Luggage Express – Thumbs Up!
We’ve just returned from our latest Caribbean cruise, and I promised to tell you all about it when we got back. It was wonderful, as always, but the last best thing about our cruise is the first thing I want to tell you about. Luggage Express is a program where you put your bags outside the door of your cruise stateroom, and you don’t handle them again until you’re at your home airport. Additionally, you are checked in for your cruise and receive your boarding pass, so all you have to do following your cruise is pass through airport security.
We’ve seen this program offered for a while, but we usually stay in port a day or two following the cruise, so we weren’t eligible for the program. You have to fly home the same day you disembark the ship in order to participate in this program. Since we were flying home as soon we disembarked this time, we decided to participate in the program.
About mid-week during our cruise, we received a flier about Luggage Express. The flier showed what airlines agreed to be part of this program and explained the program. Since we were flying home the same day we disembarked the ship this time, and Southwest Airlines was part of the program, we decided to sign-up. The cost with Carnival Cruise Line’s Luggage Express is $20 per person, plus the airline’s cost per checked bag. Our cost was only $40, since “our bags fly free” on Southwest Airlines.
Additionally, Carnival completed our check-in and provided us with our boarding pass before we disembarked. All we had to do at the airport was clear security. We were traveling with another couple, who also used Luggage Express, and we both agreed this was going to be a great program … as long as our luggage arrived with us in Little Rock.
We had four bags, and our friends had two bags. We waited with nervous anticipation as the luggage carousel started, but we had all six bags and were happily headed home. Without a doubt, the airline could lose or delay a bag with Luggage Express, the same as any other time, but it sure was nice to know this program works great.
Thumbs up! If you have a chance to participate in Luggage Express, it was so nice to not have to search for our luggage in the cruise terminal, drag it through customs and to a waiting taxi, then drag it into the airport to check it for our flights. We highly recommend this program.
Stay tuned with more highlights of our recent trip!
the next week, their series of posts will include information about arriving at port, check-in at the cruise terminal, boarding the ship, dealing with lost luggage, what to do when you board the ship, and more. Enjoy! 
I love answering questions about travel, and I’ve blogged over the years about some of the questions I’m asked most often, so I thought it was about time to review some of those past blogs.