Pre-Cruise Hotel & Luggage

[GranJean]

We have booked a pre-cruise hotel through RCCL for our cruise out of Fort Lauderdale, FL, in January. I understand that we will be shuttled from the hotel (Embassy Suites) to the ship on the day we sail.

Question is: when we turn over our luggage to the shuttle at the hotel, is it then taken onboard and to our rooms - or - do we get our luggage back at the pier and flag down a porter to check in our luggage?

We did a similar booking with another cruise line and our luggage was put on the bus at the hotel and we didn't see it again until it was delivered to our room onboard. We are hoping that RCCL provides the same service.

[amybeth4]

I may be wrong and therefore providing useless info, but here's my not-quite-the-same experience.

 

I had a hotel shuttle (actually it was a shuttle company that the hotel hired) to the pier once. When we got off, we were handed our luggage but within seconds a porter came over and took the bags from us. I would IMAGINE it's the same across the board, but this is where I could be wrong.

 

I mean, if you didn't see your bags until they were delivered to your room, how would the porters get their tips? :)

[Arizona Cruz Chic]

Once you get off the bus at the hotel, your bags will be taken off the bus and you will be responsible for them until the morning when the bus returns to take you to the pier. You can use the assistance of the hotel bell man to/from your room.

 

Once you arrive at the pier, your bags will be taken off the bus, you will need to verify that they are all there and accounted for....from there the porters will take what bags you can't or don't want to carry with you on board.

 

I remember the days when we had the full package booked with RC....we live in AZ so to FL it is always the day prior. When we would check in the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport we never saw our bags again until we were on the ship 3 days later.....YIKES!

Of course that was way before 9/11.

 

***

[cb at sea]

You WANT to confirm that your bags made the flight with you!!! And, you'll need your things for the hotel stay.

 

Nowadays, YOU have to retrieve your bags, then the shuttle folks will handle them onto the shuttle, etc...

 

We are able to "re-arrange" our luggage to bring onto the ship the items we may need before the bags are delivered....liquids and stuff that had to be "checked" for the flight. Liquids are fine to be carried onto the ship, so we take all of our toiletries, my make-up, etc...and put it in our carry-on for the ship.