Missing clothing items - the REAL truth.

[I'm on holiday]

I pack & send packages to the Military. It isn't as easy as putting it in a box. This would be a nightmare and the number of staff to pull off the lost & found would be prohibitive. I have left all my hanging clothes in a hotel closet after a funeral. Returned but costly lesson. I would not even want to imagine how many rooms leave things behind. And to try getting them all back to their owners (some who would not want to pay to get back that stinky pair of sneekers or dirty personal items!).:eek: Costly lessons and sad sometimes. I have heard of people getting their things by going back to the dock & someone went to get their things. :D

I live 35 minutes from the Port of Tampa and would gladly drive there any time, day or night, to retrieve my belongings.

[98Charlie]

Wonder if you'd feel the same if it was your $400. worth of stuff?

Uh' date=' yes I would feel the same. I'm not saying I'd be happy about leaving stuff behind. But it wouldn't change my opinion. Why should it? It is my responsibility to take care of my belongings.

 

BTW, I [u']have[/u] left stuff on the ship by accident. Hotels, too.

 

Charlie

[I'm on holiday]

Uh, yes I would feel the same. I'm not saying I'd be happy about leaving stuff behind. But it wouldn't change my opinion. Why should it? It is my responsibility to take care of my belongings.

 

BTW, I have left stuff on the ship by accident. Hotels, too.

 

Charlie

 

I clearly stated that I take full responsibility for leaving my items behind, however, I still think reasonable measures should be taken to give folks a chance to claim their belongings.

[cruiseguy1016]

My son left his stuffed puppy at a Wisconsin dells waterpark hotel. They not only held onto it but even fed exd it back to us (we paid the shipping of course )

 

:confused: There is a Wisconsin dells waterpark hotel on a cruise ship? :eek:

[98Charlie]

I clearly stated that I take full responsibility for leaving my items behind' date=' however, I still think reasonable measures should be taken to give folks a chance to claim their belongings.[/quote']I agree with you that it would be great. In my first post on this thread I was indicating that IMHO the reason(s) that they gave you are not the real reason that your belongings were tossed.

 

Sorry if you misinterpreted my comment.

 

Charlie

[Cruise-Nut]

We were on the February 10 sailing of the Radiance and upon our return I realized I had left some clothing items in a bottom drawer in our cabin. (brand new Nike dry-fit shorts' date=' top & sports bra, and 4 bathing suits -2 were never worn! :() Before I continue, I take full responsibility for getting side tracked and forgetting to empty out that last drawer. BTW...there are tons of drawers, cubbies and closet space in a GS.

 

I immediately emailed the lost and found department, giving a detailed description of the items, our cabin number and cabin attendant. I also followed up with a call and repeated all the info. I was told that an email would be sent to the ship and they would report back. Two days later I received a voicemail claiming that an "extensive search" had been conducted and my items were not found. I called them back to discuss the matter, and after a bit of back and forth with the rep, she disclosed that for "health and safety issues" clothing items are discarded. :eek:

 

My question is, why put a guest through the charade of a report if they know darn well clothing items will be tossed?[/quote']

 

I can't imagine why you would expect RCCL to worry about left behind clothing from every cruise. It would be a nightmare. I will bet you that there is at least 50 cabins that leave something behind on every cruise. I am sorry you lost it but you did forget to grab them.

[WisconsinFan]

There is a Wisconsin dells waterpark hotel on a cruise ship?

- Hey CruiseGuy- that is called "Wisconsin Nice" we often go above and beyond to help others out. When my family went to the Rose Bowl in 1994 we left something on the tour bus contracted by the Alumni Association- of course it was never returned. The people in LA were laughing at the Wisconsinites who were turning things into the hotel lobbies and other places thinking what a bunch of dumb hicks! The LA paper even wrote about it.

 

Not everyone has the idea that you should help people out. I am glad folks in Wisconsin do :)

[joyride21]

My friend left several formal dresses hanging in her stateroom closet on Mariner. She called and got the same story, extensive search conducted, items not found. Sounds like a script to me.

