After a couple of months in St. Maarten, I've tried a few different ways to ship to AUC. Some are fast, some are slow, most all are expensive. But, here's what I think are the best:
If you want something reasonably fast and for not a ton of money, use The Mailbox. You set up an account with them for about $100/year and they give you a US address to have people ship to in Miami. They just pay whatever it costs to send something there. Then, they ship it for you to St. Maarten. They'll ship two pounds/month, included with your membership, and you pay less than $3 for every pound after that for the month. It takes a week or so to get here and they deliver to the school twice a week, or you can go and pick it up in Simpson Bay.
If you want something faster than that, you have to pay for it. Shipping via FedEx or DHL straight to the school is the fastest option. I'm not sure how much it costs, but it is significantly more than using the mailbox, although it's faster.
The worst option is to ship to the school via USPS! First, it's about the same price as using the mailbox. But, it's a lot slower. If you use USPS, they ship it to the St. Maarten post office. And, you want to avoid any kind of St. Maarten government agency at any cost. Not only do they take forever to deliver it, half the time, they don't even deliver it!! They leave a note at school that you need to pick it up at the post office, just to charge you a storage fee when you do pick it up!!!! I know this because I got caught in this silly little scam of theirs today when I went to pick up my new wireless keyboard that my parents had sent. The woman at the post office couldn't tell me why they didn't just deliver it to the school, but I suspect it's just so they could charge me to store it. I have also heard of a few people who have had things lost by the St. Maarten post office.
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