Dumbest Item Purchased?

[Krazy Kruizers]

What is the dumbest item you have purchased while either on the cruise ship or in port?

[sail7seas]

I remember buying and driving myself crazy getting straw baskets from the Straw Market In Nassau home. I have no clue what I thought I wanted them for or what I planned to do with them. But I went to alot of effort to get them home and then looked at them and said.......ugh....what was I thinking???!!

[WindyCity]

A pair of sport socks with the HAL logo. We were in a "S" suite and had sent out our laundry. Unfortunately, the laundry returned everything BUT my socks - in fact, we got someone else's socks. Since we were on our last day in Alaska heading for Vancouver, all I had were hikers (I am female) and was not going to wear them without socks. HAL shop only had the logo socks, but they had to do.

Good thing about it, the front desk made every effort to find my socks and since they could not, they gave us a $50 shipboard credit. By the way, I did not yell and holler and complain. I just asked if someone else had turned in socks that did not belong to them.

[Krazy Kruizers]

This a toss up.

We had signed up for an excursion to Lapland on one of our HAL Baltic cruises before we left home.

The tour was cancelled because not enough people signed up for it.

DH wanted something to remind him of the deer - he could have just gone out in the back yard and shot one - but - oh well.

So we each went our separate ways in Helsinki. He bought a reindeer hoof. When he got back to the ship he was all excited to show me what he had purchased. After showing me the reindeer hoof, I dragged out the reindeer pelt (the whole thing) that I had hidden until he showed me his treasured purchase. It had been raining that day, so the pelt got wet and we had to lay it out on the sofa for a few days to dry before we could pack it into a suitcase. One day we caught our cabin steward carefully brushing the fur to help it dry.

So I don't know which was dumber - the hoof or the pelt.

By the way, we still have both.

[ekerr19]

It's probably a tie-

My daughter talked me into buying her a guitar in Cozumel. It is painted bright pink, turquoise, and yellow.

When my DH saw it, he said, "you're lugging that thing home, not me" :)

What a pain bringing it home!

On our Baltic cruise, for some reason the shops put out a bunch of souveniers from Alaska - I bought my daughter a giant polar bear with a huge blue ribbon around his neck that said "Noordam" (we had left the kids at home and I wanted to bring her something).

She still sleeps with that bear - but I tell you, it wasn't the smartest purchase - it would not fit in the suitcase, so I carried it all the way home!

[RuthC]

My dumbest purchase was two absolutley lovely bottles of wine I dragged home from St. Thomas a long, long time ago.
Why was that a dumb purchase? Because I saved a whopping $0.50 per bottle over the price at home!

[bepsf]

Those stupid plastic HAL sailaway glasses.

Thank goodness the steward took them away - i forgot all about them till I got off the ship - I had a hard enough time packing as it was...

[marco]

A LONG time ago, we bought a 6ft Mickey Mouse stuffed animal. It really was not "for sale", it was part of their deocration at the entrance to thier store, but we got him to sell it to us. We carted him all around the ship and then home. Forutnately we were not flying, other wise we probably would have had to buy him a seat. I think he is still in the attic! It was not new when we bought him and now, he is proabably around 50 yrs old and very "retro" and worth a gazillion dollars. Maybe I should put him on e-bay!

[ekerr19]

Those stupid plastic HAL sailaway glasses.

Thank goodness the steward took them away - i forgot all about them till I got off the ship - I had a hard enough time packing as it was...

Brian-

Thanks for the reminder - everytime DH purchases these things, I get irritated. I hide them at home because invariably one of the kids will try to use one and they don't fit in the top rack of the dishwasher!!!

I hope I never see another - the kids got the brightly colored ones on the Maasdam with their soda card purchase. Never Again!

