It's Just Not Worth It

[Colo Cruiser]

Unset stones, cut or uncut are considered rocks, therefore, no duty (at least not yet).

 

Better take the printout out of that policy with you. :eek:

[caribill]

Better take the printout out of that policy with you. :eek:

 

Jewelers and customs agents are very familiar with this:

 

Loose gemstones, for example, are exempt from (USA) customs duties. That means unset precious stones (diamonds, tanzanite, rubies, sapphires, emeralds) do not count toward the allowance total. Spend as much as you like on a loose diamond, for example, and you won't pay a penny of duty.

[partsman]

This happened to my wife when we disembarking from our last cruise.When she bought her jewerly onboard the sales clerk told her she did not have to claim it since it was made in the US.Luckily she kept her reciept that was stamped no duty owed.If she didnt have the reciept we proberly would have been fined so save them!!Still scary though when you get called out and have no reason why.

[Colo Cruiser]

Jewelers and customs agents are very familiar with this:

 

Loose gemstones, for example, are exempt from (USA) customs duties. That means unset precious stones (diamonds, tanzanite, rubies, sapphires, emeralds) do not count toward the allowance total. Spend as much as you like on a loose diamond, for example, and you won't pay a penny of duty.

 

Like I said I would still take the printout, I would not want to get delayed by that customs agent that needs to verify policy or flat out does not know.

[belle836]

Well, I believe this little discussion has just cured any ambitions I had to sail again after I go on my first ever cruise to Alaska. I can deal with airlines and customs interrogations but being "bonged" just for trying to get off the ship is a little too much.

[kruisey]

I was told that Princess has to inform Customs of all purchases on board thats why I never go over my limit of $750 on a long cruise.

They used to have very expensive jewelry on board and noticed the last couple of years they don't have any more. I wonder if that is due to the duty and taxes

one would have to pay on debarkation.?

[caribill]

This happened to my wife when we disembarking from our last cruise.When she bought her jewerly onboard the sales clerk told her she did not have to claim it since it was made in the US.

 

There is a difference between reporting it on the customs form (all purchases outside the country need to be reported) and having to pay duty on what is reported. Just list the item(s) and mark them as not subject to duty and why.

[Toto2Kansas]

I was told that Princess has to inform Customs of all purchases on board thats why I never go over my limit of $750 on a long cruise.

They used to have very expensive jewelry on board and noticed the last couple of years they don't have any more. I wonder if that is due to the duty and taxes

one would have to pay on debarkation.?

 

There is always a jewelry store onboard selling very expensive jewelry on EVERY cruise I have sailed on with Princess. So, I question this statement of information.:confused:

[kruisey]

There is always a jewelry store onboard selling very expensive jewelry on EVERY cruise I have sailed on with Princess. So, I question this statement.:confused:

 

Well my dear I must go around the jewelry counter wearing blinkers then.:D

[Toto2Kansas]

Well my dear I must go around the jewelry counter wearing blinkers then.:D

 

Evidentally you must.

[Coral]

When we used the EZ Check program last year in San Juan, we had the porter collect our bags in the terminal and then he took us and the bags through Customs. Customs never asked any questions and passed us through. Then we never saw the bags again until our destination.

 

I think everyone has to accompany their bags through Customs.

 

When you use EZ Check in FLL and Seattle - your bags go directly to the airline. You do not claim them to go through customs. Apparently it is different in San Juan.

[Coral]

I do have a funny story here -somewhat related but not cruise related. I have friends who take college students on international trips. One of the students bought a very expensive piece of jewelry in Singapore (I think) -- his mom wanted him to buy it. He asked the professor how he should declare it and the professor said "be honest". Wherever he declared it, it was in a foreign currency and the customs guy looked at this student in tshirts and jeans and then the declaration form and said "you put too many zeros in here (thinking the student didn't understand the currency) and adjusted the value and sent the kid on his way".

[Colo Cruiser]

Yes they still carry the high end jewelry onboard. :)

[Woobstr112G]

I was told that Princess has to inform Customs of all purchases on board thats why I never go over my limit of $750 on a long cruise.

They used to have very expensive jewelry on board and noticed the last couple of years they don't have any more. I wonder if that is due to the duty and taxes

one would have to pay on debarkation.?

