Can you avoid the porters in Miami?

[cantgetin]

23 minutes ago, tinkr2 said:

You want to drag your luggage all that way tosave 5 bucks. You just give it to a porter and start relaxing.

They do work for tips. Im not sur e that makes them aggressive. Can you lift 200 bags in a row, its hard work.

You make it sound as if they ONLY get tips.  They are unionized workers who make salaries of $40K and up per year not counting the tips that they likely don't report and don't pay taxes on!  Supervisors can make over $100K.

Working for tips does not make them aggressive.  Attitudes about how much someone tips or pushing for more makes them  aggressive.  Literally taking a bag out of my hand from the luggage place at disembarkation, wheeling it out on his dolly, and then commenting about tips is aggressive.  Yes, I should have been more forceful and insisted that I'd wheel it myself. That's sort of why my bags have wheels!  

I honestly prefer the port at Barcelona.  There, you can check in your bags with the porters or directly at a VV desk.  I feel safer giving them to VV.

[tinkr2]

@cantgetin you are always free to roll your luggage the entire way to your cabin if its small enough. Most of the porters in Miami are part time and and are not making anywhere near what you're quoting. But even if they were, its still bag breaking work.

[Cloud9 Bob]

I can't believe this thread is still going strong...😆🤣😂

[Db85]

19 hours ago, sparklefarkle said:

Why not just be generous?

 

4 hours ago, Cloud9 Bob said:

I can't believe this thread is still going strong...😆🤣😂

 

LOL it's so funny, I have never even thought of the porter being a reason to check or not to check a bag. 

 

I wonder if it's only Miami that has this issue or does this hot topic spread around the world to other cruise ports. 

[cantgetin]

On 2/5/2023 at 8:37 PM, tinkr2 said:

4 hours ago, Db85 said:

 

 

LOL it's so funny, I have never even thought of the porter being a reason to check or not to check a bag. 

 

I wonder if it's only Miami that has this issue or does this hot topic spread around the world to other cruise ports. 

 

I've traveled all over the world and never encountered a problem at any other cruise  port. It could have just been the two guys I encountered or they could have been having a rough day or whatever....I do tip, I've never had an issue, but these guys made me not want to do business with them.

[Lustate]

I find the porters an idea but maybe thats because we have only done four voyages. 

If you got to an airport and curb side someone took your bag from you (no choice) took it somewhere you have idea its going and then expected a tip you would tell them to jog on. But at a cruise terminal its normal lol

[CrazyTrain2]

How fast can you run??  I always try to disguise myself to avoid being harassed.  Hey this might work for scarlet night too???  Hmmm.

 

http://www.aboutcostume.com/images/career_adult_costumes/FOR-66023.jpg

[garycarla]

Last 10 or so cruises - no bags to check on plane or at terminal. Makes life much easier.  Loving it!

 

[Cloud9 Bob]

18 hours ago, garycarla said:

Last 10 or so cruises - no bags to check on plane or at terminal. Makes life much easier.  Loving it!

I'm with you. Do you do small roller luggage or backpacks or both?

[cantgetin]

18 hours ago, garycarla said:

Last 10 or so cruises - no bags to check on plane or at terminal. Makes life much easier.  Loving it!

 

I wish we could.  Unfortunately, my daughter has one bag entirely filled with her medical equipment--braces and other orthopedic devices. These are essential--no way to eliminate them.   Airports and cruise terminals are too far for her to walk, so she packs the devices and uses wheelchair assist for those locations. We have a system to make it all work so that the two of us together can handle all the luggage.  We're planning to reduce the size of our luggage for the next cruise and see how that goes.  A big part of our issue is that we don't like to hand off the "medical bag" if that can be avoided.

[garycarla]

21 minutes ago, Cloud9 Bob said:

I'm with you. Do you do small roller luggage or backpacks or both?

 

One 2 wheel roll aboard each, plus 1 small computer type bag with ipads, plugs, papers, etc.  And I have a CPAP inside my roll aboard.

[fndecker]

On 2/5/2023 at 11:37 PM, tinkr2 said:

You want to drag your luggage all that way tosave 5 bucks. You just give it to a porter and start relaxing...

We DID drag our bags (2 bags on our shoulders and one wheeled bag) a mile from the bridge, then over the bridge, then backtracking to the terminal. It was the nightmare day when they ran the marathon and there was no way to get to the terminal. I do wonder, and should have asked, how did everyone who made the cruise get there? I know some missed the ship. Perhaps people got their very early and then shopped at Bayside, or they stayed in Miami walking distance from the terminal? I know if you were trying to get from South Beach, any wheeled transportation was stuck. We tried Lyft and a city bus, and almost got there until the tunnel was blocked and police blocked off the bus exit. The driver started driving all over the place and people finally started yelling at her to just let them off stop or no stop. We got 2 blocks closer and were the last off the bus.

