Send Luggage to Ship - idea

[spg112357]

By now you have all heard of luggage valet, right?

You pay a fee and RCCL handles getting your bags from your cabin to your airline so that you don't need to do anything with them until you get to your destination airport.

 

Well how about the other way.

Major shipping companies offer a luggage service for $50 per suitcase to get your bag from your house to your destination which could be a hotel or a nearby shipping company office.

Well why don't they extend that service a little and deliver them to the cruise ship? Those interested would ship their luggage to the office nearest to the port then on the day of the cruise the shipping company would simply take all the bags to the cruise ship. Since the shipping companies have tracking you would always know where your bags are.

Today we have to pay $25 per bag for the airline, so paying an extra $25 and freeing your self from taking your bags to the airport, checking them in, waiting for them to get to the carousel, getting them to the hotel, getting them to the port. The shipping companies pick up at your home if you want. So basically you only need to get the bags to your front door.

[shippmates]

Some of the cruise lines offer that service. We used White Star Service when we sailed on the QM2 out of NY. The cost was around $300 on way as we shipped 3 bags to the ship. They used DHL to pick the luggage up two weeks before we set sail and it was in our cabin when we boarded the ship. Did you try doing a search for shipping luggage to cruise ships. Also go to the cruise line websites and see if they have that option. I know Cunard does. If you are spending the night at a hotel before you sail, check with the hotel and see if they would accept your luggage until you check in. We only used this service to the ship and then we had the luggage with us. Of course this happened before airlines started to charge for luggage.

[spg112357]

Some of the cruise lines offer that service. We used White Star Service when we sailed on the QM2 out of NY. The cost was around $300 on way as we shipped 3 bags to the ship. They used DHL to pick the luggage up two weeks before we set sail and it was in our cabin when we boarded the ship. Did you try doing a search for shipping luggage to cruise ships. Also go to the cruise line websites and see if they have that option. I know Cunard does. If you are spending the night at a hotel before you sail, check with the hotel and see if they would accept your luggage until you check in. We only used this service to the ship and then we had the luggage with us. Of course this happened before airlines started to charge for luggage.

 

Yes I have seen that a few of the "high end" cruise lines offer this service. I was thinking more of an cruise line independent service. On a ship the size of Oasis or Allure I bet you would get ant least 10% using a service like that. I heard from guest services that 20% use the Luggage Valet.

So with 6000 pax 10% would be 600 at $50 per pax that would be $30,000 per cruise. Not a bad source of additional income.

[Arizona Cruz Chic]

I can't imagine having my things packed for over 2 weeks in a suitcase!

 

***

[sr4mjc]

I'm too much of a control freak and have to check my bags over again 1000x times. What if the bags don't make it on the ship? I like handing them over personally. Of course once the porter gets them there is nothing I can do to make sure they get to the cabin, but I have to let go somewhere ;)

 

Of course the good thing would be I wouldn't be able to keep adding to the suitcase up until the last minute.

[spg112357]

I can't imagine having my things packed for over 2 weeks in a suitcase!

 

***

 

2 weeks?

The shipping companies that I looked at for shipping to our Oasis cruise would have taken 3 days, that was from Arizona.

[spg112357]

I'm too much of a control freak and have to check my bags over again 1000x times. What if the bags don't make it on the ship? I like handing them over personally. Of course once the porter gets them there is nothing I can do to make sure they get to the cabin, but I have to let go somewhere ;)

 

Of course the good thing would be I wouldn't be able to keep adding to the suitcase up until the last minute.

Not much different to if you check your bags with an Airline. Especially if you have connecting flights.

With the shipping companies you can actually track your bags live these days.

[Arizona Cruz Chic]

2 weeks?

The shipping companies that I looked at for shipping to our Oasis cruise would have taken 3 days, that was from Arizona.

 

Sorry, I was referring to shipmates post on white star.

 

We use to use RC air our bags got checked in at PHX and we wouldn't see it until it was in our cabin 2 days later, that was hard enough to do, you never knew if your bags even made it to the port! :eek:

 

3 days isn't bad, but I to am too much of a control freak!

 

***

[spg112357]

I kind of look at it this way.

I would check the location of the bags the day I fly out. If I time things correctly I usually get to the city where the cruise is a day or two before the cruise. If the bags are lost at that point then I would be activating my travel insurance and any coverage from the shipping company. I would have to go buy new clothes.

