HAL advance luggage service?

Does Holland America offer a service to ship luggage ahead of sailing? I recall someone telling me that on their Princess crusie last year, that they had a suitcase picked up in advance and it was waiting for them onboard in their cabin when they arrived.

This is particulary helpful to those of us who are assiting fellow travelers that have mobility needs and don't need the extra luggage to carry around also.

If this service is available, how much did it cost? Was it in the one on time? Were you satisfied with the arrangements? Would you do it again?

Thanks in advance for any assistance with this question.

(1) On Grand Voyages if you book early it is free for certain staterooms. They pick up the bags from your home about 5 days before sailing and return them (after you go through custom) they are deliveried to your home in about 5 days. They used America Express on the one we did.

(2) on the main HAL web site look for

PLANNING & ADVICE -- Baggage Delivery Service with Luggage Forward

Now you can have the convenience of having your luggage delivered directly to your stateroom with our Luggage Forward service. With service options ranging from Express to Economy, you can be assured that your bags will meet you wherever you are. The status of each booking can be tracked online, by phone, or on any web-enabled mobile device such as a cellular phone, Blackberry or other PDA.

To book, all you’ll need is the complete pickup address or port, the complete delivery address or port, guest contact information, dates of travel, description of bags, amount of insurance coverage per item and credit card information. Luggage Forward does the rest! http://www.luggageforward.com/hollandamerica

We are seniors so for our next cruise a 35 day round trip out of Boston (we live in Charlotte, NC) -- I checked them out and found that by the time I paid Airlines bag fees -- porters at airport, hotel and port for the round trip -- I could use them for 3 bags (50#max) it would cost us an extra $150 for the service and not have to manhandle the bags. We will take our normal carryons with us. They will pick them up at our home 5 days before sailing & reurn them to our home. Note because our sailing is a weekend depart & return there was an extra charge, we could have saved money by having them delivered to our hotel before sailing and from the hotel after staying overnight one night on the return.

Ray

Had a senior monent last night -- bags were shipped by Fedex not American Express.:o

Ray

(1) On Grand Voyages if you book early it is free for certain staterooms. They pick up the bags from your home about 5 days before sailing and return them (after you go through custom) they are deliveried to your home in about 5 days. They used America Express on the one we did.

 

(2) on the main HAL web site look for

PLANNING & ADVICE -- Baggage Delivery Service with Luggage Forward

Now you can have the convenience of having your luggage delivered directly to your stateroom with our Luggage Forward service. With service options ranging from Express to Economy, you can be assured that your bags will meet you wherever you are. The status of each booking can be tracked online, by phone, or on any web-enabled mobile device such as a cellular phone, Blackberry or other PDA.

To book, all you’ll need is the complete pickup address or port, the complete delivery address or port, guest contact information, dates of travel, description of bags, amount of insurance coverage per item and credit card information. Luggage Forward does the rest! www.luggageforward.com/hollandamerica

 

We are seniors so for our next cruise a 35 day round trip out of Boston (we live in Charlotte, NC) -- I checked them out and found that by the time I paid Airlines bag fees -- porters at airport, hotel and port for the round trip -- I could use them for 3 bags (50#max) it would cost us an extra $150 for the service and not have to manhandle the bags. We will take our normal carryons with us. They will pick them up at our home 5 days before sailing & reurn them to our home. Note because our sailing is a weekend depart & return there was an extra charge, we could have saved money by having them delivered to our hotel before sailing and from the hotel after staying overnight one night on the return. Ray

They'd never find our rural desert home for picking up the bags. Not even mapquest or our GPS has the correct directions even though we've lived here for 15 years.

Maybe we could just give them directions rather than their using a software method??

[a few minutes later]. I guess we won't be using it since our two bags are almost 50# each, that's $198 total. Although we plan on using the Express luggage service from ship to home, we won't be using the forwarding service. If we were flying in several days early and didn't want the hassle of the bags while sightseeing it would be well worth it, but I'm not sure it's worth it just for the one night in Seattle pre-cruise. I'll ask DH what he thinks.

They'd never find our rural desert home for picking up the bags. Not even mapquest or our GPS has the correct directions even though we've lived here for 15 years.

