Shipping Luggage to Ship

[Crazy]

We are seriously considering using one of those services that ship your luggage to the ship. Would like to know if anyone has done this and would like to hear the pros and cons. My brother and his wife and me are cruising to the Panama in February 2007 and are looking into this (Volendam). I had a source that I got from someone who posted to this site but can't find it, so, any help would be appreciated.

[scopewest]

http://www.cruiseshippers.com

 

This is one place that does it, I read that several other companies have also started shipping. There was one person who did this for her cruise and she posted a review about it, saying she loved it, but she got a lot of pooh-poohing from people who thought it was a lot of money for something they could do themselves.

 

My DH and I will be shipping over one suitcase for our next cruise even though we live in AZ and the cruise is in CA. We have an old but sturdy suitcase that we no longer use when flying since we can't lock it with TSA locks, but it would work great for shipping. We plan to do this for our Dec. cruise so I'll be sure to comment on this in my cruise review after we get back.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if ten years from now the airlines refused to carry any baggage and we all had to ship our stuff. Some airports are already doing off-site baggage check-in, will it lead to off-site baggage shipping?

[whogo]

This article lists six companies that ship luggage. http://*****.com/kkzfu Quick price quotes listed $240 from Chicago to London for a forty pound suitcase.

[kakalina]

www.cruiseshippers.com

 

This is one place that does it, I read that several other companies have also started shipping. There was one person who did this for her cruise and she posted a review about it, saying she loved it, but she got a lot of pooh-poohing from people who thought it was a lot of money for something they could do themselves.

 

My DH and I will be shipping over one suitcase for our next cruise even though we live in AZ and the cruise is in CA. We have an old but sturdy suitcase that we no longer use when flying since we can't lock it with TSA locks, but it would work great for shipping. We plan to do this for our Dec. cruise so I'll be sure to comment on this in my cruise review after we get back.

ouldn't be surprised if ten years from now the airlines refused to carry any baggage and we all had to ship our stuff. Some airports are already doing off-site baggage check-in, will it lead to off-site baggage shipping?

 

Scopewest: Please let us know how it works out for you as you can see we live in the same city and if it works out for you we might give it a try.

[DougandEric]

www.cruiseshippers.com

 

Beware that their "order" page does NOT have SSL security on it and they are asking for your credit card number. I still can't figure out what you're ordering! Their prices are per pound but the order form asks for # of bags! Why would you give them your credit card number without having any idea how much they will charge to it! There is no relationship between # of bags and the weight of those bags. This makes me very suspicous - but that's my nature! I would be interested on hearing anyone who uses it though.

 

I looked at doing this on a 14-day Baltics cruise with Cunard's WhiteStar Luggage Service but decided the price wasn't worth it - I'll shlep it and save the bucks!

 

Doug

[Crazy]

Beware that their "order" page does NOT have SSL security on it and they are asking for your credit card number. I still can't figure out what you're ordering! Their prices are per pound but the order form asks for # of bags! Why would you give them your credit card number without having any idea how much they will charge to it! There is no relationship between # of bags and the weight of those bags. This makes me very suspicous - but that's my nature! I would be interested on hearing anyone who uses it though.

 

I looked at doing this on a 14-day Baltics cruise with Cunard's WhiteStar Luggage Service but decided the price wasn't worth it - I'll shlep it and save the bucks!

 

Doug

 

Thanks for your post but what is SSL you refer to as not being on the form. This is the site I was talking about. I still would be interested in hearing from others of their experience using one of these services.

 

Emily

[cusyl]

Thanks for your post but what is SSL you refer to as not being on the form.

Emily

It's a sign that the site is secure and no one else can get your credit card information off it. There is always a little gold lock in the bottom right hand corner of your screen.

[hammybee]

Credit card inf will be encripted so that the number , in theory, cannot be read ( and possibly reused) by the human eye.

[Maryandi]

There is an article in our Palm Beach (FL) Post Travel Section today.

