Help! Pearls a good deal????

Are Pearls a good buy either on an the Cruise - Pride of Aloha or on the Islands as compared to buying them here? (US)

My friend's husband would like to get them for her birthday, should he wait?

I know exceptional deals can be found Caribbean Cruising....didn't know about Hawaii?

Thank you!!!!

I doubt it. Pearls are not native to Hawaii (at least, not to any great extent and certainly aren't commercially harvested here)

Spleen

I'm sort of feeding along the lines of what Spleen stated.

In Feb of 2004, Pebbles and I stayed at the HHV for 4-days prior to our cruise on the NCL Star. While at HHV, we were browsing around and Pebbles saw a really nice set of Black-Pearl earrings..from "Maui Divers" for about $1200. That was just a little too pricey for me.

Later on, as we were walking around, we came across the same pearls at the International Marketplace for $800. After some serious negotiations and a couple of walk-aways, we got them for $130...probably $100 too much after reading Spleen's comments...So don't get ripped-off either...

Perhaps a more accurate question would be: Spleen, is there any jewelry that is specific to Hawaii that folks should look for, that can't be gotten elsewhere, such as the St. Thomas, etc...??? Polished lava or something like that???

Or "jewelry" that folks should stay away from...such as polished lava or "Maui Divers" pearl earrings...:confused:

Spleen, Mahalo, as always...

bambam - love the emoticons. :) I think I've mentioned in other threads the jewelry that's native to Hawaii. Lessee ... oh yeah, here it is: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=155990&highlight=niihau

Spleen