Why Mandatory to hand luggage to porters?

[HarleyChick]

NEEDVACATION,

 

I'm just curious, do you mind telling what port that was?

[NEEDVACATION]

Love your screen name :) it was Ft. Lauderdale

[BigDoug]

My last two cruises from Miami, there was a foreman collecting the tips. Right after you identified your bags for CCL security, you had to give the money to him before the porters would pick up your bags. If you gave it directly to the porters, they would hand it over to the foreman.

[VentureMan_2000]

Must have been the same porter I had. Can't believe folks get upset at the notion of asking, "When does a Porter deserve or earn a tip"?

 

It is the Terminal Porter's job, afterall, to get your bags to the ship from a designated drop-off point. They get paid by the Port Authority, Union wages, to perform this job.

 

The folks who deserve the bag-handling tip IS NOT the Terminal Porters, but the Ship Porters... the folks moving your luggage from the holding bay, by hand, to your cabin

 

Now that is service!

 

Barking orders and threatening you with lost baggage is not worthy of a tip. Intimidation is not a reason to tip.

 

The Sip Porters get squat because the dock Porter's are loud, rude, and intimidate. Most folks are not going to tip twice.

[pholter]

Just curious......... Does anyone know what Union Wages are in the US and Puerto Rico for Porters?

[jima53]

I doubt that the cruise lines want people loading their own luggage into those huge metal luggage holders that are moved onto the ship by forklifts. The porter can do a much neater, more efficient job of stacking luggage than say, my mother-in-law, who weighs all of 90 lbs and carries twice that weight in luggage. Porters would have to re-stack everything and then load what they have from "tipping customers" on top of that. There would have to be balancing issues as well, I wouldn't want my luggage to end up in the water or even spilled on the dock because the metal cart was loaded "heavy" on one side and tipped. :eek:

 

There are plenty of costs that make me grumble, gas prices, getting a hair cut, having a pair of pants hemmed...but I never mind giving the porter a tip to take the luggage off my hands.

 

HTH

My original posting was about choice of carrying my own bags to the dropoff spot,not loading them onto the metal crate. Do you carry your checked baggage to the airplane when you fly. You can give it to the counter person in the form of airline personnel. You have choices for all your examples, but at the pier you only have the porters,,, why, because it's the price of being gouged by a group of workers, and it also lets the Cruise line out of full responsibility for any lost luggage. I gladly hand a tip to my porter on the last cruise. He was friendly and personnable, he actually asked if I wanted help and didn't hold his hand out for money first. My tip money was folder up in my pocket ready to give as he took our bags and I gave it to him gladly... but I still would like a choice for when I might want it.

 

Jima53

[GoinCruisin]

Gouged? We are talking $2, hardly gouging in my opinion. True, you have a choice at the airport, has not always been that way, but yes for many airports you do have the choice... this is not the airport though.

 

Think about it... if you are only talking about taking your bags to the dropoff point, someone is STILL loading those bags. The tip is not for carrying your bags to the crate, it is for carrying them, getting them loaded and then on the ship. $1 per bag seems like a bargain to me.

[PINEVIEW01]

Each time I have cruised I did not see a cart near by for him/her to throw on to. .

At Miami when you get off the bus the bens are right there to throw in bags in. At Tampa there are carted off befind the seen. Not sure of any other ports as those are the only two I've been out of.

[madelinerose]

Here we go again!!! You pay $1000+ for a weeklong cruise pp and the topic is about a $2 tip! :eek:

 

I'm soooooo confused.....would someone PLEASE explain this way of thinking to me? :confused:

[PINEVIEW01]

There would have to be balancing issues as well, I wouldn't want my luggage to end up in the water or even spilled on the dock because the metal cart was loaded "heavy" on one side and tipped. :eek:

HTH

I guess you have never watched them load and unload before. My husband and I love to watch the process. Suitcases fall off and get run over. We watched one case get draged under a fork truck until it broke open. We were praying it wasn't our and luckly it wasn't.

