Baggage Handling Concerns

[wrecks]

We used the one day coastal cruise aboard the Golden Princess as our transportation from Seattle to Vancouver before boarding the Coral Princess for our Panama Canal transit (this past September/October.) Our major question/concern for this first leg was how would our checked luggage be handled since most would just have carry-ons. Would the disembarkation tags come with the checked bags as they are delivered to the room? Do we set our checked bags outside the door right after they are delivered? Would Princess hold them 'below' if requested? We did call Princess and were told that our bags would be delivered and then picked up that evening as usual. As we did not have any disembarkation tags delivered by 6PM we went to the pursers desk and were told we get to offload the suitcases/garmet bags and carry-ons ourselves as there is no service available. They did assure us the platform is level and won't be a problem, even for 19 days worth of luggage. Well, we did get all our luggage off, but it took two trips (uphill!) and I must admit, a bit of verbage not allowed here! I don't know if the 2 or 3 day coastals offer the 'normal' offloading service, but be prepared if you're using any walking aid, you may not have the help you will need.

Now for the plus side boarding the Coral Princess. We stayed at the Pan Pacific which is 'right there' at the pier. We called the bell desk at 10 AM, they picked up our bags from our room and we next saw them in our cabin later that afternoon - prior to muster!

All the Princess employees that checked everyone in at Vancouver came outside during sail-away to wish us all bon voyage - had never seen that before, a great touch.

The Coral Princess was beautiful, we had a great CC Group (39 of us), excellent table mates, food, drinks and entertainment. The Panama Canal remains our favorite.