You're about to discover how to avoid the pitfalls of traps and getting ripped
off, if you're planning to shop when you're on your Caribbean cruise. I'm
Gary Bembridge and this is another of my tips for travellers. Although in my view
when you're the Caribbean you should be out there enjoying the culture, the
beaches and the sights, shopping has become a really big part of the Caribbean and
Caribbean cruising. It has been reported that everybody who goes on a
Caribbean cruise will do some form of shopping whilst they're on their cruise!
I'm going to tell you the nine things to watch out for to make sure that you
avoid the traps, you avoid the pitfalls and you don't get ripped off. First of
all, it's worth explaining why shopping has become so big in the Caribbean. It's
partly because you can get incredible deals if you're careful, and there's a
couple of reasons for that. First of all the Caribbean islands are duty and tax
free shopping havens, so that has one impact on the price. Secondly, the volume.
There's a huge amount of passengers passing through the cruise ports and
the retailers across the Caribbean have become so big, and they have so much
volume, that they're able to buy direct from the suppliers. They are able to
get huge discounts so that, combined with the duty-free, means that they are able
to offer great prices. Also what's happened around shopping in the
Caribbean for cruise passengers is on-board shopping advisors have emerged, which
are partnerships between the Cruise Lines and the big chains to encourage people
to shop by giving them incentives to shop in certain stores.
Let me talk about the nine tips to make sure that you avoid the scams, the
ripoffs and the traps that a lot of people fall into. First of all, it's about
the itinerary. Depending on how important shopping is to you, there are
three different types of ports and three different types of experiences. First are
those which are probably the most prevalent across the Caribbean, and these are the
big cruise port shopping malls. You'll find pretty much in every port you
get off in has a Mall that you have to go through to go on excursions or go
anywhere. You have to go through these big shopping malls packed with loads
of shops, including lots of chains like Diamonds International, Effy and Tanzanite
International. That's become the predominant shopping experience in the
Caribbean, these big shopping malls. The second is
the more classic town shopping experience and that tends to be in big
places like in Barbados, St Lucia and Antigua where there are big towns and where
the shopping experience is much more of a traditional big town shopping
experience, with things like department stores. The third is the more
traditional shopping and crafts market set ups. These tend to be in smaller
ports and slightly more eco ports so you'll find, for example, in Dominica that
you don't have the big shopping mall when you come off the ship and you'll
find more local markets. So, based on your shopping passions as you looking for a cruise,
bear in mind that if you're looking to buy things like diamonds and
watches those big traditional malls are where you are really going to find most of the deals.
So, those big cruise ports where the big ships go to and you'll find that's the most
dominant way of shopping. It's very easy to get it caught up in the excitement of
shopping. You'll find you're given lots of leaflets, booklets and get
talks about shopping. There's lots of discussion and focus about finding deals on board, and
there's lots of encouragement to go into stores. It's
easy to get caught up in a wave and end up coming back with watches or
jewellery that perhaps don't really need. So, make sure before you go are you
really interested in getting a new watch diamonds, jewellery or whatever.
Also be clear about what your budget is. The second thing linked to
that is make sure that you know what the prices of items are, especially if you
plan to spend money on expensive items like jewellery and watches but even clothing or
booze. Make sure you know what the price is back home and, importantly, through
online retailers. Bear in mind you have lots of online retailers which
may have great prices. You may often find that it's not such a great deal and
so make sure before you spend a lot of money on anything that you know what it
costs back home. Don't focus on discounts! What most of
them do is quote prices which are discounts off the manufacturer
recommended retail price, which nobody charges anyway. It's a misleading price and the
fact that it's 60% cheaper doesn't really mean anything. make sure you know
the absolute actual price and don't focus on the percentage discount. If
you decide you are going to shop in the Caribbean, I do recommend actually that
you do engage with the onboard shopping advisors. You do have to be a little bit
careful because the shopping advisors are partnerships between the cruise
lines and the major retailers, and the major retailers pay fees to take part in
the onboard shopping talks and the various leaflets. Remember that they're
not entirely unbiased however, if you do plan to go shopping, the great thing
about the shopping advisors is they will be able to direct you towards reputable
retailers and they will know the ones that do have higher quality goods. So,
you're not going to be ripped off with fake goods and they do tend to offer
one-to-one sessions, where you can go and see them and they will help and
guide you. They'll also come with you to the store. Again bear in mind as I said,
they have a hidden agenda because I'm guessing they earn commissions and their job is
to get you to the stores and the stores job is once you're there to sell to you.
