Celebrity Constellation

[templed]

IMO... I try to stay away from the shops on board... unless it's something that I can't buy anywhere other than the ship, ie. X branded clothing, etc..

 

The spas... it's the same on every ship, and line I've been on... Hard sell, after the treatment... I personally have just learned to blame my inability to buy anything on my wife... ;) "I'll have to ask my wife, and get back to you" (all said with a big smile).

[cat616]

Hi All,

 

We did the Russian cruise on Constellation several years ago. I was very very very angry to discover I had been dupped into waiting to make purchases in Estonia. We were advised by many of the cruise staff to wait until Estonia to make Russian purchases. I have never had that type of advice from cruise staff for any other port so can only assume that Tallinn may be giving some thing extra to the crew for the bad advice.

 

How many chances will I ever get to return to Russia? Probably never. I am still angry about missing my one opportunity.

 

Why do I travel? To see the the world and learn about it's people.

 

Did I learn something from this? You bet.

 

If I see a product for a fair price I should buy it then and there.

 

I will never take advice from a crew member as fact as it may be tainted by greed.

 

I do not hold Celebrity responsible for this scam but I do wish they would acknowledge that it exists and take steps to STOP it.

 

Enough said.....

 

 

Happy Travels

 

 

Cindy

[tomvk]

Hi Everyone

I learned early on to be leery of shopping recommendations given aboard any ship.I'm sure they only recommend merchants that kick them something back. A lot of stores will ask you what ship your on ( a bit of a give away). The shopping passport is a rip off, as for the art auctions I find it hard to believe that there are that many masterpieces available at such low prices.There have been posts about people having problems with the wine auctions.And the spa is another thing on our last cruise my wife went for a consultation for the detoxifcation .The consult was $100 then it was about $700 for 3 months worth of supplements she didn't buy them.

I try to book my shore tours on my own but in some places will go with the cruise line tour for a little piece of mind.

That being said we still like Celebrity.It's important that we continue to share information because they will always take advantage of a captive crowd with a vacation frame of mind. Tom

[Sky Sweet]

The day we were in Copenhagen we bought a gift for our daughter who lives in Chicago, and had it shipped by the store. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it only took a week to get from that store in Copenhagen to Chicago because it sometimes takes that long to get from our house in Connecticut to Chicago :)

 

It was not on the ship's list of recommended stores, but when we realized that there were more locals shopping in that store than tourists, we knew it was not a tourist trap :)