Currently on Getaway and noticed things missing from our suitcase

We are currently on a vision conference on the Getaway and we brought hundreds of pairs of gently used eyeglasses with us to donate to the Clinica Esperanza in Roatan, Honduras, one of our port stops. Sadly, about 20-40 pairs of reading glasses that our kids collected, never made it to the clinic because they were stolen. Curiously enough, when our luggage was delivered to our room the first day, the one containing the eyeglasses had a red liquor sticker attached to it. Ironically we aren't big drinkers and never bring alcohol on board with us, and this time was no exception. We reported it to desk services and the security officer sadly spent more time trying to pass off blame to everyone but the Getaway staff, rather than trying to locate the stolen eyeglasses. As of today still no word from him, but on a brighter note the staff at the clinic was thrilled to receive our kids donation. Look, I'm not one to complain, and maybe those that stole the eyeglasses needed them more than the poor people at the clinic, but the way this whole thing was handled by NCL leaves a really sour taste in my mouth. Really reconsidering our loyalty to NCL and feeling very violated.

I'm sorry about the eyeglasses being stolen. It sucks when something like this happens to a good person trying to make a difference. I hope NCL is able to resolve the issue.

I have to wonder what the motivation of the thief was.. Used eyeglasses aren't worth much money (not even sure there is a website to resell them?) and as someone who wears glasses, I can't see myself needing 40 pairs.

I would maybe check craigslist around the ports to see if the thief is trying to sell them.

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Have you brought this to the attention of the Hotel Director or the Staff Captain?

The eyeglasses that were stolen were actually over the counter readers with the RX directly written on them and they were brand new. Ironically the other used pairs were not even touched.

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We told Desk Services and spoke to the Security Officer, and haven't heard anything since.

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I'm sorry this happened to you and I'm sure it was a disappointment to your children. I'm just perplexed as to why anyone would steal 40 pairs of used glasses. It's so strange. As I understand it, when you hand off your luggage to a porter, it's not immediately in the hands of an NCL employee so it seems premature to blame NCL for the theft...not that one of the porters would have any reason to steal eyeglasses either. That's what boggles the mind--that it was used eyeglasses. Anyway, I could see where if you had a suitcase full of them and some had to be removed as they checked for contraband you can see where they were inadvertently left out of the bag, but then you'd think they would be easy to find. It's a mystery.

The eyeglasses that were stolen were actually over the counter readers with the RX directly written on them and they were brand new. Ironically the other used pairs were not even touched.

 

 

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Did the ones stolen all have the same prescription on them? Or varying prescriptions?

Is there a chance you incorrectly counted when packing - kids make honest mistakes sometimes. If I was bringing 850 glasses, I probably wouldn't even notice if I was 20 to 40 pairs off..

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I see now that I responded there's a post that the missing glasses were new and not used. That makes a tiny bit more sense. But, still...very odd.

BTW, I don't think ironic means what you think it means. ;)

odd indeed.

but if there were "hundreds" to start, could be a miscount on your part.

or the porter could have taken them, or it could have been someone at the airline as well (assuming you flew to port). when you think of the number of times that your bag is out of your sight between the time you leave your house and the time it gets to your room, anything is possible.

To clarify, all of the glasses we had were donations. I am an eye doctor and some of the glasses that were donated were brand new over the counter reading glasses that anyone can buy at the store and use. The majority of the others were gently used prescription eyeglasses that were donated by patients. These were not touched. All of the bags were filled to the brim and had no room for anymore in them. The only two bags that were opened and no longer filled to the brim were the ones that contained the over the counter readers. Some even still had tags on them. We are not seeking compensation we just want them back. All I know for certain is that they were there when we surrender our luggage at the Port of Miami and when we received our luggage on Day 1, there was a red liquor sticker on the same suitcase that contained all of the eyeglasses and other personal items. One more thing, we also have pics of the bags containing the eyeglasses and on first glance it was more than obvious that pairs were missing. We may never know what happened to them, but stealing is never ok and stealing from the poor is just plain wrong. Who stole them? Well it can only be one of two groups, the port people or NCL baggage handlers. Look, we love NCL more then any other cruise line, at the very least they should have at least made the appearance of looking into it rather than immediately laying the blame on everyone else, including me and my family. And as for not immediately responding to your post Blackburnrovers, you do realize I am on conference/vacation right? Well we are off to Harvest Cay. If anyone has any suggestions that can help us recover what was stolen, we are all ears.

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Shmoopea, when you said you spoke with the Security Officer, who was that? Was it one of the Security personnel or was it the head of Security? If it wasn't the head of Security, then that's the next person I would talk with. Also, do the Guest Services employees report up to the Hotel Director? If so, I would talk with the HD also to share with him how you feel about the service you received. Did you go to the meet and greet? If so, you should have received a card with some of the officers' contact information and the HD's should have been one of them. They do pay attention to Cruise Critic members, so be sure to mention that you enjoyed meeting him at the meet and greet (if you did go).

It seems you're certain there wasn't a miscount or that they didn't settle in transit. But, as I and others have said, to be fair it's not only NCL personnel who've had your suitcase out of your sight since you left your home.

