Wish high end shopping - too many shops, too much space in each, and too empty

[toontoy]

I would have to think these stores are not owned by Disney but are leased and they make more money than they would if they owned the stores. Similar to the spa on the ships.

 

[goofy4prez]

I would have to think these stores are not owned by Disney but are leased and they make more money than they would if they owned the stores. Similar to the spa on the ships.

This is the case. These stores are leased out by Diamonds International.

 

[Jason Martin]

I believe Diamonds International went into a contract with Disney for that space on the Wish. On the MV my first thought was why not make the Mainsails and DCL logo stuff a bigger area and take away space from the high end stuff. I don't know how long the contract is for but I bet it is way more than a year.

MJ

I was on the fantasy and made a high end purchase of jewelry. In discussions they told me that Diamonds International has 7 staff on the ship at a time for 6 month contracts. They are definitely investing money there. And personally I always have felt more comfortable purchasing on the ship versus at a shop in port

 

[Lesverts]

You have to be careful with the high-end stores on cruise ships. They are rarely a good deal. You can usually get the watches at better prices on land paying VAT. Lack of being able to do research on true costs of things makes it an uninformed decision. I do wonder what it is going to be like as cruise ships get more and more connected.

I was wearing a watch that I paid about 1500 less than it was being displayed for on ship.

Jewelry is a bit harder to quantify and with the decline in quality of brands like Tiffany (they do not use the same quality of stones they used in decades past, some because you cannot get them like Burmese stones and some because the highest quality stones are just too expensive) it becomes even harder to compare. For a price point above 5k, it is honestly better to shop for vintage and estate jewelry. You are more likely to get better stones and platinum settings vs white gold or gold.

Also I find on ship jewelry can play into lay-people's ignorance of stone value. Seen many pieces with various beryls that were priced like it was diamond encrusted. Beryls can be beautiful stones, but people are not as familiar with them and their relative per karat price vs diamond. That can lead to markups that are not what you'd see in the diamond districts of New York or Antwerp or Tel Aviv.

Oh and I have also found that on ship jewelry leans heavily into the marketing around colored diamonds. Stones that 50 years ago were worthless now get a new brand name like Chocolate Diamonds and they are being priced at or near quality colourless. They won't maintain the value.

 

[anricat]

You have to be careful with the high-end stores on cruise ships. They are rarely a good deal. You can usually get the watches at better prices on land paying VAT. Lack of being able to do research on true costs of things makes it an uninformed decision. I do wonder what it is going to be like as cruise ships get more and more connected.

I was wearing a watch that I paid about 1500 less than it was being displayed for on ship.

Jewelry is a bit harder to quantify and with the decline in quality of brands like Tiffany (they do not use the same quality of stones they used in decades past, some because you cannot get them like Burmese stones and some because the highest quality stones are just too expensive) it becomes even harder to compare. For a price point above 5k, it is honestly better to shop for vintage and estate jewelry. You are more likely to get better stones and platinum settings vs white gold or gold.

Also I find on ship jewelry can play into lay-people's ignorance of stone value. Seen many pieces with various beryls that were priced like it was diamond encrusted. Beryls can be beautiful stones, but people are not as familiar with them and their relative per karat price vs diamond. That can lead to markups that are not what you'd see in the diamond districts of New York or Antwerp or Tel Aviv.

Oh and I have also found that on ship jewelry leans heavily into the marketing around colored diamonds. Stones that 50 years ago were worthless now get a new brand name like Chocolate Diamonds and they are being priced at or near quality colourless. They won't maintain the value.

For me, ultimately, no diamond is a good deal when there's the chance that slavery was involved. I have diamonds I have inherited and diamonds I purchased many years ago and I'm certain the vast majority of them I don't want to know the history of their origins, but now that I do know, I just can't, in good conscious, buy any more diamonds. And I used to work for a jewelry shop, which is where I got a lot of my jewels. I was completely ignorant about the slave labor in the diamond industry.

 

[AquaDame]

I didn't trust myself to make a properly informed decision about a diamond, so I asked my to-be-husband to just get a moissanite that was grown in a lab in Canada. I still wouldn't be able to tell you a thing about jewels, so I am definitely not their target audience in those high end shops. Not to worry though, poor DCL gets our funds in other ways. If the shops don't meet whatever profit they envision when the contract is up I'm sure they'll jump ship and Disney will try something else in their space. If they hang around year after year we can assume its working out.

 

[Lesverts]

For me, ultimately, no diamond is a good deal when there's the chance that slavery was involved. I have diamonds I have inherited and diamonds I purchased many years ago and I'm certain the vast majority of them I don't want to know the history of their origins, but now that I do know, I just can't, in good conscious, buy any more diamonds. And I used to work for a jewelry shop, which is where I got a lot of my jewels. I was completely ignorant about the slave labor in the diamond industry.

Another very real problem. The Kimberley Process was suppose to stop much of this. But it hasn't. There is a massive difference in what your money is doing if the diamond comes from Botswana or Canada versus DRC or Zimbabwe.

 

[goofy4prez]

Another very real problem. The Kimberley Process was suppose to stop much of this. But it hasn't. There is a massive difference in what your money is doing if the diamond comes from Botswana or Canada versus DRC or Zimbabwe.

I don't disagree with this to a degree. Diamonds and the trail where they come from have been and continue to be an issue in some cases. However, virtually all of the largest retailers are committed to not selling Blood Diamonds or also known as Conflict Diamonds. It is estimated that currently, less than 5% of all diamonds are conflict diamonds. Can this accurately be measured? I really don't know. Nor am I saying there is not a problem.

