About bringing a folding bicycle

[nothappycruiser]

I looked up rules and forums on bringing a folding bicycle on RCCL.  I bought and brought it on the ship with no problems.  I didn’t ride on the ship and stored in my stateroom as outlined in the rules/procedure.  When I went to get off the ship, I was stopped by security.  At our first port (the one I wanted to utilize the bike on the most) I was told I needed to get permission from guest services the day prior in order to use the bike at port.  I was upset and asked to register a compliant, as there was nothing in the literature about this.  I complied and for the next port I asked for permission from guest services.  At our second port, I lugged the bike down and tried to exit again.  Again I was stopped and discouraged.  I waited 15mins or so for phone calls and radio transmissions to go back and forth and eventually was allowed to take the bike onto the port sanctioned area, but not allowed to leave the beach front this time stopped by the countries security not RC’s.  I did not try to put my bike in a taxi and go anywhere, that might have worked, but really I just wanted to ride around the waterfront area on city streets until my excursion time. So, that day was a bust.  Our final port was a private island that had plenty of room to ride around without interfering with other guests.  Again I was denied, after registering the day before and guest services said they would leave me a message about what “port authority had said”.  Which seemed a little ridiculous because it is their own port.  I was getting the run around and people were blaming anything and everything so they could pass the buck so there was no real entity to appeal to.  The reasons that make perfect sense to me would include, “we want good relationships with our host countries….if you circumvent the services they provide for a fee, it stresses our good will”. This would be a good response, except none of the ports provided biking excursions.  Another reason (also not articulated) would be, “we don’t have the space/personnel to provide adequate security if all our passengers started to bring bicycles”.  This would also have been palatable as the masses exiting the ship would have been dangerous to navigate on a bike.  The reasons I was given (that made no sense to me) were the following;  1. You cannot bring a bike because you may be tracking bacteria in the tires that would be introduced between countries that would be problematic if introduced in a new country.  Okay….but, aren’t 1000’s of people’s shoes doing the very same thing?  It isn’t like we are asked to wash our shoes when we get back on a ship.  2. You have to get permission from the Port Authority and they are only available immediately when the ship docks.  Okay….I can concede this, but then is it the luck of the draw as to who answers the question?  I mean, wouldn’t it be easy enough to say “this port allows bicycles and this one doesn’t” so that the information could be determined in advance.  Should I have contacted the port authority myself?  Isn’t this the point of guest services?  Why didn’t they tell me as soon as the ship was cleared that I couldn’t bring the bike, and save me from lugging it down only to have to bring it up again.  3. “Did you talk to guest services”- yes, and had bad experiences with them.  One of them blamed me for not reading the procedures, which I have gone back and reviewed and I was still left dissatisfied.  I was discouraged, but certainly not hostile or confrontational.  I will say security was most kind and helpful, but the whole thing was a big fiasco. I even overheard an employee saying they were not allowed to bring their bicycles to these ports.  I could have been told that and been done with it, but I was held up waiting to hear it from people higher up the chain.   

[jalves]

Can't say I've ever heard of somebody bringing a bike on a cruise.  Your experience should give anybody considering that some good info.  

[smokeybandit]

I can't say I've ever seen someone with a bike on a cruise.

[Jimbo]

I have an idea, to avoid  the issue, don't bring a bike on a cruise.

[Mum2Mercury]

1 hour ago, nothappycruiser said:

I was told I needed to get permission from guest services the day prior in order to use the bike at port.

This makes no sense.  I can see they might be concerned about you bringing a bike onboard (what if you were a jerk who tried to zip through the Promenade or around the jogging track?), but why should they care what you do with your bike during island stops?  

1 hour ago, nothappycruiser said:

The reasons that make perfect sense to me would include, “we want good relationships with our host countries….if you circumvent the services they provide for a fee, it stresses our good will”.

Again, makes no sense:  Are they complaining about people who plan to walk around town?  They, too, are "circumventing services".  Second, how do they know you don't plan to shop and eat in town?  

1 hour ago, nothappycruiser said:

Another reason (also not articulated) would be, “we don’t have the space/personnel to provide adequate security if all our passengers started to bring bicycles”.