Why would they put a 'liquor sticker' in a bag full of glasses?

No wonder you suspect NCL. What a shame.

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My point exactly. Also, I do not think for one second that it was our cabin steward. The lock was still on the suitcase and was still locked and was a TSAF approved lock, so it can be unlocked if they need to. It had to be someone that was screening the luggage whether at the port or at NCL.

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Shmoopea, when you said you spoke with the Security Officer, who was that? Was it one of the Security personnel or was it the head of Security? If it was the head of Security, then that's the next person I would talk with.

 

Also, do the Guest Services employees report up to the Hotel Director? If so, I would talk with the HD also to share with him how you feel about the service you received. Did you go to the meet and greet? If so, you should have received a card with some of the officers' contact information and the HD's should have been one of them. They do pay attention to Cruise Critic members, so be sure to mention that you enjoyed meeting him at the meet and greet (if you did go).

 

It seems you're certain there wasn't a miscount or that they didn't settle in transit. But, as I and others have said, to be fair it's not only NCL personnel who've had your suitcase out of your sight since you left your home.

Thanks for all of the helpful advice.We stayed in Miami the night before and that suitcase was opened and repacked the night before. We had possession of our suitcase and it's contents up until we handed them over at the port.

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Thanks for all of the helpful advice.We stayed in Miami the night before and that suitcase was opened and repacked the night before. We had possession of our suitcase and it's contents up until we handed them over at the port.

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It's such a shame you're having to spend so much of your vacation time on this.

At least you know it happened between your hotel and your room. Porters or NCL--but you don't know which. If I were you, I'd definitely move up the chain of command. I'm still amazed anyone would steal glasses! Hopefully it was just an honest mistake and what they saw on the xray looked odd to them--I'm sure they don't often see suitcases full of eyeglasses!--so they opened it to inspect it and neglected to put the missing glasses back into the bag and they're sitting in wherever it is they look through bags.

Liquor sticker would tell me they thought the OP had liquor in his bag and searched it. Makes sense.

So sorry this happened to you. Unfortunately there are dishonest people in all kind of areas and positions in life. Hope this works out for you and BRAVO to your children for being a part of this.

Since it seems that the "used" ones were still in the suitcase but the "new" ones weren't, I'm wondering if someone from security thought that you were bringing them on board to sell. Passengers selling anything is prohibited. If this was the case, they should at least state that this is what happened. Just my guess.

Well I think this is unfortunate.

I do know that when they put stickers on the bags that flags the next guy to check the bags.

With all the glasses in the bag it would have thrown a flag because of what it looks like in xray.

I had this happen last year when I brought my sons fishing gear it threw a flag and it had a sticker like yours and all the clothes were messed up but nothing stolen. This year I am going to make him carry it on its a retractable rod and lures. He likes to fish the islands we stop at.

The thing that strikes me as odd here is that a suitcase was delivered with a red liquor sticker on it.NCL does NOT deliver luggage that they suspect of containing liquor...you HAVE to go to the "naughty room" to claim the luggage.

The reason that you have to go to the "naughty room" is so that they can have you present to witness the suitcase being opened and searched. NCL does NOT open a suitcase for a search without the guest present.

I would have to question why these gaps in procedure exist. Something isn't quite right here.

We are currently on a vision conference on the Getaway and we brought hundreds of pairs of gently used eyeglasses with us to donate to the Clinica Esperanza in Roatan, Honduras, one of our port stops. Sadly, about 20-40 pairs of reading glasses that our kids collected, never made it to the clinic because they were stolen. Curiously enough, when our luggage was delivered to our room the first day, the one containing the eyeglasses had a red liquor sticker attached to it. Ironically we aren't big drinkers and never bring alcohol on board with us, and this time was no exception. We reported it to desk services and the security officer sadly spent more time trying to pass off blame to everyone but the Getaway staff, rather than trying to locate the stolen eyeglasses. As of today still no word from him, but on a brighter note the staff at the clinic was thrilled to receive our kids donation. Look, I'm not one to complain, and maybe those that stole the eyeglasses needed them more than the poor people at the clinic, but the way this whole thing was handled by NCL leaves a really sour taste in my mouth. Really reconsidering our loyalty to NCL and feeling very violated.

To clarify, all of the glasses we had were donations. I am an eye doctor and some of the glasses that were donated were brand new over the counter reading glasses that anyone can buy at the store and use. The majority of the others were gently used prescription eyeglasses that were donated by patients. These were not touched. All of the bags were filled to the brim and had no room for anymore in them. The only two bags that were opened and no longer filled to the brim were the ones that contained the over the counter readers. Some even still had tags on them. We are not seeking compensation we just want them back. All I know for certain is that they were there when we surrender our luggage at the Port of Miami and when we received our luggage on Day 1, there was a red liquor sticker on the same suitcase that contained all of the eyeglasses and other personal items. One more thing, we also have pics of the bags containing the eyeglasses and on first glance it was more than obvious that pairs were missing. We may never know what happened to them, but stealing is never ok and stealing from the poor is just plain wrong. Who stole them? Well it can only be one of two groups, the port people or NCL baggage handlers. Look, we love NCL more then any other cruise line, at the very least they should have at least made the appearance of looking into it rather than immediately laying the blame on everyone else, including me and my family. And as for not immediately responding to your post Blackburnrovers, you do realize I am on conference/vacation right? Well we are off to Harvest Cay. If anyone has any suggestions that can help us recover what was stolen, we are all ears.

