Sending postcards from cruise

[MintChocolate]

I always send postcards to family and friends from my trips and it's an important "ritual" for me. Has anyone sent postcards from St. Maarten, Antigua, and Dominican Republic to the US and Europe? Do you remember what the postage cost was? Did you have to find a post office to buy stamps or do they sell them on the ship too?

 

Also, is it easy to find postcards in these countries? I assume they would sell them at the souvenir shops, but wanted to verify it, just in case .

[LHT28]

I have not seen a ship that sells postage stamps for other countries in a while

Besides if you post them on the ship they seem to take months to arrive

 

Antigua & St Maarten sell post cards in the shops but I no longer send them so did not ask about stamps

some shops used to sell the stamps for tourists

[Keith1010]

You can mail post cards from most ships. The cards will likely arrive home many weeks after you do. The ship charges you and then has the local agent mail them.

 

Or you can go to a post office in each location.

 

Keith

[ithaca gal]

I send cards from almost every port. I try to find a post office whenever possible. In Amber Cove, the cruise line fabricated port stop had a store that sold post cards. They did not sell stamps, however, or know how I could mail them. "What's the point then?" I asked. She said that people just keep them, they don't mail them. I didn't buy any.

[whogo]

I try to send postcards, but no longer have the patience to deal with foreign post offices. I check with the cruise ship front desk to see if and when they would send cards.

 

Back in 2008 the front desk on Royal Caribbean's Legend of the Seas said they would send out mail in each port. Instead, they skipped three Spanish ports and 5 Caribbean ports to mail them all from the Dominican Republic. The first postcards from that 15 night transatlantic arrived 6 weeks after my cruise.

[Honolulu Blue]

I always send postcards to family and friends from my trips and it's an important "ritual" for me. Has anyone sent postcards from St. Maarten, Antigua, and Dominican Republic to the US and Europe? Do you remember what the postage cost was? Did you have to find a post office to buy stamps or do they sell them on the ship too?

 

Also, is it easy to find postcards in these countries? I assume they would sell them at the souvenir shops, but wanted to verify it, just in case .

 

I haven't sent a postcard from a foreign country in a long time, and never from a ship. I have sent cards from St. Croix and Key West - the former took about a week to get to its destination, and the latter less (though I'm not sure how much less).

 

Plenty of souvenir shops in the dock area of St. Maarten will sell postcards and there will be some in Marigot on the French side if you make it that far. Antigua was the one place I had trouble finding places that sold postcards. I finally found some at a drugstore near the dock. Your mileage may vary here. I've never been to the DR, so no information there.

[pris993]

I always send postcards to family and friends from my trips and it's an important "ritual" for me. Has anyone sent postcards from St. Maarten, Antigua, and Dominican Republic to the US and Europe? Do you remember what the postage cost was? Did you have to find a post office to buy stamps or do they sell them on the ship too?

 

Also, is it easy to find postcards in these countries? I assume they would sell them at the souvenir shops, but wanted to verify it, just in case .

 

I have sent a postcard from St Martin many years ago...I have found postcards in areas we have traveled - like you I too enjoy sending postcards. Been doing it for many years... recently, though I have gotten postcards, bought US forever stamps before leaving home, write the cards while traveling and post when I return... because sometimes it takes for ever for cards to arrived mailed from overseas... sometimes they never arrive. Mailing once I hit a usa port or city works best for me.

[4x4bob]

Out of 16 cruises on Princess I have mailed at the Passenger Service desk area using the special mail box set up 8 times. Not one of the cards arrived at my Grandkids home. So, I have decided to find another hobby.

 

Bob

[Langley Cruisers]

...8 times. Not one of the cards arrived at my Grandkids home...

 

Yep, have heard the same. Most of the postcards mailed from the ship arrive months and months later, or not at all. To me, it's just not worth it.

[NMLady]

I always send postcards to family and friends from my trips and it's an important "ritual" for me. Has anyone sent postcards from St. Maarten, Antigua, and Dominican Republic to the US and Europe? Do you remember what the postage cost was? Did you have to find a post office to buy stamps or do they sell them on the ship too?

