My Story

The Beginning

It was Black Friday, and my wife and twin 2 year-old boys were in line to see Santa at our local Bass Pro Shops. The queue line coincidentally (I'm sure) wound past a kiosk featuring two enthusiastic sales people encouraging everyone to enter a drawing for a free truck. "Why not? - we're not going anywhere soon in this line." Of course, the drawing was just an opportunity to get you to stop and listen for a few moments to a sales pitch about travel opportunities. Travel? With Bass Pro?

The salesman showed as a glossy brochure with beautiful photos featuring a handful of resorts around the country - Arkansas, Las Vegas, Wisconsin, Orlando - and we could stay in one of these wonderful resorts for 3 days and 2 nights for an amazing low price and all we had to do was attend a 1 hour sales presentation for a timeshare. PLUS, as added incentives, if we signed up that day we would receive Bass Pro gift cards, and if we booked our travel within 30 days we would receive Visa gift cards, and we would get more Visa gift cards for actually showing up at the resort, and even MORE Visa gift cards for attending the sales presentation.

We were planning to go to Orlando that summer anyway because Grandma lives in Tarpon Springs and we make an annual pilgrimage to Walt Disney World - sometimes we visit the parks, sometimes just Downtown Disney. Wouldn't it be nice to have the HUGE 2 bedroom suite plus access to a 175,000 square foot pool? And, after the gift cards, it would only cost us $25 a night! So we booked.

At The Resort

In June, the Big Day arrived, and we pulled into the resort parking area, grandma in tow, and checked in. The lobby was PACKED with fellow deal-seekers, and the check-in process took nearly 40 minutes in all, culminating with our booking of a presentation time and receiving our gift cards - to be activated after the presentation. Then, we found our HUGE room, unpacked and visited the pool, which was even better than we anticipated. 

We spent the evening in the pool. While the boys burned off energy swimming and playing in the splash-zone area, my wife and I coordinated our strategy of "Just Say No" at the sales presentation. We were set and ready. After all, my wife was such a tough negotiator that she once had a car salesman nearly in tears! This would be EASY!

The Presentation

Early the next morning, we left the boys (asleep) with Grandma in the room and headed off to our presentation. We were taken to a large room with padded, theater-type seats where the main presenter gave a very effective 20 minute dissertation on why all of the bad things we'd ever heard about timeshares were true, but that was OK because his company was not a traditional timeshare company. He also spent time presenting charts and graphs showing how timeshares were cheaper in the end than hotels, and once purchased, actually SAVED you money on travel. While we were impressed with his presentation skills, his arguments did not sell us.

Then, we met an individual consultant (salesman) who took us to a cubicle to talk with us about what we'd heard - What did we like or not like. We said it seemed nice, but really wasn't for us. We didn't travel much, had limited vacation options, and we don't ski, fish or play golf - activities around which most resorts are built. Thirty minutes or so passed, and we then boarded a small bus for a tour of the resort - many of the presentation attendees were staying off-site and had not seen any of the actual resort yet. At this point we were more than 90 minutes into our "1 hour" presentation, but we decided to be polite and see it through. After all, the boys were still asleep after the previous evening's pool jaunt.

After the tour it was back to the cubicle for the Moment Of Truth - the price quote! My wife and I had both been quietly calculating numbers in our heads as we toured the resort and guesstimating just what such a place might cost. They showed us the quote and we were stunned. It was thousands LESS than what we had estimated. "We might actually want to do this!" we each thought to ourselves.

Now the tone of the conversation changed. We started talking specifics - cost, benefits, fees, taxes, resale, rental options... But we were still not buying. A manager came over to take over the negotiations. He offered a smaller, cheaper package. He threw in extra benefits - a cruise - more points - a "heroes discount" (I'm a teacher, my wife works in the medical field). Finally, they had us convinced. We made the purchase.

The Purchase 

And today...

We LOVE our timeshare program! Before our purchase we would take a 3-5 day "vacation" every 4-5 years, plus the 6 day whirlwind drive to Florida and back to see Grandma annually. Since our purchase, we have vacationed at least twice a year for a minimum of 5 days each trip and we look forward to planning and taking the next trip each time.

Still, if we knew than what we know now, we would not have made a few critical mistakes that cost us more money than necessary, and we would have known a few tricks to make our timeshare use more convenient and more productive. 

That is why I started this blog - to give unbiased information to those who may be considering a purchase or who have made a purchase and want to use their timeshare more effectively.  I do not work for any timeshare or travel company. I am a satisfied and, now, more experienced owner who would like to share what I have learned.