I don't see this becoming a big issue.  Not many people are going to choose to bring a bicycle onboard.  I can see it's reasonable to say that your bike must be stored in your own room, that you cannot ride it anywhere onboard, or even that only folding bicycles should be brought ... but people are allowed to bring baby strollers and handicapped scooters, which are going to "spread bacteria" just the same as bicycle tires.  

 

You were treated badly, and it sounds like they just hadn't anticipated bicycles and made up some stupid rules on the spot.  

[reallyitsmema]

@nothappycruiser The cruise line really needs to define their policy and put it in writing.  You followed procedures that you could find and still ran into issues.  There is a cruiser on the world cruise that got a bike approved to take on the world cruise, including sending them information on exactly what ebike he had and getting a letter from the cruise line approving the bike.  He actually had the bike shipped to the address that was given to world cruisers and they loaded it and it was waiting in his cabin on boarding.  He got the bike off the ship in one port, if I remember correctly, but then ran into issues getting it back on the ship due to security noticing it needed charging.  After much back and forth with security and corporate, his bike was taken by security on the ship and he had to make arrangements for the bike to be taken off the ship once they reached LA after the first of the four large segments of the world cruise.

[Charles4515]

I don't think anyone should expect to be able to bring a bike into any foriegn port without permission. You gave an exampe of the countries security stopping you. I don't think that anyone should expect that Guest Services would be able to get permission or even try. If you want to bring your bike to port get permission from the local authorities in advance. As far as the private island that is still a foreign country but I could see why the cruise line would not want passengers bringing bikes and riding around; for example CoCo Cay. Every possibilty is not going to be written down because there would need to be hundreds of pages of rules. Many things require common sense. It seems like OP started out feeling entitled and continued that way even after encountering issues at the first port. Sorry, the world does not work that way. 

[broberts]

2 hours ago, nothappycruiser said:

Again I was stopped and discouraged.  I waited 15mins or so for phone calls and radio transmissions to go back and forth and eventually was allowed to take the bike onto the port sanctioned area, but not allowed to leave the beach front this time stopped by the countries security not RC’s.  

 

Did you bother to check local rules for each port before embarking? Many jurisdictions do not allow the devices in public or have regulations that affect use.

[loman]

Try breaking up any future posts with paragraphs . 

That was tough to read, so i didnt. 

[pcur]

I find it odd that people bring folding scooters in their luggage, use them onboard, take them off the ship with them, but you cannot bring a folding bicycle.

 

I have no interest in doing this, but if I did, I'd put it in this, and take it off the ship with me.  I have one of these, and when it's collapsed, it could easily be bungeed to the back of the bike. Full size, the folding bike I saw on Amazon would fit in it.

 

I use this instead of a second suitcase, because it's adjustable for the extra stuff:

 

[vjmatty]

2 hours ago, Jimbo said:

I have an idea, to avoid  the issue, don't bring a bike on a cruise.

lol yes hindsight is a beautiful thing 

[c-leg5]

The OP doesn’t say where they were sailing to, which may make a difference.

 

I was talking to a guest once on Royal returning with a bike in Nassau, ( I believe). The guest in Nassau said bikes are regularly taken on European cruises but I can’t confirm whether that was on Royal or not. I have seen bike charters advertised on American River cruises (definitely not Royal!)

 

 I have certainly read blogs where people have taken bikes in board.

[vjmatty]

1 hour ago, Charles4515 said:

I don't think anyone should expect to be able to bring a bike into any foriegn port without permission. You gave an exampe of the countries security stopping you. I don't think that anyone should expect that Guest Services would be able to get permission or even try. If you want to bring your bike to port get permission from the local authorities in advance. As far as the private island that is still a foreign country but I could see why the cruise line would not want passengers bringing bikes and riding around; for example CoCo Cay. Every possibilty is not going to be written down because there would need to be hundreds of pages of rules. Many things require common sense. It seems like OP started out feeling entitled and continued that way even after encountering issues at the first port. Sorry, the world does not work that way. 

