How many of you find it better to not check your luggage...when boarding the ship, and also when leaving the ship. I'm reading that you get off the ship much quicker if you don't check your luggage, and to carry it on yourself means no waiting for your bags.

Hello. My last 3 cruises my husband and I both walked our luggage on and off. Our luggage has wheels, which makes all the difference in the world. I went straight to my room and unpacked my things. I didn't have to keep going back to my room, checking if my luggage was there yet!! I am paranoid about leaving my luggage in the hallway at night. So, I choose to carry my luggage myself. Good luck. Lil' Lori

Here is a different point of view. I guess would depend on how much luggage. Some of the piers have escalators and stairs ie Port Canaveral. And when you debark, they close most of the elevators on the ship, so you have several flights of steps to carry it while waiting in line. I once did not put my luggage out on the Fantasy and was a nightmare carrying all that. Anything valuable I carry on and have never lost anything. Have also noticed on the last few cruises the Steward has been putting my luggage in the cabin for me.

I have never seen anyone messing with other people's luggage, but again I carry my money, jewelry, cameras etc in my carry on.

What if you can't get into your cabin right away?
Do you really want to lug the luggage to lunch and while you tour the ship?

As far as getting off....If you are in a hurry I don't see a problem with that but who wants to hurry off the ship that brought so much joy.

Well, Lil' Lori and IslandCruz, I appreciate the input! I, of course would never put any valuables into my luggage, but the idea of being in total control of my things does interest me. My husband tells me that I always pack too much when we go even overnight somewhere, so I must really overpack for a cruise! So that presents a problem for us to carry our own bags, even though our luggage has wheels also. The garment bag would be a problem perhaps, but then, aren't there porters to actually help with out bags? I don't mind the extra tipping for the help.

Excuse my grammar, what I meant to say is this. Aren't there porters available to help passengers with their carry ons?

quote:

Originally posted by annies:
Excuse my grammar, what I meant to say is this. Aren't there porters available to help passengers with their carry ons?

I imagine if you tipped enough a porter would help you into the terminal. But at some point (probably the security checkpoint) you would have to wave bye bye and take control of your carry-ons. Porters are not allowed on the ship, so you also have to consider how you are going to get an excessive number of carryons off the ship and into the customs area - which is where you will see your first porter.

Ok Dave56...that is one question answered....the porter is not allowed on the ship! He won't do me too much good then! Thanks!

Porters are on the pier. They take your big baggage and put it in transfer bins so they can move it to the ship. This is essentially mandatory and they do expect a tip for this.

We travel light, one roll on suitcase per person. So it was easy for us to take the luggage from our room and get off of the boat. When we boarded in Galveston in December 2006 we did not have an option to carry it to our room, only off of the ship. 90% of the passengers were either from Houston and Dallas and all of them wanted to get off the ship ASAP -- so there were many of us taking our own luggage off. We had to get off early to get a taxi, since RCCL didn't offer transportation to Hobby Airport and we wanted to get to the airport ASAP so we could get an earlier flight to Atlanta. (God was looking after us, we got an earlier flight and a terrible storm came in and would of delayed our original flight for hours.)

Remember when disembarking with luggage: there are many people with the same idea and getting on an elevator is almost impossible, especially with luggage. So you will have to carry the luggage up or down the stairs. If you are not in good health and not travelling light, I do not recommend it.

We are taking a RCCL in January, so I am thrilled we will have the option to carry it on. It is a lot easier taking luggage downhill then uphill and it will depend on how far I have to carry it. But it is nice to know I will have the option. I forgot about it our son is traveling with us -- he is strong enough to carry my bag too.

IF you are traveling very light, then call on/off is an option worth considering. But as has been stated by the other, if you has a lot of luggage, don't try it.

Also, another point is for Carnival, ifyou want early "self assist" disembark, they expect you to carry off all your luggage. We accidentally did this on our Conquest cruise. I was busy in the casino the last night and didn't get back to the cabing in time to pack. So, the four of us (my wife and then 12 and 10 year girls had to man-handle 14 bags (my women NEVER travel light) through the long lines and off the ship. The upside is that we were off the ship and on our way home by 9AM. Bad side was the hassle. Luckily, all the bags were wheeled and I was able to strap them together to make it so we could do it.

Would I do it again? No. Not unless it was maybe one or 2 bags each. I sure wouldn't want to try to carry them on. Like was stated earlier, what if you did and your cabin was not ready, I wouldn't want to have to lug them around. You could put them outside you cabin, but what would be the point of carrying them on then? And it you are in the southern ports (which most of the cruises are) do you really want to be pulling luggage around in 90 degree + hight humidity weather?