sjn, if you called at 9:33 am east coast time, they may not have been open, since I am assuming you disembarked in either Los Angeles or San Diego. I, too, had to wait for a call to be returned, but they did. I can't remember how I paid the shipping charge, but it wasn't very much, around $20, which to me was well worth it. I had a dress that my hubby had just bought for me in my suitcase as well as a pants suit he bought. I know it's frustrating, and I understand it's not your fault, just try to keep the faith and be as pleasant as you can be. I was ready to drive back down because I couldn't get ahold of anyone, but they did call. When they did, they had good news. As Neil states, if you have insurance, it will cover some of your loss. I believe home owner's insurance will cover some of it as well. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you.
Originally posted by penny3333:
Hi sjn, Welcome aboard. Sorry to hear about your luggage. Hopefully, you'll have the luck we did. I forgot one of our bags (ok, I'm getting old) in Port Everglades. I called the cruise line that evening as well as the port. They had found it and returned it to me within 3 days. On the paperwork they gave you, the day you disembarked, there should have been a phone number for you to call. It was also on our travel documents, back when they sent real ticket packets. I do hope you called the port. It really helped and I guess we were lucky. Hang in there and make sure they can get in touch with you.
HUM, Our ship was held at sea once thrying to get to home Port. The reason, we heard later, was someone had left a suitcase in the terminal and they were treating it as a bomb. Could that have been you? haha
Just curious as to whether PRINCESS has come forward to assist in any way at all? It seems that this would ultimately be PRINCESS' responsibility to take care of in some manner or at least to start looking for it.
familycruisin, You won't like the response from the cruiselines when issues like this occur. Ever seen the disclaimers you agree to when you get your docs? They pretty much deny responsibility for anything and everything that may go wrong. Don't be surprised if the cruiseline blames the Port Authority workers and vice versa. If there were a transfer company in play there would be three sets of fingers pointing in a circle. The truth is there is no way to know who is responsible in lost luggage situations. You have airlines, port workers, ship staff, transfer drivers and then you have bags being left both in the hallway at the end of a cruise that are accessible to everyone on the ship. In addition you have an honor system with all the bags on the floor on the cruise terminal that you go and claim your bags from as you approach the Customs stations. Sometimes you can determine when they disappeared and eliminate some of the links in this chain but that still leaves several posibilities as to what happened. None of the parties will ever claim the blame and they have legal disclaimers to back their denials.
It's not pretty but it's the way things are, they pay good lawyers to protect their interest with their policies and contracts that they require you to accept in order to cruise. It is almost always the passengers responsibility in the end to insure against loss. Without such insurance you're left with hoping for some good luck or eating the loss.
I called the port in the afternoon on Thurs. but I still haven't heard from them. I'll try again on Monday. I was wondering how long you had to wait before they returned your call?
Quote:
Originally posted by penny3333:
sjn, if you called at 9:33 am east coast time, they may not have been open, since I am assuming you disembarked in either Los Angeles or San Diego. I, too, had to wait for a call to be returned, but they did. I can't remember how I paid the shipping charge, but it wasn't very much, around $20, which to me was well worth it. I had a dress that my hubby had just bought for me in my suitcase as well as a pants suit he bought. I know it's frustrating, and I understand it's not your fault, just try to keep the faith and be as pleasant as you can be. I was ready to drive back down because I couldn't get ahold of anyone, but they did call. When they did, they had good news. As Neil states, if you have insurance, it will cover some of your loss. I believe home owner's insurance will cover some of it as well. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you.
I called around 7:30pm on Saturday night. I received my first call at 9:00am on Monday morning. My suitcase was home the next day. They sent it DHL. I never did hear from the Port Authority, just the Princess reps in Ft. Lauderdale.
Just wanted to let you know my suitcase was returned to me last Friday. I was not aware that it had been located as Princess never called to inform me. I'm just glad I was home when DHL came to deliver it!!!! Thank you for your help and suggestions. sjn
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