Aussie retiree brought to tears over outfit mishap on cruise holiday

Cheryl Stuchbery is a seasoned cruiser, but her latest holiday turned into a smelly and 'depressing' nightmare after an onboard mishap meant she didn't have a change of underwear – or any other clothes for that matter.

The Aussie grandmother was forced to wear the same outfit for 11 days when the cruise liner lost her bag somewhere on the ship.

Cheryl and her partner John were traveling from Australia to New Zealand on board the Royal Caribbean ship when her luggage failed to turn up, A Current Affair reports. Despite the ship’s efforts to relocate her belongings, day-in day-out Cheryl was left with nothing but the clothes she arrived in.

“It’s exciting when you go on a cruise, you get dressed up for dinner every night and I couldn't do that,” she said. “I was very depressed, I was in tears a lot of the time.”

While the cruise staff offered to wash her one outfit each morning, it meant the grandmother was left waiting in a dressing gown in her room during the three hour turnaround.

“For quite a bit of time, we felt that it had been stolen because they’d searched the ship,” John said.

Six days after leaving Australian shores, the ship sailed into its first port in Christchurch. The couple had been hoping to pick up some new clothes for Cheryl but options were limited and they only left with a pair of jeans.

It meant by the time they reached Mildford Sound, she didn’t have any clothes warm enough to go up on top.

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Couple slam ship’s ‘disgraceful’ handling

A day after the ship docked in Sydney, the pair were at the airport and about to head home when they finally received the call they’d been waiting for. Royal Caribbean had found Cheryl’s luggage.

“It had been on [the] boat all the time and they say, well it’s ok you’ve got your case back,” John said. Describing the way the liner handled the ordeal as “disgraceful”, the couple don’t feel like they’ve been compensated enough for what they went through.

Royal Caribbean says it “sincerely apologises for misplacing Mr and Mrs Stuchbery’s luggage”, while explaining that during the trip it provided the couple with complimentary express laundry, an on board credit for incidental items and speciality dining.

“Mr and Mrs Stuchbery have been offered additional compensation and documentation to support a claim via their travel insurance,” the liner said in a statement to A Current Affair.

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