Shipping Luggage to Europe

[Radbooks]

Hello all!

 

We're planning a 28 day cruise on the N. Statendam next summer. Since I've never been to Europe, we're planing on spending a couple of weeks before the cruise in Amsterdam and Belgium and a few other places. We don't want to lug all of our cruise clothes around with us so we'd like to ship some luggage to Copenhagen ahead of time. Does Holland America have a program that will ship our luggage to meet us at the ship? If not, has anyone done anything like that before? What company did you use?  If Holland doesn't have that sort of service we'll probably ship it to a friend we're meeting in Copenhagen.

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

[kazu]

I don’t know of a HAL option to do this.

 

I would be tempted to fly with your luggage and then arrange to ship.  It’s much cheaper to ship out of Europe than across the pond.

We have shipped and it went smoothly.  At the time we used Luggage Mule.  I don’t think they cover Copenhagen though but they are working with UPS so that may be a good place to start.

 

And don’t forget to make sure your hotel is willing to accept the luggage and store it.  Ours arrived one day before us and was in our room when we arrived but not all hotels may be so obliging.

[Radbooks]

Thanks, Kazu! 

That's a great idea to bring it with us and ship from Amsterdam. We have free baggage with our flight.

[rafinmd]

I think the baggage forwarding partner for most Carnival brands is Luggage Forward:

https://www.luggageforward.com/contact/

 

I would suggest you either call them or set up a chat session with them and review your options.

 

Do I understand that you are flying to Amsterdam and boarding in Copenhagen?

 

I did something somewhat similar to that 3 years ago,  a transatlantic to Amsterdam on Nieuw Statendam, some travel in Europe, and a return from Southampton on QM2.  Luggage Forward picked up my bag as I disembarked Nieuw Statendam and it was sitting in my room when I boarded QM2.  I think they could pick up your bag at an Amsterdam hotel and deliver it to the ship.  I would suggest the best thing is to actually call on the phone and talk to a live person.

 

Roy

[KirkNC]

Another option would be to take it and store it.  Many airports and virtually all major train stations have baggage storage.  We have used it in the past.

[Radbooks]

5 minutes ago, KirkNC said:

Another option would be to take it and store it.  Many airports and virtually all major train stations have baggage storage.  We have used it in the past.

Yes, we considered that and it may be an option. But our plan RIGHT NOW is to spend 4 days in Amsterdam and then go to Ghent for 5 days before flying to Copenhagen from Brussels. My mom is in her 80s and so dealing with luggage gets to be an issue for us.

[Radbooks]

21 minutes ago, rafinmd said:

I think the baggage forwarding partner for most Carnival brands is Luggage Forward:

https://www.luggageforward.com/contact/

 

I would suggest you either call them or set up a chat session with them and review your options.

 

Do I understand that you are flying to Amsterdam and boarding in Copenhagen?

 

I did something somewhat similar to that 3 years ago,  a transatlantic to Amsterdam on Nieuw Statendam, some travel in Europe, and a return from Southampton on QM2.  Luggage Forward picked up my bag as I disembarked Nieuw Statendam and it was sitting in my room when I boarded QM2.  I think they could pick up your bag at an Amsterdam hotel and deliver it to the ship.  I would suggest the best thing is to actually call on the phone and talk to a live person.

 

Roy

Thanks for this Roy! Yes, we're flying into Amsterdam because it was one place I really wanted to visit and our cruise doesn't stop there - does the Baltics, Norway, Iceland, Greenland and ends in Boston. We're also staying in Belgium for a few days before our flight to Copenhagen. This was the company I was thinking of, but I had the name wrong. Thanks so much!

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Some hotels will hold it for you.

[Essiesmom]

1 hour ago, Gail & Marty sailing away said:

Some hotels will hold it for you.

Not helpful if not returning to that city.  EM