 

It talks about how popular this service is becoming due to the weight limits, etc. on planes.

 

The article mentions luggageforward.com (866-416-7447), the cost stated was a medium bag, round trip, West Palm Beach - New York, 7 day delivery, $62. No weight of the bag listed.

 

M.A.

[DougandEric]

Thanks for your post but what is SSL you refer to as not being on the form. This is the site I was talking about. I still would be interested in hearing from others of their experience using one of these services.

 

Emily

 

As the others stated, the SSL encryption secures your credit information - but only as it travels from your computer to their computer over the internet. In my opinion, you should NEVER put in personal or financial/credit card information on a non-secured page (look for the little gold lock symbol at the bottom right of your browser window). However, once the information is on their system, you have no guarantee that it is secured at all! It could be stored in a database unencrypted so if anyone got hold of the database, they could see your information. Not make anyone paranoid, but I see this every day in my work. Since they don't have SSL on the order page, it makes think they don't much in line of security for the rest of their system.

 

I have a Citi bank MasterCard and use their 'virtual account number' system to generate a new, unique credit card number each time I make a purchase online. The retailer never get my real card number and it works great.

 

Doug

[juliecat]

I checked the pricing for shipping one large bag to England - $339! Yikes.

 

Julia

[OceanLiner]

We always ship our luggage. Period. It leaves our home about a week before we leave, and it arrives before we have even departed. I know that when I step on to the plane that my luggage is safely waiting for me at the other end waiting to cruise and not sitting in some airport terminal, far far away.

 

FedEx ground is our shipper of choice and we ship about 7 days ahead. This makes it cheaper and we can track it all the way to delivery. Since we always fly to the port one day ahead of the cruise departure we ship the luggage to the hotel, and then bring the luggage with us to the ship. Call the hotel and let them know what you are doing and they will give you the proper address and instructions.

 

Luggage shipping to foriegn countries is a bit problematic, in that your bags must pass through customs in the country being delivered. There are many pitfalls and issues such as vitamins, or down pillows, new clothing, etc...any of these items could result in your bags being sent back or held up. You must be very careful with this option and it can be quite expensive.

[scopewest]

I did call cruise shippers a while back and talked to a very nice gentleman who answered all my questions. I got the impression I could order the service over the phone which avoids the whole Internet security issue.

[LHC]

How much do you normally have to pay Fed Ex Oceanliner?

[Crazy]

I did call cruise shippers a while back and talked to a very nice gentleman who answered all my questions. I got the impression I could order the service over the phone which avoids the whole Internet security issue.

 

I Emailed Cruise Shippers with my concerns regarding the security of their order page and they said if I wanted to I could call them direct to give credit card information. There quote for two bags was $150. I haven't decided if I am going to do this or not.

 

Thanks for all comments.

 

Emily

[noblepa]

As the others stated, the SSL encryption secures your credit information - but only as it travels from your computer to their computer over the internet. In my opinion, you should NEVER put in personal or financial/credit card information on a non-secured page (look for the little gold lock symbol at the bottom right of your browser window). However, once the information is on their system, you have no guarantee that it is secured at all! It could be stored in a database unencrypted so if anyone got hold of the database, they could see your information. Not make anyone paranoid, but I see this every day in my work. Since they don't have SSL on the order page, it makes think they don't much in line of security for the rest of their system.

 

I have a Citi bank MasterCard and use their 'virtual account number' system to generate a new, unique credit card number each time I make a purchase online. The retailer never get my real card number and it works great.

 

Doug

 

SSL stands for "Secure Socket Layer". The data is encrypted and electronically "signed" with a certificate from a trusted internet company like Verisign.

 

As others have pointed out, there is a little gold lock symbol on the page. The other thing to look for, is that the URL will begin https://, rather than simply http://.

