Carnival and The Shopping Show: How to shop in ports of call

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As a self-proclaimed shop-a-holic I will tell you I have no shame in the fact that I attended a Shopping Show to learn more about shopping on the islands from the Carnival Expert!

I will never stop shopping, I shop because I love to buy certain things for others and myself and becuase it is relaxing. Go ahead, judge me, but I don’t care!

I’d like to give you a little bit of insight as to how to shop the ports of call. I am a shop-a-holic as you know, and I love my purchases, but I don’t just make a purchase, I consider things before I make purchases, and on a cruise I really think about what I am going to buy and when to buy it.

I will tell you that shopping is shopping, no matter where you go, but if you know a little bit about the port, where to shop, where to use the facilities and what the island or country of destination is best known for, you have the best chance of scoring a great souvenir of the island without a big price tag!

Lavishly live the best of both worlds, cruising and shopping out loud and learn about Carnival and The Shopping Show!

Hello Shopping, Come to Momma!

Saying the word Carnival is like saying the word ‘show’ they are that synonymous, so when Carnival’s Daily Itinerary offers you a “Fun Finds Shopping Show” you go and you win prizes and learn all about the port of call! Here’s to lavishly living shopping out loud aboard the Sunshine, with gusto and how to lavishly gain the best pieces compliments of the ship’s shopping expert.

Today, while everyone else was busy running about the ship, I asked my husband to join me for a show about shopping. Now as you can imagine he was hardly excited to join me to learn how to spend money or how to shop, but he knew as I did that shopping at the ports of call was always a short period of time and if we wanted to grab the goods (so to speak) we needed to know where to shop and why.

I love shopping, it is a hobby, and I love just perusing, but with time being precious short on each excursion day, I needed to know where the goods were and when to buy them, so I went to a show where I learned quickly what to do and where to buy!

TIP

One Tip I will provide– Buy On Board your own ship, we found watches, clothing and so much more and NEVER had to waste our days on dry land in stores. We also never worried about the quality of product when shopping on the ship, all great reasons to shop on board!

The Shopping Expert on board our shop had been to 64 countries and worked on 3 different cruise lines, I felt he was well-qualified to tell us where to shop and why. He did suggest Diamonds International as a point if we were looking for jewelry and he also offered up a VIP Carnival Shopping Passes for $300 off purchases at a few places on this Cozumel port of call.

The shopper only had a limited amount of the passes, but when you hand them over to the store associates you are treated quite well- so of course we obtained one of these. Our shopping expert also provided shopping maps of the port of call which showed us the lay of the land so we could navigate and use our time wisely while ashore.

TIP

I will tell you the show moves quickly and the host is not as personable in person as he is in the show, IMO, and after going to find him on the ship. Beyond that, you will learn a lot about shopping and pay attention, because you need to know how the shopping works. Also get informed about jewelry, jewelry vendors and where you should buy from, cause trust me, if you don’t know, you will not like the results!

Tip

We did use our pass while shopping at the local stores and we followed our maps when getting off the ship. I do advise at least taking in one of these shopping classes if you are remotely interested in purchasing jewelry as there is often one session that will talk about gems and diamonds, giving you at least a brief overview of what you might be after and where to purchase. If you don’t get enough information during the show, make sure to align a time to speak to your shopping expert, as he/she can guide you to the appropriate store when you are off the ship.

Remember if you see something you like, buy it, the next island won’t be the same!

We personally spoke with the Expert Shopper, he gave us a time to announce ourselves at the store, and we made him aware we would be there, and that we would also be touring. This all worked out well and allowed us to not worry about running around place-to-place to gain pricing and products.

Here’s the best piece of advise our Shopping Expert provided:

” If you see it and you like it, buy it because each island and county is different and you will NEVER see the same product twice!”

When it came to buying a little handmade bracelet with my son’s name on it, I not only negotiated the price, but we also bought it because we knew we would never have the opportunity to purchase anything like it again!

Do make time for the small things when you are on the Carnival Ships, take in all the shows you can, and enjoy knowledge. You won’t believe how many people crowd into these little presentations and you can drink during them, so don’t stop the party, just stop time to learn a bit more in order to make a better purchase.

Carnival is ready to help you make every possible facet of your trip perfect. As a side note, our Shopping Expert was giving away shopping bags to some in the audience so it definitely was worth going to watch the people grab at the prizes, lol! Here’s to lavishly living shopping out loud as we were Cruising Carnival on the Sunshine and enjoying every minute! If you see something you like, buy it, don’t think twice because the opportunity may never present itself again– spoken like a true shopper!

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