I have not been on many cruises (one really) but I have watched videos and it seems passengers always give up their bags when embarking and then staff delivers them to your room a bit later.
That seems a lot of work for the cruise line. Why not just make me go through security and drag my own bag with me to my room?
Several factors.
Firstly, Security. They scan your bags for contraband, including not just weapons and the like, but also people trying to bring in their own booze and drugs.
Secondly, yes, it’s a lot of work, but that’s still true if the passengers do it themselves. And a cruise is supposed to be all about having fun. There’s nothing “fun” about hauling a week or two’s worth of luggage through one of those massive ships.
Plus, the passengers trend towards older people, making that whole process more difficult, and, importantly, slower. These guys turn around a ship in about 12 to 18 hours, and even with the cruise line doing everything, getting everyone on board is a time consuming task. Imagine how much slower it would be if there were anywhere from 2400-5000 people all waiting for the elevator with two or three large suitcases. It would be a disaster.
I’ve sat and watched the loading/unloading of such ships several times, and they’ve got an efficient systems that just runs. They’re not going to screw that up just to make their own jobs “slightly easier”. It would be a fake savings.
ETA: @Horatius beat me to it while I was typing.
Two reasons I can think of: security and customer service.
Bringing them to your cabin makes it easier for you. You can look around the ship, eat lunch, etc, instead of lugging bags. A little touch of luxury.
On the security side, cruise ships have strict guidelines about things they don’t allow on board, that aren’t necessarily obvious: power strips, irons, candles, and so on. Screening bags out of your sight lets them remove those items without making a scene or giving you a chance to make a scene.
Quite a few cruisers bring a bunch of bags - and most would use the elevators which would cause a traffic jam. The crew can use crew elevators (some may be designed to carry cargo) and can coordinate delivery instead of the chaos self delivery would impose.
You can self disembark – though I think a minority of passengers choose this.
Brian
This last is IMO the real reason.
A 3 day cruise you can do with an airline-compatible carryon. Gone for 7 -14 days, & you like to play dress-up for dinner? We’re talking 4 or even 5 bags per person, so 8-10 per cabin.
Even for young fit people with wheeled luggage it’s a total PITA for them to manage more than one bag per person through the cruise terminal and up the ramps, escalators, elevators etc. into the ship.
It is also commonplace that the first passengers are allowed on the ship an hour or two before their cabin is made accessible to them. So they’d have to drag all that stuff around as they’re exploring the ship, drinking in a bar, etc. Which is totally impractical just from a public space perspective to say nothing of the annoyance that would pile on their customers.
It’s also worth noting that they only have elevators on the ship. Every time I’ve boarded, we’ve had to walk up at least a bit of an inclined boarding ramp. Even when I started cruising about 15 years ago, I wouldn’t have wanted to drag my bags up those ramps. Now? Forget it. If someone from the ship suggested it, I might actually consider just not taking the cruise right at that point.
We have done a few cruises, mostly from Southampton.
We drive to the port and pull up in an unloading area where we get help to unload the car. The heavy luggage is taken away and will appear outside our cabin sometime later. I certainly would not want to get it through reception, up a (sometimes long and steep - depending on the tide) gangway and then through the heavy traffic around the lifts.
We do take hand luggage with us which contains enough to keep us going for a day or two. There are reports of luggage going astray and it can take time to sort it out. We also carry valuables for security - cruises are one place where the ladies can show off their bling in safety.
Often more than just an hour or two - it’s not unheard of for it to be three or even four hours for some people. Most people take some sort of carryon and there is often a space set aside where people can “check” their carry-ons, much like checking luggage when you arrive at a hotel before check-in time. But a hotel couldn’t do it if every guest was checking in/out the same day and most/all of them arrived before the rooms were ready.
It’s surprising how much luggage people bring if there is no flying involved - I think the cruise lines generally allow 2 suitcases per person, and some people do bring that much for a 7 day cruise that doesn’t require any formal wear. There definitely isn’t enough room to store that or have people dragging it around with them.
