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8 Caribbean Cruise Port Shopping Tips. How to avoid traps, tricks and rip-offs
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Jan 28, 2025
Shopping in Caribbean cruise ports while cruising the region is (reportedly) the biggest single activity by travellers. It is likely that everyone will buy something in at least one of the ports they are calling on. It can range from expensive watches and jewellery through to alcohol and cigarettes or clothing. There are a range of different Caribbean cruise port shopping options and with so many people passing through every week, the stores have become masters at selling. However, there are pitfalls that cruisers can fall into. I talk about how to prepare and ensure that you avoid the traps, tricks and rip-offs that you may unwittingly fall into or get caught out by. Check out cruising merchandise like T-shirts at my store at https://www.tipsfortravellers.com/store Support the channel by booking your next cruise and for the best deals on CRUISEDIRECT.COM: https://www.tipsfortravellers.com/CruiseDirectYT Consider becoming a Tips For Travellers Patron. Find out more at https://www.patreon.com/tipsfortravellers Follow Tips For Travellers on: - Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/garybembridge - Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tipsfortravellers - Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/garybembridge #CaribbeanCruise #CaribbeanTips #CaribbeanShopping
View Video Transcript
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you're about to discover how to avoid
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the pitfalls of traps and getting ripped
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off if you're planning to shop when
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you're on your Caribbean cruise hi I'm
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Gary Babbage and this is another of my
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tips for travelers although in my view
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when you're the Caribbean you should be
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out there enjoying the culture the
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beaches the sights shopping has become a
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really big part of the Caribbean and
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Caribbean cruising if that has been
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reported that everybody who goes on a
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Caribbean cruise will do some form of
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shopping whilst they're on their cruise
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so I'm gonna tell you the nine things to
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watch out for to make sure that you
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avoid the traps you avoid the pitfalls
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and you don't get ripped off first of
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all it's worth explaining why shopping
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has become so big in the Caribbean it's
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partly because you can get incredible
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deals if you're careful and there's a
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couple of reasons for that first of all
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the Caribbean islands are duty and tax
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free shopping havens so that has one
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impact on the price secondly the volume
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there's a huge amount of passengers
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passing through all your cruise ports
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the retailers across the Caribbean have
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become so big and they have so much
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volume that they're able to buy direct
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from the suppliers and they are able to
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get huge discounts so that combined with
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the duty-free means that they are able
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to offer great prices also what's
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happened around shopping in the
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Caribbean for cruise passengers is these
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shopping advisors have emerged as which
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are partnerships between the Cruise
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Lines the big chains to encourage people
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to shop and to try and give them
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incentives to shop in certain stores so
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let me talk about the nine tips to make
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sure that you avoid the scams the
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ripoffs and the traps that a lot of
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people fall into first of all it's about
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the itinerary now depending on how
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important shopping is to you there are
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three different types of ports and three
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different types of experiences first on
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those which is probably the most
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prevalent across the Caribbean are the
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big cruise port two shopping malls and
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you'll find pretty much every port you
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get off has a more that you have to go
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through to go on excursions or go
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anywhere you have to go through this big
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shopping mall packed and there are loads
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of shops including lots of chains like
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diamonds international Effie tanzanite
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international and that's become the
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predominant shopping experience in the
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Caribbean
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these big shopping malls the second is
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the big more classic town shopping
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experience so that tends to be in big
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places like in Barbados in santa lucia
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and antigua so these are big towns where
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actually the shopping experience is much
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more of a traditional big town shopping
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experience with things like department
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stores the third is the much more
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traditional shopping and crafts market
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type set up these said to be in smaller
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ports and slightly more eco ports so
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you'll find for example in Dominica that
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you don't have the big shopping more
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when you come off the ship and you'll
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find much more local markets so based on
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your shopping passions as you looking at
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inner a bear in mind that if you're
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looking to buy things like diamonds and
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watches those big traditional malls are
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really going to find most of those deals
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so that big cruise ports where the big
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ships go to you'll find that's the most
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dominant way of shopping it's very easy
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to get it caught up in the excitement of
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shopping so you'll find you're given
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lots of leaflets and booklets and this
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talks about shopping there's lots of
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discussion and centers about great deals
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that you can get there's lots of
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encouragement to go into store so it's
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very easy to get caught up in a wave and
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end up coming back with watches or
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jewelry that you're perhaps don't really
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need so make sure before you go are you
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really interested in getting new watch
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diamonds jewelry whatever it is before
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you go and also be clear about what your
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budget is the second thing linked to
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that is make sure that you know what the
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prices of things are enough if you are
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plan to spend money on expensive items
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jewelry watches but even clothing or
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booze make sure you know what the price
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is back home and very importantly with
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online selling so bear in mind nowadays
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you have lots of online retailers which
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will have great prices so you often find
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that actually it's not such a great deal
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so make sure before you spend lot of
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money on anything that you know what it
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costs back home
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don't focus on discounts what most of
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them will do is quote prices which are
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discounts off the manufacturer
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recommended retail price which nobody
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charges anyway it's a fake price so the
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fact that it's 60% cheaper doesn't
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really mean anything make sure you know
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the absolute actual price and don't
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focus on the percentage discount now if
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you decide you are going to shop in the
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Caribbean I do recommend actually that
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you do engage with the onboard shopping
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advisors you do have to be a little bit
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careful because the shopping advisors
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are partnerships between the cruise
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lines and the major retailers and the
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major retailers pay fees to take part in
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the onboard shopping talks the various
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leaflets the booklets Barrowman they're
