Slow Princess mail service

[Kinkacruiser]

While on board I asked the purser to mail a few postcards to my friends and family in Australia. At the time I thought this was a very convenient. Alas, it took almost 4 weeks for the postcard to travel from Ketchikan, Alaska to Sydney, Australia.

Is this slow transit fairly standard? (Parcels from the US usually reach us in 7- 10 days)

[bhopal21]

While on board I asked the purser to mail a few postcards to my friends and family in Australia. At the time I thought this was a very convenient. Alas, it took almost 4 weeks for the postcard to travel from Ketchikan, Alaska to Sydney, Australia.

Is this slow transit fairly standard? (Parcels from the US usually reach us in 7- 10 days)

 

Sorry to say that is pretty much standard for cruise mail.

 

My last correspondence took almost 6 weeks to reach its destination.

 

Mike:)

[Colo Cruiser]

Sometimes they never make it at all. :(

[FritzG]

Sometimes they never make it at all. :(

 

Sadly, that's been our experience. After 2 or 3 tries we gave up. DH usually sends pictures he's taken with emails and skips postcards.

Even when you could send Princess email postcards from the computers in the future cruise area, no one ever got them.

[Thrak]

Why not just mail it yourself when in port rather than having the Purser do it? Most likely the mail would have gone out faster.

[BigGuy25]

On a Princess cruise from French Polynesia to Hawaii we stopped in Kiribati at about the half-way mark near the equator. We thought it would be fun to mail some postcards from the island. It wasn't from the ship but from the island's official post office. None of the postcards ever arrived!!

[paul929207]

We stopped sending cards home from overseas years ago. They always took forever.

[SadieN]

Postcards seem to almost always take longer than any other type of mail.

[cb at sea]

Would be better to just bring them home with you and hand them to your friends. Or, take a photo on your phone and text it!

[Cruisin' Chick]

My hubby used to send postcards to his mother (when she was still alive), but would do so in port. That often meant having to buy the right postage at a post office. He knew if he had mailed in while on the ship, it would take a long time.

[TwoBadKnees]

We still send postcards to one of our nephews as he likes the foreign stamps. They all eventually arrive. He especially liked the one from Easter Island.

[pris993]

Yes.. this is typical... I have also found, mailing post cards at a hotel (Hilton) in Europe... was not better sorry say..

[azbirdmom]

The longest it has taken from the ship is two months for us. When we send postcards now, we find a mailbox or postoffice in ports and they arrive much quicker.

[SoCal Cruiser78]

Why not just mail it yourself when in port rather than having the Purser do it? Most likely the mail would have gone out faster.

 

That is exactly what I do. Years ago, when mailing a card or letter onboard, you would often get a cool "posted at sea aboard the Pacific Princess" or the like stamped on the piece being mailed, but I haven't seen that in a long time. I just use a local PO or sidewalk mail box in port.

[waltd]

I will agree that the post cards we mailed never arrived. Can't say if it was Princess or the country it was mailed from but none the less we stopped mailing them.

[Colo Cruiser]

I will agree that the post cards we mailed never arrived. Can't say if it was Princess or the country it was mailed from but none the less we stopped mailing them.

 

 

Probably a little bit of both.

[Wehwalt]

When I was on the Pacific Princess last year and we were off Pitcairn and the islanders came on board, I sent a postcard to myself, paying to have a stamp showing the Pacific Princess used. It took two months, but the postmark was the date of our call. But then, that's about how long you'd expect it to take!

[Keith1010]

It is standard for cruise mail.

 

Keith

[Iamcruzin]

I have given up on the post office all together. I pay bills on line and correspond electronically as well. I'm alway able to find a free hot spot to send pictures or post on Facebook. I can't remember the last time I purchased a stamp. At this point I don't even know how much a stamp costs.

[Pushka]

Sometimes it takes over a week to get a letter posted in Australia. Our mail system is dreadful.

[dorisis]

Whether it is the ship or the foreign post office, they all seem to be pretty slow.