RC - Stolen from my safe box

[Theron]

RC safe boxes are not safe, my passports, CC and wallet cash $900 got stolen at the last day. I actually got out of the ship without taking items from my safe, and I immediately realized that I forgot to get the items from safe box. The officials did not allow me to go back and I waited for couple of hours and they came back and said the safe box is empty. How is it possible?? My only person could steal is  the house keeper, who was cleaning the room next to my room, might have taken the cash from the locker and threw away the passports and cc etc. The moment we left he might have opened the locker with a master reset and stolen everything. But RC lied to me that the safe was open with a supervisor. This is a lie. I am 100% sure I was the items previous night!! So RC is hiding something. The security manager said nothing in the safe box when he opened. This clearly says the house keeper is the only person stole our passports and money. If there was no money he probably would have not stolen it. So be safe do not keep liquid cash able items in the safe box

sadly

theron

[Theron]

Royal Caribbean security officers could easily catch the thief as there are only few people could access the safe box with a master reset. They just need to trace how many key cards were used to open the room from 9 -10 am March 7, (we left room at 8.55am) and who open the safe box, that’s it. It’s 1000% the employees, either the supervisor or house keeper or both. $900 is a big money for them. So they just kept the money through everything else to the trash. At least they could have returned the passports to lost and found. Anyway, this is a very painful experience for me from a number one cruise. Now I still hope Royal Caribbean could recover the passports. They need to find the thieves and deport them.

[happy cruisers 2]

Theron, I'm very sorry for your situation.  You made a costly mistake.  You're also making some claims that are unsubstantiated, and just your theory of what may have happened after you left the ship.  Personally, I think the safe is the best place for cash, credit cards, passports, etc. when you are not needing to carry them.  Whoever took your cash and other items, they will have to live with the guilt the rest of their lives -- something they will probably come to regret doing.  I hope you do recover some or even all of your items, but this is a lesson learned and you'll have to move on from it.  Again, I am sorry this happened to you.

[smokeybandit]

You left your cabin without checking for your wallet?  

[CrimsonCruiser]

Theron, I hope it helps to realize that what's more likely is that the stateroom attendant cleaned the safe (as is their job) after you left the room and the officers weren't able to locate them at the time when they were searching. Turnaround day is hectic, fast and very very busy and the stateroom attendants are in and out of rooms and staff areas like crazy getting rooms stripped and re-set for the next passengers.

Please don't think the worst of the attendant just because the safe was empty and instead file a lost and found asap. The cash may be gone (it is after all hard to keep tabs on whose cash is whose even in the best of circumstances) but I'm sure the documents and wallet and other non-loose items will be returned to you.

[Theron]

48 minutes ago, happy cruisers 2 said:

Theron, I'm very sorry for your situation.  You made a costly mistake.  You're also making some claims that are unsubstantiated, and just your theory of what may have happened after you left the ship.  Personally, I think the safe is the best place for cash, credit cards, passports, etc. when you are not needing to carry them.  Whoever took your cash and other items, they will have to live with the guilt the rest of their lives -- something they will probably come to regret doing.  I hope you do recover some or even all of your items, but this is a lesson learned and you'll have to move on from it.  Again, I am sorry this happened to you.

Thanks, now I am stuck in USA. I need to travel back to India. This is very painful 

[Theron]

Thanks,

47 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

You left your cabin without checking for your wallet?  

 

[Theron]

Yes, I was rushing to catch my flight. But I came back within an hour to get belongings. They did not let me in. How could it be vanished from the safe box when only supervisors have access to reset the password? This is confirmed that the supervisor or house keeper or both are the culprits. All I need is my passports

[Theron]

46 minutes ago, CrimsonCruiser said:

Theron, I hope it helps to realize that what's more likely is that the stateroom attendant cleaned the safe (as is their job) after you left the room and the officers weren't able to locate them at the time when they were searching. Turnaround day is hectic, fast and very very busy and the stateroom attendants are in and out of rooms and staff areas like crazy getting rooms stripped and re-set for the next passengers.

Please don't think the worst of the attendant just because the safe was empty and instead file a lost and found asap. The cash may be gone (it is after all hard to keep tabs on whose cash is whose even in the best of circumstances) but I'm sure the documents and wallet and other non-loose items will be returned to you.

 

[Theron]

Yes, I understand that the stateroom attendants are busy cleaning the rooms for the next cruise. My room attendant didn’t not even say bye to me when he was in front of my room. He looked grumpy. As you know, the safe box can not be opened by attendants as per cruise officers call. So it is clearly evident that this is opened by a supervisor. I do t care about money and cc etc. All I need the passports. Thanks for your hopeful words 

[tjcruisers]

I've had to get a safe unlocked twice, once my wife typed in our wrong code on locking it and forgot what she typed in, the second time previous passenger left it locked. In both cases it required an officer to come down and unlocked. In the case of the previous passenger leaving it locked, it was the housekeeper waiting at our room saying she's waiting for the officer to come and unlock the safe, both cases the housekeeper had no ability to do it

[cruisingfever]

Have rc look at security footage, they can see who entered the room 

[ChessE4]

I like the safe. Once or twice I've had the stateroom attendant tell me the safe was unlocked, but nothing was missing. (One needs to hold the door in until the lock clicks.)

