This a warning I wish someone had warned me about.
My family and I just returned from a RCCL Med cruise and we had very disappointing
problems with our luggage. RCCl 's policy as stated to me upon booking was that they would take care of all our travel arrangements and our luggage.

We had lost six bags upon arrival in Barcelona, found two of them when we returned to the airport at midnight Friday (we went one day early) and one other one we rec'd on Wednesday when we were in poprt in Naples. We have not rec'd the other three and we returned home on Saturday. We keep checking with Iberia Airlines lost lugggage dept, but no news.

There were MANY other cruise guests checking with the service desk on the ship every day, and much dissappointment. The problem seems to be so much bigger than in the past.

Please don't just take my word for it, check out the (airline-lost luggage claims) reports for yourself. You may save yourself some headaches with better planning.

Crystal

I am sorry, tried to understand your post. Were the suitcases lost by the airline, or you received them upon landing, gave to the cruise crew, and this is when they got lost?

If the airline lost them, why is it the cruise line's fault? If this is the cruise line who lost them, why are you checking with Iberia?

Sorry, your post is confusing.

Could you please tell us what "better planning" suggestions you might have to offer.

I thought the cruise line "taking care of luggage" meant they have a person there to help you put it on the bus transfer and take it to your cabin, like porter service. Plse elaborate.

I think so too. Did you get your bags at the airport, then leave them with RCCL personnel?

As only my suggestion. Many times, people will post questions about when to put on cruise tags, and give a priority to not having to "deal" with their bags. HOWEVER, I never recommend this. I ALWAYS verify my bags made it to my destination airport, myself. Then in the rare event, I have cruise transfers, I bring them to the bus, again myself, and verify they make it on the bus.

With knowing if you are missing bags AT THE AIRPORT, you can immediately begin tracking the bags and the airline most likely can tell you where they are. From this point, you can sometimes arrange for direct delivery.

It is WAY too late, to find out you are missing them on your ship.

In my opinion, the "convenience" having your bags "taken care of" is worthless, if your bags don't make it.

Wednesday is right I think. You first have to collect your bags and go through customs with them when entering a foreign country. After that you are met by the cruise reps for transport and they will take it from there. If your destination is domestic what then? Don't you still do the same thing? I onder if the OP assumed RCCL would pick them up and deliver them for her.

Thanks for the replies; I'm sorry I confused everyone.
Our bags did not arrive at Barcelona Airport. We put in a missing luggage report with Iberia Airlines and they were to deliver them to our hotel on Friday or to the ship before sailing on Saturday.
Why consult RCCL? It was a package deal with RCCL. They state if you book your airlines and cruise with them, they will find any lost luggage.
We had name tags, RCCL labels, airline check labels and our name, address and itiniary in our luggage.
Needless to say it was a disaster to us. We spent hours on the cruise internet, phone calls, waiting for replies.
The good part of the cruise was the land excursions. We did get to visit, Rome, Florence, Monaco, Naples.
It's a lesson learned. I don't know if I will ever take another international trip, ever.
Good luck to everyone who has posted.
Crystal

I have only been on two cruises, both with Princess Lines and within the last three years. In each case, there were people who never received their luggage. I can imagine the anguish and how this could spoil a cruise. These people (and perhaps you also) must have had a hope that luggage would catch up to them somewhere along the line. In the meantime, no clothes, except the clothes they arrived in, no toiletries, and perhaps no important paperwork. Then there is the dilemma of whether to go ahead an purchase replacement clothes and supplies or to wait for your own things to arrive. What a nightmare!

The worst thing is whether there is anything any of us can do to safeguard against this. I think not. It's just a matter of luck these day.

Leburta: You explained our delima perfectly. I guess you have to be there to understand.

Maybe someone will begin to make luggage with personal id chips in them that cannot be removed.

Who knows, maybe that would help.

