Luggage delivery service

[envy4u]

So afraid of lost luggage. Can I send it to the ship beforehand? I’ll be in London before we fly to Athens to catch the ship. Anybody do this? What company did you use?

[FLConnie]

Following ...I was thinking of sending ours to our hotel in Rome.

[skynight]

It is expensive. look at these sites:

https://www.luggageforward.com/partners/princess-cruises/

 

[Joanne G.]

I considered a luggage shipping service for an upcoming land vacation in London, given the stories and horrific pictures of luggage pileups at Heathrow.    But I found the cost to be high, and it seems such a service could misdirect or misplace a bag just like an airline can.  I decided instead to go carry-on only, and if I need to purchase something during my stay that doesn't fit in my carry-on, or utilize a laundry service, I would likely spend less than the luggage delivery fees.  

 

That being said, I am still intrigued by the service and might consider it for longer trips, and I will be interested to hear of anyone's real life experience with one of them.  

 

 

[chloemonkey]

On 8/6/2022 at 5:55 AM, Joanne G. said:

I considered a luggage shipping service for an upcoming land vacation in London, given the stories and horrific pictures of luggage pileups at Heathrow.    But I found the cost to be high, and it seems such a service could misdirect or misplace a bag just like an airline can.  I decided instead to go carry-on only, and if I need to purchase something during my stay that doesn't fit in my carry-on, or utilize a laundry service, I would likely spend less than the luggage delivery fees.  

 

That being said, I am still intrigued by the service and might consider it for longer trips, and I will be interested to hear of anyone's real life experience with one of them.  

 

 

I too have recently inquired and in addition to the high price quote that I rec'd - it appears that I would have to have the luggage shipped 8 days ahead of our ship's departure?  I am a pretty good packer....but even I would probably have a hard time avoiding wrinkles in clothes that have been in a suitcase for over a week......

But I am still debating...as it would be LOVELY to not have to lug anything other than our carry ons through these airports.  So would also love to hear from people who have used the service.

Our trip is Los Angeles to Rome (through Heathrow) and return is Istanbul to Los Angeles (again thru Heathrow).  

Looking forward to hearing from the experienced cruisers out there!

[greenumbrella]

We did ship our luggage.  Since Princess recommended Luggage Forward, we booked with them.  They scheduled pickup for July 18 in Florida in order to get to Southampton by July 29.  We didn’t get much guidance even after calling for more information.  “just pack as if you were flying”. We paid $1,107 for 3 check in bags.  After seeing all the Heathrow problems, this started to sound cheap.  DHL is the carrier they use.  Our bags were picked up promptly on July 18 - and returned promptly on July 19!!  Apparently they do a thorough inspection, more than any airline experience.  They found 2 foil packages of individual use insect wipes which do say flammable in small print.  Instead of trashing them and sending the shipment on, they returned all 3 bags because they were on one waybill.  Now they said there was no longer enough time (still 10 days!) to get the bags to the ship!!  We repacked and called to talk to them about changing the destination to our London hotel but their office was closed for the day at 3:55 pm, Boston time where they are located.  We have not received a refund after a full month and we may not if DHL doesn’t reimburse Luggage Forward.  

Crazy us, we still wanted to avoid Heathrow!  We contacted ShipGo.  They said they didn’t have time to get our bags to the ship because the port agent requires them at least 3 days before sailing.  How about our hotel in London where we were spending 5 nights prior to sailing?  Yes, that would work.  We paid $814.87 for the very same 3 bags.  They emailed the shipping documents and gave us very specific instructions on how to attach the waybills, this time a different number for each bag. They also gave us strict guidelines for packing - no liquids, no toiletries, no vitamins, no medication even over the counter, no electronics, no tobacco, no perfume, no jewelry.  Our bags were picked up by the same DHL worker on July 20 with a plan to deliver by July 27.  They actually arrived on July 25 in great shape.  ShipGo has real people who answer phones from 8-8 on weekdays and all day on weekends from West Palm Beach, FL.

On return, we checked our bags at Heathrow 4 hours ahead of our flight and they arrived on the plane with us.

Hope this information will help others make decisions.