So for control freaks having the bags shipped to the hotel would be the thing to do. That way you at least see your bags before they get to the ship. Then all you have to do is pay a bellman to put them in a cab for you and tip the cab driver for giving them to the porter.

[Ashland]

Yikes :eek:..Just adding another possible bump in the road for our luggage would add too much stress for this OCD micro managing hands on traveler...Glad it works out for those that use this additional third..or more involved party.:)

[spg112357]

But for people that are not OCD it might work out.

[time4u2go]

Have you suggested this to the cruise line directly?

[spg112357]

Have you suggested this to the cruise line directly?

No. But I could. Perhaps they will give me an upgrade :-)

[w&k]

We used Cruishippers a number of years ago for sending our dive equipment to a ship in California, and it worked out really well. Unfortunately, they are no longer in the business.

 

Here's two companies that do luggage shipping to cruise ships - I have not tried either one.

 

Good luck!

 

Wendy

 

Luggage Forward

http://www.luggageforward.com/

 

Luggage Free

http://www.luggagefree.com/

[spg112357]

We used Cruishippers a number of years ago for sending our dive equipment to a ship in California, and it worked out really well. Unfortunately, they are no longer in the business.

 

Here's two companies that do luggage shipping to cruise ships - I have not tried either one.

 

Good luck!

 

Wendy

 

Luggage Forward

http://www.luggageforward.com/

 

Luggage Free

http://www.luggagefree.com/

 

Thanks for the info.

Looking at their rates they are a little higher than I think they should be based on what the big three shipping companies charge. Also from their advertisement it seems that they use the big three shipping companies.

[tim5055]

By now you have all heard of luggage valet, right?

You pay a fee and RCCL handles getting your bags from your cabin to your airline so that you don't need to do anything with them until you get to your destination airport.

 

Well how about the other way.

Major shipping companies offer a luggage service for $50 per suitcase to get your bag from your house to your destination which could be a hotel or a nearby shipping company office.

Well why don't they extend that service a little and deliver them to the cruise ship? Those interested would ship their luggage to the office nearest to the port then on the day of the cruise the shipping company would simply take all the bags to the cruise ship. Since the shipping companies have tracking you would always know where your bags are.

Today we have to pay $25 per bag for the airline, so paying an extra $25 and freeing your self from taking your bags to the airport, checking them in, waiting for them to get to the carousel, getting them to the hotel, getting them to the port. The shipping companies pick up at your home if you want. So basically you only need to get the bags to your front door.

UPS offers the service, but not much detail on their web site: [/url] UPS Luggage Logistics

 

FedEx has it too, same lack of information FedEx Luggage Services

[Kellie Poodle]

I did it in 2009. We were doing some land touring and a 2 week river barge cruise which only allowed 2 suitcases per person. After that cruise and some more land touring on our own, we did a 7 day Med and then scheduled a 14 day TA after that.

 

There was no way I could get everything in two suitcases so I packed one with dressy and formal clothes and left it with our TA who had it shipped to Barcelona. I think it cost somewhere between $200-$250.

 

It took a while for the folks at guest relations to locate the suitcase which was with the port agent. I was quite worried.

[spg112357]

UPS offers the service, but not much detail on their web site: [/url] UPS Luggage Logistics

 

FedEx has it too, same lack of information FedEx Luggage Services

 

I was thinking about using one of those services for our Sep 01, 2012 cruise but when I phoned them no one seemed to know anything about a luggage service :-(

They advertise on their web sites but have not informed their phone support about the service.

The only thing they could offer me was regular shipping.

 

What I want is someone who does end to end.

I want someone that picks up my bags from my house then next time I see them is in my hotel room or in my cabin. For a cruise I would even be ok with picking up the bags at the port and walking them to the drop off area myself.

 

The cost I would be willing to pay is whatever the airlines charge per bag plus $25 per bag for this service one way.

So round trip that would be $100 per bag. The airline already charges $50 round trip so $50 to not have to handle my bag would be worth it for me.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[shippmates]

I just did some more research and I was wrong when I stated our luggage was picked up two weeks before our cruise on QM2. I was only 1 week and turned out to be $100.00 a bag. White Star service used DHL and it was so relaxing not to have to worry about our luggage getting to the ship as we were doing a transatlantic. If they would have gotten lost, we would never have gotten them until we got home. We brought our bags home on the flight, so what if they got delayed on the way home. As my husband said this was the most stress free flight we every took.