But the question I would have is do we feel the same towards other products that we purchase that are coming from forced labor, impoverished laborers, child slavery, and sweatshops? Items like sneakers, bricks, coffee, carpets, rugs, electronics, cocoa, many fruits, cotton, and other goods we buy in our big box stores and over the Internet which come from China, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India just to name a few.

These products if produced under impoverished or forced labor, child labor, or slave labor were supposed to be halted from coming into the United States with the passage of the Tariff Act of 1930, but they didn't. These products were supposed to end in 2015 with the passage of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act (TFTEA), but it didn't (including diamonds). Now the U. S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) just in the last year or so have been able to enforce more fervently with a loophole having been eliminated. will it work? I don't know.

I'm not trying to debate, just stating a fact that this is a problem with so many more products than just precious stones and jewelry.

 

[Lesverts]

I don't disagree with this to a degree. Diamonds and the trail where they come from have been and continue to be an issue in some cases. However, virtually all of the largest retailers are committed to not selling Blood Diamonds or also known as Conflict Diamonds. It is estimated that currently, less than 5% of all diamonds are conflict diamonds. Can this accurately be measured? I really don't know. Nor am I saying there is not a problem.

But the question I would have is do we feel the same towards other products that we purchase that are coming from forced labor, impoverished laborers, child slavery, and sweatshops? Items like sneakers, bricks, coffee, carpets, rugs, electronics, cocoa, many fruits, cotton, and other goods we buy in our big box stores and over the Internet which come from China, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India just to name a few.

These products if produced under impoverished or forced labor, child labor, or slave labor were supposed to be halted from coming into the United States with the passage of the Tariff Act of 1930, but they didn't. These products were supposed to end in 2015 with the passage of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act (TFTEA), but it didn't (including diamonds). Now the U. S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) just in the last year or so have been able to enforce more fervently with a loophole having been eliminated. will it work? I don't know.

I'm not trying to debate, just stating a fact that this is a problem with so many more products than just precious stones and jewelry.

One thing you have to remember with diamonds is the market is very controlled. So the bag of stones being sold today might have been mined 20 or 30 or 40 years ago. So their provenance is not as easy to prove. With colorless diamonds it is very hard to make statements of origin after they go into the system. I can only really think of golconda diamonds as an example. Also even once a diamond goes into a setting it might not sell for along time. Since the process to have a more transparent supply chain is relatively new and signatories that are allowed to be apart of the Kimberley Process still having internal and external conflicts that are funded by diamonds it becomes a mess.

Canadian diamonds and direct source from Botswana are some of your best bets for a stone that is not laundered. Canadian stones mostly come with laser etched serial numbers and some come with etched hallmarks into the diamond for tracing.

I will leave with, ethical shopping is hard and expensive. And corporate structures make it even more difficult. Also there are lines everywhere and there is judgment calls on what is and isn't ethical.

 

[DCLMP]

Perhaps, but it’s not just jewelry. And disney fans do collect stuff for sure. I saw a woman purchase 5 or 6 disney themed dooney bags in one store on the Wish!

I have several Dooney bags. If you I buy them on the ship I get 10% off and no tax. The women may have been buying them to sell them on E bay at profit. A lot of Disneyland AP holders were doing this a couple years ago when they were giving AP holders 30% off the purses.

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

For me it's the artificially inflated value of all diamonds. Diamonds are not rare, but De Beers monopolized the market decades ago and kept the flow of diamonds controlled to make them seem more rare than they are. Now that labs are able to produce high-quality diamonds without mining, which threatens their monopoly, they are trying to market the idea that only "natural" diamonds are good enough. Personally I've never seen the appeal of buying expensive jewelry on a ship or at a port, given the difficulty of making a return if something was wrong with the item. And seeing how folks have complained that the Star Wars bar is too small on the Wish, it seems like that space could have been allocated better. They could have still given Diamonds International a footprint, but they clearly don't need as much square footage as they are taking to meet the demand that exists.

 

[anricat]

They could have still given Diamonds International a footprint, but they clearly don't need as much square footage as they are taking to meet the demand that exists.

And therein is really the main crux of my gripe. The stores themselves are huge open spacious places. Just...open with random empty floorspace. For no reason that I can see. There could have been multiple extra counters or cases in each one. It's fine with me that people want to buy diamonds or handbags or watches or whatever on the ship as I tend to fall into the "let people like what they like" category. Ultimately, it's the sheer waste of space in each of these places is what blows my mind. In a place like a cruise ship, where every square inch is a premium, each of these shops could have been half the size and still carried exactly the same amount of merchandise and assist the same number of customers. And we could have had more space in the lounges, including the dreadfully disappointing Hyperspace Lounge or an additional Disney-themed shop.

 

[anricat]

Not my photos (credit:https://disneyfashionista.com/disney-wish-shopping-offers-something-for-everyone/)

There are what, three cases of goods in this store? I think this is watches. Look at all that space! What's it for? Why is there a couch? Do you need a couch to shop for watches? It's not like your family that doesn't want to shop can't go chill in any of the zillion other places on the ship designed for just such an activity. Who wants to lounge about in the watch shop?

Actually, it's sort of hilarious, from the page above it says, "These luxury timepiece shops have brand-name watches and amazing ocean views."

Who is going to the watch shop for "amazing ocean views?" Lol.



And the purse shop. How many actual purses are in this photo? 10 maybe? Could not the same number of purses be displayed in a shop half the size and skip the chairs?

 

[FastPasser.]

I have several Dooney bags. If you I buy them on the ship I get 10% off and no tax. The women may have been buying them to sell them on E bay at profit. A lot of Disneyland AP holders were doing this a couple years ago when they were giving AP holders 30% off the purses.

Might have been a CM, they get up to 40% off.