Postcards home from port stops

I'll be going on my first cruise to the Western Med in October. Does anyone know the best way to send "Wish-You-Were-Here" postcards back home to my parents from each stop? Should I send them while in each city or can I send them from the ship? And what about postage? Any tips and advice would be appreciated. Thanks! :)

I usually mail them at a post office. They've never arrived home before I have, and often, they don't arrive at all.

I've done this. Mailed them from the different islands. Some of the post cards showed up three months after I got home. LOL

Get extras. Hold them until your next cruise. Then mail them from home just before you leave.

On my 2000 Baltic cruise on Celebrity, I faithfully wrote postcards from every port and gave them to the pursers desk to mail. they got mailed all together at the last port! Some service...EM

Hmmm, so the message I'm getting is "Don't bother" since I will probably be long since home before they show up at their destination. Oh well, I guess they will just have to wait for the blog entry along with everyone else then!:o Thanks everyone!

When we went to Bermuda we went to the Post office and bought the airmail stamp to send Postcards to myself.

Theys till have to lick theirs. ick

I am a postal worker, I get a kick out of other countries offices.

Sending from Bermuda was fast and easy

but each country is different and can be very slow.

I would say buy the card and mail it when you get home...

cheaper too i bet.

I will do it again from the Bahamas this year...if i can find the postoffice

I would suggest if your parents use the internet, you can take digital photos at your ports of call and send regular emails with the current photos attached.

Some, more, tech savy folks on this board can probably instruct you on how to make them look like e-postcards.:p

You could send them from an internet cafe or the ship. If on the ship and you have a laptop you can compose and prepare the email before you expend the expensive ship internet minutes.

Larry

I would suggest if your parents use the internet, you can take digital photos at your ports of call and send regular emails with the current photos attached.

 

Some, more, tech savy folks on this board can probably instruct you on how to make them look like e-postcards.:p

 

You could send them from an internet cafe or the ship. If on the ship and you have a laptop you can compose and prepare the email before you expend the expensive ship internet minutes.

 

Larry

I did think about that, Larry. But unfortunately, my parents aren't all that computer savvy. It's alright though. I can just send pics once I get home. I didn't plan on spending the money for Internet access on board the ship after reading in various posts about how slow it is compared to what you pay. Doesn't make much sense to me.

Hmmm, so the message I'm getting is "Don't bother" since I will probably be long since home before they show up at their destination. Oh well, I guess they will just have to wait for the blog entry along with everyone else then!:o Thanks everyone!

Postcards are a nice keepsake. I always buy a couple from each port to bring home...sometimes my pictures don't turn out well, so the postcards are a nice backup for me. :)

When we went to Greece 30 years ago, I brought home postcards. When we went back last year, I took the 30 year old postcards with me. The locals (as I)were astounded at the changes over the last 30 years!

When we went to Bermuda we went to the Post office and bought the airmail stamp to send Postcards to myself.

Theys till have to lick theirs. ick

I am a postal worker, I get a kick out of other countries offices.

 

Sending from Bermuda was fast and easy

 

but each country is different and can be very slow.

 

I would say buy the card and mail it when you get home...

cheaper too i bet.

 

I will do it again from the Bahamas this year...if i can find the postoffice

Never fear...There is a postal window inside the welcome building in Nassau. You pretty much have to pass it to get out of the building. EM

We always send postcards from each port, as our grandson likes to collect foreign stamps. From anywhere in Europe we have never had an issue, only from some of the islands. We also always go to the local post office in each port to get local stamps and then mail them from there. Plan on spending anywhere from $1.50 to $3.00 including the cost of the postcard for mailing.

Going to the post office also provides the opportunity to purchase other stamps for his collection. The various islands sometimes have some absolutely gorgeous stamps well worth buying.

Mailing from the ship we have found to be more expensive and not as reliable.

Cheers,

Postcards travel faster if you mail them from the port. At least that is my experience. In Europe mail usually is quite fast, but still sometimes not fast enough to be home before you and I live in Europe. To US it takes 7-12 days in average, I suppose.

In Caribbean post services are not so good. I mailed postcards from Grand Cayman Island to myself (just to have written and stamped postcard from there) and to my parents. Mine never arrived, but my parents did. Although it was quite a while after our vacation was over.

My advise - find on port a post office and mail cards from there. The safest and the fastest way.

we always do it

Good thing I saw this thread. I have 14 grandchildren and they all look forward to my travel postcards. So, going to Southern Caribbean in November. Guess I will buy the postcards on each stop and mail from Ft Lauderdale when we get back.

For "eat your heart out" moments I typically post one photo to Facebook daily - sunrise at sea, an umbrella drink on a sandy beach, my ship at anchor, things like that. It takes little out of my package of Internet minutes and my friends can see it the same day.

You can leave them with the Passenger Services Desk and they will mail them for you....but you can't be sure if it will be that cruise or the next.;) Take them to a local post office, get the correct postage and mail your cards from there. However, it is still likely that you will be home more then a week before your cards are delivered.

Postcards travel faster if you mail them from the port. At least that is my experience. In Europe mail usually is quite fast, but still sometimes not fast enough to be home before you and I live in Europe. To US it takes 7-12 days in average, I suppose.

In Caribbean post services are not so good. I mailed postcards from Grand Cayman Island to myself (just to have written and stamped postcard from there) and to my parents. Mine never arrived, but my parents did. Although it was quite a while after our vacation was over.

My advise - find on port a post office and mail cards from there. The safest and the fastest way.

We've also found this to be true!

LuLu

Next to the last cruise I mailed post cards from Disney's private island in the Bahamas. They were mailed on December 21st and arrived the last week of February.

Last cruise I did not send any. I wrote a blog instead.

I sent my Aunt 2 postcards 1 from St Lucia it took over a month to arrive & one from Tortola ..it got there in about 2 wks

I sent her one from home that I could not find the post office ..she did not miss that trick ..she is 89 & sharp as tack ;)

Send them from the port stop if you find a post office

JMO

Hmmm, so the message I'm getting is "Don't bother" since I will probably be long since home before they show up at their destination. Oh well, I guess they will just have to wait for the blog entry along with everyone else then!:o Thanks everyone!

Yeah, that would be my advice too. We gave up years ago. Too often the cards did not make it or arrived long after we returned.

In case you decide to send some anyway, the passenger services desk often has stamps. Remember you must have a stamp from the country where the card is mailed. You can often drop cards at the passenger services desk and they will give them to the agent shortly before sailing. You can speed them along a little by finding a post office or mail box in town

Good thing I saw this thread. I have 14 grandchildren and they all look forward to my travel postcards. So, going to Southern Caribbean in November. Guess I will buy the postcards on each stop and mail from Ft Lauderdale when we get back.

This is what I,ve done.Otherwise it is just too long a wait for the cards to make it to the kids.:)

Why don't you mail the grandkids a postcard from Ft Lauderdale that has a beach photo on it before you leave? Then, pick up postcards along the way and bring them home to the kids to receive when you get back. That way, they get something from you while you are gone, but also get the island ones.

Our last cruise was in Dec 2012. DW mailed postcards from every port, there were 8 ports. We get one about every 6 months. In July we got the one we mailed from Ocho Rios, 18 months, not bad.

If you're on a W. Med cruise, then you'll probably be calling in at France, Spain, Italy....the post might be slow to the USA, but the cards will eventually reach you., as they have quite good postal services, but from the PO not the ship! I've just received a card from the USA to the UK around 10 days after it was posted, so expect a similar time in reverse.

It has been said that a stamped envelope is given priority at the sorting offices, but I've no idea how true that is.....:confused: