Loyal Buckeye Posted December 20, 2018 #1 Share Posted December 20, 2018 We are getting ready to go on a Carnival Journey's cruise which will be 14 days long. Since we will be gone for an extended period of time I want to send my granddaughter some postcards. We will be in the Eastern Caribbean. Should I just put a US stamp on the postcard? If not, how do I know how much to put on it and where would I get the stamps? Does the ship have anywhere that collects mail so that I can mail them onboard? Thank you for any information on how to do something that at home is a simple process. I am just not sure how to handle it in a foreign port when I have no access to a car to go to the post office. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hancock Posted December 20, 2018 #2 Share Posted December 20, 2018 Except for San Juan, St. Thomas and 'St, Croix, US stamps won't work. Suggest ypu wait until you get back to mail any postcards. Mail from the islands is notoriously slow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txflood33 Posted December 20, 2018 #3 Share Posted December 20, 2018 2 minutes ago, hancock said: Except for San Juan, St. Thomas and 'St, Croix, US stamps won't work. Suggest ypu wait until you get back to mail any postcards. Mail from the islands is notoriously slow. agree with this....took 2 months to get a postcard to TX from St Lucia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul929207 Posted December 20, 2018 #4 Share Posted December 20, 2018 You must have correct postage for the country where you are mailing the cards. If you have postage from another country on the card, it will be discarded. You will probably have to find a post office. Buy stamp(s), possibly using local currency. Then mail the cards before reboarding the ship. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txflood33 Posted December 20, 2018 #5 Share Posted December 20, 2018 If you're stopping at Grand Cayman, there is a post office right at 'hell' (a tourist attraction). You can get the correct postage and get it mailed there...but will still be slow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt_BJ Posted December 20, 2018 #6 Share Posted December 20, 2018 I've often found that places that have a big display of postcards, sell stamps if you ask (or may be able to direct you to a place that does) .... if you mail on the ship with US postage they hold til next US port IME Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCruisers Posted December 20, 2018 #7 Share Posted December 20, 2018 29 minutes ago, txflood33 said: If you're stopping at Grand Cayman, there is a post office right at 'hell' (a tourist attraction). You can get the correct postage and get it mailed there...but will still be slow Very true ... but it will have the "Hell" postmark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zach1213 Posted December 20, 2018 #8 Share Posted December 20, 2018 Definitely don't bother with US stamps. Try putting a St Lucia Post stamp on a letter and mail it from your post office in Ohio...won't work. Same goes the other way too. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loyal Buckeye Posted December 20, 2018 Author #9 Share Posted December 20, 2018 (edited) Thank you to everyone for the information. I guess sending postcards will not be a good idea. I appreciate the input. Edited December 20, 2018 by Loyal Buckeye misspelling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted December 20, 2018 #10 Share Posted December 20, 2018 usually you can get stamps where you buy the post card but as noted you will be home long before the cards arrive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whogo Posted December 20, 2018 #11 Share Posted December 20, 2018 1 hour ago, Loyal Buckeye said: Thank you to everyone for the information. I guess sending postcards will not be a good idea. I appreciate the input. Don't give up so easily, your granddaughter would enjoy receiving postcards from you from the Caribbean. As Capt_BJ and LHT28 said, places that sell postcards frequently sell stamps. If not, ask at the ship's front desk if they will mail the postcards for you from foreign ports. Holland America mailed a few cards for me from the Pacific recently, I had to pay the postage, of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gooch47 Posted December 20, 2018 #12 Share Posted December 20, 2018 We bought postcards at the Curacao Liqueur factory. The salesclerk graciously volunteered to buy us postage and mail them for us. She just needed the money for the postage. You guessed it. They never arrived home. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ldubs Posted December 21, 2018 #13 Share Posted December 21, 2018 5 hours ago, Capt_BJ said: I've often found that places that have a big display of postcards, sell stamps if you ask (or may be able to direct you to a place that does) .... if you mail on the ship with US postage they hold til next US port IME X2. I've seen this a lot, and even posted once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ldubs Posted December 21, 2018 #14 Share Posted December 21, 2018 5 hours ago, Zach1213 said: Definitely don't bother with US stamps. Try putting a St Lucia Post stamp on a letter and mail it from your post office in Ohio...won't work. Same goes the other way too. I'm not so sure. After all, we are talking about the USPS. . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jagsfan Posted December 21, 2018 #15 Share Posted December 21, 2018 (edited) If you ever sail among the Hawaiian Islands, look for decorated coconuts. I bought one and mentioned it was for my granddaughters. The clerk said she could mail it for me. She gave me a magic marker so I could write their address. She slapped some stamps on it and told me to give it a week or so. My daughter said my granddaughters were playing in the front yard when the mail carrier got out and handed the older one the coconut. Said “go show this to your mom”. My daughter said the girls were over the moon. i never ever would have thought of mailing a coconut. Edited December 21, 2018 by jagsfan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shmoo here Posted December 21, 2018 #16 Share Posted December 21, 2018 42 minutes ago, jagsfan said: If you ever sail among the Hawaiian Islands, look for decorated coconuts. I bought one and mentioned