Passengers boarding P&O Cruises Ventura in Southampton on Saturday morning were left stunned when they spotted suitcases bobbing around the sea after they rolled off the cruise liner. A lifeboat was dispatched to retrieve some of the soggy suitcases.
According to several social media posts, the luggage cage carrying passengers’ bags, was inadvertently dropped from the Mayflower Terminal – the oldest terminal at Southampton cruise port.
Terri at Hays Travel tweeted: “All happening at the Mayflower Terminal in Southampton this morning. @pandocruises dropped a luggage cage in the water so now lifeboats deployed to retrieve some very soggy suitcases!!”
Liz Keeling commented: “@pandocruises After a fantastic cruise on Ventura, have just noticed what looks like cases floating down the Solent from the ship. A lifeboat has been launched from the ship Quite worried!”
Warehouse worker Ally Day, 30, posted a video and said: “They take the cases off 20 at a time via a hoist. Staff said the hoist had snapped sending 20 cases into the sea with only ten recovered. We got our cases off but felt really bad for others.”
Bystander images show various items of luggage floating in the sea.
Another image showed several rescued but wet suitcases perched at the side of the deck.
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Express.co.uk spoke to Jonny, a passenger on board P&O Cruises Ventura, who had travelled to Amsterdam, and had his luggage fall into the sea, but be retrieved.
He claimed: “It happened at around 9:00-9:30 as soon as the ship docked late. It was the trip to Amsterdam, it left at around 5:30 PM on May 31 and docked roughly 9:30-10 am on June 4.
“I have contacted P&O on the same day within minutes of getting the pre printed letter for damaged (not lost) luggage.
“It happened at the end just as we were about to disembark from the ship.
“The team reacted extremely poorly.. nothing was said to any of us affected, none of the announcements said anything about potential lost luggage, even when they dragged the half full cage of soaked luggage into the claims area they dumped it in the far corner and left without a word,” he explained.
“The workers in the claims area were no help and were saying these things happen.
“The letter stated we had to email P&O even after completing the damaged/loss claim form otherwise it won’t be investigated.
“We ended up wandering around the claim area for around 30 minutes trying to find it with no offer of assistance we even had the rest of my family (another five people) looking.
“I have recieved a very standard rather automatic email responce from P&O requesting proof of items lost (despite some items being years old such as a mechanical watch) I also called and recieved two promises one in writing one in verbal format telling me I will get a call back, P&O has failed at time of writing to do this.
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Express.co.uk has contacted P&O Cruises again today, with Jonny’s account in regards to the potentially damaged contents – and if any compensation has been offered for the mishap.
Ventura can hold as many as 3,192 passengers.
One luggage cage holds around 15-20 bags, depending on their size and dimensions.
Apparently, 20 suitcases ended up in the water, and only 10 were rescued, according to The Sun.
Cruise Hive reports it is “common for bags belonging to the same party to be on the same cage, so one passenger or family may have had several bags damaged in this incident”.
The incident did not affect the cruise from leaving on time.
The ship was sailing to Amsterdam for a four-day trip.
Onboard, there are four pools, a sports deck, a relaxing spa,…
Read More: Cruise passengers stunned as suitcases left bobbing in sea having fallen off