[the2ofus]

My DH absolutely insisted that they were the exact thing to give our two grandsons. Hairy coconuts with really ugly painted faces which we bought in Nassau!! Of course they would not fit in our suitcases so had to be carried in a bulging plastic shopping bag through two plane flights, including the run from one gate to a distant gate in the connection airport. Who ended up carrying them? You guessed it, me. (Hoping all the while that nobody thought I chose them.) :o Did the kids like them? For about 20 minutes, or maybe until we were out the door :D

Happily, they really did like the T shirts we bought them in Tortola, which fit very neatly in the luggage, of course.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

While in St Thomas my curiosity was peaked by the Del Sol stores. We did purchase 2 nice Gold Shirts that my DH does wear but the stupid for me was buying the finger nail polish. I wore it one time and that was it. When I was not out in the sun it was a very strange color.

Of course if you ask our 25 year old son this question it would be "Any and All things we have ever bought him while on vacation." Including the "IMO" cool swimming trunks we bought him at the Del Sol store.

[serendipity1499]

On our South American cruise last year we bought 2 Llama rugs...A large one & a smaller one for our "Wire-haired Dachshund's" bed... We figured it would be nice & soft for her to sleep on....These dogs are bred for hunting, & all she did was try to chew it up...It must have tasted like a rawhide bone, which we don't allow her to have..The skins were not processed & they smell awful when wet! Fortunately we got it away from her before the skin & fur was ruined.. Now the rugs are both hanging up...

Working in the International Airline Industry for 30 years & having purchased many dumb things, you would think that I would know better! This probably takes the cake!

I keep saying to myself...Won't you ever learn not to buy Junk! LOL

[bepsf]

Brian-

Thanks for the reminder - everytime DH purchases these things, I get irritated. I hide them at home because invariably one of the kids will try to use one and they don't fit in the top rack of the dishwasher!!!

I hope I never see another - the kids got the brightly colored ones on the Maasdam with their soda card purchase. Never Again!

LOL!
And to think that I was actually disappointed - for all of about a minute...

I wonder what kind of strange useless things they'll try to sell us on sailaway to Alaska next week?

[ekerr19]

LOL!
And to think that I was actually disappointed - for all of about a minute...

I wonder what kind of strange useless things they'll try to sell us on sailaway to Alaska next week?

They will be hawking the weak, watered down drinks! LOL :D Just don't get one with the silly glass!

[bombero]

I bought a local beer in Barbados, and brought it back to the ship.. When I opened it, it was flat. :mad:. That's stupid. :o ..bombero

[Roboat]

KK - that reindeer story is terrific!

Dumbest stuff I ever bought was "Art" at the Auction. Man, I am STILL embarrassed over that! What a ruse, taking advantage of a feeble-minded old man with a temporary ego deficiency, sloshing down the cheap champagne! My wife is to blame, for letting me go alone!

"Oh, that's a fine piece, sir. Exquisite taste, Sir!"

Sucked me in like a giant grouper.
I wanna face-shoot that little varmint.
OK, maybe that's too violent for this venue. Let me rephrase: My my, how foolish of me. Nahh, I like the first one better.

Maybe we should start a new thread to warn others. Or heck, maybe everyone else feels they got some great buys! Here's a clue: you paid too much! And don't EVEN tell me you had it appraised for more than you paid. You still paid too much!

OK, excuse me, was I ranting? Who started this thread, anyway! ;)

[MeAbFab]

I always wondered if people actually bought stuff from Del Sol. On my last cruise, they actually had a UV light box on the ship during the port talk to demonstrate how the shirts worked before we got to the port. Very kickback oriented port talk!

Also, does anyone know if they sell Del Sol shirts in Alaskan ports?

[Krazy Kruizers]

OH YES - there is a Del Sol store in Alaska - it's in Ketchikan!!

[gliles]

I always wondered if people actually bought stuff from Del SolMy daughter and her friend sure did, I also asked them to pick out something for my other daughter as a souvineer because I had no clue. We'll be taking the other daughter this year for her graduation and I suspect she will do some shopping there as well!

[ekerr19]

I always wondered if people actually bought stuff from Del Sol. On my last cruise, they actually had a UV light box on the ship during the port talk to demonstrate how the shirts worked before we got to the port. Very kickback oriented port talk!


