Columbia Emerald Store

[fabby50]

Hey! I usually just ignore the jewelery flyers/sales on our cruises (giving them lots of paper to recyle). BUT - we are leaving on the Jewel this Friday and I am looking for a gift for my mom. Her 75th birthday is May 16th, so the gift of choice is a pair of really nice emerald earrings.

 

I have looked at the Columbia Emerald website and I printed off all the pages with the earrings I think we can afford. I have heard that one day aboard they have a 50% off sale. Kind of wondering if this is 50% off a enormous cruise passenger markup or a true sale.

 

Any experience here? I was going to take the printouts and negotiate with them if I could. Any experience dealing with the sales people on board?

 

Thanks for any advice you can give. We are going on the Southern Caribbean route, so if there is an island that someone can recommend on that cruise with a good emerald store, I could check that out too. I just figured on-board shopping included a warranty.

 

Thanks again!

[terrymtex01]

I honestly can't remember if it is DI or CE that will not bargin with you on the price. It could be one or both of them. If you were stopping in Cozumel, I would be able to recommend a great place for jewelry shopping but it probably isn't on your Southern Caribbean itinenary.

 

From what I understand, the CE's onboard the ship are supposed to be the same price as the CE's on shore. I couldn't swear by this as we usually do not shop either DI or CE. My one word of caution.. be sure and look the stones over very carefully. The reason why I don't care for CE or DI is at both they tried to sell us jewelry where we could see flaws in the stones with our naked eye.

 

If you could list off the ports you are stopping at that might help some of us give you some alternative stores to check out.

[JohnIreland]

From what I understand, the CE's onboard the ship are supposed to be the same price as the CE's on shore..

 

There is a sign to that effect in the store.

 

Either ways beats Irish prices by a mile :D

[NoPiratesPlease]

Columbian Emeralds on-board is required to, and will comply with the requirement that all large purchases on-board be submitted to US Customs. If you are on an Alaskan cruise it's better to buy on shore as there's no customs application by law--and that's according to the Constitution. However, when you make purchases on foreign shores you are supposed to self-report them to US Customs.

[seasideny]

Not sure what ports you're visiting but I went to the one in the port of Bridgetown, Barbados and they were willing to work out a price for me. I love Columbian Emeralds. Good Luck and have a great cruise.

 

By the way - Diamonds International will also bargain with you in St.Thomas and St. Marteen so I'm sure they all will.

[Ms belp]

I honestly can't remember if it is DI or CE that will not bargin with you on the price. It could be one or both of them. If you were stopping in Cozumel, I would be able to recommend a great place for jewelry shopping but it probably isn't on your Southern Caribbean itinenary.

 

From what I understand, the CE's onboard the ship are supposed to be the same price as the CE's on shore. I couldn't swear by this as we usually do not shop either DI or CE. My one word of caution.. be sure and look the stones over very carefully. The reason why I don't care for CE or DI is at both they tried to sell us jewelry where we could see flaws in the stones with our naked eye.

 

If you could list off the ports you are stopping at that might help some of us give you some alternative stores to check out.

 

I'm going to Cozumel and would appreciate the tip on where to look for a nice piece of jewelry there. Thanks.

[terrymtex01]

I'm going to Cozumel and would appreciate the tip on where to look for a nice piece of jewelry there. Thanks.

 

Cozumel has my favorite jewelry store in the Caribbean. Actually there are two there that I love and I hate to say it, but I can't remember the name of the second one. My most favorite is Touch of Gold. Now you have to keep in mind we shop for mens jewelry, but to me, they have the best selection of all the jewelry stores for men. There are a few there with nice selections, but Touch of Gold is my fav. I wish you could have seen the ring Doug picked out for me there.. LOL.. For a ring to be too big for my tastes.. LOL.. well...it has to be huge.. let me just say that... I think it was probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 or 11 carats worth of diamonds and sapphires..It was beautiful, just not my taste.. he was trying to pick out something for an anniversary present last Oct and when he showed it to me I almost died. Thank goodness I was able to direct him to one more my tastes.. But it was sweet of him. I hope he never reads this thread.. LOL

 

There are many there with beautiful women's jewelry. Also there is one further down from the peir than Touch of Gold, that I just can not remember the name of either, but they had a HUGE selection of lose stones if you ever buy any of those. I buy those every now and then for my sister and they had some very beautiful stones. I don't think you could miss the one I am thinking of because they had the largest selection of loose stones of all the shops there by the pier. And when I say shops by the pier.. i don't mean the ones you get to when you cross the sidewalk over the street...the ones in the "mall" type place you come to.. but I mean the ones up and down the street.

[cruisinmama0]

It's Rachat and Romero that has the loose stones and can set them for you if you want to wait for it. My mom and I picked out a stone for me and a setting then left for lunch at las Palmeras. After lunch and a little shopping on the way back to the store my ring was ready!

[cv322]

I had an excellent experience with Colombian Emeralds Internation while onboard the Majesty. I bought a stunning sapphire & diamond ring, set in yellow gold, (which was on their website at $1750) for $895. They also sized it for me. They also gave me a bottle of Chanel No.5 from the parfumerie as a thank you gift!

 

When in St.Thomas I like to shop at Cardow Jewelers.

 

I'm also very interested in knowing the name of the jeweler in Cozumel with the loose stones if anyone can remember. ;).

[fabby50]

Thank you everyone for your responses. CV322 - that's the kind of story I was really hoping to hear! With these economic times, the cruise is a big expense for us, but my mom only turns 75 once, so I've got to get her a great gift!

 

Off to the airport tomorrow and onto the beautiful Jewel on Friday. I'll report back my experience when we get back.

[Schnauzergirl]

My experiences have been very positive with CE, both on Aruba and St Thomas. My pieces purchased there were appraised dramatically higher than what I paid. My stateside jeweler had positive things to say about CE and the pieces she sees from them. She did identify some cracks under the scope in the diamond earrings I bought at DI, however, and they appraised at about what I paid.

 

Terry, thanks for the jewelers you like on Coz. It is one of our ports coming up in a few weeks, and we are celebrating our tenth anniv and DH's birthday. Interesting and attractive men's jewelry can be hard to find; I am looking forward to checking out Touch of Gold for him. I do enjoy reading your posts. You are very helpful on the boards!

[terrymtex01]

My experiences have been very positive with CE, both on Aruba and St Thomas. My pieces purchased there were appraised dramatically higher than what I paid. My stateside jeweler had positive things to say about CE and the pieces she sees from them. She did identify some cracks under the scope in the diamond earrings I bought at DI, however, and they appraised at about what I paid.

 

Terry, thanks for the jewelers you like on Coz. It is one of our ports coming up in a few weeks, and we are celebrating our tenth anniv and DH's birthday. Interesting and attractive men's jewelry can be hard to find; I am looking forward to checking out Touch of Gold for him. I do enjoy reading your posts. You are very helpful on the boards!

 

Thank you for saying that, and you are very welcome. I wish I could remember the name of the other store.. and actually there were three of them that we found their mens jewelry to be great.. but I just cant. They are all there along that strip with Touch of Gold. All three of them did great as far as bargining too. Yes, you can find beautiful womens jewelry all over and in most ports, but Cozumel wins hands down to me for mens jewelry as far as the Caribbean. Aruba would come in second I think followed by Grand Caymen. If on an Alaskan cruise, Juneau had some great stuff for men too.