As others have indicated, I can't imagine rushing to a flight without looking for wallet and passport. I do understand forgetting something, but never ID, tickets, keys. The lesson is to work a checklist. This is important for the newbie or occasional cruiser. However, there are enough people who forget something to lead Royal to have a better disembarkation process.

[tonyfsu21]

“He said, she said”. I hate to be so harsh, but this can only be blamed on one person and that person is you. Next time you should set a reminder on an Apple Watch or iPhone so that this does not happen again in the future. Once you are off the ship then you are on your own. I guess you could be stuck in worse places….

[dmattinson]

5 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

You left your cabin without checking for your wallet?  

Right?  It's like a ritual every time I stand up...keys, phone, wallet pocket check - if I have my passport, it goes in my pocket with keys or if I'm wearing a shirt with pockets, in my left breast pocket.  

[Pattycruise]

I can understand forgetting the items.  I sail monthly.  I  make a list on a bright index card that gets placed on my desk “tips, safe, toiletries, key card” (key card I use to keep the lights on).  My last cruise I had a panic as I realized I had not removed my items from the safe . I would have seen my list-the last thing I pack-but I actually hadn’t packed the stuff-which is unlike me as I usually empty the safe before going to bed the last night. 

I can’t imagine being in a foreign country without my wallet cash and passport.  I hope you are able to work something out to get home quickly. 

[Theron]

3 hours ago, dmattinson said:

Right?  It's like a ritual every time I stand up...keys, phone, wallet pocket check - if I have my passport, it goes in my pocket with keys or if I'm wearing a shirt with pockets, in my left breast pocket.  

You guys did not understand one thing, did I leave my valuables outside on tables somewhere? No, I left it in a safe box which has security code, and to access the safe box someone need to use key card to enter the room first of all.  so considering the security features it is supposed to be recoverable, the items should have been returned to lost and found, because the people open the safe box are only the supervisor or security officers. I’m still blaming it on my Caribbean security officers because they’re not truthful. They’re not honest that’s my point. If it is not my passport, I wouldn’t worry about anything else. I’m stuck in USA I cannot go to my country This is the ridiculous situation I would ever have in my life. 

[SpeedNoodles]

Have you tried to contact the port authorities at the disembarkation port?  When someone does not come back from being on shore before the all aboard time, their passports, wallet, etc are taken out of the safe and given to the port authorities for the person/s who did not make it back to the ship on time.  There's no logical reason why an officer would steal your passport.  Call the port itself and see if they have them.

[tonyfsu21]

3 hours ago, Theron said:

You guys did not understand one thing, did I leave my valuables outside on tables somewhere? No, I left it in a safe box which has security code, and to access the safe box someone need to use key card to enter the room first of all.  so considering the security features it is supposed to be recoverable, the items should have been returned to lost and found, because the people open the safe box are only the supervisor or security officers. I’m still blaming it on my Caribbean security officers because they’re not truthful. They’re not honest that’s my point. If it is not my passport, I wouldn’t worry about anything else. I’m stuck in USA I cannot go to my country This is the ridiculous situation I would ever have in my life. 

You left the ship without all the important stuff you need to go home!!!!! This is a “you” problem and not a Royal Caribbean problem. I hope for your sake you are maybe stuck in South Beach or on Fort Lauderdale beach and not NJ or NY…… 

[Psycho and Barb]

On 4/7/2024 at 5:37 PM, Theron said:

RC safe boxes are not safe, my passports, CC and wallet cash $900 got stolen at the last day. I actually got out of the ship without taking them

sadly

theron

How in the heck did you clear customs without your passports after you got off the ship?

[HeWhoWaits]

18 minutes ago, Psycho and Barb said:

How in the heck did you clear customs without your passports after you got off the ship?

Our recent trips into Florida have been facial recognition customs breeze through without needing the actual documents.

[Al Miller]

On 4/9/2024 at 11:22 AM, tjcruisers said:

I've had to get a safe unlocked twice, once my wife typed in our wrong code on locking it and forgot what she typed in, the second time previous passenger left it locked. In both cases it required an officer to come down and unlocked. In the case of the previous passenger leaving it locked, it was the housekeeper waiting at our room saying she's waiting for the officer to come and unlock the safe, both cases the housekeeper had no ability to do it

Yep. We had to do this once. The Previous people left the safe with the door open but the locking rods or whatever they are called in the locked position. Making the safe impossible to close and lock without knowing the code used. We had to wait an hour or so for the officer to come with the tool that unlocks it. He said he has to do a few nearly every embarkation day and a couple of times during the sailing.

The cabin stewards cant get in there unless it was left unlocked.