 

Also, is it easy to find postcards in these countries? I assume they would sell them at the souvenir shops, but wanted to verify it, just in case .

 

We also send a postcard from our port stops. On St Maarten it was easy to buy postcards in souvenir shops near pier. We bought stamps at post office and mailed them from there to US. I don't remember cost.

 

The one time we asked ship to mail them the postmark was not from that island, was mailed quite a bit later. We won't do that again.

[138east]

I've done the post card thing from the Caribbean and Bermuda. Usually I was visiting at least one US island like St Thomas, St Croix, or Puerto Rico. In St Thomas there is a post office at the Havensight pier and in San Juan there is a post office within 2 blocks of the OSJ pier. I found it was easier to buy the post card stamps at home, so all I had to do was find a mailbox. Once I mailed at a corner mailbox right in Cruz Bay, St. John.

 

Bermuda was more of an adventure. Found a post office in St George to buy the stamps. Got caught in a squall getting back to the ship and went running in to the Visitors Center at Kings Wharf where they took my postcards and actually did mail them for me. Wind was blowing like crazy, sky was black, and it was starting to rain. Made it back to the ship - that was the afternoon the Norwegian Star snapped its mooring and dinged the Explorer.

[marco]

Whilst on a Caribbean cruise, we will send cards from St Thomas and PR (we bring stamps with us) If we've visited other ports prior, we still mail from St Thomas and PR. Other cruises, we get cards, write them as we go and mail them the day we get home. The last time we mailed a card for Greece to the US it took just under 6 weeks to arrive. (and yes we used airmail postage)

[Dcoy]

Durring my world cruise, I sent post cards from some of the larger ports. The pursers office would list in the daily bulletin the maling rate for that port. I think I remember it usually ran around $2 each.

 

I would buy the post cards while in port, go back to the ship and fill them out. Take them down to the pursers and they would charge my on board account and somehow got them mailed before we left port. We had to have them to the pursers at least one hour before the ship left.

 

It did take several weeks before my family received them but since I was gone for 94 days, I knew the earlier ones would make it before I got back.

 

Don

[Going Coastal]

I used to send post cards to an older friend from each port. They did take awhile to arrive but she enjoyed the pictures. My understanding is that all mail leaves the ship in the last pouch the ship's agent takes off before the sail away.

[whogo]

The US Postal Service now has forever postage stamps, I keep some with my travel bag and don't worry about price increases between trips.

Edited December 17, 2015 by whogo

[NMLady]

The US Postal Service now has forever postage stamps, I keep some with my travel bag and don't worry about price increases between trips.

 

But those are only good for mailing from a US port, not from places the OP mentioned.

[MintChocolate]

Thanks so much, everyone, for your help! Lots of great and useful info!

[tip]

Just another cruiser who like to send out postcards...my 90 year old father-in-law loves to get mail and so do our grandchildren!

 

Like others, we have found that sending postcards from non-United States islands or other countries means that we always get home before the post cards arrive. Thus we send them from the location of our pre-cruise stay or from either St. Thomas or Puerto Rico if those stops are included.

 

For some it is a great sport to malign the U.S. Postal Service (and no, I am not a postal employee), but compared to most other nations, U.S. postal rates and the quality of service can not be beat!

[NMLady]

Just another cruiser who like to send out postcards...my 90 year old father-in-law loves to get mail and so do our grandchildren!

 

Like others, we have found that sending postcards from non-United States islands or other countries means that we always get home before the post cards arrive. Thus we send them from the location of our pre-cruise stay or from either St. Thomas or Puerto Rico if those stops are included.

 

....

 

Some people are disappointed not to have the postmark -- and the unique postage stamps -- of non-USA ports.

 

Since most of our postcards go to family/friends who do not live in our town it does not matter if they don't receive the postcards until after we are home. They love looking at the unique stamps in addition to the scenes.