Transitions from Spiral Travel Booklet to New Luggage Tag Mailer

I have mixed feelings about it. It's more eco-friendly and cruise lines are all slowly going paperless but I will miss it a little bit.
 
As much as I look forward to getting that book, I appreciate the cutting back on paper waste. More people toss those booklets than keep them is my guess.
 


This doesn't bother me. The book has nothing terribly important in it, and all the information is available online. In fact, information like the prohibited items list will hopefully be easier to find for new cruisers who might miss it in the book.

Sure it saves them money on printing and postage, but I just appreciate the reduction in waste! (And yes, I feel like in this case, you can clearly see how less material is needed for a printout as opposed to a booklet.)
 
I've kept every one, but I've only done 12 DCL cruises.

You are probably more the exception than the rule as are many of the people on Disboards. But like I said, I imagine most people don't save them.

I'll miss getting mine but I also understand why they would stop.
 


They were cute, but I’m all for less waste. Plus my phone is always close at hand anyway, so I’d rather hand them bar codes to scan from the phone and my passports instead of trying to juggle one more thing with my carry-ons, purse, kids want their lanyards NOW, slipping KTTW cards in.....one less thing to deal with and keep track of is :thumbsup2
 
I've never done HAL or RCCL but that is weird they do that

You don't have to. I just wait until I'm at the port and have the porters for Royal cruises quickly make up my sticky tags. I have my confirmation up on my phone or on a printout so they can read (and hear as I say it) the stateroom number to lower the possibility of mishearing. Easy peasy.

Oh I think I've done the printout once, but I bought plastic luggage tag holders specifically for Royal. Cost about $8. I just didn't like the waste of cutting out the rest of the paper, since I wasn't going to do the fold and staple thing. And the holders I bought are reusable.
 
Princess does too.
Costa was doing it back in 2008. They mailed a PDF, last pages of which contained two luggage tags with some rather elaborate instructions on how to fold and where to staple it. The porters also had the staplers on hand.

I wonder if DCL ever does away with pre-printed luggage tags and begins mailing PDF files, would that have any impact on the timeline for GTY assignments. They currently mail these booklets about 6 weeks out, so most GTY assignments are made about 7 weeks prior to sail date. With e-mail delivery, that timeline could shrink significantly.
 
What 25 cents?

I've been trained in graphic design (for printing) in a previous life. Paper may be cheap but they have to pay employees to make the design (first print), print and prepare those for shipping. Also, the cost of shipping is definitely higher for a booklet than this little thing.
 
You don't have to. I just wait until I'm at the port and have the porters for Royal cruises quickly make up my sticky tags. I have my confirmation up on my phone or on a printout so they can read (and hear as I say it) the stateroom number to lower the possibility of mishearing. Easy peasy.

Oh I think I've done the printout once, but I bought plastic luggage tag holders specifically for Royal. Cost about $8. I just didn't like the waste of cutting out the rest of the paper, since I wasn't going to do the fold and staple thing. And the holders I bought are reusable.

I use plastic luggage tags too. :)
 
You are probably more the exception than the rule as are many of the people on Disboards. But like I said, I imagine most people don't save them.

I'll miss getting mine but I also understand why they would stop.

Like @PrincessShmoo I keep all of mine (11 so far), along with all the navigators from the trip. We put receipts for what we bought in the pocket during the cruise so we can find everything when we do our customs paperwork as well. We do mostly Caribbean cruises and will go back to the navigators as reference to plan out activities for the next trip.

I liked the fact that they used to have emergency contact cards in them. We would give them to our house sitter and family members. And the themed ones were great. But the last one we received was so pathetic, all the binding etc for 1 page.
 
The booklet was a handy trip summary when it included your port adventures, beverage tasting sessions, Palo/Remy dining, etc... The thin booklet stopped including any useful info so agree with getting rid of it, but DCL needs to add the emergency contact card info to this new luggage tag mailer.
 
Returned from the Members Cruise recently, and agree the book is useless. We are carry-on luggage so the luggage tags are the first to get tossed. Another useless item required for the cruise embarkation process were the "signed" cruise contract docs. The person checking us in didn't want them. The only docs she wanted were passports and health form.
 
The booklet was a handy trip summary when it included your port adventures, beverage tasting sessions, Palo/Remy dining, etc... The thin booklet stopped including any useful info so agree with getting rid of it, but DCL needs to add the emergency contact card info to this new luggage tag mailer.

I so agree about the emergency contact info. DH called before our last cruise and the agent on the phone had no clue - and there is nothing on the website we could easily find. I wanted to use the old number but turns out the agent finally told him no, and gave him 2 new numbers to reference. This information should be front and center on their FAQ area. Just an example - I put in the search bar "emergency contact phone number" and I get Alaska excursions... Are they joking? o_O Phone information was about 6 down and it was about on board connectivity and wave phones

Slightly Off topic...
A couple things I wish DCL would understand
1. Not everyone has a cell phone service that works with the ships @SEA service. I cannot use my cell on cruises because I have Boost for my cell.
2. Not everyone wants or has the ability to be connected to people at home via the internet. I mean if my MIL were on the ship she would be stuck wandering aimlessly the entire time. She is 100% NOT a tech person. She has a smart phone and half the time doesn't answer it because she can't figure out how to swipe it. Personally - I go on a cruise to be on vacation from EVERYTHING. I don't want to be on my cell phone, Facebook, Twitter or have access to emails all day. Emergency numbers are for just that - emergencies and a way for family to get you if they need you. I don't need to be connected 24/7 when I am on the ship.
 
I've never done HAL or RCCL but that is weird they do that

Carnival does it to. I always do the online check in for my parents as they are not that computer savvy and I hate printing out the luggage tags...you have to print then fold along the dotted lines then loop through suitcase handle and staple ends. The paper is stiff and does not bend as well as the DCL luggage tags.

MJ
 
Costa was doing it back in 2008. They mailed a PDF, last pages of which contained two luggage tags with some rather elaborate instructions on how to fold and where to staple it. The porters also had the staplers on hand.

I wonder if DCL ever does away with pre-printed luggage tags and begins mailing PDF files, would that have any impact on the timeline for GTY assignments. They currently mail these booklets about 6 weeks out, so most GTY assignments are made about 7 weeks prior to sail date. With e-mail delivery, that timeline could shrink significantly.

I don't think that is necessarily true. Last time we were GTY, our luggage tags and booklet just said "Stateroom GTY." They look you up based on your name in those cases.

But that is really getting at the reason I couldn't care less about scrapping the spiral book. It never had the correct info for me because I was always tweaking my plans until the last minute, so I always had to print out my plans regardless and couldn't rely on the book. That is especially true when you have to plan trips only a month or two in advance so are checking daily for activities to open up.
 

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