How Long Does Shipping to the Caribbean Take?

The answer has three parts, and companies usually quote only the middle one.

• The wait to sail. Most Caribbean routes sail weekly. Drop off the day after a sailing and your barrel waits six days before it moves.
• The water. Florida to Jamaica, the Bahamas or Cuba: days. Florida or New York to the Eastern Caribbean — Barbados, Grenada, St. Lucia: one to two weeks, often with a transshipment stop. Guyana and Suriname: longer, and sailings are less frequent.
• The clearing. Customs and warehouse release on the other side: two days when papers are clean, two weeks when they are not.

So the honest totals run from about a week (Florida–Bahamas) to a month (New York–Guyana in a slow week). Judge a company by whether it quotes all three parts. And get the tracking number on your receipt — watching the steps beats calling for dates.