It's not the tip money, though every little bit counts, it is feeling forced to do something by convention, not necessity. We had one bag that could be considered a "checked bag", that we did NOT want to have tagged and delivered to our room later. We wanted all 3 bags with us. When we thought we would be in a Lyft, we didn't want to have the driver pop the trunk and the highly paid union workers beat us to get the bag to make us feel guilty we weren't giving them the bag or a tip. Had we needed their services, we would have given them the bag.

 

Still, for my wife and I, the US tip culture is a big pet peeve and out of control. Everyone has their hand out. Now you go to a fast food place and they turn the tablet to you and you have to click "no tip". It is manipulative and trying to guilt people into tipping.

[cantgetin]

What a nightmare arrival!  Not at all the way I'd want to start the cruise.  Thank you for your comments below.  That is exactly how I feel.  We have not had our luggage "lost" on a cruise and were very happy with the service in Barcelona, but I've seen two YouTube accounts recently of luggage in Miami that for whatever reason, was not loaded onto the ship.  I really cannot risk that, particularly with the "medical bag."  

In one of the videos, both suitcases for the cabin were lost, in the other, the two people arrived at port separately and only one bag was "lost."  In each case, the people got their stuff back when the ship returned to Miami....since we are on the transatlantic, that would be an even bigger problem.  I think my solution will be to go as small as possible with wheelie bags and take them myself.

3 hours ago, fndecker said:

It's not the tip money, though every little bit counts, it is feeling forced to do something by convention, not necessity. We had one bag that could be considered a "checked bag", that we did NOT want to have tagged and delivered to our room later. We wanted all 3 bags with us. When we thought we would be in a Lyft, we didn't want to have the driver pop the trunk and the highly paid union workers beat us to get the bag to make us feel guilty we weren't giving them the bag or a tip. Had we needed their services, we would have given them the bag.

 

Still, for my wife and I, the US tip culture is a big pet peeve and out of control. Everyone has their hand out. Now you go to a fast food place and they turn the tablet to you and you have to click "no tip". It is manipulative and trying to guilt people into tipping.

 

[raphael360]

Cruise charge - $2000 to $4000

Airfare and travel - $1000 - $2000

Tipping the porter to start the cruise with a smile instead of a rant - $5 (priceless).  Cheaper than a Starbucks.

 

I generally overtip in life.  I give the man 10 bucks and get a smile, a fist bump, and even a 2 - 5 minute friendly chat while walking away smiling and ready to enjoy my happy Virgin cruise.

 

Honestly, you don't need to tip if you don't want to.

 

🙂

[Citrons]

Great to know you dont need to use them. We did the back to back in Miami from Transatlantic so only experienced getting off at Miami. 

 

In Barcelona we carried on our carry on bags.

 

Also we managed to avoid using dollars cash in October at Miami by using google pay for everything for tips - uber, restaurants etc. We had a few dollars cash from a refund on the ship which we used to tip the cleaners. I suspect porters dont use google pay 🤣  Besides that we actually managed to avoid taking out dollars cash.

[Citrons]

On 2/16/2023 at 11:24 AM, raphael360 said:

Cruise charge - $2000 to $4000

Airfare and travel - $1000 - $2000

Tipping the porter to start the cruise with a smile instead of a rant - $5 (priceless).  Cheaper than a Starbucks.

 

I generally overtip in life.  I give the man 10 bucks and get a smile, a fist bump, and even a 2 - 5 minute friendly chat while walking away smiling and ready to enjoy my happy Virgin cruise.

 

Honestly, you don't need to tip if you don't want to.

 

🙂

For me im good to carry on my carry on bag to the ship. So its good to know we dont have to do it if we dont need or want someone to take our backpack away

[jon81uk]

4 minutes ago, Citrons said:

Great to know you dont need to use them. We did the back to back in Miami from Transatlantic so only experienced getting off at Miami. 

 

In Barcelona we carried on our carry on bags.

 

Also we managed to avoid using dollars cash in October at Miami by using google pay for everything for tips - uber, restaurants etc. We had a few dollars cash from a refund on the ship which we used to tip the cleaners. I suspect porters dont use google pay 🤣  Besides that we actually managed to avoid taking out dollars cash.

If you do have any large luggage it is very different at Miami to Barcelona. At Barcelona you queue up at the luggage desk to drop off the large items and then go through the scanner with hand luggage and on to check in.