Thanks for your reply.
Have a great day.
Crystal

Crystalz: Unfortunately luggage sometimes becomes misrouted. However the vast majority of times all goes well. My 1st intl. trip was problematic too. We had luggage that did not arrive the same day but it did come one day later. On another occasion one bag was missing upon arrive back home but it was delivered to our home a few days later. All other times have been fine. BTW I assume all your luggage eventually found its way home. Is that so? Larry

Iberia airlines is a completely useless organization. They lost my luggage on June 28 and I still haven't received any news. They do not communiate with you, you have to spend hours on the phone trying to talk to their RUDE RUDE RUDE customer service people.
First they claimed that the bags were found on July 5 and would be delivered in Naples. The next day, they denied saying anything.
I was in the baggage claim area at Heathrow 2 days ago looking for my bags (they were lost somewhere between Heathrow and Barcelona) and there were THOUSANDS of bags there. The guy at baggage claim had a completely defeated look on his face when he said it could be up to 2 months before my bags will be delivered to me IF they are delivered at all.
To top this, I was of course sailing on the Celebrity Millennium cruise from Barcelona to Venice from July 30... yup the same cruise that hit the rocks near Nice.
So no cruise and no luggage.

Africatravel - first of all, I don't want to travel with you!!! What awful luck you have!!! One of the things that some people say is that the cruise luggage tickets sometimes cause problems with the airlines scanning software, and we have been told to not put the cruise tags on until we get through customs in the country. Not on a cruise, but I was in Senegal once for a week, and I got my clothes the day before I left for home. Imagine being on a business trip and wearing the same thing everyday... very professional (I did have some very cool African clothes made, however.... Luggage is tough - it definitely does affect how you feel overall, and I know travel with 1 change of clothes in my carry on - JUST IN CASE>.....

Well... I would think, if a cruise line sells a "package", the cruise line should be responsible.

Check out today's cruisecritic.com. They have info and a list of lugage valets. They pick your lugage up at your door and deliver it to the ship or hotel. Then you can decide if from $250 to $600 is worth it!

jacketwatch: We have not received our luggage as yet. It will be one month on the 21st of July.
I'm not counting on getting it anymore and have been trying to send a lost claim to the Iberia airline and RCCL as well.
Going through the routine to file luggage claims I am finding is a lengthy, time consuming and costly process. That's the only choice I have as I see it.
I'm glad that you all did get your bags back, even if they were late. That's much better than the alternative.
Crystal

Crystalz: Terrible. I'm sorry to hear that.

We just returned from Med cruise on NCL. There were 40 people on the ship who did not have their luggage during the entire cruise. I don't think it was the cruise line's fault, but I don't think they did enough to try to locate the luggage either. Also, the cruise line did not inform the passengers that they could receive free cleaning of their clothes every evening. Some of these people were hand washing their clothes every evening when it wasn't necessary.

Like I mentioned earlier, I was on the Celebrity Millennium that sailed from Barcelona on June 30th.
Our airline lost our luggage and noticed that loads of people were missing their luggage on the boat. I don't think this is the boat's fault. The luggage was lost during the fligh.
Celebrity I think did everything it can to help recover people's bags. I was told that generally 20-30 people on each cruise face the problem of missing luggage, but somehow on our cruise, there were 130-140.
When we were docked in Rome, the cruise people sent vans to Pisa and Naples to pick up bags that had arrived late.
Celebrity even gave us free t-shirts to wear when they heard about our missing bags. However, they forgot to mention that there are no charges for getting the Celebrity t-shirts washed. Had I known it, I would have worn my Celebrity t-shirt daily!
I still haven't received my bags yet, on July 28th, it will be a month. I am trying to make peace with the fact that they are lost now.
I think Celebrity really did their best to locate the bags.

OK...You all are freaking me out. We are going to Rome for a 13 day cruise with RCCL flying straight with Delta thru Ohio from California. I'm thinking I should bring more on my carryon...BTW, how many suitcases can we bring?