My wife and I did the 'Adventure of the Seas' Caribbean cruise back in the beginning of May, 2007 for our honeymoon and we had a rather unfortunate start to our trip. As we were boarding the ship, we turned all of our baggage over to the handlers at the ship entrance, one of which we never saw again. We turned our baggage over thinking it would all show up in our room...Boy were we wrong...Not only did the bags not show up until midnight that night, but one of our bags was missing!
The unfortunate thing was that this bag contained a brand new laptop, some expensive Bose headphones, several DVDs, and gift cards that we had just received for wedding presents. After spending 2 days working with the cruise security personnel, they basically told us that the bag was nowhere to be found and that we can file an additional claim with the luggage claim department once we arrived back in the States.
It is now the beginning of August, and after several emails, letters, sending receipts of proof of purchase for the items above, I just received a letter from Royal Caribbean saying they aren't responsible for covering any of my loss, and that I should review the passenger ticket contract.
Obviously, it wasn't the smartest thing to leave electronics in a bag, but honestly, every one of my bags was valuable - be it expensive clothes, electronics, jewelry, etc. the expectation is that the cruise line should be able to get our bags to our rooms securely.
So for all of you wanting to do cruises with Royal Caribbean, BEWARE!! Even though you tag your bags with the tags provided by Royal Caribbean, you may never see your baggage again! There is no control or records kept at the Port of Call for what baggage is handed over to the baggage handlers...the baggage handlers are contractors of Royal Caribbean and they DO NOT give you a claim check or any other kind of proof for how many bags they took from you. BEWARE AND BE PREPARED TO LOSE YOUR BAGGAGE PERMANENTLY IF YOU HAND YOUR BAGGAGE OVER TO THE HANDLERS!!!
Excuse me but since when does one check in electronics and other valuables?? Valuables should never leave your hand period whether you fly, sail or fart for that matter it does not matter.
First of all let me say welcome to cruise chat. I am so sorry about your items but don't bash Royal Carribbean like that yes it was a VERY unfortunate incident and I feel bad for you but to say BEWARE of RCCL that was not fair that could have happened anywhere, yes be angryand possibly hurt but to come on here and bash RCCL was the wrong move. Again I am so sorry for what happened to you and yes IF it would have been me I would have never let my valuables out my sight. Now are clothes important yes they are but my electronics, jewelery and such would have been on my person.
I think I am on safe ground when I say the baggage handlers on the pier are not RCI contractors but employees of the port facility - which usually means some government authority.
Most cruise lines (if not all) are very strict on their policies about covering incidents that don't physically occur on the ship. By chance, did you purchase any type of trip insurance prior to the cruise? It would probably not cover the entire contents of the suitcase, but getting a little bit back at this point would be far betting than chalking up the incident as a complete loss. I am very sorry for your misfortune and I hope that you sail RCCL in the future. I have over 10 cruises with them and my luggage is always delivered promptly to my stateroom.
P.S. The laptop I can live without but my Bose headphones are the magical item on airplanes that is like hitting mute on a crying child.
Another good reason for travel insurance. I do agree that anything of more than modest value (with the exception of maybe nice clothes) should be among your carry-ons. Unfortunatly hind sight is always better in these cases. Sorry for your loss loirule but put yourself in the shoes of RCI. Should they be put in a position of assuming whatever value and content each passenger claims is what the actual losses were? If they did, they'd be paying off claims on lost baggage for a lot of laptops, Rolexes, diamond rings, etc.
Naw, I don't think "Or..." applies. Heck, they train monkeys at Stanford not to repeat behavior after getting smacked around a few times. The OP got smacked around enough and learned.
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