Are you kidding? It is my daughters favorite store!!! She has the nail polish too! I don't like it, but she loves it.

[ASM]

I was surprised a while back to read a thread about the "new" store called Del Sol. My kids bought that stuff at the beach 20 yrs ago. It seemed to disappear and now here it is again. Well, at least mine are too old for it now-and the grandkids too young!

[cruzlover56]

I was at several Shopping talks and caught 3 of the free Del Sol colour change rings. I threw them in the suit case and brought them home. They were an amazing hit with three female friends aged 2, 19 and 50. Go figure:D

[Vicar]

My daughter and her friends had a ball with the Del Sol nailpolish and then like everything else they ended up in a drawer

[MISSYLOU]

We bought six sets of Bongo drums in Cozumel for our grandsons for Christmas. DH had to sneak them on board the flight home in a very large carryon that he had to purchase in Cozumel just to hold them all.

We don't make purchases like that anymore.

[Peggy Sue]

Grenada... Folks there love Americans..but we found them very aggressive. We left the beach becuase it was like an army of ants coming up to us to try and sell us something. One wanted us to pay him to sing us a song!

So, off to town we go....lots of stalls filled with the wonderful smells of exotic spices...I decide everyone I know would just love a little round covered basket with tiny bags of spices. I must of picked up two dozen of those things, not to mention large bottles of vanilla, hunks of coco... Everything was so inexpensive... Packing for the trip home I realized I purchased too many bulky things..I don't think the folks who were gifted with those silly baskets were too thrilled either. I think I ended up throwing out a half dozen from the basement a few years later.

I now try to avoid impluse purchases....but I still pack an extra carry on bag in our luggage "just in case"!

Peggy Sue

[kelmac]

Hey Peggy Sue,

I paid that guy $2 to sing me a song! My wife was in the water and didn't even hear it. You know what? I have a picture of that guy singing to me. :D

[cruzngal]

My daughter just HAD to have one of those garishly painted guitars from a tchotchka stand in Costa Maya. Just like the ekerr19, I told my 8 year old that she had to carry it. Yup, guess who dragged it out of the port and through the airports (moi!).

The other stupid thing was a handicraft drum from Jamaica. Seemed like something my then 7 year old son would like. We carefully packed and hand-carried it home. The second day home we heard a loud BANG! Seems the humidity between Jamaica and ice-cold Minnesota are a little different in the winter. That drum split itself in half - violently. After that I learned that you're supposed wrap up wooden items and leave them tightly wrapped for about a month if you're going between two very different climates. We bought some beautiful wood carvings on our last cruise to Guatemala and Belize, and this method worked very well. Of course it could have also been that they were a little better quality than the green wood drum from Jamaica. But lesson learned anyway.

[ekerr19]

My daughter just HAD to have one of those garishly painted guitars from a tchotchka stand in Costa Maya. Just like the ekerr19, I told my 8 year old that she had to carry it. Yup, guess who dragged it out of the port and through the airports (moi!).

The other stupid thing was a handicraft drum from Jamaica. Seemed like something my then 7 year old son would like. We carefully packed and hand-carried it home. The second day home we heard a loud BANG! Seems the humidity between Jamaica and ice-cold Minnesota are a little different in the winter. That drum split itself in half - violently. After that I learned that you're supposed wrap up wooden items and leave them tightly wrapped for about a month if you're going between two very different climates. We bought some beautiful wood carvings on our last cruise to Guatemala and Belize, and this method worked very well. Of course it could have also been that they were a little better quality than the green wood drum from Jamaica. But lesson learned anyway.

Oh, cruzngal - you have me in stitches!!! Thanks for the laugh - I needed it. :)

I really thought we were the only ones who were stupid enought to buy one of those guitars. Thanks for the info on the wood purchases too! My DH was tempted with a drum once, I said he'd have to carry it - that was the end of that!