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not entirely unbiased however if you do
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plan to go shopping the great thing
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about the shopping advisors is they will
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be able to direct you towards reputable
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retailers so they will know the ones
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that do have higher quality goods so
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you're not gonna be ripped off with fake
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goods and they do tend to have
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one-to-one sessions where you can go and
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see them and they will also help and
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guide you they'll also come with you to
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the store now bear in mind as I said
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they have a hidden agenda because I'm
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guess they earn commissions their job is
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to get you to the stores the stores job
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is once you're there to then sell to you
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there's lots of different centers and
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promotions so if you gotta go shopping
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you mentor go and get those incentives
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and take advantage of those because
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you're going to get them unless you go
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to the shopping advisor now if you're
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planning to buy expensive items very
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importantly buy in the chain stores
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especially the ones that are recommended
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or endorsed by the cruise line in the
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very shocking onboard brochures the
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advantage with that is first of all if
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you have any problems or issues you can
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take it to the same chain in the next
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port of call you have some sense of
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recourse whilst you're still on the
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cruise so shopping this change is very
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important the advantage of course is
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also that because they're big chains can
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shop with self confidence that the
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products that you are buying are genuine
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focus on those big chain stores unless
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you know a lot about what you're doing
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when you're on a cruise in the Caribbean
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I should recommend not buying on board
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partly because in my experience I don't
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think the prices on board are the
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sharpest prices that you can get if you
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do plan to buy something aboard what I
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do recommend is wait to the end of the
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cruise because you'll normally find that
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there are different promotions or
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activities if the shops aren't selling
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what they is supposed to sell or their
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targets are to sell you'll find this
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different incentives as the cruise goes
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on so really big tip is make sure that
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you buy towards the end if you are going
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to buy onboard now a very important
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thing is checking what your duty free
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allowances are before you go home so you
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might be buying a lot of stuff in the
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Caribbean however you might
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find when you try and bring it back home
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if you get stopped in customs or you
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have to declare it that actually you
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either find that it's not within your
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allowance you can appear a lot of duty
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and taxes and wipe out any savings that
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you've got so I understand what you are
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able to take home before you start
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splurging out with it cigarettes booze
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watches jewelry clothes they someone to
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planning to buy time you're shopping
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really carefully so what is really
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important if you want something made you
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maybe have some truly adapted go
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shopping really early when you get to
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the port and then you're gonna go and
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handle on your excursions or whatever
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because then they have time to fix it
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repair it adapted adjusted by the end of
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the day now in many cases a lot of these
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chains will also arrange to deliver the
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products to the ship it's also check if
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that's possible so the great thing is
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you go out do your shopping get things
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lined up to be adjusted or change and
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they will make sure that it gets to you
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on board the ship if you are unsure
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shopping towards in the day might create
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some pressure on the salesperson to give
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you more discount when you're in the
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shop just handle now the idea is the if
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you've gone shopping with the shopping
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advisers they will give you some
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guidance but do haggle there is an
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expectation rightly or wrongly that you
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should be haggling when you in these
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stores so do give some pushback and
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particularly shopping it later in the
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day depending on how the shoppings going
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on budgets you might find that you have
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a little more leverage another thing
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that I really strongly recommend you do
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is try and break away out of those mores
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out of those ports and try and find some
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local markets trying by some local
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products handcrafted products you'll
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find many of those shops in those malls
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love the souvenirs and products are
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pretty generic and honestly you've made
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in the Caribbean and you'll find they're
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pretty much the same across every island
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just with the island name changed so
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actually try and get into some local
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markets and buy some local products so
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support the local economy what a big
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challenges with cruise passengers going
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to ports is there might cheapen ship out
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there might shop in those Moors in those
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internationally owned chains and a lot
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of money's not actually going into
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economy so please get out and support
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the local markets
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in some ways personally I think is a
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little bit unfortunate that shopping has
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become such a big part of the Caribbean
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experience however that's
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Nature had a lot of people clearly want
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to shop otherwise it wouldn't happen
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there is some things that you need to do
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to make sure that you don't fall into
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the traps of to experiment these shops
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are extremely experienced and very
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knowledgeable and they know how to
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manipulate and get passengers to spend a
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lot of money so make sure that you're
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well prepared and use these tips to make
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sure that you know exactly what you want
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to buy how you want to buy it how much
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to spend and basically the limits of
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what things cost to make sure that you
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don't fall into the traps and you don't
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get ripped off I cannot stress enough
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how talented and strong these shops and
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these retailers are at getting people to
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buy things when they're in the Caribbean
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and you are funneled into those malls to
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shop and they know how to extract every
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penny hope you found that helpful it's
9:42
given you something to think about I'd
9:43
love it if you watch many more of my
9:44
tips of travel news videos they're
9:46
designed to help you make the most of
9:47
your very precious travel time and also
9:50
money whether it's at sea on land or on
9:54
the rivers
9:55
[Music]
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[Applause]
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