it was for my granddaughters. The clerk said she could mail it for me. She gave me a magic marker so I could write their address. She slapped some stamps on it and told me to give it a week or so. My daughter said my granddaughters were playing in the front yard when the mail carrier got out and handed the older one the coconut. Said “go show this to your mom”. My daughter said the girls were over the moon. i never ever would have thought of mailing a coconut. My husband did just that years ago. It's sitting on our bookshelf. The address is quite faded, but still readable. Now, his coconut was one he picked up on a beach somewhere, not a fancy, decorated one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gooch47 Posted December 22, 2018 #17 Share Posted December 22, 2018 19 hours ago, jagsfan said: If you ever sail among the Hawaiian Islands, look for decorated coconuts. I bought one and mentioned it was for my granddaughters. The clerk said she could mail it for me. She gave me a magic marker so I could write their address. She slapped some stamps on it and told me to give it a week or so. My daughter said my granddaughters were playing in the front yard when the mail carrier got out and handed the older one the coconut. Said “go show this to your mom”. My daughter said the girls were over the moon. i never ever would have thought of mailing a coconut. I'm a little surprised this is allowed considering the worry about introducing pests from other places. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angie7911922 Posted December 23, 2018 #18 Share Posted December 23, 2018 On 12/20/2018 at 2:21 PM, txflood33 said: If you're stopping at Grand Cayman, there is a post office right at 'hell' (a tourist attraction). You can get the correct postage and get it mailed there...but will still be slow We did this. It was fantastic. My brother still tells his friends about the time he got a postcard from "hell". But others in this thread are right. It is extremely slow to mail from various ports. It takes a good month or so to get the postcards. That being said - it is fun for the person that gets them, so in my opinion - still worth it. If you decide to do this, you will have to get stamps at each port. Most ports have them available, as they are used to us tourists wanting to mail things. Just ask at each port when you get there and they will direct you to where you need to go! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRF Posted December 24, 2018 #19 Share Posted December 24, 2018 On 12/21/2018 at 4:37 PM, jagsfan said: If you ever sail among the Hawaiian Islands, look for decorated coconuts. I bought one and mentioned it was for my granddaughters. The clerk said she could mail it for me. She gave me a magic marker so I could write their address. She slapped some stamps on it and told me to give it a week or so. My daughter said my granddaughters were playing in the front yard when the mail carrier got out and handed the older one the coconut. Said “go show this to your mom”. My daughter said the girls were over the moon. i never ever would have thought of mailing a coconut. You do realize that Hawaii is a STATE. And you are dealing with DOMESTIC mail, and the US Postal Service? And the thread has been about mailing postcards from OTHER COUNTRIES, and INTERNATIONAL surface mail (almost all US first class mail goes by air, in the old days we had regular mail and air mail). Just checking. 😄 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jagsfan Posted December 24, 2018 #20 Share Posted December 24, 2018 1 hour ago, SRF said: You do realize that Hawaii is a STATE. And you are dealing with DOMESTIC mail, and the US Postal Service? And the thread has been about mailing postcards from OTHER COUNTRIES, and INTERNATIONAL surface mail (almost all US first class mail goes by air, in the old days we had regular mail and air mail). Just checking. 😄 I only threw that in about Hawaii because most people probably wouldn’t realize you can mail a coconut. Coconuts grow in foreign countries, too, and could possibly be mailed from there, also. Cruise Critic is mostly made up of friendly people who enjoy communicating with other cruisers. Of course, there are a percentage of members who enjoy criticizing others. Have a Merry Christmas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRF Posted December 25, 2018 #21 Share Posted December 25, 2018 I was teasing you. And yes, you can have things mailed from other countries, not just post cards. But they will cost more in postage, and will take a lot longer than your coconut from Hawaii. Many vendors in tourist areas will ship your purchases home. Heck, when I was in India, a guy on a tour bought an inlaid marble table top. It was probably 8 feet long by 3+ feet wide. Yes, it was shipping back to the US. The point people were making was, if you send a postcard from another country, you will be home for weeks, if not months, when it finally arrives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chengkp75 Posted December 25, 2018 #22 Share Posted December 25, 2018 I remember the story of the guy building a house in Alaska. He found out that buying concrete blocks in the lower 48, and mailing them USPS (they are just under the size/weight limit) by wiring a shipping tag to each, was cheaper than buying them locally or having them shipped up in bulk. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philob Posted December 26, 2018 #23 Share Posted December 26, 2018 On 12/20/2018 at 12:21 PM, txflood33 said: If you're stopping at Grand Cayman, there is a post office right at 'hell' (a tourist attraction). You can get the correct postage and get it mailed there...but will still be slow I mailed 6 from that post office, only one made it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRF Posted December 26, 2018 #24 Share Posted December 26, 2018 21 hours ago, chengkp75 said: I remember the story of the guy building a house in Alaska. He found out that buying concrete blocks in the lower 48, and mailing them USPS (they are just under the size/weight limit) by wiring a shipping tag to each, was cheaper than buying them locally or having them shipped up in bulk. I remember that story. USPS had to charter a barge to deliver them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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