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Hand your letter to the purser or front desk: cruise ships sell stamps from the country the ship is flagged in, and your letter goes into the ship's mail bag. It is cancelled with a paquebot postmark at the next port. Allow extra time, since shipboard mail moves only when the ship reaches land.
Head to the purser's office or guest services desk, the same place you would ask about billing or lost property. Ships keep a mail bag for outbound post, and some have a small mail slot near the desk for after hours. There is no mailbox on deck, and leaving the letter with your cabin steward is less reliable than handing it to the desk yourself. Once collected, the bag stays on board until the next port call, when the line's port agent hands it to the local postal authority.
| Step | What to do |
|---|---|
| 1. Write and address the letter normally | Use the recipient's full address with country. Write "Par Avion" if you want it to fly home instead of going by sea. |
| 2. Buy the right stamps | The ship sells stamps from its flag country (many ships are registered in the Bahamas, Panama, or Bermuda). Buy them at the purser's desk. |
| 3. Hand it in | Give the stamped letter to guest services or drop it in the ship's mail slot. Confirm which port it will leave from. |
| 4. It leaves at the next port | The port agent hands the bag to the local post office, which cancels the stamps with a paquebot postmark. |
"Paquebot" is French for "packet boat," and it is the term postal authorities use for mail posted on a ship. The word appears in the postmark the port's post office applies, which is why letters mailed from a ship carry a foreign postmark even when the addressee is at home. Mail addressed to the United States is handled under the USPS paquebot rules, which route it into the US mail stream once the port office processes it. For collectors, that postmark is half the point: a letter that sailed from the Caribbean and was cancelled in St. Thomas is a small souvenir in itself.
The stamps must come from the country the ship is flagged in, not from your home country. A US-flagged ship takes US stamps; most large cruise ships are flagged elsewhere, so US stamps will not be accepted. This catches people out: the stamp book you brought from home is useless on board. If the ship has run out of stamps at the desk, which happens on long voyages, your only options are waiting for the next port and posting it from a local post office there.
Longer than shore mail, and the time is mostly waiting, not transit. If you hand the letter in the morning the ship docks, it leaves that day; if you hand it in the night after sailing, it sits until the next port, which can be days away. Transatlantic crossings and repositioning cruises have the longest gaps. Some cruise lines add a small handling charge for shipboard mail on top of the stamp cost. For anything time-sensitive, post it from shore before you board or ask your travel companion to mail it from the first port.
That is the reverse direction, and it works differently. Letters to passengers are addressed care of the ship and routed through the cruise line's port agent or mail department. They must arrive before the sailing date, since mail cannot chase a ship that has already left. Most lines ask that inbound mail arrive at least a few days before embarkation. If you are the one staying home and want to reach a passenger, see our guide on mailing a letter to a cruise ship.
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