By Savvy Diva
As you explore your stateroom on the Disney Cruise Line, you will discover a few free DCL postcards in the desk drawer!
There are great souvenirs of your trip, and of course you can keep them as is, or for a really affordable price you can mail them home from a foreign post office. Disney also has more postcards for sale in the gift shops on the ship, and also in the shops on Castaway Cay, Disney’s private island in the Bahamas.
Did you know that Castaway Cay has its own post office? Anything mailed from here will have a unique Castaway Cay postmark, which I think is really special.
Here are a bunch of tips for mailing postcards on your trip:
1. You will need postage from the country you are mailing the postcard from. This can be obtained several different ways; Guest Services on the ship should have some for sale, the foreign post office itself will have them, any hotel at port should have them, and you can order postage online in advance of your trip. DCL Guest Services can charge the amount to your room, but everywhere else you should bring cash, including Castaway Cay.
2. Postage costs vary of course, but postcards are relatively cheap to mail wherever you are, usually running anywhere between $.35 to $1.00. As of July of 2013 the cost to mail a postcard from Castaway Cay in the Bahamas was $.65.
3. A good tip to keep in mind is that the mail is SLOW. You will be home way before your postcard will. Depending on where you are mailing it from and where you’re mailing it to, it could take two weeks or it could take three months. There is no way to tell, it’s completely sporadic. I spoke with one woman who received a postcard she mailed to herself fifteen months later! She said it turned out to be a great surprise and made her day.
4. If you already have your postcard and postage, you can mail them from any mailbox or you can also give them to DCL Guest Services to mail. See number three above, no one knows how long it takes for GS to actually get them in the mail for you. It is very convenient though!
5. Specific to Nassau sailings; there is a mail kiosk in the port welcome center that sells postage stamps and has a mail slot. Bring change for the stamps and a pen if you will need to write.
6. The post office on Castaway Cay is a tiny little building that will be on your right shortly after you disembark on the island. There are no set hours and to be perfectly honest, they are open whenever they feel like it. It is not run by Disney and they have no control over it at all whatsoever. If they are closed during your visit, there is a mail slot you can drop your postcards into, or you can give your postcards to Guest Services on the DCL ship and request they mail them from Castaway Cay the next time the post office is open. When the CC post office is open, they have a few Bahamas-themed postcards for sale, and postage of course. You must pay in cash & they will accept American currency. Remember, DCL Guest Services should have Bahamian postage for sale as well.
I think mailing postcards is a fun and inexpensive souvenir of your trip. Hopefully reading my tips will keep you from any unexpected surprises. Vacations do not need speed bumps! Oh, and one more thing: obviously anyone could read your postcard message, but it doesn’t have to be Shakespeare worthy. Have you kids color a picture on it, have a character sign it for you, or simply write “Hey, remember this?!?” Have a great vacation!
