Today we exited the ship. It arrived in port about 7am and folks were allowed off about 8am. I got off about 9am since the exit announcement for my group wasn’t heard in the room I was waiting in. Didn’t clear customs and agricultural inspection until about 9:30.
I was very upset when my luggage pickup didn’t happen. I had paid for a luggage shipping service(Luggage Forward) to pick up my luggage from me at the pier when I disembarked the ship but there was no one to get my luggage. Oddly enough someone was there to pick up Jennifer’s luggage but they didn’t wait for my luggage.
Unfortunately there was no one that I was able to talk to or contact from Luggage Forward. The company is in USA and didn’t have an emergency contact number. I spent awhile on hold to their support number but never got a person- just canned music. Emailed their generic support email too.
When only a couple of people were at the exit and folks were arriving to get on the ship for their cruise, I gave up waiting and took a taxi to my airport hotel. About settling into my room, I called Luggage Forward again and someone from their after hours phone service picked up the phone.
Not only is there a time difference but also a day difference between USA and Sydney, Australia. It was March 14 in USA but March 15 in Sydney and the support person tried to tell me the pickup was ‘tomorrow’- after a bit we got that straightened out. In the end she couldn’t do anything to help me other than to collect my information and sent an email to the head office.
Tibor asked me to pick up a lens cover since his broke. It took a bit but I found a camera store that actually had camera supplies. Couldn’t find the correct on-line search term- kept ending up with copy centers, photography shops or on-line stores. Took a couple of wrong turns to get to the train and walk to the camera shop but eventually made it. Sure hope what I purchased will work for Tibor.
On the way back to the hotel, since it was afternoon tea time, I stopped at a coffee shop for a bite to eat.
About 3am local time I got a phone call from Luggage Forward in response to my email. They were helpful in that they said they would arrange to pick up my luggage from the hotel but they can’t pick it up until later in the week. Since I leave the hotel for Chile tomorrow, I sure hope it gets picked up or I don’t know what I’ll do.
