Ever do a timeshare for free park tickets?

[pfalcioni]

I know that much of this seems childish and why would I waste my hard earned vacation dealing with this turd, I'm not sure, but there was a big smile on my face when Ted picked up the line today. Oh, we'll that's my story on timeshare sales.

I guess if you enjoy spending vacation time trying to "win" against losers like this, it's your business, but it does seem a bit sad.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I just listened to the phone pitch from one the other day, and I will say the stuff they were offering was pretty good. The woman was very nice and I kept telling her that I had to talk with my wife before deciding to take them up on their offer. Now, I should have prefaced that this wasn't one of the free Disney ticket deals. (1) it was 6 day/5night in Orlando at a Sheraton or Double Tree property, (2) as well as an additional 3 nights at Daytona Beach, (3) a rental car, (4) $100 airline credit per person, (5) and 2 tickets for either a Disney park or a Universal Park. This was offered to me for $389 and it was for 5 people total, not per person. We would just have to do the 60 minute tour. Now, I now that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't.

1. Orlando has a lot of Sheraton and DoubleTree properties. And the offer may have also stated "or equal" which could be anything.

2. You should see some of the motels in Daytona Beach!

3. But only the base price for a subcompact. Taxes and Fees have to be paid, as well as more for a decent size car.

4. You have to get the airline tickets through their travel agency, and don't think of any discounted tickets at all.

5. And, of course the one-day tickets they are offering a special priced and cannot be upgraded or modified in any way.

6. You will find that you have to make all reservations through their travel agency. You have to send in your choice of dates at least 60 days out, it is based on availability, and you cannot start or end a reservation within seven days of a major holiday.

 

[patty57]

To the OP, I would not bother to listen to a sales pitch for a timeshare or anything else to get free tickets. It's not worth it to me.

I know that much of this seems childish and why would I waste my hard earned vacation dealing with this turd, I'm not sure, but there was a big smile on my face when Ted picked up the line today.

As far as this goes...I hope you have enough time before your trip to rethink this idea. I would get much more satisfaction enjoying my vacation than wasting that precious time with a personal vendetta against a timeshare salesman. Let it go.

 

[MrToad1345]

Good and valid points by all, certainly an emotional reaction to this guy. Oh we'll, you are all correct and I will not be wasting any time on this guy on my upcoming trip. Thanks for the realty check.

 

[BeerMe]

We have points at RCI & Wyndam and we had never gone to one of these until out trip in February. We were at Disney for 3 weeks and we had a little time to spare. In my considered opinion I would

RUN AWAY!

 

[patty57]

Good and valid points by all, certainly an emotional reaction to this guy. Oh we'll, you are all correct and I will not be wasting any time on this guy on my upcoming trip. Thanks for the realty check.

Good for you! I knew someone who lives in one of my favorite places would come around.

 

[MrToad1345]

Good for you! I knew someone who lives in one of my favorite places would come around.

If only I could live there with DVC points! Thanks again.

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

I never ever do a timeshare presentation.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[freediverdude]

If only I could live there with DVC points! Thanks again.

Yes I would recommend to not go anywhere near there, please. That sounds like it could easily escalate into a physical confrontation or something like that, since you both are salesmen and know how to push each other's buttons. Just forget about that guy.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

My last trip there our friends went to a timeshare presentation to try to save a few dollars. I felt bad for the wife as she was texting my DW the entire day (HOURS after it was supposed to be over) on the whole ordeal and how they wanted to strangle the person and the arguments her husband was having with them. It really was very trying for them and they wasted most of a day on it and at the end were in a VERY BAD MOOD for their vacation.

The only caveat I will make: DVC did not do that to us. They promised to make up our time that we spent with them, and they did that and more. The presentation was very personalized, fast and they did not waste my time the first time. I saw them a second time after the good experience and ended up purchasing - and they made that time up for me too.

However, you are already a DVC member, so you know this.

 

[LisaBi]

The hard sell turned out to be pretty easy for us to get through. How, you ask? Did I mention that DSs were 2 and 4? We never let our boys run wild in public--except that day. It's hard for a salesman to focus on selling you property when two preschoolers are playing with his stapler, asking to color, and walking up and down the aisle into other salespersons' cubicles. After about 15 minutes, he just said, "You can take this voucher to the counter for your gift." I think we shaved about 45 minutes off the time they'd said we would be there.

This works wonders in car dealerships too!

 

[kensethfan]

This works wonders in car dealerships too!

Yes it does! Of course, they're 11 and 13 now, so we can't play that card anymore.

 

[magicbob]

Yes, I know they are high-pressure but we are DVC members looking to tour some of the other timeshare resorts and figure we may as well get some free tickets thrown in and save some $$$ while we're at it.

We're going in June, just 2 adults, so no need to worry about missing park time with the kiddos. Anyone know of any resorts currently running this promo?

TIA!

If you are interested in purchasing a timeshare, then you pretty much need to attend the presentations to decide if you want to buy there. If they are offering tickets or other incentives, that's a plus. But, as others have said, be advised that other timeshare presentations are NOTHING like DVC tour. We did a timeshare tour 20+ years ago. NEVER AGAIN! We are interested in DVC and did the tour at AKL on our last stay. It was actually a pleasant experience discussing the options with the DVC rep and we did not feel pressured or like we were being held hostage. We also received some "VIP" FPs, which was nice, but we didn't do the tour to get them, but because we were genuinely interested in purchasing.