 

It would be nice if they held items in a lost and found area at the embarkation port for at least a few days. I would imagine most people would realize fairly quickly that they left something behind...

[MonocacyCruiser]

quote:

 

I could see in this day of STDs that intimate garments may very well be discarded... Unfortunate.

endquote

 

You can get an STD from intimate garments?

[chris153]

Junk and items of no value may get tossed. But would you throw away unworn clothing with the tags still attached? How about an expensive watch, or other piece of jewelry? Does anyone really think the ship's employees do either? It either gets kept, given, or traded to another employee for something else of value, or sold on eBay or elsewhere. But there ain't no way people working for cruise ship wages and tips throw away things of value.

 

and if they don't , good for them. If a passenger (dealing with one person), cannot remember one thing, then why should a cruise line dealing with hundreds to thousands have to deal with it. Honestly, do not bring anything of real value on a cruise and you will be okay.

[98Charlie]

quote:

 

I could see in this day of STDs that intimate garments may very well be discarded... Unfortunate.

endquote

 

You can get an STD from intimate garments?

Yes...google it for info.

 

Charlie

[publicpersona]

Now multiply that by about 100 rooms, and 2 sailings within two weeks, label each bag with room number, reservation number. and customer name--in case someone else calls for another person's stuff. Create the storage space, catalogue the items so someone can't say they left more things than were retrieved, create a staff with knowledge of this retreival and return process...

 

 

... And now you've added about $200 to the cose of each cruise... YECH!

Wow! Amazing math. So assuming 3000 passengers, and your number of left-behind items in 100 rooms, but they have to increase the revenue by $600,000 to cover it. That means it must cost $6000 to throw each room's items into a bag, label it, and toss it in a storage room (the cost of finding the items and shipping would be charged to the requestor, so not counting that). I certainly would like that concession!!

 

No one expects them to faciliate return of a dirty sock. A bag of purchases, or a laptop? Uh, yeah. Maybe they could model it after the process they seem to have for keeping up with travel irons, power cords, and wine bottles. They seem to do that pretty well.

[twinsmom310]

That is disappointing. A couple years ago my son lost his sweatshirt somewhere in Epcot. WE we to the lost and found and nothing.

Left our information and after we arrived home they left a message saying they found it and they even shipped it back to us. We didn't have to pay. I offered. Can you imagine the things left at Disney?

[I'm on holiday]

oops

[I'm on holiday]

Maybe they could model it after the process they seem to have for keeping up with travel irons, power cords, and wine bottles. They seem to do that pretty well.

 

Excellent point!

[Laid-back]

We did a RCL cruise a couple of years back in which the stateroom closet was almost full of clothes. Took three large garbage bags for the steward to clean it out. I wonder if they tossed all of that? As per previous comments someone must have really bought a lot of trinkets on their cruise that they opted to take home instead of the clothes that they came with

[Wmass_mom]

While it would be nice for the cruise line to keep and catalog each item of value left behind, I agree it would be a logistical nightmare. Look how many people chimed in with stories of lost items- I bet it happens in at least 5% of the cabins. That would be 150+ bags with discarded items after each cruise.

 

Will RCI store them at the cruise terminal, which is probably closed a lot of the days? Now you'll need to accommodate those who cannot retrieve their items on the specified days. And what if there is inclement weather at the terminal (snow in Bayonne NJ for example). Now someone needs to make sure the access to the lost and found is cleared. If someone slips and sues RCI, there is no waiver in place to protect the cruise line.

 

OK, so ship it to clients willing to pay? A nice thought but now an operator needs to call the port to verify the item was found, then charge the card, then get word to the port to mail the package, and then who is going to get the boxes, do the packing, arrange the package pickup? And then what if the glasses were not properly packed and broke in shipping?

 

It would be a huge hassle and expense to RCI for something that wasn't their fault in the first place. I don't blame them one bit.

 

A better solution- for the passengers to take an extra 5 minutes at the end of the cruise to make sure all their items are packed. I walked around our room checking every drawer, looking under the bed, and double checking the safe.

