage on last night. The morning process was not too painful. Next month we are not leaving FLL until two days after we disembark and I wondered about keeping our luggage and getting off late, after the rush. My question has been answered and that is what we will do!! Thanks everyone!

[TeaBag]

Lots of great information in this thread. Sorry to the OP for their dilemma.

 

This thread has answered a question I was going to post. We've self-disembarked the last two cruises due to flight times and we really enjoyed being able to hang onto our luggage on last night. The morning process was not too painful. Next month we are not leaving FLL until two days after we disembark and I wondered about keeping our luggage and getting off late, after the rush. My question has been answered and that is what we will do!! Thanks everyone!

Just so you know, they like the cabins vacated by 8AM, so you will have to find a little nook to hang out in. The library works well.

[middlehaitch]

We had an incident like poster#2.

Someone took our garment bag instead of their suitcase. This was off the Eclipse Ft L 2014. The staff were great and we all hunted until the hanger was close to empty. When the G bag wasn't found one of the staff called the people who had a bag still sitting close to where ours had been.

 

Sure enough they had picked up their bags, driven home, and unloaded the car before anyone noticed. They were just putting a call into Celebrity as we were calling them.

 

We had to hang around the terminal until they returned our G bag. The paperwork that was exchanged was written in a way that prevented them from picking up their bag until we had signed it to say we had received ours.

 

The staff at the terminal were very helpful and nicely tipped for being so.

The folks with our bag were very apologetic.

We were very lucky all round, out flight wasn't until late.

 

A stressful end to the cruise, but all was well in the end.

 

OP, your luggage may still turn up, fingers crossed.

 

Cheers, h.

 

 

Sent from the nether world using magic