I always tell people that spa and beauty charges on cruise ships are very expensive. The up sale on products is brutal. I know this by personal experience. I was on a 28 day cruise on Celebrity, I needed a manicure and it cost me more than double what I pay at home. The beautician was from Jamaica and did a fabulous job. She tried to sell me creams and nail polish. I paid her for the manicure only and on my receipt was a line ------ gratuities. I gave her 20% of her exorbitant charge. She was very nice and did a good job. However, when I got back to my room and put my glasses on, they already charged me 18% gratuities and I gave her 20% more. I read about this all the time on blogs. Some people go back, I just left it as I'm sure she has family in Jamaica she supports. I've never gone back to any spa or beauty salon on a cruise ship.
I saw this post from a fellow on Holland America and I thought I would share it. From now on, I will follow the women who go on shore to the nearest nail salon or beauty salon in a foreign port.
So after being quoted US $54 on Holland America Line Noordam cruise ship for a haircut and me being notoriously tight with my money, I decided to seek out a local barber in our most recent port of Savusavu in Fiji. What could possibly go wrong?
We spotted Debo’s barbers from the main road and headed down, I popped my head around the door the see two barber chairs both in use with 4 people waiting so I said we’d comeback but he immediately put me to the front of the queue after a quick chat with the people in the queue.
How best to describe my environment, 8 people in a room big enough for half that number, and reggae music playing at around 120 decibels.
I was summoned to the chair and asked what I’d like, a number 1 back and sides with a high fade and tidy up the top. All seemed well as he set to work with clippers then scissors, with every passing moment another local child entered the barbers to see the man with the silver hair.
The music continued to blast out, by this point I was starting to enjoy it, we reached the final stages with some tidying up with a cut throat razor. He was almost done when an over eager child pushed forward to get a better view bumping into the barber who then inadvertently slipped, pulling the blade across my cheek!
Despite holding his thumb over the affected area in the faint hope that I hadn’t noticed the damage was done, it turned out to be just a small nic but could have been so much worse, thankfully the blade missed my eye!
He shook my hand and thanked me, I paid my 10 Fijian dollars, around £3.24 and left with what I would consider a decent haircut and a story to tell!
I looked it up and $10 Fiji dollars = US$4.44! That's quite a difference.
