Check Your Baggage Tags

[villa10]

Recived our documents for the Miracle on June 4th which of course is exciting. After going through them all I looked at the baggage tags--they were pink and said Verandah Forward. I suspected something was wrong as we are on Empress Deck Mid ship. Called the travel agent who put me on hold while they called Carnival. They came back and said Carnival said it did not matter; as long as you have your room number on it there is no problem. I was just not satisfied with this answer because it made no sense that it would not matter so I called Carnival directly the next morning.

 

Well, it does matter, your bags will be delivered to the deck indicated on the tags--I should have blue tags saying Empress. But they told me I would have to get new tags at the pier because they could not send me new ones unless they completely re-ticketed me. This sounded ridiculous. Told the agent there was no way I was going to stand at the pier filling out baggage tags. She insisted she could not send me tags unless they reticketed me. I asked if I used the tags I had but put the room number on them what would happen. Our luggage would wind up on the wrong deck and it could be hours until they figured it all out.

 

Finally after 15 minutes of insisting I was not going to stand at the pier filling at baggage tags, she said perhaps the air and sea department could help you. I called them, they checked my booking and immediately said they would send out the correct tags.

 

Bottom line--check your tags that they are for the deck you or on otherwise your bags will be delivered to the wrong deck and you will be waiting a very long time to get them.

[ihhk2]

One thing I've never had a complaint about is luggage delivery. On all three cruises with CCL, not once did they arrive later than it took me to explore the ship, have lunch (and a foo foo drink!) and return to the cabin to unpack.

 

Maybe I've just been lucky, but I think the color coding system and routine they have developed for delivering luggage has been fine tuned to be as good as they can get it, given the VOLUME they deal with.

 

I wouldn't risk having a wrong color on my bags. I'd eventually get the bags, I'm sure, but it would probably take longer because first they would go to the floor to match the color (the tags probably aren't looked at while separating the decks... just the color is observed and the bags put in the right "pile" to go to that deck). Once on that deck and undeliverable due to cabin number, THEN they would have to wait for an available porter to shuffle the mis-tagged bags around.

 

Doing tags at the pier (last resort) shouldn't be too bad. Be sure to bring your own pen and have all your info readily available.

 

IF there is a problem with missing bags, it might help to keep a photo of the larger ones in your carry on. This is a good idea for airlines, as well. I just keep the original info card from my big bag in my carry on. It has all the features, the right color, the size, etc. all on the laminated-like (sturdy) card. Identifying your bags to porters who are looking for them is MUCH easier this way.

 

Is your port a "Self Assist" one? I'm doing this on Miracle for the first time and am thrilled with the opportunity to be able to porter my own bags. No risk of loss or delay, less people in control of your luggage, immediately get unpacking out of the way, etc.

 

When buying new luggage, I also went for RED. In the sea of black/navy luggage, always easy to spot!

[lvtotrvl1]

It's very easy and takes no time to fill them out at the pier...much quicker than spending 15 minutes on the phone with the cruiseline..

[villa10]

Carrying your own luggage on to the ship is a good option but you are restricted as to size. We are 3 so expect to have 4 suitcases and a garment bag several of which will be larger than the allowed size for carrying on yourself. My wife has red luggage.

 

Don't mean to make a big deal of it but when arriving at the pier would just like to hand over the luggage and move on. Just want to point out to everyone that they should be sure they have the correct color tags or there will be confusion in the delivery of their luggage.

[eponym]

It's very easy and takes no time to fill them out at the pier...much quicker than spending 15 minutes on the phone with the cruiseline..

 

I thnk thats subjective cause when your dealing with the car, the kids, mass luggage, extra documentation, the crowds etc... it makes life a bit more agressive or aggrevating to kick off the vacation.

[firefly333]

Don't mean to make a big deal of it but when arriving at the pier would just like to hand over the luggage and move on. Just want to point out to everyone that they should be sure they have the correct color tags or there will be confusion in the delivery of their luggage.

 

I wondered where my post went....and see you have two threads started on the subject. typo Im sure.

 

It really only takes a second to let the porter check his roster and put a tag on your bag if you have the wrong tags....or no tags at all. The porter did it for me, wouldnt let me fill it out. and then took the luggage away to be checked. Maybe Galveston is different.

[aggieastrosfan]

If you have a tag on your bag that already has your address on it, all you really need to fill out is name and cabin number at the pier.

[jlfuzzbutt]

The last cruise we went on (Ecstacy 8/06) I didn't realize I had tags in my ticket packet(they didn't have the room number on them though). I hadn't cruised before so...I was learning everything along the way. LOL When we got off the tram/bus from where we parked, the driver took our bags out and I grabbed them...the porter then assisted me in putting the correct tag on. Of course, I had been obsessively checking the website daily so I knew exactly where our cabin was and it really wasn't too big a problem for us. Of course, it was just DH and I...no kids to deal with.

 

Thanks for pointing out that info though. It never hurts to check and re-check EVERYTHING (OCD-ish here LOL) to make sure things go as smoothly as possible.

[LornaT]

On a past cruise I also received the wrong luggage tags, not only were they for the wrong deck and location (forward versus aft) but for even the wrong ship. Called my friend and CVS at Carnival and she contacted someone to fedex out to me the correct ones .............. OOOOPPPS wrong again, wrong deck this time. Well what I did is what I do anyway, I make labels that I stick on the luggage tags anyway, so I just took them with me (and the wrong tags which I gave to the Purser's office to send back to headquarters) and when I got to the Porter, he said "you don't have tags on these bags", I told him I'd gotten the wrong one,s he started to go look up which one's I'd need, I told him Blue Forward off the docs, he grabbed them and watched me slap the labels on .............. very easy. So don't worry, make some labels using the wrong ones as a template and take them with you, the Porters have the correct ones available there at the pier.

[Cotton]

Villa, you have two threads going on this; I replied to the other one. Why don't you contact a host/moderator and see if he can combine the two?:)