 

 

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The more I read this the more odd things pop out.

First, there was ONE bag that had glasses taken, then there were TWO bags, then it was back to ONE bag. Huh?

Second, how can someone be certain they were there before being handed to the porter? Were they (it?) opened and checked immediately before being given to the porter? I wouldn't be surprised if they were left at home and mistakenly not packed in the suitcase. How embarrassing would it be to return home to find the missing readers sitting there unpacked? It isn't like people never forget to pack something, right?

How is it that someone would open a suitcase containing "hundreds" of pairs of glasses...a suitcase "filled to the brim" and yet they were aware enough to only take the brand new readers and none of the gently used glasses?

Who puts a liquor sticker on a bag with no bottles in it? Certainly we can't believe that eyeglasses somehow resemble a liquor bottle in the scanner. If the sticker was mistakenly applied, why wouldn't they simply remove it before delivery? Heck...even the room steward should have removed the sticker before dropping off the bag...better to toss the bad sticker than to have the guest questioning you as to why there was a sticker there.

This is a very odd story indeed.

It's so unfortunate that this has happened. I think it's wonderful what you're doing and hope that NCL is able to help with this situation. Enjoy your cruise.

I have no idea when the items got out of the bags or suitcases or whatever, and I don't think OP knows except that they were there when the bags were given to the porters. The porters DO NOT work for NCL, they are union labor that works for the Port of Miami. They are responsible for the bags until the bags are physically on the ship. I don't believe that the crew has time to go through the bags as they are put on the ship, there is too much going on to give them any time to open bags. Maybe the screeners in the terminal have the opportunity to open the bags. If just seems strange that of all the bags that get on the ship we never hear of items missing except for some relatively inexpensive reading glasses. In my mind this is a big mystery, but I don't think that the blame can automatically be laid on NCL.

The more I read this the more odd things pop out.

 

First, there was ONE bag that had glasses taken, then there were TWO bags, then it was back to ONE bag. Huh?

 

Second, how can someone be certain they were there before being handed to the porter? Were they (it?) opened and checked immediately before being given to the porter? I wouldn't be surprised if they were left at home and mistakenly not packed in the suitcase. How embarrassing would it be to return home to find the missing readers sitting there unpacked? It isn't like people never forget to pack something, right?

 

How is it that someone would open a suitcase containing "hundreds" of pairs of glasses...a suitcase "filled to the brim" and yet they were aware enough to only take the brand new readers and none of the gently used glasses?

 

Who puts a liquor sticker on a bag with no bottles in it? Certainly we can't believe that eyeglasses somehow resemble a liquor bottle in the scanner. If the sticker was mistakenly applied, why wouldn't they simply remove it before delivery? Heck...even the room steward should have removed the sticker before dropping off the bag...better to toss the bad sticker than to have the guest questioning you as to why there was a sticker there.

 

This is a very odd story indeed.

What are you even talking about? There was ONE suitcase involved and has always been ONE suitcase. All of the eye glasses were separated and placed into plastic 'bags.' The eyeglasses were in fact stolen and accusing me or my family of wrong doing is seriously ridiculous. I pray you never have items taken from your suitcase and have people like yourself and balckburnrover trying to vilify you for simply speaking up. Shame on you! And by the way we do have pics of the 'bags' of eyeglasses before and after the theft occurs and it is clearly obvious that there are much less pairs of glasses in two of the 'bags.' I also wonder if you or blackburnrover actually work for NCL. Now that would make a lot of sense as to your demeanor towards me. Just so you know, not everyone is as cynical as you and there really are good people in this world, like our children, who actually try and make a difference in the lives of those who are less fortunate. Shame on you for questioning our integrity. And yes we did tell them we just wants the eyeglasses back and were not seeking monetary compensation and we also were not planning on putting in an insurance claim for the stolen items. These were all donations made by well meaning patients and colleagues. I'm signing off now for a not because we are at Cagney's and I would really like to enjoy my steak with my family. I would however, like to thank everyone who was actually helpful and kind with their comments. We certainly do appreciate them. PS here is a pic of our children at the Clinica Esperanza and some of the 'bags' of eyeglass donations. Tell me again how 'something doesn't seem right.'

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It's so unfortunate that this has happened. I think it's wonderful what you're doing and hope that NCL is able to help with this situation. Enjoy your cruise.

Thank you so much. Minus the 'theft' issue we have been having a wonderful time on our cruise and the kids really enjoyed their time at the clinic and seeing where their donations were going.

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If they searched the bag, logically they would remove some of the items to do that - especially since it was stuffed. Perhaps they simply didn't realize that they had not returned all the contents back into the bag. They might be sitting right down there in the security area, waiting to be claimed. Of course, if you go to security and start throwing around words like "stolen" and things, they are going to immediately be put on the defensive. I'd try again.