Sending mail from Haiti

[jig]

we are going on the allure in a few weeks and one of the things i like doing when i travel is send post cards with lots of stamps to some special kids back home. this might be my only chance to send home from haiti. in labadee, can i get some cards and stamps and mail them from there. and do they get through.

thanks

[DonnaK]

Hmmm...I don't think you can. There is no place on Labadee to buy stamps, and no post office or mailbox to send mail. It is isolated and secured from the rest of the country, so it's not like you can travel beyond the boundaries of the private beach to reach a post office.

[Bob & Sandy]

Hmmm...I don't think you can. There is no place on Labadee to buy stamps, and no post office or mailbox to send mail. It is isolated and secured from the rest of the country, so it's not like you can travel beyond the boundaries of the private beach to reach a post office.

 

Also, there is zero hope of arrival of your items in any sort of

reasonable time frame. The country is one of the poorest in the world,

with no infrastructure - I sent a postcard from Colombia to Canada

once, it took 4 weeks to get there. Colombia is lightyears more advanced

than Haiti, so ... there you are.

[Eng23]

You can probably get the postcards at Labadee but you would have to mail them from a different country where you actually get off the ship and can go to a post office.

[DonnaK]

I was thinking that you can get Labadee postcards in the gift shop on the ship. Then, if the purser's desk has Haitian stamps, you could purchase them there. Then, you can hand off your stamped postcard to a local worker on Labadee, and after giving them a tip, trusting them to drop it in a mailbox or at the post office when they go home that evening. Lots of effort and uncertainty, but it might work.

[Lionesss]

First Cruise

Disney

ignorant me.

Purchased and wrote my postcards and put them in the mail box (on Board)before we got to St. Thomas, wanted that post mark on it so everyone at home could see where we were.

I thought they would take them to the post office on St. Thomas.

We got a beautiful post mark from Port Canaveral.

The postcards where mailed when we returned to Port. I brought my stamps from home so I did not have to worry about finding postage.

Yup, American Postage stamp by me, why did I think it would be mailed from St. Thomas.

Safe travels

Sue and crew

Edited August 12, 2012 by Lionesss

[Artemis]

Hi, Sue, the funny thing is, you forgot that St. Thomas is in the US Virgin Islands. So, yeah, that stamp would've worked!*

 

With that said, I think anytime you give mail to a cruise ship on a fairly brief voyage, you can pretty much count on them not processing it until they get to the disembarkation port. Next time, you'll know to ask. Of course, they should have a notice on the mailbox to let depositors know their outgoing mail won't be sent until debarkation! :(

 

*Just for the curious, I had to find this on the USPS website to confirm--I was reminded there are several US territories and possessions out there!

 

2.0

Domestic Mail

2.1

Definition of “Domestic”

Domestic mail is mail transmitted within, among, and between the United States of America, its territories and possessions, Army Post Offices (APOs), fleet Post Offices (FPOs), and the United Nations, NY. For this standard, the term “territories and possessions” comprises the following:

 

American Samoa

Manua Island, Swain’s Island, Tutuila Island

Guam

Northern Mariana Islands, Commonwealth of the

Rota Island, Saipan Island, Tinian Island

Puerto Rico, Commonwealth of

U.S. Virgin Islands

St. Croix Island, St. John Island,

St. Thomas Island

Wake Atoll

Wake Island

Edited August 12, 2012 by Artemis

[kvasir]

For anyone still interested in this topic...

 

I was on a chartered cruise aboard Independence of the Seas in 2013. I prepared two postcards and dropped by the guest relations building in the middle of the Labadee resort ("Information Centre" on the map). I asked around and nobody local could give me a straight answer about how to send the postcards.

 

I was just about giving up when Michelle from Montreal (an RCCL employee) came downstairs and asked if she could help. She offered to mail the postcards for me and insisted that she would cover the postage and would not accept a tip. I thanked her profusely before I left.

 

About six weeks later I received the postcards:

 

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/t31.0-8/903896_10151343984425443_1735593185_o.jpg

 

Turned out Michelle, or some RCCL employee, took the postcards 5 days after to Cap-Haitien (2 miles east of Labadee) to mail them. Quite an interesting stamp franking I must say!

 

But yeah, there is no mailbox or post office in Labadee. So ask nicely as a personal favour the staff maybe able to help you out with mail.

Edited August 21, 2014 by kvasir