 

[FLConnie]

8 hours ago, greenumbrella said:

We did ship our luggage.  Since Princess recommended Luggage Forward, we booked with them.  They scheduled pickup for July 18 in Florida in order to get to Southampton by July 29.  We didn’t get much guidance even after calling for more information.  “just pack as if you were flying”. We paid $1,107 for 3 check in bags.  After seeing all the Heathrow problems, this started to sound cheap.  DHL is the carrier they use.  Our bags were picked up promptly on July 18 - and returned promptly on July 19!!  Apparently they do a thorough inspection, more than any airline experience.  They found 2 foil packages of individual use insect wipes which do say flammable in small print.  Instead of trashing them and sending the shipment on, they returned all 3 bags because they were on one waybill.  Now they said there was no longer enough time (still 10 days!) to get the bags to the ship!!  We repacked and called to talk to them about changing the destination to our London hotel but their office was closed for the day at 3:55 pm, Boston time where they are located.  We have not received a refund after a full month and we may not if DHL doesn’t reimburse Luggage Forward.  

Crazy us, we still wanted to avoid Heathrow!  We contacted ShipGo.  They said they didn’t have time to get our bags to the ship because the port agent requires them at least 3 days before sailing.  How about our hotel in London where we were spending 5 nights prior to sailing?  Yes, that would work.  We paid $814.87 for the very same 3 bags.  They emailed the shipping documents and gave us very specific instructions on how to attach the waybills, this time a different number for each bag. They also gave us strict guidelines for packing - no liquids, no toiletries, no vitamins, no medication even over the counter, no electronics, no tobacco, no perfume, no jewelry.  Our bags were picked up by the same DHL worker on July 20 with a plan to deliver by July 27.  They actually arrived on July 25 in great shape.  ShipGo has real people who answer phones from 8-8 on weekdays and all day on weekends from West Palm Beach, FL.

On return, we checked our bags at Heathrow 4 hours ahead of our flight and they arrived on the plane with us.

Hope this information will help others make decisions.

 

ShipGo is who we plan to use. Thanks for the reassurance! 

[greenumbrella]

Just to followup. I did get a full refund less $100 from Luggage Forward.  This took about 2 months and a couple of phone calls.  We won’t be contacting them again.

[Rick&Jeannie]

I believe I can put up with a bit of bag schlepping before spending that amount of money!  😟

[Joanne G.]

I agree.  And despite my earlier post on this thread about planning to take only a carry-on to London, I ended up checking a bag from O'Hare to Heathrow. It arrived safely and was not in one of those horrific piles that we saw in pictures last summer.  I was very relieved!

 

I do appreciate the information about these services, but I don't think I will be looking into them any further.  

[Rick&Jeannie]

We went through Heathrow back in October...had no issues but I was on pins and needles until I had bags in hand!  I too was seeing all those pictures "in my head" of piles and piles of luggage!

[justafem]

On 8/16/2022 at 6:35 PM, greenumbrella said:

We did ship our luggage.  Since Princess recommended Luggage Forward, we booked with them.  They scheduled pickup for July 18 in Florida in order to get to Southampton by July 29.  We didn’t get much guidance even after calling for more information.  “just pack as if you were flying”. We paid $1,107 for 3 check in bags.  After seeing all the Heathrow problems, this started to sound cheap.  DHL is the carrier they use.  Our bags were picked up promptly on July 18 - and returned promptly on July 19!!  Apparently they do a thorough inspection, more than any airline experience.  They found 2 foil packages of individual use insect wipes which do say flammable in small print.  Instead of trashing them and sending the shipment on, they returned all 3 bags because they were on one waybill.  Now they said there was no longer enough time (still 10 days!) to get the bags to the ship!!  We repacked and called to talk to them about changing the destination to our London hotel but their office was closed for the day at 3:55 pm, Boston time where they are located.  We have not received a refund after a full month and we may not if DHL doesn’t reimburse Luggage Forward.  

Crazy us, we still wanted to avoid Heathrow!  We contacted ShipGo.  They said they didn’t have time to get our bags to the ship because the port agent requires them at least 3 days before sailing.  How about our hotel in London where we were spending 5 nights prior to sailing?  Yes, that would work.  We paid $814.87 for the very same 3 bags.  They emailed the shipping documents and gave us very specific instructions on how to attach the waybills, this time a different number for each bag. They also gave us strict guidelines for packing - no liquids, no toiletries, no vitamins, no medication even over the counter, no electronics, no tobacco, no perfume, no jewelry.  Our bags were picked up by the same DHL worker on July 20 with a plan to deliver by July 27.  They actually arrived on July 25 in great shape.  ShipGo has real people who answer phones from 8-8 on weekdays and all day on weekends from West Palm Beach, FL.

On return, we checked our bags at Heathrow 4 hours ahead of our flight and they arrived on the plane with us.

Hope this information will help others make decisions.

 

I will be transporting/carrying my own bags for that price.  Thank you for the breakdown, but OUCH!