Caribbean St. Thomas cruise: diamond shopping??

Just wondering if anyone brought diamond while on Caribbean cruise and stop at St. Thomas? The ship's shopping expert highly recommend it (duty free port/those shops buy direct from wholesaler/no middlemen.. etc..).. but I am not diamond expert...

From what I see.. electronics (camera, cellphone, mp3) can be bargain for good price...but not sure about diamond.... alcoholic/wine drink seems cheap too...

St. Marrten is the cheapest for liquor, I believe I've seen 1L of Absolut vodka for $10USD. The shopping cruises are boring, went on Navigator of the sea with Royal Caribbeans. Believe you could get disccount on diamonds.

Originally Posted by etam

The ship's shopping expert highly recommend it

No advice here as I've never bought a diamond in the Caribbean, but of course the ship's shopping expert will 'highly' recommend it.... they get a commission/bonus everytime a passenger from one of their ships makes a purchase at one of these stores.

personally,
I've never bought a diamond in a store!

but I know even the "discount" places are still quite expensive.

If you go on Ebay, look at the seller "gemstoneking" (website: www.gemstoneking.net )

I've only bought 1 diamond ring from them, but am more than happy with it, I paid 85% less than the retail price, and most of his diamonds are are least 3/4 less than a reg store.
(I have nothing to do with them and just recoment them to people I know, I'll definitely be buying more stuff from them.......when i have money that is)

Also, if you have the chance, go to birks and pick up their diamond grading booklet- it's free and they also have a gemologist/jeweler who can give you more info in the store.
they are not pushy at all if you just go and ask for info.
I've gone there to ask them stuff many many times and they've never tried to sell me anything (I have bought stuff there before though, just not diamonds).

What would worry me about buying a diamond from one of these small shops is what do you do if it is "not exactly as described".??
Can you get your money back? and what is the garantee?

When I bought my diamond ring from gemstone king, they said if it was not exactly as described they'd refund all my money, plus the appraisal fees.
My ring was exactly what they said it was, and also the exact weight of gold in their ad. Also the diamond was given the exact same grade!

Maybe I'm just a bit overly cautious, but I'd rather be.

Well, you have to know the price of diamonds at home.
Its easy to know with a Movado or a Rolex, u can easily compare prices.
With jewellery its different.


Having said that, wife bought some nice diamond ear rings in St Thomas.
When they were showing them to us, I said we'd like to walk outside, have a beer and think about. In no less than 1 minute, 2 ice cold Heinekens were served to us - at the jewellery store !!

Originally Posted by mlc2000

Well, you have to know the price of diamonds at home.
Its easy to know with a Movado or a Rolex, u can easily compare prices.
With jewellery its different.


Having said that, wife bought some nice diamond ear rings in St Thomas.
When they were showing them to us, I said we'd like to walk outside, have a beer and think about. In no less than 1 minute, 2 ice cold Heinekens were served to us - at the jewellery store !!

It does help to know a bit about the merchandise before going down. I ended up buying a raw stone for an ear ring. BTW, raw stones apparently are DUTY FREE. What got us was that they have so many different models that just don't show up on Canadian counters, so how do you compare? The products are different.

Can't remember where I bought, St. Thomas or St. Maarten.

I think I got a good deal, probably not great, but what we noticed was the actual selection was far greater than anything we've seen here at home.

Lots of raw stones, an amazing and what seemed like an endless selection of watches.

Liquor is super cheap..and once again the variety is unbelievable.

Well.. I guess it is easy to say that if you know what you are doing..
you should be able to get some kind of deals there... (at least.. so
far... no really bad experience to tell...).

Oh.. for St. Maarten... I should go to the beach on the French side free bling bling for your eyes there...

Originally Posted by etam

Well.. I guess it is easy to say that if you know what you are doing..
you should be able to get some kind of deals there... (at least.. so
far... no really bad experience to tell...).

Oh.. for St. Maarten... I should go to the beach on the French side free bling bling for your eyes there...

OMG!! i missed it?!?! take pics for me!! =P anyways St. Maarten is good for liquor, really relaly cheap! when i mean cheap, i mean mayb at least 80% off..