Lots of good reasons mentioned. But don’t forget those staffers who need tips to supplement their income, like hotel doormen and such.
ISTM they’ve gotten their luggage/whatever to the ship. Is it really so onerus to go that last 100 yards?
I’ve gone further in airports all the time.
I certainly could, but I’m not sure I want to compete with 3000 other folks doing so.
I have done self disembarking.
Most airports are not 9+ stories tall.
ETA I see you are just talking about getting TO the ship — not hard, but unless folks continue to their cabin, there is not a lot of room to store.
Brian
It’s not 100 yards , When I go on a cruise, I leave my luggage with a porter outside the terminal and I keep a small carry on. I then go through a security line, and full size suitcases will not fit through the scanner . I then wait in a line to check in, get my key card etc. Then it’s (probably ) wait to board at which time I will have to walk up at least 4 floors of ramps - no elevator or escalator to the boarding deck. I can do it with a carry-on but I couldn’t do it with multiple carry-ons. When you “go further in the airport” , it’s with only a carry-on and a personal item, because you have to check full-sized suitcases.
People do take carry their luggage off at the end of the cruise, but there isn’t any security screening then. And it’s a mess as they try to handle a couple of suitcases and a backpack and medical equipment and…
Here’s a picture of the gangway of the Princess ship we took for our honeymoon cruise to Alaska in 2011. Note the numerous shallow steps.
Imagine a bunch of elderly people trying to drag several large bags up those steps (which might be angled much more steeply than this, depending on the dock).
Any more questions? 
Airports tend to be flat, not large ramps, and it’s a lot farther than 100 yards.
Picture a ramp that climbs at least 2-3 stories, each leg of the ramp is probably 50 yards or so, and that’s just what you get to after passing through the embarcation hall, which is of a size with an airport already.
And then on the ship, you might have to traverse the whole length of the ship to get to your room. That’s a lot more than 100 yards, and it’s all narrow corridors filled with other people doing the same thing.
Picture boarding an airplane while everyone is trying to stuff their carry-ons in the overhead bins, but the plane is 200-300 yards long, and carries 3000 passengers. Still want to be carrying all your own stuff?
And that looks like a fairly small ship compared to most. I’ve only ever seen ramps like that for disembarking for shore excursions. They typically let out on Deck 2 or 3. For the original loading on large ships, you go up a ramp to Deck 5 or 6, and it’s a much larger ramp.
Shore excursions use the smaller ramps because not everyone gets off the ship, and not all at once, and they don’t take luggage with them. No way would you load the whole ship with all the luggage through those smaller boarding areas.
Was that an embarkation port? Because I’ve never seen that sort of gangway where the cruise begins or ends. Only at the ports visited in-between.
No, good point. I couldn’t find any pix of the embarkation ports.
Narrow corridors in a maze-like layout requiring you to turn multiple corners. (At least that was the case on my most recent MSC cruise.)
Yes - it’s also a throwback to a time when passengers packed their belongings in steamer trunks, which were too bulky and unwieldy to schlep to one’s own stateroom.
You don’t have to. I sometimes walk my bags on. It can be a schlep, especially in a hot climate. With everyone entering in a compressed time frame, the ship elevators and gangway levels are crowded, so you do everyone a favor by not blocking elevators, stairs, and corridors by hauling bags.
I myself have never had more than 2 bags, and that only because I was dropping one off but needed to retain my prescriptions and a change of clothes in case the bag was delayed or lost. Same as checking a bag on a plane and keeping valuables with me, normally in a backpack and not a second suitcase.
In Sydney, we dropped our bags (one each) in the morning and then walked to the botanical gardens, where we had a delightful unencumbered morning before boarding later.
I’ve been on a lot of cruises. I’m not sure it’s been brought up here yet, but many corridors on ships are very narrow. Such as the corridors on the decks with cabins. If everybody brought their own suitcases, the traffic jams on those corridors would be nightmarish. On the other hand, the crew is trained to transport big stacks of suitcases down those hallways in efficient ways.