I would never do a timeshare tour just to get whatever free thing they're offering. It's not worth the hassle. But if you are actually interested in the property, I think that will make a difference in how you approach the presentation. Based on how you framed the question (i.e., asking what timeshares are offering free tickets), it sounds like you are more interested in scoring free tickets than buying into one of these other timeshares. Since you are already DVC members, I would skip the timeshare presentations if your primary motivation is getting a few free tickets.

 

[BluesTravlr00]

For an occasionally-mildly-sadistic, highly stubborn person like me, I find that there is something very satisfying and power-trippy about going to these things and flatly refusing these people over and over again. Sometimes I enjoy saying no to people.

I would never trust my wife to go to one by herself (she can't say no to anyone) but for me I almost feel like it's sport. These people are desperately hunting me and I am just a much, much stronger animal. I would probably do it just as much for the fun of seeing the despairing looks on their faces, as for the free tickets.

 

[kensethfan]

For an occasionally-mildly-sadistic, highly stubborn person like me, I find that there is something very satisfying and power-trippy about going to these things and flatly refusing these people over and over again. Sometimes I enjoy saying no to people.

I would never trust my wife to go to one by herself (she can't say no to anyone) but for me I almost feel like it's sport. These people are desperately hunting me and I am just a much, much stronger animal. I would probably do it just as much for the fun of seeing the despairing looks on their faces, as for the free tickets.

It's like a higher-stakes game of keeping telemarketers on the phone as long as possible, so they can't move on to the next names on their list!

 

[Spacepest]

Alright everyone, listen to my rambling and learn from my stupid, youthful mistake.

NO MATTER HOW BROKE YOU ARE

DO NOT WASTE YOUR VALUABLE VACATION TIME ON A TIMESHARE SALES PRESENTATION!

I own a paid off time share. I bought into one of those vacation club type deals when a certain company was newer so got points for rooms very, very cheap, with low maintainence dues, and we get to visit all these different timeshares all over the world using them. IF you make the mistake of buying into one of these places, this is what you get to look forward to.

Everytime we use our timeshare credits to stay somewhere, we get harassed by on property timeshare salepersons to "upgrade our points." Since the points now cost ten times more than what we originally paid, no way would we even bother with increasing them. Early in our timeshare ownership we would try to sit through the presentations for additional perks on property (free parking in some areas, free rounds of golf, comped meal somewhere). None of these presentations are short, and after 30 minutes I would just get up and walk out. And some of the salespeople were just downright rude when you refused to buy (or in our case, buy more). One salesman even had the nerve to tell us that my husband and I were too low income and never should have been allowed on property to use the points we had already paid for in advance, because we wouldn't buy more at an now inflated price.

And the harassment is sometimes nonstop. Often walking through the lobby of whatever timeshare we were visiting, we would see ticked off people trying to get away from these salespeople. As soon as we check into our room, we get pressured to schedule a presentation, which we refuse. Some places, every time we walk through the lobby we get pestered for a presentation. Every day of our stay our room would get calls to schedule a presentation, often very early or very late at night, waking us up, so we've resorted to leaving the room's phone off the hook for the duration of our stay. Sometimes my husband and I feel like ninjas trying to sneak through the enterance of our resort, avoiding the timeshare salespeople and make it to our room unmolested. And did you know some of these places have timeshare sales staff in the lobby 24 hours a day? I've been bothered at 3am to book a sales presentation before!

Seriously, some of these timeshare people are downright verbally abusive and will waste as much of precious vacation time as possible. You will never be left with enough time to enjoy your "free ticket" or "free show" after you manage to suffer through one of these sales presentations. AVOID!

The only positive thing out of this timeshare debacle is that the places we've stayed at have been fabulous (including what would be suites right outside Mickey's gates!), and that by the time our credit runs out, we'll be retirement age.

 

[larryz]

It's like a higher-stakes game of keeping telemarketers on the phone as long as possible, so they can't move on to the next names on their list!

Guilty...

 

[wolfador]

My wife and I did one last year when we were in Orlando, we got 3 nights hotel stay and two tickets to Universal Studios for $49 and a 90 minute tour (purchased at halfoffdepot.com). We declined the food which made them start the presentation faster, they only offered 2 bedroom condo's and my wife and I said they were too large since it was the two of us.

They started offering properties at other sister resorts. I used my phone / ebay to pull up the current selling prices (mostly .01 cents) and told them if they could beat that deal I would buy. All together we were there for just over an hour, mostly waiting at the ticket desk for them to process the tickets (there were like 6 people in front of us there).

It terrible watching people actually buy the timeshares (you can tell when they break out the cheap champagne)

 

[emilyindisney]

If anyone has ever read the book 'The Dark Side of Disney' the author tells a hilarious (and horrible) story about going on a timeshare tour for tickets. It's a little profane but a very funny read if you have a good sense of humor.

If you haven't read, the moral of the story is DON'T DO IT!