[Oscar_the_Grouch's_Sis]

We did a RCL cruise a couple of years back in which the stateroom closet was almost full of clothes. Took three large garbage bags for the steward to clean it out. I wonder if they tossed all of that? As per previous comments someone must have really bought a lot of trinkets on their cruise that they opted to take home instead of the clothes that they came with

 

That's the funniest thing I ever heard!! :D

 

And can I just say that while this thread has been a fun read: "Should they or should they not" ... the point has been completely missed! The point the OP was trying to make was why did they waste her time by lying about it at first. They could have just cited policy right away and that would have been the end of it! :confused:

[krisean]

I left a ring in my safe onboard a ship years ago (not RCCL). I discovered it on our drive home from the port. Called the line immediately and knew within hours that they had found the ring and were holding it for me. I lived in Miami and picked it up several days later. Was obviously very happy to get it back.

 

But I think clothes and other items (drink glasses, tioletries, souvenirs,etc) would be very cumbersome for the line to try and keep track of. Even though many clothes (or shoes) can be worth a fair amount of money, what cruise employee has time to determine that cabin x's "left behinds" are worth storing but cabin's z "left behinds" are not. So I can understand an all or nothing approach with nothing being the practical solution.

 

That being said.. if that is your policy tell me upfront. I would be PO'd, as the OP was, to be told something and waste my time following up just to find out no one was ever looking to begin with.

[CruisinGerman]

Dear friends:

 

It is just so amazing how cheerleaders find a way always to defend their favorite cruiseline -- even when there is no defense.

 

Properly servicing a cruise cabin, like any hotel room, also means follow-up when a guest leaves belongings in the cabin upon departure. This happens in a statistically low situation, but it does happen.

 

There's no reason why the belongings cannot be put in a vacuum sealed garbage bag or bags and offloaded to the pier.

 

We were on the NCL Gem a few years ago Barcelona-Barcelona. We left some china and glass souvenirs we purchased in Malta accidentally in the closet. After a few phone calls and e-mails, NCL offloaded the belongings to the port agent in Barcelona and the port agent sent them by messenger service to my office in Madrid.

 

I don't buy the story that the cruise line destroys everything they find.

 

Kind regards,

 

Gunther and Uta

[marci22]

That is disappointing. A couple years ago my son lost his sweatshirt somewhere in Epcot. WE we to the lost and found and nothing.

Left our information and after we arrived home they left a message saying they found it and they even shipped it back to us. We didn't have to pay. I offered. Can you imagine the things left at Disney?

 

When my son was younger he left a worthless (but not to him) stuffed toy in a Disney hotel. I called lost and found for it and they said they would look. Next thing I knew, it was in my mailbox.

[cruiseguy1016]

- Hey CruiseGuy- that is called "Wisconsin Nice" we often go above and beyond to help others out. When my family went to the Rose Bowl in 1994 we left something on the tour bus contracted by the Alumni Association- of course it was never returned. The people in LA were laughing at the Wisconsinites who were turning things into the hotel lobbies and other places thinking what a bunch of dumb hicks! The LA paper even wrote about it.

 

Not everyone has the idea that you should help people out. I am glad folks in Wisconsin do :)

 

And how does telling us that a hotel in Wisconsin returned something to you help the OP out with a problem that occurred on a cruise ship?

[MonocacyCruiser]

Concerning getting STD's from intimate garments:

 

Yes...google it for info.

 

Charlie

 

I did a Google search, couldn't find anything that related. We are talking about putting the lost clothing in a bag, right?

 

It seems like an easy and safe thing for the cabin steward to do.

[sr5242]

:confused: There is a Wisconsin dells waterpark hotel on a cruise ship? :eek:

 

Uh, moron, it was an example of more customer friendly policies at other vacation destinations!

[sr5242]

And how does telling us that a hotel in Wisconsin returned something to you help the OP out with a problem that occurred on a cruise ship?

 

Moron #2, see above post.