 

Trust me, They do.....:):):)

 

Bob

[kruisey]

I love looking at nice jewelry and used to drool over the wonderful real pearls Tahitian ones.....$15,000:eek:.........I bought Majorca on board :)

Also on Sun Princess several years ago they had a Gem Show on Emeralds lovely big ones........I have never seen those BIG stones again since on board.

[DNArocks]

I also had to declare a ring I had purchased. I had managed to save a bit of cash so I was able to buy up from the amount my husband was under the impression I had paid.

I didn't mind paying the duty...I just didn't want to admit to my husband how much I had spent on a ring.

I was trying to slip the paper with the real price to the custom's agent (my husband left that line blank). When they took us into the special room for the two-on-two questioning it finally came down to "How much did you actually spend". I asked if I could whisper it. Laughter did occur (I don't think they usually react quite like that).

I finally had to say it out loud..."What, how much???" the agent said allowing me to yell the amount in case anyone in the near by rooms had missed it. They had me pay a fraction of what I thought they would and passed me on.

Lesson: ALWAYS tell them/declare what you have bought. Real, real price.

Of couse my husband didn't care a bit, but darn I hate having to admit my weight to helicopter pilots and real price paid to anyone.

[Zoey1]

I'd like to mention an experience I went through while getting off the Ruby yesterday. When I put my cruise card in the box an alarm went off and I was ushered off the ship to a seperate customs area due to a large purchase I made while onboard. I wasn't in trouble or anything because I did declare it on my customs form. I just had to pay an extra $360.00 in duty. This is a reminder to those out there who might be thinking of not declaring their purchases made on board that it's just not worth it. While I did pay the extra duty the fine, according to the customs agent, would have been almost $3,000.

 

In a while I will be posting a complete review of the ship. I have also begun to upload pictures to my the flickr site. the link is in my signature.

 

Take Care All..............:):):)

 

Bob

 

We had the exact same experience today getting off the Crown, luckily we also had declared it, the tax was only under $40 so really not worth it ;-) but it was the cruise card that set off the alarm for us as well( Hubby bought a pricey watch onboard). Luckily he knew where the recipt was to prove the amount listed and entire thing from cruise card through to customs was less than 5-10 minutes.

[Zoey1]

What's interesting about this is that it was the CRUISE CARD at disembarkation that triggered the alarm, not the declaration form at customs. Usually the card alarm is triggered only if money is owing to the ship.

 

So Bob, you're saying that the large amount of an on board purchase triggered the alarm?? I've never heard of such a thing. On the Tahitian Princess debarking in Papetee, I had made several pearl purchases on the ship and nothing happened. I wonder what the $$ cut off is for the alarm.

 

THat was our experience as well, as we were disembarking, and put our cruise card in the machine a little alarm went off, we couldn't imagine, the ship person was very kind and said it was nothing to be alarmed about, done at random and probably something we bought on the ship, we then realized it was the only large purchase we made, we had declared that and a couple of smaller items we brought home for the kids, actually think it got us through customs faster than had it not gone off!

[chasetf]

We had table mates who were two women friends traveling together. One was elite and the other had a eye on a babble in the onboard jewelry store. The elite friend bought it on her account to get the 10% discount for her friend.... who paid her back.

 

The part they forgot was it put her over the limit. Fortunately they were informed before disembarkation and the friend anted up the addition duty due. ;)

[Coral]

I also had to declare a ring I had purchased. I had managed to save a bit of cash so I was able to buy up from the amount my husband was under the impression I had paid.

I didn't mind paying the duty...I just didn't want to admit to my husband how much I had spent on a ring.

 

Too funny!

[Willcar]

Are you sure it was the jewelry declaration, or did you use the special baggage service through which you leave your bags out the night before disembarkation and see them again at your home airport? We used that service on HAL last month in FLL (Princess has the same service, I believe) and the same thing happened... alarm, escorted to the feds, who had inspected two of our bags and wanted to inspect us. Our guess was that in order to approve the program of bags going directly from the ship to the airport with no intervention from their owner, the feds insisted they could conduct random checks of people using the service and we ended up being among the chosen. Seems logical...