[Psycho and Barb]

1 hour ago, HeWhoWaits said:

Our recent trips into Florida have been facial recognition customs breeze through without needing the actual documents.

Yes we love that feature and no more filling out the customs form but the OP was from India and I don’t think the facial recognition works for him.

[Theron]

18 hours ago, SpeedNoodles said:

Have you tried to contact the port authorities at the disembarkation port?  When someone does not come back from being on shore before the all aboard time, their passports, wallet, etc are taken out of the safe and given to the port authorities for the person/s who did not make it back to the ship on time.  There's no logical reason why an officer would steal your passport.  Call the port itself and see if they have them.

Yes, I went back within an hour after I left the ship. Three levels of authorities came and spoke to us and mentioned they did not find anything in our safe box. We stayed there for four hours, till the new set of people boarded into the ship. At the end, they mention nothing was found in lost and found. We sadly filed a complaint to the port police. Where our passports went ????

[Theron]

3 hours ago, Psycho and Barb said:

How in the heck did you clear customs without your passports after you got off the ship?

They just looked at the id issued by the ship. We are back into USA port. They only check for id issued by the ship. Nothing else was checked to leave the port

[Mark_A]

I can't leave the port without passport, (or facial recognition as I am USA citizen)I doubt they would have let you leave without a passport

[Bowen]

A couple of things. First, if it was in the safe when I left, and then I called and it was no longer in the safe, I'd be livid. There are a whole lot of places I could imagine accidentally leaving something where I wouldn't expect it to be when I called back in an hour, the safe isn't one of them. So if it wasn't in the safe then it was taken by an RC employee, and that's a whole bunch of garbage. 

Second, no way you got off the ship and through customs with just your ship ID, zero chance that happened. So you either had some other identifying document or you used facial recognition, but there's absolutely no way one of those two things didn't occur.  Not that this really matters, except that in the context of what you are saying happened it makes the entire story less credible when you are saying you got off the ship in a way that everyone on this board knows cannot happen. 

I don't at all get the people dragging you for leaving something in the safe. It happens, and as far as leaving things on the ship, that would be just about the only place I would 100% expect it to still be when I remembered and went to retrieve it. I travel with someone who always uses the safe, that person has left their things in the safe after we left (not on a cruise, but at a major theme park resort) and when they called after figuring it out a couple of hours later, the stuff was there and was mailed immediately, minus the cash because they said they were not able to mail cash. There's no excuse at all for something to not be in that safe when you called back. And there's no excuse at all for that stuff not to be immediately taken to lost and found and mailed right back to you. It's not as though your address wasn't readily available. I'm sorry you're dealing with it, it sounds frustrating as heck.

[Vancity Cruiser]

It is possible to get off the ship without a passport. I am a Canadian citizen and am able to disembark in US ports with facial recognition so no reason why cruisers from India wouldn’t be able to do the same. I would be incredibly frustrated to be stuck in this situation. 

[twangster]

1 hour ago, Vancity Cruiser said:

I am a Canadian citizen and am able to disembark in US ports with facial recognition

If I'm not mistaken CBP facial recognition limited to US and Canadian citizens.  Some signage still reads US passport holders only.  

[BRY7]

7 hours ago, twangster said:

If I'm not mistaken CBP facial recognition limited to US and Canadian citizens.  Some signage still reads US passport holders only.  

that is certainly not the case at Miami Terminal A

[Ditchdoc]

The whole issue is unfortunate.

 

It does highlight one issue if you are cruising outside your home country and your passport is lost for any reason. You will most likely have to contact your native embassy for a replacement. You will need your passport number. I keep my passport info on a card in my wallet and a photo of the passport in my phone. You could potentially email the info to yourself as well with appropriate precautions. Hopefully if you find yourself in need of the info, you will have it some where you can access it.

[Bean79]

I hope Theron posts the final outcome, and not just a post rant and leave. Very bad situation to be in.

[need2cruz]

It seems odd that this happened on March 7th and he is still not able to go back to India.  That was 5 full weeks ago!

[DoomSlayer]

19 hours ago, twangster said:

If I'm not mistaken CBP facial recognition limited to US and Canadian citizens.  Some signage still reads US passport holders only.  

It depends on how they entered the US in the first place.  They will sometimes take pictures at their original port of entry for non-US nationals that are used in the Facial Recognition terminals later at the cruise ports.

[DoomSlayer]

On 4/9/2024 at 6:33 PM, Theron said:

... If it is not my passport, I wouldn’t worry about anything else. I’m stuck in USA I cannot go to my country This is the ridiculous situation I would ever have in my life. 

I am not going to get into the details of what happened.  But if you are truly stuck in the USA, you need to be working with your Consulate or Embassy to get travel papers issued to allow you to go home.  I understand your frustration, but you can't just be waiting for Royal Caribbean to take care of this for you, you have to take care of it yourself.  I wish you the best and hopefully you can get home soon.