I bought a white and blue diamond ring at one of the preferred shops in St. Maarten that I am still

What we also agree on, for the most part, is that the you-scratch-my-back programs in which retailers car rental seattle pay cruise lines for recommendations is a really, really bad idea. But, writes Rick Norton , we did not go far enough. One thing that so-called shopping experts tell passengers is to avoid those stores not on the cruise line s preferred list. They tell passengers their products are not guaranteed and that when shopping at a preferred car rental seattle store it s caveat emptor. This is a crock.
Sentiment swayed so far away from cruise line sanctioned retailers that, as Alan Youngblood posted, I love the shopping shows on cruise shops. I always go, get the coupons and listen to the spiel [because] this is the list of places where not to shop. The biggest brickbats were aimed at jewelers and I’ll leave you with this bit of wisdom, courtesy of Michael : Last time I was in Nassau, I met my old college flatmate, car rental seattle a successful Bahamian attorney who lives in Nassau. She told me all the Bahamians she knows buy their valuable jewelry in the U.S.
So now we know: By and large, it s buyer beware when shopping car rental seattle in port, particularly at cruise car rental seattle line-preferred stores with their questionable pricing and guarantees. The biggest hint we can give you is, if you re planning on a big spend electronics, jewelry, even liquor do your homework before you leave home. Beyond that, what made the feedback to this particular Sea-Mail so compelling was all of the great “learn from my experience” information you shared.
This comment really swayed us: It’s not enough to tell us where not to shop. We want to know about the great finds you’ve discovered in port. Okay then. Following are a few good tips from blog commenters.
Local arts and crafts beat any kind of trinket bearing a made in China tag. The item I bought that I have enjoyed the most, wrote Barbs44 , “is a large painting I found in a courtyard in Antigua, Guatemala … Every time I look at my Indian girl with her arms full of call lilies, I am back in the sunny courtyard in Guatemala having a wonderful time.
Beyond pricier local treasures, you can find terrific car rental seattle souvenirs that are original to ports of call. On Honduras Roatan, Made in Roatan features fun, hand-made jewelry and crafts under $20 U.S. (a big hit with my niece back home was a bracelet made out of pop-tops from canned sodas). I got a gorgeous car rental seattle small flower vase at a supermarket in Buenos Aires for pennies (and still use it today).
But be careful, car rental seattle warned poster Sabrina , whose purchase of spices from Grenada caused a bug infestation in her cruise cabin. When I returned to Grenada several years later, she wrote, I bought spices again but only those that were all sealed.
When it comes to snagging the best deals on liquor, forget the duty-free shops. Onboard there’s a discount, maybe a dollar’s savings per bottle, writes Doug Wooley , who honed his expertise over a variety of calls at Cozumel. At the ship-side duty-free, port prices aren’t much different though you can get more two-for-a-certain-price deals. All the shops on the main tourist route have a tourist discount. But my recommendation is to head to the place where locals shop: In Cozumel, it’s Mega and Chedraui (sort of like Wal-Mart).
When it comes to spirits, nothing beats Gibraltar! Funny, wine and beer is more expensive than spirit in this little British car rental seattle enclave. Stock up big when you re in that port, is my advice. car rental seattle Next to Gibraltar you can t go past Walmart, Honolulu.
Dear CC: Thanks so much for the dos and donts of shopping while cruising. I will be cruising next weekend in Nassau and Half Moon Cay. I hope someone will post more tips from these ports before then. As always, I will be on this site daily reading all the cruise news. I love this site thank you for all the info you provide to us who love to cruise!!
St. Thomas has the best liquor prices, especially rum, at KMart. I always car rental seattle stock up there. Since it is a U. S. Port, you can bring 6 bottles back! I think I paid $4 a bottle for regular rum, flavors were a little more.
I bought a diamond car rental seattle ring at Diamond car rental seattle International in Aruba. What a nightmare. After 6 months the stones car rental seattle started falling out I sent it back to them repeatedly, and their method of repair on a diamond? GLUE! Really?? I took it to a local jeweler and had to have the whole thing rebuilt! NEVER AGAIN will I buy anything from Diamond International.
Addendum on Diamond International comment: I was cruising car rental seattle on Royal Caribbean, and I did have to call them in to try to get DI to replace stones that were lost when they fell out. They helped me as much as they could. The setting was grossly inferior.
