Jewelry hard-sale on your ship?

[oceanfun77]

Just came back from my cruise with Golden Princess and absolutely loved every aspect of it except one point that I haven't seen much people mention on this board before: the hard-selling and promotion of jewelry..diamonds, tanzanites, ammolite, etc..

 

They had a port-of-shopping seminar that promised a free charm bracelet for attending, but then turned out to be a paper coupon you had to redeem to a jewelry shop on land, or the sale of $30 "only 200 limited" quanity booklets with promises of free trinkets from the coupon books, then they had a gemstone seminar, and on the each port's recommended shop lists, almost every single one of them were jewelry shops. They kept pushing duty-free! St. Thomas prices! upgrade your diamond to a bigger diamond! rare tanzanite, will never be available ever again!

 

I had never ever heard of Alaska as a diamonds place :P Now I'm not sure if the jewelry truly were a bargain, but I did not purchase a single thing.

 

Did your ship do heavy promotion with this? And are gems truly a bargain in Alaska?

[tjroadster]

I will never buy any major items while on cruise, other than gifts less than $10.

[dustyroad]

me either. i just say no thanks and walk away. i also dont go into the jewlery shops in the ports.

[bearbait]

Rubber totem poles "Made in China" are the only surefire bargain out there for the savy Alaska tourist.

[Coral]

Yes - it exists on the other lines as well as we had it on RCCL as well as on Princess. It is too bad Alaska has those commercial stores. It still amazes me people shop at these stores.

[Bunkie103]

Every time I hear the word TANZANITE I cringe! Carnival pushes it big time too. I have bought jewelry when I cruised, but rarely ship in the "recommended stores"...I'm a naughty girl!;) I have no plans to buy any jewelry on our Alaska trip.

[mr green]

It is normally best to shop for jewelery at your local friendly store, IMO.

The promos. on board are usually just that, attend only if you have nothing better to do.

One interesting point. While in Skagway, it was mentioned that the town did not allow 'chain stores'. My reply was 'What about Diamonds International?' The reply 'That Company is run by the cruise lines!':confused:

I don't know if that is true or not, all that I do know is that I have only ever been in one, I found it to be a high priced waste of time.

 

john

[oceanfun77]

I was fooled into attending the port of shopping seminar for my first time and never again. I really honestly thought they would tell you what is great is buy in Alaska, not just gemstones.

[CALMOM]

Every time I hear the word "TANZANITE", I think of a cruise ship:eek:. It seems no matter where you cruise, who you cruise with, they all have the very rare, hard to find, best quality TANZANITE :rolleyes:

 

I have never bought jewelery on a cruise ship or ports, as the quality is just not there. If you want quality jewelery, go to a fine jewelery store in your home town, where you can take it back if it is a fake.

 

I have never found any cruise ship pushy on sailing jewelry or whatever, unless you go to the port shopping seminar on the ship. If you go to those seminars, then you should be prepared to see some pushy selling tactics.

 

The word "NO" is only 2 letters and very easy to say, just try it :D

[Putterdude]

I would never purchase gem jewelry in Alaska...gold and gold nugget jewelry is another matter if you know prices and are prepared to negotiate hard. I am quite prepared to walk out of the store if I don't get my price. Last week I purchased a whale's tail gold charm for about 50% of the tag price and have purchased gold nugget jewelry for similar discounts. As for Princess's spiels, no one needs to attend their seminars or shop at their "approved" stores.

[Coral]

I was fooled into attending the port of shopping seminar for my first time and never again. I really honestly thought they would tell you what is great is buy in Alaska, not just gemstones.

 

I agree. I have not been in years. I also thought the port talk on Radiance would be on the port and was very fooled.

 

I don't go to these anymore and don't hear the hard talk anymore. I feel sorry for the new people who have no idea.

[Coral]

My reply was 'What about Diamonds International?' The reply 'That Company is run by the cruise lines!':confused:

 

I don't think they are owned by the cruise lines (they could never get along long enough to cooperate on this) but I think the cruise lines profit heavily by being paid to talk about the stores.

[thebutlerdidit]

The shopping consultant on Celebrity's Millennium drove me nuts. I also attended the Alaskan shopping seminar. I lasted about 10 minutes before walking out. I wanted to learn about Ulu knives etc, but when a quick glance at the maps showed that we were being steered to Diamonds International, Tanzanite International, Effy, etc. I got the picture really quick. We were being urged to take one of Yvette's "VIP" Cards into these stores so we could get some hot deals. I thought it more likely that walking in with a VIP card would be the equivalent of having "SUCKER" stamped on your forehead.

 

The shopping seminar was opened up with the assurance that NO, the cruise lines did not build the towns, NO, the cruise lines do not own the shops....however, they may have partnerships with them, that's all.:rolleyes:

[chipmaster]

There is a bit of hard sell on everything I found on every cruise; drinks, trinkets of every kind, photos, auctions, etc. etc.

