Cruising without Luggage

[Greg0ire]

Seven of us boarded the Fantasy on Oct 31st without bags...maybe I should go back one day before telling this story.

Seven of us flew from LAX to MCO on AA. Unfortunately, our seven bags did not join us on this cross country trip. We learned that our bags would have to join us in one of the ports and there was no way to get them to us in time. The airline was nice about it...had us fill out forms and told us about reimbursements, etc. We stopped at a Walmart on the way to the port, bought a few bathing suits, beer, hard lemonade, toiletries, boxers, and some other items.

It was almost liberating. We packed every bag with close to 50 pounds of items. It turns out we didn't really need to. Checking in at the port was a breeze...didn't really need to unpack...and realized it couldn't get much worse. It had to get better from here, right? It did!

Disney has simply amazing customer service. We were seven people spread out among three deluxe family extended verandah rooms. My wife was not pleased when the guest relations folks told us that we couldn't get our bags in Cozumel because it is too big of a hassle to deal with customs. We would have to wait until day four in Grand Cayman to get the luggage. Disney gave each state room a $100 credit, free tux rentals for the formal night and Palo night, plus free laundry cleaning for the first few days. They did this despite the airline baggage delay not being their fault. They did acknowledge that they should have been able to get us the bags on Monday as opposed to Tuesday.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that one can enjoy their trip without having their bags.

 

[MommyP]

That's kinda awesome. I always plan to pack extra-light but always end up with way too much just in case. I'm glad DCL was accommodating. Question: did you have insurance and if so did that make any difference either way???

 

[Greg0ire]

That's kinda awesome. I always plan to pack extra-light but always end up with way too much just in case. I'm glad DCL was accommodating. Question: did you have insurance and if so did that make any difference either way???

no insurance. both the airline and cruise line were very accommodating.

 

[bumbershoot]

Anyway, the moral of the story is that one can enjoy their trip without having their bags.

I'm going to assume that no one in your party was of an extreme, size-wise?

When I was bigger and so was DH (he is still a bigger guy) and we found ourselves with inadequate clothing, we would have had to go to different stores to get proper clothing. And that was just for WDW. Finding nice clothing, especially for DH, even with time, requires some work on our parts.

(and he wonders why I put our formal wear into a carryon for the cruises with a formal night...)

 

[Greg0ire]

I'm going to assume that no one in your party was of an extreme, size-wise?

When I was bigger and so was DH (he is still a bigger guy) and we found ourselves with inadequate clothing, we would have had to go to different stores to get proper clothing. And that was just for WDW. Finding nice clothing, especially for DH, even with time, requires some work on our parts.

(and he wonders why I put our formal wear into a carryon for the cruises with a formal night...)

Nobody was extreme, size wise...at least before the 7 days of extreme gluttony
Several people told us to carry on bathing suits and other day clothes. I told my wife not to schlep it on the plane because we could just take it out at MCO. Boy was I wrong!

 

[ForMyBoys]

Its good to realize that in some cases things end up well. This happened to my husband's cousin on a NCL European cruise, but I don't think she got free on board credits and such. She ended up doing a lot of port shopping. In her case they never found her bag

I'm not of an extreme size but don't think I could ever find a bathing suit I liked at Walmart!

 

[Saamh]

This made my day. Our family's travel motto is "Attitude is the difference between an ordeal and an adventure". So often we hear rants about lost luggage or something else completely ruining a trip. I'm glad you looked at your misfortune as an adventure and still enjoyed your trip to the fullest. Thank you for sharing.

 

[ForMyBoys]

This made my day. Our family's travel motto is "Attitude is the difference between and ordeal and an adventure". So often we hear rants about lost luggage or something else completely ruining a trip. I'm glad you looked at your misfortune as an adventure and still enjoyed your trip to the fullest. Thank you for sharing.

Well Said!

 

[jlemieu1]

My little PSA I always pack one day worth of clothing on my carry-on because I'm a magnet for them to lose my luggage

 

[Quellman]

This is why I like Delta, they track your bag and you can see when it was scanned in and where it is. And if the plane has wifi capabilities, you can check while in the air, this way you know before you land if your luggage made it or not! I'm glad this story was a happy ending. Thanks for sharing.

 

[cedricandsophie]

I overpack a lot. But at least I always bring a change of underwear and bathing suits in our carryon bags. And I try to remember to spread our clothes among all the bags so of one gets lost there are still clothes available. Obviously that would not have helped your situation .

 

[Sir William]

My little PSA I always pack one day worth of clothing on my carry-on because I'm a magnet for them to lose my luggage

The only time my luggage has gone astray is when I didn't pack a change of clothes in my carry-on.

 

[cwdefouw]

Just the potential for a delayed/lost bag is why we always fly in the day before a cruise.

 

[Sir William]

Just the potential for a delayed/lost bag is why we always fly in the day before a cruise.

On a recent cruise we didn't pull away as usual during the sail away party. I noticed a DCL bus pull up and unload a large number of passengers, and then a truck arrived and luggage was quickly transferred to the ship as the dock hands began unmooring us. Our table mates were among these people and told us they were all passengers who had booked their flights though Disney. Several of them had lost luggage but of course didn't know it until after the ship had sailed. Fortunately, their luggage was waiting for them at our first port the next day.