I bought car rental seattle a white and blue diamond ring at one of the preferred shops in St. Maarten that I am still madly in love with over a year later. I paid about $1850 for it, and my jeweler said he s probably retail it for $2500-$3000, so it appears that I was fortunate enough to get a good deal on the price. The only downside was that the place I bought it didn t want to haggle much because it cost him money to process our credit card . When we got the bill, it turns out that WE were the ones paying the fees for using our credit card overseas
My wife and I have traveled extensively and found Imperial Jewelers in St. Thomas the best! We have purchased a great deal from them over the last 25 yrs and priced them throughout the Carribean, US and elsewhere. I actually bought a ring in Aruba for $2000 and saw the same one for $1600 on their website!
We bought a BEAUTIFUL Topaz ring in Cabo San Lucas from . a street vendor! Shocking I know But I am still very pleased with it almost two years later. We took a chance car rental seattle it s gorgeous! Only paid $80 I m sure it would retail for $200 here in the states the next year bought a ring at Zales smaller one of the diamonds fell out and it was $100. So goes to show look at the setting carefully!! And you can t always believe what Marketing tells you. Good luck everyone! We are going on a cruise car rental seattle to Bahamas next year looking forward to local treasures!
We have found grocery stores and churches car rental seattle to have inexpensive and fun souvenirs. In Bermuda we got English marmalade in the grocery store and a local painting in the church gift shop. In Greece car rental seattle we found olive oil soap for much less than the shops were selling it. In Monaco, the grocery store had French perfumed soap and a cute little car rental seattle souvenir section. In addition, we can pick up a bottle car rental seattle of wine to take with us for our sail-away car rental seattle toast.
In Alaska we learned from locals those preferred shops pack up merchandise and staff at end of season car rental seattle and head for southern ports, leaving the stores car rental seattle empty, taking away income and taxes that small towns depend on. We shopped only at stores with the signs now legal in Alaska that note it is owned by Alaksans. I was wearing amber jewelery purchased wholesale for my store in the Texas, entered amber store in Puerto Rico clerks were in awe and said they had nothing to offer me. I had the real amber!
I have had some good and bad experiences buying jewelry in the Caribbean. car rental seattle The only thing that a recommended store does is charge higher prices. I have finally found a jeweler that I can trust and that gives me great prices. It is RENAISSANCE JEWELERS on St. Thomas. The owner, Adrian is very honest and is ready to help you in any way. He is located at 5124 Dronningens Gade Ste. 2. I always refer my friends to Adrian!!!
I m always looking for fabric when I m on shore. I can never get any help from the people who help with the shopping questions. Sometimes I think I m the only quilter that cruises!!! Is there a secret to finding fabric shops?
I live in Nassau, and buy a LOT of jewelry here. There are great stores in Nassau. My favorites John Bull, and Coin of the Realm. The credit card company also has to pay a 2-4% fee to process your credit car rental seattle card, so Often if you pay cash, they will take that cost off. Just a note American Express charges the highest fee to the merchant, so pay with another card to haggle.
As a newbie car rental seattle cruiser, I routinely attended the shopping talk (hoping to at least win a door prize), the dutifully completed the shopping questionnaire (with receipts) car rental seattle at the end of each cruise. This practice, we were told, was to avoid any problems with out purchases, which would be guaranteed .
I suspect, although I have no proof, that the paperwork was most likely car rental seattle used by the shopping expert to secure some type of commission (to put it more bluntly, car rental seattle a kick-back ), or at least to help ingratiate her (or him) with the portside shopowners.
Thank goodness my wife tells me not to ever buy her jewelry even though we can afford it. We do buy a Christmas ornament on each crusie to remind us of our travels but we would rather spend our money on \memories\; diving, snorkling, and other adventures.
car rental seattle I bought a tanzanite stone years ago in Arruba .I came home and it was appraised about 50% of what I bought it for. The cruise lines said they d help but they wanted to protect their commission. car rental seattle I finally had my credit card company deduct it and I sent the stone back to them .then they sent me a check for far less than what I paid them for it .I told them to stick it and sent the check back to them along with a letter car rental seattle I had written to the cruise car rental seattle lines. I never heard from either one of them again I was very lucky.
Beware of the card that you get from Diamonds International for a free charm ! First of all they will pressure you into looking at the jewelry and if you show ANY interest at all, good luck getting away from them! If you are lucky enough to finally get the free charm within ten minutes, you will be very disappointed in what you find in the little plastic bag. In two ports they gave a CHEAP little charm that was supposed to have a diamond CHIP but it was an empty setting. The others charms were so cheap and tacky you would be embarrased to ever put them on a bracelet. Go enjoy the activities and AVOID DI!
After only one experience with a recommended store in Alaska, I never went back to either the o