The cruise line apparently had a written bike policy which the OP claims to have followed. I don’t think it’s entitled to report his experiences here in case anyone is interested. Personally I won’t even ride a stationary bike so I have no horse (or bike 😉) in this race, but let’s not get judgy and unwelcoming for the crime of providing information, even if it happens to be less than glowing. 

[time4u2go]

19 minutes ago, c-leg5 said:

The OP doesn’t say where they were sailing to, which may make a difference.

 

OP mentioned visiting the "private island", which most likely indicates Coco Cay, at least for one of the ports.

[RobInMN]

While I think it's largely a ridiculous thing to want to do. Lugging a folding bicycle around. I do find the response from the ship puzzling, since I have seen crew member YouTube videos that show that the crew has access to bicycles (full size) that they can check out and ride in (some?) ports.

 

[ONECRUISER]

3 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

I can't say I've ever seen someone with a bike on a cruise.

80s was nothing see 50 Passengers carrying on Golf Club. 90's at times see handful to about dozen Bikes brought on some Cruises, last 20yrs, nope!

[ONECRUISER]

45 minutes ago, c-leg5 said:

The OP doesn’t say where they were sailing to, which may make a difference.

 

I was talking to a guest once on Royal returning with a bike in Nassau, ( I believe). The guest in Nassau said bikes are regularly taken on European cruises but I can’t confirm whether that was on Royal or not. I have seen bike charters advertised on American River cruises (definitely not Royal!)

 

 I have certainly read blogs where people have taken bikes in board.

Yes, seen many Videos posted River Cruises where the Line has 50 Bikes to use on stops or Bike Excursions

[c-leg5]

27 minutes ago, time4u2go said:

OP mentioned visiting the "private island", which most likely indicates Coco Cay, at least for one of the ports.

Probably, which suggests Bahamas just like Nassau was.
 

However, the OP still didn’t state exactly which ports they personally had problems with which might have been a useful addition to their review.

[RobInMN]

6 minutes ago, ONECRUISER said:

Yes, seen many Videos posted River Cruises where the Line has 50 Bikes to use on stops or Bike Excursions

Yes, this is a thing for some European river cruises. We have sailed on AmaWaterways, and they have a number of bikes and even have bike tour options for some ports, and when we were in Amsterdam, we saw some river cruise ship docked among the many river ships that appeared to be some sort of all biking thing. It's definitely not all companies, and not sure if this is a thing only in Europe or if you find it elsewhere.

[c-leg5]

1 hour ago, RobInMN said:

Yes, this is a thing for some European river cruises. We have sailed on AmaWaterways, and they have a number of bikes and even have bike tour options for some ports, and when we were in Amsterdam, we saw some river cruise ship docked among the many river ships that appeared to be some sort of all biking thing. It's definitely not all companies, and not sure if this is a thing only in Europe or if you find it elsewhere.

I have seen them in Oregon.

[BirdTravels]

Sorry OP. Don't bring a bike on a cruise. I 100% would not want anyone riding a bike on the paths on CocoCay. You may think that it is "safe", but everyone else that you are running over... not so much. 

[c-leg5]

2 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

Sorry OP. Don't bring a bike on a cruise. I 100% would not want anyone riding a bike on the paths on CocoCay. You may think that it is "safe", but everyone else that you are running over... not so much. 

I don’t think you can make a blanket statement on the basis of one port.

 

Lots of ports offer cycling excursions or have cycle paths. 

[vjmatty]

24 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

Sorry OP. Don't bring a bike on a cruise. I 100% would not want anyone riding a bike on the paths on CocoCay. You may think that it is "safe", but everyone else that you are running over... not so much. 

Running over people on a bicycle? What a bizarre statement. 

[vjmatty]

19 minutes ago, c-leg5 said:

I don’t think you can make a blanket statement on the basis of one port.

 

Lots of ports offer cycling excursions or have cycle paths. 

I’m not a fan of cycling myself but some of the reactions on this thread are incredibly pearl clutchy.

 

I get that we’re a tough crowd on this site but jeez people, unclench…. this is still a site about cruising, remember? Happy things? Yikes. 

[bajathree]

Just when I thought I have heard it all when it comes to what people bring on cruises with them. I think lugging water on a cruise is silly...but folding bikes🤨