Mail on Liberty...not emptied every week?

[Cavatelli430]

So, I'm curious, we returned from Liberty February 16th and had put some postcards in the mail box by guest relations. I assumed that it was emptied when we returned to Miami and mailed. I had talked to some family & friends we had sent cards to and they said they hadn't gotten them. Finally, within the past few days they've been appearing all of a sudden. I saw my mom's, it was postmarked March 3rd in Miami. Do they not empty the box every week or was this a one time thing? Not much fun when people get postcards 3 weeks after you have returned and they already know all about your trip. When we were on Sovereign, we had mailed some cards on board and they were mailed as soon as we got back to Port Canaveral.

[pmfan]

When asking at guest relations I am told as soon as they port, at each port, all mail is mailed. Yet I am like you it takes it forever to get back home.

[jrm9999]

I have mailed postcards from the ship a couple of times and they never arrived at all.

[PhoenixCruiser]

We mailed stuff from the Navigator to our family and co-workers...the items arrived three weeks after we returned.

 

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[Konger3]

Not sure if this is true but from what i am hearing said it sounds like it is emptied sent from every port. This being said it could very well be that if you wait till the end of the cruise after the last port to send it this could be your quickest way of having it arive as it gets sent from a US port (assuming the ship left from the US). If you send it lets say before you stop in labadee then it could take that much time for the mail to be sent internationaly.

[bbrad8]

It has been several years since we have mailed postcards from an RCI ship, so this may have changed, but as I recall you are using US postage (provided by the ships staff or the individual cruiser) to mail these. That being the case, most ships are only in a US port once or twice per cruise (depending on the ship and itinerary). I would doubt that any special arrangements are being made mid cruise for any type of mail service to these ships. Thus, the opportunity to physically mail this info is VERY limited.

 

In the OP instance, it would appear that the postcards did not make it off the Liberty for two additional weeks or on 3/1 and then picked up w/ normal mail service on 3/3 (Monday). Not sure of the logistics of the mail handling systems on board, but this is not shocking based on our past experiences. We have always seemed to arrive home about 2-3 weeks before our postcards. JMHO

 

Bruce

[Cavatelli430]

Thanks for your feedback. I was wondering since on Sovereign they were mailed as soon as we returned and people received them within a week. I did mail them with US Postage, and we didn't put them in the box till our last day at sea, so I assumed Miami was the only place they were mailed from when we returned on Feb 16th. At least I'll know for next time. Thanks again! :)

[pmfan]

It has been several years since we have mailed postcards from an RCI ship, so this may have changed, but as I recall you are using US postage (provided by the ships staff or the individual cruiser) to mail these. That being the case, most ships are only in a US port once or twice per cruise (depending on the ship and itinerary). I would doubt that any special arrangements are being made mid cruise for any type of mail service to these ships. Thus, the opportunity to physically mail this info is VERY limited.

 

In the OP instance, it would appear that the postcards did not make it off the Liberty for two additional weeks or on 3/1 and then picked up w/ normal mail service on 3/3 (Monday). Not sure of the logistics of the mail handling systems on board, but this is not shocking based on our past experiences. We have always seemed to arrive home about 2-3 weeks before our postcards. JMHO

 

Bruce

 

In my case we were not using US postage. My DD wanted a postcard from every location. So using a shop onboard I'd buy a postcard from each stop, then went to guest relations and purchased postage for each location, then mailed each right before arriving at those locations. This way she received a postcard with their postage and postmark. Sad thing was we were home about 3 weeks before she started receiving her "mail" from us.:(

[Happy ks]

We realized years ago that we would never manage to mail postcards to anyone, so we stopped taking the addresses along.

 

But, the idea of getting mail from yourself 3 weeks after the vacation is tempting :) , what a great reminder of how much fun you were having!

 

I do have a couple of relatives that always send postcards when they travel and we do enjoy getting them. Rarely do we ever get them before they return home, since they are only gone a week. It's a nice gesture, but I don't take any offense if family or friends don't send one at all.