Posting letters on the QM2

I’d like to post some letters and post cards while on board the QM2 (Eastbound crossing). I read a very old thread concerning post on the ship. It was quite discouraging. I’m looking for more recent experiences. Have you posted letters or postcards on the ship recently? Did they arrive at their destination? Any suggestions? I don’t want to spend the money if the items are just going to disappear.

Travelling East Bound I believe you could be in luck . Your mail should arrive safely as the guest mail is usually offloaded and delivered first to Carnival House (Southampton) where it is correctly stamped and then posted on.

Travelling West Bound (in my experience when leaving mail/post cards at the front desk for friends/family members in the UK ) my post cards did a complete round trip and then they were posted from Southampton with British stamps ! not what I was really expecting. When on vacation I wanted USA stamps with a NYC franc .:(

On Queen Mary 2 ( deck 2) there is a British 'Red Post Box' outside the Golden Lion Pub, I've never understood what this is all about . Has anyone on here used this post box, if so how did you know what correct postage stamps you needed ?

Travelling East Bound I believe you could be in luck . Your mail should arrive safely as the guest mail is usually offloaded and delivered first to Carnival House (Southampton) where it is correctly stamped and then posted on.

 

Travelling West Bound (in my experience when leaving mail/post cards at the front desk for friends/family members in the UK ) my post cards did a complete round trip and then they were posted from Southampton with British stamps ! not what I was really expecting. When on vacation I wanted USA stamps with a NYC franc .:(

 

On Queen Mary 2 ( deck 2) there is a British 'Red Post Box' outside the Golden Lion Pub, I've never understood what this is all about . Has anyone on here used this post box, if so how did you know what correct postage stamps you needed ?

I have used the red post box outside the pub. You have to know what the actual rate for post cards is where you are traveling.

I have posted cards with the purser's office or Grills concierge on several e/b crossings. They entered the postal system in Southampton or, on voyages that continued to Hamburg, from there. They were rubber-stamped that they were posted on board the Queen Mary 2.

I have also used the on-board red post box, both with UK stamps on a crossing to Southampton and also using Canadian stamps when approaching Halifax.

In all cases the cards arrived at their destination, although in some cases it took a long time.

Posting letters on a ship is a bit of a hassle. On the RMS St.Helena you had the option of sending them via Ascension (Royal Mail), or via Cape Town (South African Post Office). If something needed to go to Europe, Ascension was the better choice for reliability as well as speed.

On the QM2 it's the same: You will need the right stamps and postage will vary. On a TA run this does not make a big difference, but on a World Voyage is does. On an eastbound run, your mail should be safe.

I don't see the point in posting letters if your doing a transatlantic. I remember speaking to someone on board about letters and they stamp with "Mailed from the QM2" but, they are mailed from the next port. So likely if they are mailed from Southampton, you would arrive home before the letters arrived.

Jonathan

I don't see the point in posting letters if your doing a transatlantic. I remember speaking to someone on board about letters and they stamp with "Mailed from the QM2" but, they are mailed from the next port. So likely if they are mailed from Southampton, you would arrive home before the letters arrived. Jonathan

Darn it! I was hoping they'd be loaded into cartridges and then shot via skeet launchers to passing airships.

Darn it! I was hoping they'd be loaded into cartridges and then shot via skeet launchers to passing airships.

;p

They had done that until recently, but, a few errant shots hit some sun bathers on a passing Carnival ship, so the practice has been discontinued. Pity really.

Jonathan

;p

 

They had done that until recently, but, a few errant shots hit some sun bathers on a passing Carnival ship, so the practice has been discontinued. Pity really.

 

Jonathan

The things one learns about Cunard on this board. Always on the cutting edge, those Cunard folks.

Now I’m considering sending postcards via the red box outside the Golden Lion AND from the purser’s desk just to test how long it takes. Or maybe I’ll just go get a massage and forget the whole thing.

They had done that until recently, but, a few errant shots hit some sun bathers on a passing Carnival ship, so the practice has been discontinued. Pity really.

Jonathan

;p

This is clearly a baseless rumor. No Carnival Cruises ship would venture into the North Atlantic.

- Mark

On our last trip on the Queen Victoria to St Petersburg we gave 4 postcards,plus the money for postage, to the pursers office for posting. None of them arrived !!!

We have mailed post cards on QM2 using the British 'Red Post Box' outside the Golden Lion Pub. We used US postal stamps (brought from home), in all cases the mailed items arrived.

On our last trip on the Queen Victoria to St Petersburg we gave 4 postcards,plus the money for postage, to the pursers office for posting. None of them arrived !!!

Two years running we sent postcards from the Queen Victoria when travelling in the Med. We had on board credit to use up and we thought it would save the hassle of looking for post offices ashore. On both occasions the cards arrived a month after we had got home.

I’d like to post some letters and post cards while on board the QM2 (Eastbound crossing). I read a very old thread concerning post on the ship. It was quite discouraging. I’m looking for more recent experiences. Have you posted letters or postcards on the ship recently? Did they arrive at their destination? Any suggestions? I don’t want to spend the money if the items are just going to disappear.

I do think it is possible, that if the Agent fails to pick the mail up before departure, it would be kept on ship until they call to that country again. Lots of mail would have stamps on from that country, and would not be valid in another country.:mad:

We sent around 60 postcards on our May 10 westbound crossing and have heard from many all over the globe they’ve been received.

I do think it is possible, that if the Agent fails to pick the mail up before departure, it would be kept on ship until they call to that country again. Lots of mail would have stamps on from that country, and would not be valid in another country.:mad:

Full disclosure - I know NOTHING about any facts related to this. However, I would expect "White Star Service" would not include leaving the letters aboard for some future visit but would mean taking responsibility for delivering the letters as far as they can as expeditiously as they can. In this case, if the agent was unavailable (and no another be found while in port) certainly at the next port of call, they could be bundled and sent to another agent in Russia for posting. Or some other method. Not simply saying "Not our problem" to postage. Even postcards.

Needless to say, this likely wouldn't be the case (and might even be illegal) if she were a postal service vehicle like her predecessors.

- Mark

As long as you have the correct postage your mail will be delivered

Jonathan

I had no plans to send post cards while on our TA. But this an interesting thread. I have a feeling I'll be sending a few, just to see how long it takes to reach home! If we traveling from the US to Southampton, will there be appropriate postage on board to purchase?

A few years ago, on our South America cruise we sent some postcards from Ushuaia (not aboard) so they'd get a Tierra del Fuego postmark. It took over three weeks for them to arrive in California.

- Mark

I had no plans to send post cards while on our TA. But this an interesting thread. I have a feeling I'll be sending a few, just to see how long it takes to reach home! If we traveling from the US to Southampton, will there be appropriate postage on board to purchase?

Looking at the Royal Mail website a post card will cost 1.25 GBP and you can get the postage quote in USD.

http://shop.royalmail.com/issue-by-issue/definitives/icat/definitives (its the green stamp and you can put in the quantity needed).

I didn't try checking out and if they ship to the US but I have ordered stamps from the Philatelic bureau in Australia in the past and had no problems.

Good luck!!

If you mail anything from Pitcairn Island, you could wait several months just for them to be picked up as supply ships are very infrequent.

We posted several cards to various parts of the world, via the purser's office, on our west bound TA which arrived in New York on September 9th. So far not one of them have been delivered, which is very disappointing.