 

I looked at CruiseShippers website. Perhaps it makes sense, financially, to ship when going overseas, but their domestic rate was $2.80 per pound for seven day service. That means that a 40 lb. bag would cost $112. American Airlines (as one example) charges $80 per extra bag, and it arrives when you do. It is essentially same day service, which CruiseShippers doesn't even offer. The best they have is two day service at $4.00 per lb. That same 40 lb. bag would cost $160.

 

So, I guess I don't understand why anyone would pay those rates. If you're willing to pay extra, you only have to schlep the bags from your car to the check-in desk at the airport. After that, the airline handles it.

 

Paul Noble

[jhannah]

I agree, Paul. It's too much to pay, IMO, for the convenience. However, there could be an exception. If you're doing two or three days pre/post sightseeing, and don't need access to all your shipboard duds, then not having the extra baggage to schlep around (and never opening it) just might make the cost worthwhile.

 

There's another option available for this scenario. I used the left luggage facility at Heathrow to store our bags while we went out sightseeing during a stopover. You could get where you're going and let them store the bags for you. Many European airports have such facilities.

[scopewest]

I want to use a suitcase that cannot be locked to TSA standards, and I won't check an unlocked bag. I'll let you all know how Cruise Shippers does.

 

Expensive? I'll just have less money to donate to the slot machines on this trip to make up for the cost of shipping.

[theonlyjoie]

So, has anyone actually used a luggage shipping service? Good? Bad? I know it's a bit pricey, but I recently paid $50.00 in overweight charges to United for a SEVEN-pound overage. It might be worth the extra $$$ to have someone else schlep it to the ship and then back home:confused:

 

Any input would be appreciated...I don't see any shipping services that are listed with the BBB!?

 

e-mail me at

missladuca at yahoo dot com

 

Thanks for all the good info. CCers are a blast!

[chasetf]

I checked the pricing for shipping one large bag to England - $339! Yikes. Julia

Then you have the return trip. Gee..... it would cost more for our bags to travel than for us to travel. :eek: :eek:

[kryos]

I just went on www.cruiseshippers.com. It appears that they are the only ones that can ship to a cruiseship. Also, they are the only ones that have an on-time guarantee. They will actually give me money if my luggage is late. I wish the airlines would do that. I am going to use on my next cruise. Traveling without my luggage, this is going to be great.

I'm wondering if this could be a reasonably low cost option for shipping my luggage home to Philadelphia from New York after my QE2 cruise? Considering that I have an 18-day cruise on the Veendam before the QE2 one, plus two days in Europe ... I'll probably have a couple of pretty big pieces of luggage. If I didn't have to schlep all of that luggage, I could spend the day in New York, and then just take the Amtrak home. If I have all the luggage, I can forget touring, and I'll wind up having to pay for some sort of private car service from the New York pier. Guess I'd better give these folks a call after the holidays and compare costs.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[hammybee]

I'm wondering if this could be a reasonably low cost option for shipping my luggage home to Philadelphia from New York after my QE2 cruise? Considering that I have an 18-day cruise on the Veendam before the QE2 one, plus two days in Europe ... I'll probably have a couple of pretty big pieces of luggage. If I didn't have to schlep all of that luggage, I could spend the day in New York, and then just take the Amtrak home. If I have all the luggage, I can forget touring, and I'll wind up having to pay for some sort of private car service from the New York pier. Guess I'd better give these folks a call after the holidays and compare costs.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

Heck, your luggage may be on the same Amtrack train as you are.

[gwydiana]

My cabinmate did that on my most recent cruise. She spent as much on shipping her one piece of luggage as I did on a round trip airfare from San Diego to Fort Lauderdale.

 

Her luggage arrived in our cabin 5 hours after mine did. I felt rather bad for her

[amusea]

I have used FEDEX to ship a piece of luggage to my Florida apartment from my home address in Arizona. It was quite large and the cost was around $50.00 (you pay by the weight). The advantage of FEDEX was that it did not have to be boxed. I took the suitcase to the nearest FEDEX dropoff store. Bag arrived promptly and in excellent condition. I sent it about a week before I travelled and it arrived before I did.