Of course, no one knows with certainty what happens after death, and as you said we assume that experience is linked to the physical body. The thing to note here is that there are good reasons to make this assumption. If someone loses a leg, they can no longer experience that leg. If someone loses their eyes, they can no longer experience sight. If somone receives brain damage, they might not be able to experience memories they once had, or perhaps they can no longer experience control of their limbs, or speech.

You can see how effects to the body have effects to experience, and consciousness. I was not a lingering consciousness in search of a vessel before my body existed (or perhaps I was, anything is possible, but I'm going to try and assume as little as possible) so it's very unlikely that I should ever become a lingering consciousness after death, seeing as I would have no nerves to experience my surroundings, no brain to process information or store it, and no configuration of atoms and energy that anyone could identify as being the same experience or consciousness that one would have had in life.