Hi everyone, Can you bring alcohol bottles in to your room after purchase or do they hold on to them until the end of the cruise? Thanks. Kathryn.

They hold them until the end of the cruise.

 I have read various posts in this thread where people mention negotiating the price for watches in the on-board store. Will they negotiate? If so, how flexible do you think they are? Does it makes sense to wait until the end of the cruise?

TIA,

DannyS

I'm looking to buy a new nice watch (probably a TAG) and was wondering where'e the best place to get a good price. I'm going on an Eastern Carribean cruise with ports of Nassua, St. Thomas and St Marteen. How much cheaper can i expect it since it's Duty Free versus the USA? Any advice would be appreciated. thanks

i like shopiping on board. we have bough t-shirts, gifts, but my favorit is the loose stones. I get them set at home. they also sell neck laces by the inch.

also check out the shopping talks they tell you the good places to shop and where there are deals. they have maps where the stores. I got black pearls for a $1 an inch, and we also got pearl necklace for $5 (gifts for my nieces). i have collection of jewlery from my last three cruises.

I wouldn't advise buying the chains by the inch.  They are not gold, I believe they are gold plated.  I have purchased them several times and they are nothing but junk although they look good.  There are days where they have sales on diamonds, tanzanite etc so watch your capers, they show all the sales in the jewelry shop.  I have seen nice watches pretty reasonable.

I found the shops in St Thomas to bargin with you....I also bought a watch  and several Tanzanite pieces at Tanzanite Int...The Diamonds Intl had some good prices...so did Omni Jewelers...

I have bought several blue diamond pieces in the on board shop and I love them.  I will be l@@king for a blue diamond ring on the fascination over Thanksgiving.

nin7474 - St. Thomas is an awesome place to shop!  But, like every where else, you still have to be careful.  I did get a Citizens watch for $75 which would have cost $150 in the states.  Good luck with your shopping.

You definately need to be on your toes when it comes to shopping in the jewelry stores in Nassau, St Thomas, and St Maarten.  These people are professionals and would sell you the shoes on your feet if possible.  They are pushy and rude. My fiance and I were looking for wedding rings and while we did see some stuff we liked, but got tired of the rude people behind the counters.  One store was a Carnival approved store (where they did one of the drawings) and we had about 5 lowest price manager offers on the same ring and then the manager was quite rude when we didnt purchase the ring.  To be honest with you, I wouldnt have trusted it to be gold, much less a real diamond.  And while Carnival says they will gurantee anything you buy from an approved store (RCCL said the same thing), it's going to be quite difficult to get a problem fixed when the store is in St Thomas (or other) and you are in the states.   The best thing was when you walked in many of the stores were the free drinks they offered the men, hoping to get them buzzed and then they would tell the wives to buy what they wanted.

We ended up buying our ring at the Navy Exchange in Jacksonville, got a great deal, larger diamonds, and no sales tax and we trust what we purchased and it would be simple to fix any problems that may arise. Definately knwo what you are buying before whipping out he plastic in the islands.  

As far as booze is concerned, that was a good deal.  We hit Al Cohens in St Thomas (by the ship) and got some good prices, especially with the additional 15% off on 4 bottles or more.  We were also informed by a customs person who said you could bring in 9 bottles/person before they would bother to fill out the paperwork to charge you anything.

There's a place on St Tom we were very pleased with: Gem Casa at Royal Dane Mall; pre-made jewelry and they can custom make pieces.  Small shop, husband/wife operated.  They made me a 3-stone mother's ring for mother's day while we were in port when none of the name or "recommended" stores could begin to.  4-1/2 carats of stone in yellow gold for under $500.

You know what i think that you know how some of these jewellery stores get on the cruise approve shopping list they other pay or these cruise directors get free stuf or major discounts who knows

I SERIOUSLY doubt THAT since the stores are usually chains that are at all the ports (Diamonds Intl., Tanzanite Intl., the t-shirts that change colors in the sun, that sort of thing) and they offer the same guarantee on ALL the ships - I don't think the cruise directors have anything to do with the selection of these stores!

That's undoubtedly the way it works.  Carnival gives these places "free" advertising to tens of thousands of money-laden splurging vacationers a week, directs a large portion [in some cases nearly all] those tens of thousands of spending people into their stores, and in return Carnival expects most or all of the following:

• free trinkets or give-away drawings to passengers
• US-style guarantees on their products/services
• money, in the form of advertising income

I wouldn't give advertising to these places for nothing.  It's a Carnival-wide thing joining their revenue-stream, rather than sweetheart kickbacks to individual "Super Shoppers".