Maybe we could just give them directions rather than their using a software method??

 

[a few minutes later]. I guess we won't be using it since our two bags are almost 50# each, that's $198 total. Although we plan on using the Express luggage service from ship to home, we won't be using the forwarding service. If we were flying in several days early and didn't want the hassle of the bags while sightseeing it would be well worth it, but I'm not sure it's worth it just for the one night in Seattle pre-cruise. I'll ask DH what he thinks.

Are you sure Fedex can't found your home??

In our case USAIRWAYS charges $25 for first bag and $35 for the second bag per person. (we are taking 3 large bags for the 35 day cruise) I added $2/$3 per bag for airlines porter, Hotel porters (2 times) and for porters at port for each way.

In your case, assuming the same airlines bag charge, you would pay $50 bag for the airline's charge plus porter tips at airport, hotel and at ship port of $8/$10 each way or about $120+ for the round trip if you take them yourself.

In the HAL Express luggage service from ship to home you will still pay the airline's bag charge per bag plus HAL's charge for the service.

Ray

For the Luggage Express to pick up my bag(s) 5 days before I even leave home I would have to have a lot more of the things I have to have everyday LOL :)

Coming back I wouldn't care when it arrived.

Hoping that luggage forwarding has not taken the place of Express Luggage :confused:

For the Luggage Express to pick up my bag(s) 5 days before I even leave home I would have to have a lot more of the things I have to have everyday LOL :)

Coming back I wouldn't care when it arrived.

 

Hoping that luggage forwarding has not taken the place of Express Luggage :confused:

They show both Luggage Express & Luggage forwarding options. Must people use Express if they can and forwarding is just a option supplied by the contractor they use for Grands cruises.

We have used both. Only problem was once we got an upgrade to First Class on a return for a few dollars and we don't get our checked bag charge refunded. :(

Ray

Any chance that this is available from a Canadian home address????

Are you sure Fedex can't found your home??

 

In our case USAIRWAYS charges $25 for first bag and $35 for the second bag per person. (we are taking 3 large bags for the 35 day cruise) I added $2/$3 per bag for airlines porter, Hotel porters (2 times) and for porters at port for each way.

 

In your case, assuming the same airlines bag charge, you would pay $50 bag for the airline's charge plus porter tips at airport, hotel and at ship port of $8/$10 each way or about $120+ for the round trip if you take them yourself.

 

In the HAL Express luggage service from ship to home you will still pay the airline's bag charge per bag plus HAL's charge for the service.

 

Ray

You're right that with all the tips it's about $120 if we do it ourselves, so the question to DH is whether not the convenience of no bags is worth the $80 difference pre-cruise. On our tight budget, I'm not sure it is. For the return, the cost of the Express Luggage service is worth it in order for us to avoid the check-in line at the airport and go straight to security line so we'll make our noon flight.

If it is FedEx who picks up the bags, no problem. Those drivers now all know where we live. The first year we'd get phone calls from FedEx and UPS asking for directions, but now they know where we live.

But for the return we don't need the bags delivered to our door at home, just the airport at home for us to get when we land. And we will be doing that service if our noon flight time is compatible with the service.

www.luggageforward.com/hollandamerica [/color]

 

We are seniors so for our next cruise a 35 day round trip out of Boston (we live in Charlotte' date=' NC) -- I checked them out and found that by the time I paid Airlines bag fees -- porters at airport, hotel and port for the round trip -- I could use them for 3 bags (50#max) it would cost us an extra $150 for the service and not have to manhandle the bags. Ray[/quote']

 

We're taking two wheeled bags (one each, so $25 per bag) that after packing usually weigh 30-some pounds each, probably 40-some for our upcoming 14 day Alaska cruise. According to the site that will be $99 per bag charge ONE-WAY, so $200.

Since we'd only be spending about $50 total in tips one way plus the baggage fees, for a total of $100 the service one-way would cost us about $100 more than what we'd currently be paying. That is not worth it to us for the convenience of not handling the bags. Our budget is really tight and $100 would pay a tour, so hubby (who, like you is a senior) would prefer to 'manhandle' the bags.

