TRAVEL THERE: USING CRUISE COUPONS FOR JEWELRY ON ST THOMAS
As Deb and I glided out of Bobby’s Jewelers in a haze of shopping euphoria, we spotted Milano Diamond Gallery, one of the coupon stores.
At Milano Diamond Gallery
We walked in waving our special offers in the air, because we’d already bought everything we could afford to buy for ourselves. A nice man took us to the back of the store to give us our free jewelry – a beautiful rhinestone pendant. And if we bought the silver chain he was offering at a ridiculously low price, he’d throw in the earrings.
I know a good deal when I see one. I asked if I could buy additional chains. As we’d collected up our free jewelry at other stores, many pieces had been a pendant of some sort, but no chains had been offered along with them. I was going to need chains anyway and these looked like the kind I’d have to pay a whole lot more money for in Dallas. Here’s the funny thing, though. For every silver chain I bought, this guy gave me another pendant of some sort. I ended up with another bunch of necklaces with pendants for a price I’d been happy to pay for the chains alone. I still came home with pendants for which I had no chain, but I couldn’t get him to quit giving me free pendants.
On to Little Switzerland, Sort of
We rolled out of the store laughing at the haul we’d made. Checking our watches, we realized it was time to head back to Sunny Liston’s bus, but instead of back-tracking, we popped through one of the shopping passages and strolled along the waterfront. Sunny had parked right in front of a Little Switzerland and we were interested in looking at their Impulse Collection. We’d seen the collection in a shopping guide and it had some really cute items for very affordable prices. So we were moving along briskly to have plenty of time to shop there.
That’s when we were waylaid by our new best friend. All along the shopping streets were barkers hired by the stores to get shoppers into their establishments. We’d ignored most of them, especially after the ugly chotskie incident. However, a very nice Rastafarian fellow approached us and he was so polite and soft spoken we didn’t even realize he was of the barker fraternity, at first.
Soon, we caught the drift of what he was offering. The store he represented had the best quality stones at the best prices on the island, just like all his barker brothers were promising. We listened to his schpiel and though we promised to consider his shop, we were focused on getting to Little Switzerland before the bus left. As we walked away, he shouted, “Stay focused!” and warned us of other barkers who would try to take us off course. That tickled our funny bone and we decided to stop by his store, just to let them know they had a sterling employee out there on the sidewalk.
Our Rastafarian friend directed us up Drake’s passage to Eden Jewelers. After the glamorous shops we’d enjoyed on Dronnings Gade, Eden’s was a little less luxurious, but don’t let that dissuade you from visiting. The shopkeeper was very nice and he did have lovely things for good prices in his shop. In fact, he was offering us all kinds of deals that we wished we could buy, but we’d run out of money and were swiftly running out of time.
We felt sorry for the guy, we really did, but there was no way for him to draw blood out of our turnips. He lamented that our Rastafarian friend had done his job, but that we weren’t allowing the jeweler himself to do his own. I was impervious, but he finally found something Deb could buy as a gift for someone on her list. It was all of $12.99, but it made the guy happy and he gave us some free earrings to boot. I was thrilled with the earrings. They were freshwater pearls which would match one of the pendants I’d gotten at Milano.
The clock was really running down now and we still had to stop in Little Switzerland. On our way out of Drake’s Passage, we saw our Rastafarian friend. I yelled, “We stayed focused AND we bought something.” Our new best friend was filled with glee. He ran up the street and hugged us. That was well worth the $12.99 Deb spent. She’d bought me two presents that day.
We did avail ourselves of Little Switzerland’s Impulse Collection and fell out into the street and onto Sunny’s bus. We were those annoying tourists that show up at the last minute holding up everyone else on the tour, but I’m afraid we didn’t care.
Sunny headed up the mountain to continue the tour, but I’ll tell you about that next week. The fun has only begun.
jane sadek 