PURCHASING alcohol. St Thomas or elsewhere?

[tamariadawn]

We will be sailing the Southern Carribean via the Emerald Princess 10/27/07.

I purchases 12 bottles of alcohol in 2004 in St. Thomas for $104. I later learned that it would have been about 20% less had I waited and bought it in St Martin. I also remember that cigarettes were around $10 carton in St. Martin back then. I did not buy cigs because I am not smoker. I just remember being wowed by the low prices.

 

This time we will be going to: St. Thomas, Grenada, Bonaire, Dominica, and Aruba.

Which port will alcohol sell for less (to take home)?

[lovely12no]

Just a note about our experience of buying liquor in St. Maarten. Great prices inticed us to purchase a lot of bottles to take home. After buying the stuff and bringing it on board ship...trying to figure how to bring it home with us was daunting. I called Jetblue and asked how we could fly it home. The bulk of it had to be stuffed into our bags. What a real pain to deal with heavy bags that seriously could have leaked if thrown or dropped hard. Our friends had a bottle confiscated by customs from their carry on luggage as they forgot about it being there. Too many considerations these days. We'd rather pay the difference and buy it locally. Good luck and much success in finding good prices and a way to ship it home.

[rebeljohn]

This time we will be going to: St. Thomas, Grenada, Bonaire, Dominica, and Aruba.

Which port will alcohol sell for less (to take home)?

 

Probably St. Thomas.........and you get to bring back more duty free when purchased there. I see you are in Florida, so you probably drive to port, as we do................and you don't have to worry about flying with it. The last time we cruised to the Eastern Caribbean, the customs officer asked if we were starting our own liqour store.........we had over our limit but he waived us on...........