 

Lots of throwing, little stacking:)

[LSUtraveler]

Can you just imagine the problem some folks are gonna have with the tipping onboard the ship if the $1 to two dollars per bag is going to give them a problem!!!!:( Probably the same folks that take the tips off their S&S at the end of the cruise and leave a comment card about how bad the service was....... so no tips!!:rolleyes:

[Ms Belvedere]

My original posting was about choice of carrying my own bags to the dropoff spot,not loading them onto the metal crate. Do you carry your checked baggage to the airplane when you fly. You can give it to the counter person in the form of airline personnel.

Jima53

 

Any of the ports we've cruised from were not set up like the airport check-in areas. At the cruise ports they don't have those conveyer belts behind the counter for the luggage to be set and then it disappears into a back room hopefully to return at your final destination.

 

Maybe the port authority could answer your question as to why they don't handle luggage the same way the airports do. My guess would be to avoid a mess inside the terminal, to keep the lines moving more quickly, to give the check-in personnel one less duty. Maybe it's written into the original contract that Longshoremen will handle the luggage issue for oversized bags(bigger than what can be scanned by the machine inside the building).

 

Can anyone answer for the ports outside the Continental US, how do they handle the luggage issue at curbside? :confused:

[Ms Belvedere]

I guess you have never watched them load and unload before.

 

We've watched on each and every cruise we've been on... :cool:

[PINEVIEW01]

Here we go again!!! You pay $1000+ for a weeklong cruise pp and the topic is about a $2 tip! :eek:

I never pay that much, not since the first in '94 anyway:)

[madelinerose]

And, rightfully so....

 

I never pay that much, not since the first in '94 anyway:)

[boards]

The one that gets me is how the bus driver suggests you trip the porter and in doing that you insure your luggage will get on the ship. What I would like to know is how does any of them know which luggage is mine? If I don't tip will they just pick someone's luggage at random and not put it on the ship because I didn't tip. Sorry about your luggage Frank ( he was with us last time, luggage went missing).

[grandmacani]

I think the last time I cruised and had the porter take my bags they have a system. They put it into certain racks to make the sorting process faster once on board, so I don't believe that its a matter of just putting the luggage on the cart.

[ACCagent]

I do tip well and encourage my clients to. I' sure many do not from the questions that they ask. Many questions begin with "Do we really HAVE to tip ________?"

 

However, I always carry on a small bag and tell clients it's a good idea for medicine, minimal make-up, and a swimsuit in case the luggage is delayed and they want the afternoon by the pool. That doesn't take a very big bag for two people.

[cricket]

I myself like to hand over the larger pieces of luggage, although every piece is on wheels. In retrospect though, doesn't carnival allow you to disembark with all your luggage with you? Hasn't that prove to be helpful? Why can't it work when you are getting on the ship?

[dbmiller1956]

I mean, most passengers have only what, one to two bags to be checked in?

 

First off, let me say I have no problem with tipping the porter....But when have you ever seen a woman on a cruise with one or two bags? At least at my house we don't... :D

[VentureMan_2000]

Then the Porter wouldn't get the TIP and your bags would arrive safely and on time. ;)

 

Probably security for one. Also, Getting on board is a longer process. Getting off is not.

[tef43]

doesn't carnival allow you to disembark with all your luggage with you?

There is a very brief window that they allow self-assist "express" debarkation, and these are the first passengers off the ship. The gangway and public areas are crowded enough with people waiting to disembark without adding oversized luggage into the mix.

 

Self-assist boarding would be an absolute nightmare.

[shuggee]

Last November it took us long enough to get on the ship without our main luggage, I dread to think what it would've been like if everyone had ALL their luggage with them. I would imagine that the luggage when taken by the porters then goes through security checks (x-ray I would hope) before then being taken onto the ship and distributed to the cabins. The porters I saw at Miami were all very good natured and actually quite funny with their banter and jokes. I don't mind at all tipping for service but I too would find it offensive to be shouted at to tip. Mind you for the ones who think $1 a bag is too much maybe they need to be shouted at, lol.

[hstrybuf]

When I get to the pier I'm more than ready to hand off our bags to the porters after schlepping them through airports, hotels and cabs. A dollar or two per bag is worth it to me and hopefully our bags will get to our cabin in good condition. ;)