But thank you for all the info. We'll keep it in mind in case we decide to use it for some other cruise as his arthritis gets worse.

We're taking two wheeled bags (one each, so $25 per bag) that after packing usually weigh 30-some pounds each, probably 40-some for our upcoming 14 day Alaska cruise. According to the site that will be $99 per bag charge ONE-WAY, so $200.

Since we'd only be spending about $50 total in tips one way plus the baggage fees, for a total of $100 the service one-way would cost us about $100 more than what we'd currently be paying. That is not worth it to us for the convenience of not handling the bags. Our budget is really tight and $100 would pay a tour, so hubby (who, like you is a senior) would prefer to 'manhandle' the bags.

But thank you for all the info. We'll keep it in mind in case we decide to use it for some other cruise as his arthritis gets worse.

I agree -- We do not plan to use the forwarding service on cruises where we only have two large bags and our normal two carryons. :cool:

But on the longer cruises where we have three large bags plus our two normal carryons for the one night before cruise, we are looking at the forwarding service as handling "5+" bags the cost of bag fees/tips goes up.

I agree -- We do not plan to use the forwarding service on cruises where we only have two large bags and our normal two carryons. :cool:

 

But on the longer cruises where we have three large bags plus our two normal carryons for the one night before cruise, we are looking at the forwarding service as handling "5+" bags the cost of bag fees/tips goes up.

My husband has made it quite clear to me in the past that we will, under no circumstances, take more than one suitcase each (28") and one carryon each (21"). We have a 33 day cruise coming up in Sept/Oct and he reminded me to keep the clothing down to two checked bags and the 2 carryon's.

So, that's all the luggage we'll ever be taking. We do a lot of mix 'n match taking just a few basic colors, taking clothes that are durable enough to withstand the ship's laundry. So, it's like packing for ten days, wearing each outfit three times total. No problem.

We traveled six weeks in Spain several years ago with just 2 backpacks and a duffle bag. But we didn't have to dress up for dinner. :)

Our May Alaska cruise on HAL has 4 formal nights but not a problem since I take 2 sequin tops to wear with dressy black slacks and wear each twice. We have open seating so won't be sitting with the same people anyway. Hubby has two colors of cummerbunds and two shirts for his tux so can alternate those.

As hubby's arthritis gets worse it's starting to affect his hip and balance (he's 79 now) and he's the one who has to lift those two heavy 35-40+ pound suitcases in and out of the car's trunk, so it's very possible that there might come a day that we'd think that the extra $100 is worth it not to have to hassle with the suitcases at all. (or maybe he'll decide we can have more suitcases to make each one lighter :) )

We were to go on the Amsterdam Last Summer and about 5 weeks prior to embarking we got a HAL Know Before You Go booklet which outlined the options for sending luggage with Luggage Forward. The idea seemed great as we are just getting to lazy in our older years to deal with the hassles of the airline and schlepping the bags around the terminals and to the hotels. We signed up to send 2 of our bags with Luggage Forward and spoke to a gentleman at the company who arraigned everything. 5 Days before our ship left our bags left our front steps and were due to arrive in our stateroom the day the ship embarked. Sadly though we did not arrive as my husband broke his leg 2 days before the cruise and had to have a minor surgery which didn’t let us get down in time. Though I was impressed by the service thus far and getting my bags picked up and the booking process I was even more impressed with what they did for us to get our bags back home. Our bags were already at their office near the port and they within 10 minutes found the bags and got them re-directed back home to us. Can you imagine if your bags took a cruise and you didn’t! Oh the laughs we would have heard from our friends! I found out through this process that Luggage Forward is a partner of Holland and is separate from their other luggage services, Holland America confused us a bit with that but Luggage Forward knows their process and really handled our situation well. The link was already provided but here it is again http://www.luggageforward.com/hollandamerica

We have plans to take another cruise next year with Holland and weather we are offered the service or not we are going to utilize their company again, many props to Luggage Forward and whomever the young gentleman was I spoke to.

Thank you for telling your tale, M&B. I'm so sorry you missed your cruise, and for the reason you missed it! Hope all is better now.

But how nice that you didn't have that one more worry of getting your things back. Glad all worked out so well on that score.