Continued from part 3
The second port of call was St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI). For a more complete description of St. Thomas, please see this previous article. Among the things that St. Thomas is noted for is its shopping. Visitors from the U.S. have additional duty free allowances for purchases made in the USVI. On any cruise, there is always a shopping coordinator, and a presentation of where the best places to shop are. What they don't tell you is that the places the recommend have paid to be part of the recommended list. There are many other fine shops that are not on that list.
One of my wife's favorite jewelry stores in St. Thomas is Liberty Jewelers. It is located in an alleyway of shops known as Drake's Passage. We have had good luck there on multiple occasions finding things that my wife both likes and that we can afford. The staff is extremely friendly and will work to ensure that you are satisfied.
Next door to Liberty Jewelers is K & M Jewelry Repair. Some months before our cruise, we had purchased some loose stones in an auction. We brought them with us to see if we could find a place to make custom settings for us. We had already been shopping for some time, so we only had a couple of hours left before we had to be back on the ship. They we able to take these two large stones (ruby and emerald) and turn them into slides that would be worn on my wife's Omega. While we waited for them to make the settings, we sat at a little bar next door. We used the free WiFi access to check our email while having a couple of drinks. The settings turned out great and were reasonably priced. I would highly recommend both Liberty Jewelers and K & M Jewelry Repair. The little bar was good also with a very friendly bartender and reasonable prices..
Once our shopping was done, it was back to the ship to get ready for dinner. The next port was St. Maarten, which is covered in part 5.
Comments