There will be lots of different incentives and promotions, so if you going to go shopping
you may as well go and get those incentives and take advantage of them - because
you're not going to get them unless you go to the shopping advisor. If you're
planning to buy expensive items only buy in the chain stores,
especially the ones that are recommended or endorsed by the cruise line in the
shopping on-board brochures. The advantage with that is, first of all, if
you have any problems or issues you can take it to the same chain in the next
port of call and you have some sense of recourse whilst you're still on the
cruise. Shopping in the chains is important as,
because they're big chains, you can shop with confidence that the
products that you are buying are genuine. Focus on those big chain stores unless
you know a lot about what you're doing. When you're on a cruise in the Caribbean
I also recommend not buying on board. Partly because in my experience I don't
think the prices on board are the sharpest prices that you can get. If you
do plan to buy something on board, what I do recommend is wait to the end of the
cruise because you'll normally find that there will be promotions or
events, especially if the shops aren't selling at their target levels.
You'll see different incentives as the cruise goes
on. So my tip is make sure that you buy towards the end if you are going
to buy onboard. Also check what your duty free
allowances are before you go home, especially if you are buying a lot of stuff in the
Caribbean. Or you might find when you try and bring it back home
and you get stopped in customs, or you have to declare it, that you
either find that it's not within your allowance or have to pay a lot of duty
and taxes which wipe out any savings that you've made. Understand what you are
able to take home before you start splurging ou on cigarettes, booze,
watches, jewellery or clothes. What is the best time of day to go shopping?
If you want something made,
maybe have some jewellery adapted , then go shopping really early when you get to
the port and then go on your excursions or whatever.
They then have time to fix it, repair it, adapt or adjust it by the end of
the day. In many cases a lot of these chains will deliver the
products to the ship, and so check if that's possible. The great thing is
you go out do your shopping and leave things to be adjusted or changed and
they will make sure that it gets to you on board the ship. If you are unsure,
shopping towards end of the day might create some pressure on the salesperson to give
you more discount when you're in the shop. Always haggle, if
you've gone shopping with the shopping advisers they will give you some
guidance, but do haggle. There is an expectation rightly or wrongly that you
should be haggling when you are in these stores, so do give some pushback and
particularly if shopping it later in the day as depending on how the shoppings going
versus their budgets, you might find that you have a little more leverage. Another thing
that I really strongly recommend you do is try and break out of those malls
in the ports and try and find some local markets. Try finding some local
handcrafted products. You'll find many of those shops in those malls
that the souvenirs and products are pretty generic and not even made
in the Caribbean. You'll find they're pretty much the same across every island,
just with the island name changed. Try and get into some local
markets and buy some local products and support the local economy. A big
challenge with cruise passengers going to ports is many just
shop in the malls in those internationally owned chains, and a lot
of money is not going into the local economy. Please get out and support
the local markets in some way. Personally I think is a
little bit unfortunate that shopping has become such a big part of the Caribbean
experience, however a lot of people clearly want
to shop, otherwise it wouldn't happen. There are some things that you need to do
to make sure that you don't fall into the traps. These shops
are extremely experienced and knowledgeable, and they know how to
manipulate and get passengers to spend a lot of money. Make sure that you're
well prepared and use these tips to make sure that you know exactly what you want
to buy, how you want to buy it, how much to spend and the limits of
what things cost to make sure that you don't fall into the traps and you don't
get ripped off. I cannot stress enough how talented and strong these shops and
these retailers are at getting people to buy things when they're in the Caribbean.
You are funneled into those malls to shop and they know how to extract every
penny. I hope you found that helpful and it's given you something to think about. I'd
love it if you watch many more of my Tips For Travellers videos. They're
designed to help you make the most of your very precious travel time and also
money whether it's at sea, on land or on the rivers.