 

Part of the deal that comes with the value of cruising. I grin and bear it, some of the sales can be fun and entertaining, but most I just pass on.

[oceanfun77]

LOL, yes, how could I ever forget the VIP cards? She also kept mentioning that if 2 people walked into the store and 1 has a VIP card and other doesn't, the one with VIP card will get the better deal. She must have mentioned it 2-3 times. And the fact that you can upgrade your diamond ring to a bigger stone (what ever happened to sentimental value?)

[RhoMad]

I was also on Celebrity Millenium. We were there for our honeymoon and hubby's birthday, and we came in every day to "Celebrate your special day!buy this, buy that" flyers.

 

My favorite one was the Tanzanite jewelry one. YOU DESERVE IT!! Don't you want to walk into dinner, and wear a flashy piece of jewelry? Your table mates will drool with envy. Well, isn't that a great reason to buy jewelry? :D

[Coral]

There is a bit of hard sell on everything I found on every cruise; drinks, trinkets of every kind, photos, auctions, etc. etc.

 

Part of the deal that comes with the value of cruising. I grin and bear it, some of the sales can be fun and entertaining, but most I just pass on.

 

It is sad as it didn't used to be that way.

[MercedMike]

I was also on Celebrity Millenium. We were there for our honeymoon and hubby's birthday, and we came in every day to "Celebrate your special day!buy this, buy that" flyers.

 

My favorite one was the Tanzanite jewelry one. YOU DESERVE IT!! Don't you want to walk into dinner, and wear a flashy piece of jewelry? Your table mates will drool with envy. Well, isn't that a great reason to buy jewelry? :D

 

I was in the jewellery business for many years. We used to call that a "period" piece. You want your friends to take one look at it and drop dead, period!

 

;)

[MercedMike]

Life is full of hard sells. Why let it bother you? If you are interested, buy it. If you are not interested, don't buy it.

 

Occasionally I will buy a baseball cap or a t-shirt on the ship. Otherwise, I just ignore it.

 

And incidentally, why doesn't anybody mention the hard sell of liquor? Bars all over the ship, Drink of the Day pushed everyplace, even a Mocktail of the Day to get the kids in the habit. Somebody who buys jewellery or art doesn't impact on my enjoyment of the cruise. Raucous drunks do. I would rather go to the shopping talk than sit at the bar!

[mytime53]

Life is full of hard sells. Why let it bother you? If you are interested, buy it. If you are not interested, don't buy it.

 

Occasionally I will buy a baseball cap or a t-shirt on the ship. Otherwise, I just ignore it.

 

And incidentally, why doesn't anybody mention the hard sell of liquor? Bars all over the ship, Drink of the Day pushed everyplace, even a Mocktail of the Day to get the kids in the habit. Somebody who buys jewellery or art doesn't impact on my enjoyment of the cruise. Raucous drunks do. I would rather go to the shopping talk than sit at the bar!

 

I'd rather everyone else went to the shopping talk and let me sit at the bar;)

[Gunther1]

We like to sit in the back row (so we can escape) and silently laugh at the stuff that is being told....and sold. It's cheap entertainment....in more ways than one.

 

 

 

On the other had, I assume the horribly high prices DO help keep the basic cruise prices lower for those of us that don't buy that crap. Better them than me, eh ?

[Rickey 88]

I'd rather everyone else went to the shopping talk and let me sit at the bar;)

 

I do agree and have sat out many "shopping" bamboozles at the bar...

 

CAVEAT EMPTOR!

 

"Let the buyer beware!"

[vbmom87]

I only have two cruises under my belt, HAL to Alaska and NCL in Hawaii. NCL definitely pushed the drinks unlike HAL However it wasn't horribly annoying. We did not go to any seminars on the cruise ships and therefore were not aware of an "pushing" going on. Neither ship had many announcements that we were aware of anyway. However, we were never on the ship during port days. After all I had read on the travel forums about all the annoying marketing done on the ships, we were pleasantly surprised that it was almost non-existent. Perhaps we were just oblivious?

[MercedMike]

We like to sit in the back row (so we can escape) and silently laugh at the stuff that is being told....and sold. It's cheap entertainment....in more ways than one.

 

On the other had, I assume the horribly high prices DO help keep the basic cruise prices lower for those of us that don't buy that crap. Better them than me, eh ?

 

LOL -- BINGO! Uh, I mean, RIGHT ON! Because Bingo is another highly promoted thing that is fun to avoid.

 

But as far as cheap fun, positively don't miss the art auctions. Again it is best to sit in the back so the suckers ... um, customers ... don't see you laughing up your sleeve at the foolishness that goes on. I actually heard one art auctioneer saying, "Have some more free champagne. Drunks make better buyers!":D

[Gunther1]

I can vouch for that. I'm in a chorus that has an art auction each year for a fundraiser and the alcohol flows freely.

 

Question re the art auction: is it usually held in an area where it's easy to escape ? I wouldn't want to have to make a scene to leave in the middle. It would be on a HAL ship (next week !!!!!).