At Miami there is no desk to drop the large items, the porters take it. You then do check in and the hand luggage scan last. As far as I know if you have large (checked) luggage you have to give it to the porters.

[Citrons]

On 2/11/2023 at 4:33 AM, garycarla said:

Last 10 or so cruises - no bags to check on plane or at terminal. Makes life much easier.  Loving it!

 

Agree its the way to go. 3 weeks worth of clothes fit easy into carry on luggage. Clothes need/should be washed anyway after 1.5 weeks. So really anyone should only be packing for 1.5 weeks...which is a couple of tshirts, leggings, 2 or 3 nice dresses, fold up jacket. Mini make up bag. Flipflops, pjs. 

 

Only ever used check in luggage for moving countries 🤣🤣🤣

[jon81uk]

1 minute ago, Citrons said:

Agree its the way to go. 3 weeks worth of clothes fit easy into carry on luggage. Clothes need/should be washed anyway after 1.5 weeks. So really anyone should only be packing for 1.5 weeks...which is a couple of tshirts, leggings, 2 or 3 nice dresses, fold up jacket. Mini make up bag. Flipflops, pjs. 

 

Only ever used check in luggage for moving countries 🤣🤣🤣

Nope couldn’t do it. If I’m away for a week or longer I want plenty of outfit and sneaker choices to wear. Hand luggage is for a weekend away not a week plus!

[Citrons]

On 12/14/2022 at 3:14 PM, fndecker said:

Still a little unclear. If you take an Uber directly to the correct place (the terminal?), and have just a shoulder bag each and one medium sized wheeled bag, where do you go and how do you avoid help you don't need?

There is an uber section which is a little walk away from the main taxi area. Its like a 5 mins walk but just FYI. While you do that walk you get approached by lots and lots of taxi drivers. It is very choatic when we come from a culture where you just stand in line for a taxi rank.

 

So for us it was a little agressive to walk through that choas.

[Citrons]

12 minutes ago, jon81uk said:

Nope couldn’t do it. If I’m away for a week or longer I want plenty of outfit and sneaker choices to wear. Hand luggage is for a weekend away not a week plus!

Very easy when you get used to traveling with Ryanair around Europe and back packing around Asia/australia.

 

Plus using metro's/undergrounds in cities it becomes necessary to learn how to pack smart by only bringing carryon. I still have 4 choices of footwear in carryon luggage but its about packing smart. 

 

Rick steves has good videos for men and women and european/cruises on how to pack.

 

I still had 14 outfits which i did not wear on the transatlantic/mermaiden 3 week cruise and 1 week miami trip in October with carry on luggage. So even packing 10kg...there was still too many outfits. So i will learn myself to bring 14 outfits less.

Edited February 28, 2023 by Citrons

[LibratPDX]

I have luckily never encountered an aggressive baggage handler, and if I did, I would ask to talk to his/her boss and/or Union Official.  I am ILWU, they are ILA, basically the same union on a different coast, and it is not kosher to extort people when you make a living wage.  Tips are great if people give them willingly but threatening people is not acceptable behavior and their union bosses should be ashamed!

 

If you have luggage you can fit through the scanner, you can walk on by the porters, in fact, just have your transport drop you off at the entry door instead of by the luggage drop off area.  I do this most of the time, I like to unpack right away. 🙂

[Lustate]

20 hours ago, LibratPDX said:

If you have luggage you can fit through the scanner, you can walk on by the porters, in fact, just have your transport drop you off at the entry door instead of by the luggage drop off area.  I do this most of the time, I like to unpack right away. 🙂

VV has one entrance at Terminal V, and your cases are taken before you enter so its a bit harder, but you could wheel them past, but not sure about the scanner issue then. 

[TechSurfer]

The porters at Miami, or at least the one of the twenty that we dealt with, was aggressive.  Something like, "You don't have to tip, I'm not saying you have to tip, but it is up to you."  

I tipped.  $5.  If he hadn't said that, I wouldn't have tipped because I thought one point of Virgin was to be tip-free.  So, in that sense, the open mouth gets the worm.

But regardless, our luggage barely made it on-ship.  Fortunately it was iTagged.  Shortly before boarding, I sent Sailer Services after it.  My guess is, a cart wound up off to the side.

As for avoiding the porters, I wouldn't.  I'd prefer they be less aggressive about the tip, but you're going to be hauling those bags through the line and multiple checkpoints into floor 4 (I think) of the ship.  If you've let the porter handle those, you just have your purse or backpack and can nip off for a drink or the view instead of having to go find your room and drop the bag off.

[neverendingcruising]

In Miami you board on deck 7, the first real passenger deck is 5.