Mail and Shipping Packages to Your Cruise Ship
A lot of people wonder about mail and whether you can receive packages on a cruise ship.
The answer is yes, but for god’s sake don’t try it.
Cruise ships have addresses. Or, more accurately, cruise lines often have satellite offices or P.O. boxes in ports and somebody from each cruise ship picks up mail when they get there. Once the cruise ship receives the mail, it distributes it by department, then each department head distributes it to the individual people.
In theory.
I’ve seen letters sit for weeks in department offices, get covered over by other paperwork and never seen again. I’ve seen department heads not even know that they were given mail, or worse, I’ve seen department heads that don’t care at all about whether they distribute mail or not.
I have a particularly bad story about mail from my first ship. The original post is here.
When I got on my first ship I found that the internet cafe was crowded and slow, and I wanted something to fill my extra time. While I was on the ship I bought a nice, brand new Dell laptop and had it shipped to my parents. A month later we were scheduled to dock for 2 weeks near Athens, Greece for the Olympics. I felt that was a large enough window to get a package to me, so I got the address in Athens and had my computer shipped to my ship.
Long story short, the computer reached the ship, but my department head (the cruise director) refused to go look for it. Everyday I asked him if he’d looked for or found my package, and he always said no. After a few days of this I finally when to the officer that accepted shipments. He said yes, he’d seen my package days before. It had come on the day we’d arrived.
He took me down to where he’d left it (in the middle of a busy hallway), and it was gone. Of course. Someone had seen the “Dell” on the side of the box and stolen it.
I never did find it again. I lost $1700, which at the time was more than a month’s worth of salary. I complained endlessly to my talent agency, to the ship and I sent emails of complaint to anyone at the head office who’s email I could find. I was incensed and irate. (In fact, I still feel incensed whenever I think about it!)
Finally the cruise ship decided that they were partially responsible. They said that they were 50% responsible for not handling the package properly, but that I was also 50% responsible because I hadn’t informed by department head about the package. (You may remember that I did. Everyday. A fact the cruise director adamantly refuted.) They gave me half of the money I’d lost on the computer, I think it was around $650 (they wouldn’t include the cost of shipping).
This is the real kicker – after my contract ended I received a bill from the cruise line for $600. They said that they had accepted a package on my behalf in Greece and that I had to pay the port fees. They even sent me to a collection agency before I’d even received the first notice!
Lacking any proof that I’d actually received a package (of course) and a strongly worded letter from my attorney brother, they dropped the charge. But if that ain’t enough to deter you from trying to send mail or a package to your cruise ship, I don’t know what is. DON’T MAIL ANYTHING TO YOUR SHIP.
Have all of your bills paid electronically and you’ll be alright. It’s possible these days to do all of your important bills and banking online – even automatically in most cases – and that’s the route you should go for. Forget all about mail.
About the author
David,
I am currently looking into cruise ship gigs and I read this post and I have a serious concern. I have to take medications daily and I usually have 3 month fills of the medications. I do need to get them refilled at some point and shipped back out to me if I am on a longer than 3 month contract. This is a serious priority and I would wonder how I should go about this? Should I try to find out when we will be docked in the US again or just hope to send it somewhere else? I am quiet worried about this actually. I am in no rush for an answer but would love to hear back from you.
All the Best,
Michael Pagnotta
10/21/2009
Unlike most people I hate cruise ships for this and several other reasons. Boarding, dealing with luggage, and customs is too much of a headache.
6/17/2010
Leave a comment
Do you have a general question about cruise ship musician jobs? Please be sure you check the main page of CCSM to see if your question has already been answered. If you can't find the answer to your question, please post your question in the Cruise Ship Musician Forum. Thank you for visiting MusicianWages.com and the Chronicles of a Cruise Ship Musician!