Time share tours worth it?
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Does anyone think that all the time share tours are a good way to make your theme park visit cheaper? Are the tours worth it?
From Gareth H
Posted June 24, 2008 at 8:46 AM
The best answer is to say, YES, they are great, give yourself at least 5 hours (Not the 2 as they advertise) and you get some free, or heavily reduced ticket prices.
BUT, My Wife and I went to a Time Share meeting for the $100 cash gift they were offering, we also did it because out friend, a tour rep, also got $80.
Well lets just say that 3 hours turned into 6 and a lot of arguements between my wife & I and the "Sales Manager".
Despite it being a no pressure visit, we were constantly hounded, told we didn't have the money, which is why we weren't going to spend the 20+ Thousand POUNDS ($40,000) and that we would never ever get this offer again.
Not only that, but I saw many poor B******S get suckered into buying something they really didn't want, need or afford as some smooth talking sales rep did his Job very well.
So the rule is, if you want the cheap tickets and know you don't want a timeshare, BE STRONG and say NO NO NO, because its tough! If you have kids, take them, because they can be your excuse to leave, if you are a couple, then make sure both of you agree but under no circumstances will one of you show even the slightest bit of interest, because if you do, you're leaving with a time share you didn't want!\\Good Luck & Be strong!
A lot of people think that this is a good way of saving money BUT i think paying full or online ticket prices would be a better way to get the most out of your holiday as some of these meetings run for a few hours which can take up to half a day of your holiday per meeting.
As Gareth H says the sales people can be very heavy handed and actually quite intimidating.
If you are going to Orlando,im pretty sure (can anyone confirm or deny) that most of these timeshares offer 1 at most 2 day free passes to Disney,Universal and Seaworld and discounts on muti-day passes (3 or more days)so i think it depends on how many parks you wish to visit.
From Don Neal
Posted June 24, 2008 at 12:43 PM
My aunt and uncle do these every year when they go to Florida so they can get a free day at Disney or Universal. They've been doing it for years. And one day at the theme park is good enough for them. If you don't have the money to spend on theme park tickets and want to get a free day, it can be worth it.
But like others have already pointed out, you have to go in there and play the game. And that requires you and your spouse or significant other agree that the answer is NO, NO, NO. And they will berate you for it.
Thanks very much guys!!
From Ben James
Posted June 25, 2008 at 7:13 AM
I am glad that this thread came up. I recently signed on a $50 Trip to Chicago for 3 days - 2 nights. Good to know that we need to be strong about "no, no, no". Question, does anyone know if you can just leave after the allotted 2 hours that they tell you it will last?
A long time ago, when I had just turned 12, my family went to colonial williamsburg. My parents let me and my brother go to BGE by ourselves, which was so joyful. No parents saying, "come on, I wanna see that show, we're going to be late", or "the line is too long, lets go". But, my parents wanted some kind of discount. A TIMESHARE discount.
So, the same day we were going to BGE, we did the timeshare a whole 2 hours before BGE opened (we wanted to get there right away). The booklet we were looking at said, "wait through a time share presentation, make your desicion on buying or not, and leave with 2 free tickets to Busch Gardens Williamsburg!" (or something like that). They said it was only 1.5 hours, so me and my older brother were really excited, because this was our first time at BGE.
When we got to the nice little timeshare headquarters, it took about 10 minutes for us to get our agent, and then we headed over to a nice hotel about a mile away for breakfest. Our 'seller person' (I'll say sp) had a HUGE amount of bacon (i don't know how that matters), and that ended up taking more than half an hour. Then we went over in our sp's car to the condos. It took about... about 2 hours doing that, so me and my brother were really bummed out and getting really impatient.
We headed back to the headquarters, and were in a really loud room waiting for our sp to come back with our files for buying a condo. My parents kept saying no, and me and my brother were just vibrating all over, and my parents DID use us as an excuse, but it didn't work. That whole thing about 'looking through catologs' took a whopping 20 minutes!
The park opened at... 10:00, I think, but we got there at about 11:30, and then we had to wait in the whole belt way thing for more than an hour. (For those who don't know, the entrence to BGE is through the beltway, and the beltway goes strait to a road across one of the rivers [I forget the name].)
Still, me and my brother had a great time, but we still will probably never do a timeshare presentation agian for something like that. Still, timeshare has a pretty good deal, but the rip you off 'TIME' wise.
From James Rao
Posted June 25, 2008 at 11:00 AM
The answer is, without exception, NO, time share tours are NOT worth it. You will never get that 3 - 5 hours of your life back, so there is no sense in prostituting your valuable time for free tickets.
I just went to one in Williamsburg. Like everybody said, it can take 4-6 hours. But I noticed a lot of guys got out a lot quicker. It turns out, after reading time share forums, you tell the salesman that you are just in it for the free gift and that you would never buy a timeshare. I know people got out in just over two hours. The salespeople have to cover certain topics and show you the cherrypicked model. You can't avoid that so don't ask any questions. It will just prolong the tour.
I have got to agree with James on this one. I would never even consider doing a time share presentation myself. First of all, I am easily manipulated, so it is often difficult for me to say no. They would spot me coming a mile away. Plus, I value my free time too much. I would never be able to stop thinking about all of the fun or productive things I could have done with that time!
I like travel memberships like GRN. You can pick
and choose, and its a one time only fee. No maintenance, and it's cheaper!! My wife and I really got a deal while staying on the beach in North Florida, even during Spring Break. Really nice condo for a week right on the beach for less than $800.
http://alturl.com/sypn
Dee, if you have the will power to say no and want the free stuff and can waste 2-4 hours, go for it. I went through it in Florida for a timeshare and got $100. I also spent $16,000 to buy into the timeshare, mainly because I wanted to do so. This was before I found out about Disney's Vacation Club or I might have gone with the DVC.
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