Help with Shipping to UK

[Niki T]

Hi everyone,
We are going to WDW in 6 weeks and already have a list as long as our arm of gifts we need to bring home. I'm very concerned we are going to be too heavy bag wise, so was wondering if anyone had ever shipped stuff home to the UK? We would like to know how much it would cost and how we would go about doing it?
Thanks in advance
Nik x

 

[Deedee]

My DM enquired about having a snow globe shipped back from the disney store in down town disney to the UK and it was going to cost more than the snow globe so i know its not cheap.

 

[Lizzybear]

I sent some stuff home in 2005 via US postal service.. I just took the items to a post office (there are quite a few of them in the Orlando area, usps.com has a store locator), bought packaging materials and mailed it from there Cost depends on the weight of your parcel, mine cost $40 but was quite big and heavy. I know Disney offer a shipping service for goods purchased there but it is likely to cost more than sending it yourself because they use a courier (either UPS or FedEx I think) and insure the parcel which is expensive when sending internationally. Bear in mind it may be cheaper to pay for excess baggage with some airlines (wasn't for us)

 

[Minniespal]

We had a crystal ornament made last year in Epcot. As I recall the shipping was about $30, which I thought was great as the ornament was very heavy. As it turned out the ornament was made and arrived home a week before we did.

 

[DISWolves]

Any problems with Customs / Import Duty doing it this way ?
I realise that we have an allowance, but what to stop you shipping any excess ?

 

[Andrew Bichard]

Any problems with Customs / Import Duty doing it this way ?
I realise that we have an allowance, but what to stop you shipping any excess ?

I've shipped from USA several times. You will have no duty free allowance on shipped goods and you have to send a customs declaration with the package. If you insure the goods for damage in transit, that value will be used for VAT. Depending how you ship the goods, you may have to pay the shipping/handling agent at port of entry (or airport) his fee, plus duty, plus delivery to your home. If you don't declare the true value of the shipped goods, you run the risk of having them confiscated.

I have also bought small items like DVDs from Amazon.com. Sometimes I have had to pay VAT on delivery, sometimes not.

Andrew

 

[disneyholic family]

i shipped on one trip and regretted it..
it would have cost only slightly more had i just paid for excess baggage and it would have arrived with me..

as it was, it took over 3 weeks before it arrived....by that point i had written it off to being lost in the mail..

and since i sent it with the post office, it couldn't be traced..

after the fact, i thought i was very stupid for having done it..
the inability to trace is upsetting when you think it's lost...

 

[T16GEM]

A friend of mine who lives in Portland Oregan sent me a YOMD Mickey Mouse whenshe was there last week, I wanted it to complete the Micke Minnie Set for the kids, anyway the Mickey was $28 then it was a further $25 to ship it, but that was directly from Disney - it came a labelled up as "Dopey Drive Lake Buena Vista" and TBH that alone made my day! sad i know! But anyway it's not cheap to ship directly from Disney.

 

[Racey]

Firstly, a MASSIVE WARNING - DO NOT send via normal US Postal service (not to be confused with UPS - the brown/yellow people are fine). I sent a parcel via normal US postal service and that was a year ago .... i still havent got it!

M friends have just sent me a parcel via disney world themselves on monday.... wednesday it arrived here in the UK! a 9lb parcel cost $50 - its worth it though because they insure it too - if its damaged or lost they sort another out for you. My parcel contained 5 smaller parcels (each star wars potato heads) so they will help if you have lots of small stuff you want to put in one parcel.

Last year I shipped home 3 massive heavy boxes which contained the special edition star wars large figures ... they cost $125 each (but like i say - they were massive boxes and very heavy and i'd paid alot of money for the figures so didnt mind the cost.

Worth every penny to send through disney in my opinion.

You will also get charged an import tax from DHL after delievery (who will handle your parcel at the UK end)

A small tip for you - if you have limited edition stuff, make sure you say it as the import tax is lower apparently (thats what the guy at UPS store told us anyway) We sent home an autographed framed picture

 

[Lizzybear]

I've had tons of stuff sent from the US to the UK via USPS since 2002 and only one parcel has been lost (which was actually Parcelforce's fault, they lost it in their depot!) I'm not saying it doesn't happen but I don't think it's fair to say people shouldn't use a service based on one person's bad experience Of course you don't necessarily have the insurance coverage unless you fork out the extra but for me the minimal risk and probable longer transit time is outweighed by the lower postage cost and less risk of customs charges (i've received stuff via the couriers and the customs charges are usually much higher than for RM/Parcelforce) Obviously not everyone will want to take the risk but for items which aren't quite so valuable but still fairly heavy/bulky USPS is more cost effective IMO.

 

[Tinks1984]

I asked about this before our trip in April and I got a few good responses that did put me off shipping things home. I've been trying to find the thread to post the link, but not having much luck.

But I was under the impression that it's cheaper at times to just bring it through with you and pay at the airport. Unless you pay for being overweight on the baggage and then get caught by customs, then it could get costly!

 

[Niki T]

Thanks everyone,
definitley worth bearing in mind the disney shipping option as it is mainly chrismas decorations, so they can be replaced if they get damaged in transit(not something which we would be able to do if we carried it ourselves). Thanks again for the advice...as always its invaluable!
Niki x