Fed Exing your souvenirs home

[pjo]

We have been on many cruises and usually pack our souvenirs carefully and bring them home in the luggage or carry ons.  Our next cruise is a long one and I was wondering if anyone has shipped their souvenirs home via Fed Ex or any other shipper.  We end our cruise in Venice and will be there for a few days.  It would make packing so much simpler if we could ship the souvenirs home separately.  Anyone ever done that?

 

Paul

 

[Philob]

Not via FedEx, but by ground (slow-boat) and much cheaper than FedEx.  Depending on origin takes about a month to get to our front door.  It's stuff that SWMBO buys and considers low priority: clothes, Xmas gifts, non-fragile bulky stuff.   

 

[iancal]

No don't do souvenirs....but we were in the Lufthansa check in line in Venice at 5:30AM a few years ago. There were two women ahead of us.  Each had a carry on bag.  One also had two shopping bags of loosely packed Murano glass.  The other had three shopping bags.

 

All we heard was the check in agent telling them for the third time that the shopping bags with glass were a no go.  Their response back so loud that everyone could here, .......the store told me it would be OK.  They were a couple of dummies.  Not sure what happened.  We got our boarding passes and left the counter.  They would not have made it through security, let alone the check in counter.

Edited April 16, 2019 by iancal

[navybankerteacher]

Not internationally, but a couple of times after debarking from a TA which brought us back from land travel in Europe, and before spending time in Florida, we went straight to UPS from the ship and sent a couple of large suitcases home.

[panoramaofthepast]

I shipped a rug home from India and a piece of inlaid marble. In both cases, the store arranged for the shipping. The rug beat me home!

My husband collects knives, so he habitually has them shipped. In some cases, the store has handled it, in others, he has been directed to the nearest post office!  

[skrufy]

We bought so many souvenirs in Alaska last year we had to go to the Ketchikan post office and mail them home. We stuffed one of our pieces of luggage, went to leave the ship and they would not allow us to leave. Went back to our cabin and stuffed a couple of backpacks and walked off.

[samiam0403]

We just returned from a transatlantic that ended in Venice - where we spent a few days afterwards, and did some shopping. I purchased 3 handmade Venetian masks and a large piece of wall art that I didn't want to lug around Europe for the rest of our land trip, and the store was able to arrange shipping for me. It wasn't cheap - around 200 euro for a very large package - but everything made it to a friends' house back home a week later (someone had to be home to sign for it). To me, it was definitely worth it because a) they didn't get damaged in my suitcases, b) they were very well packed/protected, and c) I didn't have to carry them for a week and a half. 

[slidergirl]

I've shipped painted Ostrich eggs back from Jordan via post, Italian ceramics from Montelupo via Posta Italia, Czech crystal back via  some method.  I've packed for a winter weekend in New York before a 2 week trip to hot and dusty Egypt and sent home my New York parka and clothes.   Everything has made it home safe and sound.  

 

[pjo]

I appreciate all the responses.  Clearly shipping home the souvenirs is the way to go.  We will explore the options. Thank you.

 

Paul

 

[CruisingAlong4Now]

I have also shipped clothes home after cruise and before land vacation.  Makes travelling easier.  Swiss Post is very accommodating and had boxes for sale at their Zurich Airport location.

[port msp]

We have shipped "stuff" home multiple times.   If you're buying art-type items, the store will usually ship it for you, for a fee of course.  

If you're on an Alaska cruise, and Ketchikan is near the end of your itinerary, give Frontier Shipping in the Ketchikan Plaza Mall a try.   It's maybe a mile from the port and you can ride the free bus or grab a cab.  They ship UPS/FedEx/DHL/and USPS.  The last time we were there, (2 years ago) had the  USPS "if it fits, it ships" flat rate boxes, which was great because I was shipping a bunch of books.  The staff was extremely helpful, courteous, and fast.  The whole process of getting there, packaging the stuff, shipping it, and returning to the port area took less than an hour.  Not absolutely necessary, but it saved me from carrying a bunch of extra weight and bulk around in my carryon on our travel day.  

 

Free advice is worth exactly what you pay for it.  

 

  

 

[rkacruiser]

Maybe my experience will be helpful, if not, disregard the information.

 

An Auckland-Sydney-Vancouver re-positioning cruise provided me with "stuff" that, kept in my luggage,  would make it excessively heavy for my flight home and really wasn't properly accommodated.  Having a couple of days in Vancouver before returning home, I took much of this "stuff" to a Canada Post Office.  They had boxes in which to pack the stuff and I shipped my stuff home via Canada Post.  This worked very well and saved me from trying to lug very overweight luggage around with the associated excess baggage fees.  Or, possible damage to the luggage because of being so overstuffed.