Japanese Postcrossers have always given me western writing only, which arrive sometimes faster than cards to Europe.
Japanese Mail is always very fast
I meant other than the address in latin characters, the other form is in Kanji
I usually write the foreign script, if provided. Crylic is not that hard, sometimes letters are reverse to latin letters or have a stroke more or less.
Chines takes more time, once I got an adress in traditional chinese to Taiwan, which was much harder than modern chinese. The card arrived within the normal travel time.
Yepp, it is some part of the fun for me to write those adresses in non-latin types. But for China I have to enlarge the signs very high to copy it.
My experience about sending pc-cards from a ship: the ship’s wifi doesn’t count in postcrossing as it can’t verify you in any country. I’ve travelled between Finland and Sweden by a ship many times. Travel mode in the ship’s wifi said it can’t give me an address so I’ve pulled addresses with Finnish code as I live there.
About foreing alphabets, I’ve written both Cyrillic and Chinese addresses without knowing either language. Just copying carefully what I see. And the cards have been received. Once a Chinese receiver replied my Chinese is good.
A lot of people complain about a lot of things instead of appreciating what they have or receive.
if you don’t have the time to write postcards in the county you request an ID from, just take them back to the ship and buy stamps in the next country.
i know, that many people don’t like, if card/ID/stamp don’t match, but there are as many who don’t mind, so just do as it is best for you and don’t feel bad about it.
sending cards should be equally fun for both you and the recipient, but sometimes it just doesn’t work that way
sending cards should be equally fun for both you and the recipient
That’s the most important. Having fun.
Hi there! We will be taking a cruise to Dominican Republic, Haiti, and the Bahamas next month. I would love to send a stack of postcards from each country. We will only be at each place for 1 day, so I would love to buy stamps ahead of time to have the cards ready.
Has anyone had any luck doing this? Any advice where to buy stamps or even to find out postage rates from these places?
Thanks so much for your help!
Sincerely,
Amanda
When on cruises, I use one or a combination, or all, of these methods:
- Find out where the local post office is the minute I get off the boat at a location. Find postcards. Write cards in a cafe or pub, then dash to the post office to buy stamps and mail there.
- Buy postcards on one island. Write them on boat. Next stop: find local post office and mail there.
- Buy postcards at stops. Write them on boat. Buy stamps on boat. Depending on the boat, the stamps might be for US, for example, because the mail only gets off the boat when it returns to its return port; e.g., Fort Lauderdale for many island cruises.
Note — mail can take 4-6 weeks from the islands; keep in mind it’s hurricane season, so mail gets held up.
Note #2 – I’ve never sent postcards on cruises as a Postcrosser BECAUSE … well, I joined Postcrossing as a pandemic distraction, so haven’t traveled anywhere for the last 2 1/2 years. So, all this does not address the matter of sending cards using location on your status, and how one times that.
Hi Amanda, because it is only one day seems easier if you buy local postcards and stamps in a souvenirs shop, write and send right away. Have the profiles and addresses ready in advanced so you can choose faster and depending on how many you can send, divided them because sending from islands take longer to arrive to its destination most of the time
For changing the address in your profile as travel mode I am not sure if you can do it on the ocean, I have changed it often but always on land. No idea how the gps works haha. Hope it helps
You might try to ask the ship if they still have “Paquebot”or “Posted At Sea” service. It still exists but I don’t know how many ships still offer it. According to UPU rules you can buy stamps from the country of the ship’s registry while on board. The ship post office must then transfer it to a post office at a port of call. That post office must accept the stamps even if foreign under the UPU Posted At Sea agreements and the envelope must be so marked in French as “Paquebot” That post must handle it as fully paid and dispatch as normal.
From Bahamas, postcard requires 50 cent postage to any destination.
From Dominican Republic, check the following pic:
From Haiti, sorry that I did not find any sources on the Internet…
If you don’t have time to buy local postcards in souvenir stores, purchasing GF, FOTW, WT, etc series postcards in advance is feasible.
Hi Amanda,
It has been a few years since I have cruised, so this may have changed. However, I have been able to buy local stamps for the next port of call at the service desk (and often there was a postbox right next where you could drop your mail into). This was both on Royal Caribbean and Princess, and hopefully they still do this.
However, the catch is if it is a private resort (Labadee in Haiti falls into this category) then there is no way to send mail as the area is remote and isolated from the the rest of the country (same for private islands). However, I still encourage you to buy some postcards on the ship and send them out even with a US code as it is still rare to get postcards from someone on a cruise. Enjoy your trip!
I’ll share a few things I do when cruising.
- Print sticky labels of any postcards for swaps before I leave. Of course, that won’t be an option for Officials.
- I have had good luck buying stamps on the ship for each port of call. It’s helpful to ask the first day of the cruise for all your stamps. In one case they were out of stamps for one country but were able to get some at another port and set an few aside for me. Crew members send mail too - so this isn’t an odd request.
- Research postage ahead of time if possible. Note that some countries have different rates depending on the destination (as an American this surprised me).
- I also Google Maps to see where the nearest post office is. If I have the time I mail them there so the postal service employee can check the postage. If not, I error on the side of extra stamps.
- If I know time will be tight, I have ordered postcards on-line in advance so I could write them on the ship - particularly for swaps with other UNESCO collectors. But you can order lots of touristy ones too.