Safety of your checked luggage

[rolloman]

Before they bring your luggage to your stateroom, they bring it to the the appropriate deck and then sort it. This usually is done in a public location by the stairs and elevators. My past two RCCL cruises I have actually walked up and picked out my luggage and taken it straight to my room. While this is a great timesaver for me, I am concerned over the fact no one challenged me to see if in fact I was taking my own luggage. This should be a heads up to everyone not to pack away any valuables in luggage you give to the porters before you go park.

[cmason]

Don't pack anything in your checked luggage you can not afford to lose. Period. This goes for any method of travel, not only cruising. Take valuables in your carry on.

[bplazo]

I never pack anything of value in my checked luggage. Just clothes, shoes etc.

[hdawson]

And don't use obviously expensive designer luggage. It says me. Me. Me.

[PhoenixCruiser]

And always lock your bags. You cannot lock them while flying, however even RCI recommends that you lock them before you give them to the porter and before you put them in the hall on your last night.

 

It has also been our experience that if you tip the porters more than the expected $2 per bag you'll receive your bags quicker ;)

 

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[jkrislc]

And always lock your bags. You cannot lock them while flying, however even RCI recommends that you lock them before you give them to the porter and before you put them in the hall on your last night.

 

It has also been our experience that if you tip the porters more than the expected $2 per bag you'll receive your bags quicker ;)

 

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Actually, you can lock them for flight with the new TSA approved locks. However, I prefer zip ties. They're easy for the TSA to cut off and I immediately know if my bags have been tampered with since they can only be removed by cutting them off. And most of the time, the TSA has put on their own zip ties in place of mine when the bags have been opened.

[Happy ks]

Just this past weekend, a bag belonging to someone else was delivered to our friends cabin, he returned it to the area where all the bags were being held for delivery so it could be taken to the right cabin. So, I guess you have to be trusting enough of the crew and your fellow pax. This could be one of the reasons some bags are delivered late, if the pax doesn't take the bag back, just leaving it in the hallway.

 

We always lock our luggage before turning it over to porters and also use the cable ties through our locks and to reinforce luggage tags that are secured by a strap.

 

I don't know how your bags will get to your room quicker if you tip the porters at the curb. They only load your luggage onto bins, which are filled and then loaded onto the ship with many other bags. The bags are then sorted and delivered by the ships staff, not the porters you originally gave the bags to. My experience with porters has not always been positive, I'll tip on the way in to assure my luggage is loaded into the bin, but now pass up the porters on the return. They love to get your $$, move your bags 20 feet or so, then just dump them on the ground wherever they please.

[jkrislc]

I've yet to have a problem with luggage, although in Hawaii someone else's luggage was delivered to our room before we had checked out. We were leaving for the ship the same day a group was getting off, and apparently they were assigned to our room, so the porter just delivered the bags to the room even before we had vacated.