yellowsunset

Good morning.

Can anyone recommend a company to use to arrange a barrel from Orlando (ideally) or Miami to Barbados and also advise on what happens with customs when it arrives. I understand you can get a barrel delivered to you at your hotel, you fill it up, then it is collected and shipped here - but have never tried doing this and I am not sure how it really works, what company to use, the costs etc. Also, I am wondering what paperwork you need and how the duty is calculated when it arrives here - as I am imagining that you might have to empty the barrel in front of a customs person which seems a bit of a pain! Do any of you have any experience of doing this? Any advice apreciated - thank you.

zanne

Likely Miami...Orlando is pretty far from Miami and I have never found a shipping company that would deliver a barrel there. I suppose it is because you can fly non-stop to Miami pretty easily, not so easily to Tampa or Orlando any more. You fill the barrel up, when it arrives the local shipping agent will give you a call (some companies give you tracking information for the ship, this doesn't guarantee that the barrel isn't lost though!) you go down to their office and collect the Bill of Lading and the Customs Forms, which you fill out, and then you go to the Port and collect the barrel-- which involves opening it up, etc. Depending on what you put in it I guess that is where the duty will be assessed, I do know that the barrels that my inlaws get at the holiday time are pretty much treated as remittances and they only pay about $40.00.

Sunniebgi

I've only done this one, from Miami and used a company called Laparkin. It was not a pleasent experience. I arranged all from Barbados. All was set for the barrel to be delivered on a Friday to my hotel. it didn't come.. I called and the local miami agent told me they didn't deliver on Fridays.. It arrive on Saturday afternoon at my hotel (24hours after I wanted it - I was there for 3 days of shopping and needed to know how much space I had to use) and it was collected at the hotel on Monday morning. I paid about 50.00bbd for the barrel. When it came in to Barbados, I was called and told I had to pay an additional amount of money for the paperwork to be done (which they never told me about). I went to collect my paper work from the company (paid the money about another 50.00bbd). I went to the port to collect my items when the shippper told me to, and after about 2 hours was told my barrel was not even in Shed 2 as yet (this is the shed where they bring these types of items for clearance). I went back about a week later. was there about 3 hours or more.. unloaded about half the barrel as the customs officer watched and then said.. ok your done.. paid 60.00 to customs for the privalage.. paid 50.00 to someone to deliver the barrel to my home (as I didn't have a truck or someone with a truck to pick it up for me)

Now.. that's not everyones experience.. but that's mine. and while it doesn't seem like a lot of money (after paying about 2500.00usd to ship a load of items this past summer), but I don't think it' do it again.

I'm not sure about Orlando, but I know there are several companies that do this from Miami and San Juan.

Good luck.