A Review of Our Honeymoon to Orlando, Florida

My wife and I were married in September, and like many young couples, we did not have lots of money. It also did not help that my wife was laid off a couple months after being engaged. Suffice to say we were very budget conscious. At first we thought of maybe going to the beach for an extended stay or something local to our area. We have some friends give some input into different areas we could visit and the prices that we could expect to pay for it. A bit of luck would happen to actually help us on deciding were to go.

Some friends of ours said to go to every bridal show we could. We were told that often times you can enter contests for free or discounted services from various venders like photographers and caterers. We got a call from this place about a free vacation for four days and three nights to places like Orlando, Florida. We just had to attend a presentation on cookware and china. We said what the heck you can't beat free. I believe the company was 21^st Century Bridal. We went there and the presentation was on cookware called Royal Prestige. The cookware was rather expensive but very good quality and came with a lifetime warranty. I know some chefs who have told me they make great products. We did slightly overpay for it probably. I think we paid like $1,300-$2,000 for it. I don't recall which. The people were very helpful and there really was not any pressure for sales. Just for going to the presentation we received the above mentioned trip. In addition we also got an extra one since we made a purchase.

The trip we decided on was the one to Orlando. I do not fly as me theory is that if God wanted me to fly he would have given me wings. We drove the whole way from northern Maryland to Florida and took a rental car the day after our wedding. We stopped for meals, maps, gas and the restroom and to walk around a bit to stretch our legs. We stopped for the night in South Carolina at a Comfort INN. I am not sure why, but I always get itchy from the sheets at the Comfort INN as a side note.

We left the next morning bright and early and I think we got to the place that we needed to go to check in at like 3pm. The place we went to had all kinds of Disney and Universal Studios themed posters and walls on it. We checked in and were told that if we went on a no pressure 90 minute presentation on timeshares we could get two Disney tickets for $50. This did not sound bad, so we sad ok. Now most places to get the hotel stay and tickets discounts you have to go on the tour. In our case I think we did not have to go on the tour, but I am not sure since I did not refuse the tour. I probably could have gotten the tickets much lower but did not think of it at the time. We were told when to be there in the morning. I do not recall the time, but it was early. We were planning on going to Disney the next day as we figured we would be out of there after the 90 minutes was up. We then went and checked in at the Sheraton Suites were they put us. The hotel was actually really nice, but we were in a part that I think they reserved for the people touring timeshares. At this time I still did not know much about timeshares or anything of that nature.

We were tired and did nothing that night at all and stayed in the room. We got up and went to the resort meeting place which was through Fairfield Resorts. We were asked to show ID and one major credit card, which we did. We then waited and a lady named Natalya came to get us. I think she was Russian or something like that but spoke very bad English with a horrible accent. We went into a meeting room with lots of other people all at tables and were told to help ourselves to their idea of breakfast. It was fruit, cereal and some bagels and muffins with juice or milk. She then started to tell us some very basic stuff about timeshares and how they worked. Some very high level overview of prices and how they work were explained. I knew then it was not for me and something that we could not afford at the time. We saw a model plan of a new development they were building that they describe as being inside the gates of Disney. She then told us about the parent company, which was Cendant at the time, and all the companies that they were affiliate with such as Avis car rental and Ramada INN. We then watched a video that took them forever to get to work that discussed timeshare ownership with owners of the properties on the video. We were getting close to our 90 minute time frame and were ready to leave and were told we could not. We were told we had to finish the presentation. We were supposed to see a tour of one of their existing properties in Florida but the bus was taking forever. Natalya asked if we could go in our car and we said sure and went to the property. She kept badgering us about buying it the whole time. She kept asking "couldn't you see yourselves vacationing like this" to which I always replied "yes if it does not put us in the poor house". I will say that is beautiful and that they kept their resorts very nice. Natalya also attempted telling jokes, but they were so stupid they did not help much.

We got back and again were after our tickets and told that we could not leave until she was done. She went over all kids of stuff about how the programs work. It was point based, so we get points and use them for vacations. Some places that you can go and times of the year cost more points than others. She mentioned places all over the country and world that we could stay in with this. She then goes and makes here pitch and real happy and excited goes "now how much could you afford a month for something like this" I said "I don't know maybe like a hundred bucks". She then says in her heavy accent "hundred bucks what is hundred bucks". We again wanted to leave and were told we could not. She then started showing us pictures of her on vacation with her daughter. She also started to talk about how hotels the types of people who stay at them instead of timeshares do you really want to sleep on those same beds. I told her I am sure people have sex at the timeshares as well. She then implied that I was cheap and she left her husband for that. I informed her that he is better off then if you were just after money. Part of the problem was that my wife really liked it but not the price. After saying no about 50 times Natalya got up and told us she would be right back and needed someone to do our check out.

The next guy that came over had that look that I just knew that I would not like him. He had the evil sinister look in his eyes. He quickly sat down and began talking to us. He then went into a pitch about making sure we were offered a good deal. I looked at my wife and then said "isn't this that same damn thing I just said I was not interested in?" This clown was a real piece of work. He went over some other prices with us. I think what Natalya was offering us was like $35,000 and then she had something for like $30,000. This guy had offers that started in the low teens and got down to like $5,500.

He asked a little about me and I played along. I told him what I did for a living, which was working in finance. He then tried to tell me how great this is to get into real estate since it is deeded and inside the gates of Disney. He is like I would have been rich had I bought property inside of Disney before they built the theme park. He also said all these prices are pre-construction and will go up since this timeshare will "skyrocket" in value.

He also said how great it is and how everyone who does it loves it. He mentioned some of his customers who were so glad to have it. I still was not impressed. It did not help that my wife liked it and they were trying to play on that. I was mentioning that we just got married and did not even own a house yet and it is expensive. The moron then pulled a bunch of credit card offers from his blazer. He showed me all these 0% offers and 1 and 2% offers. He is like I get these all the time and so does everyone else. How can you not do it with that and paying the minimum payment? He must have forgotten that I was a banker. I then informed him that not everyone gets those offers and just getting it does not mean you will be approved. I further told him that even if you are approved a company (at that time before Obama and his new policies) could raise you rate at will for basically any reason and therefore your payment goes up. I also informed him that putting something like this on a credit card would be very reckless and paying the minimum payment will never pay it off. He was dumbfounded for a bit as he was shocked.

They then began to use some very strong arm tactics. The first thing that was done was by Natalya. Since she realized that my wife was interested (my wife is not very financially savvy and does not think things through at all) and they tried separating us. I immediately said no way on that one. They went over the whole thing about being cheap again. Natalya next had me take my wallet and hold it in one hand and my wife's in the other. She then asked "Which one do let go of first". I told her obviously my wife is more important to me, but you do need money to be able to make a life and keep my wife in a home and with food on the table. I also said if my wife would leave me over something that stupid I could deal with it. So this did not work for them, but the message was clear that they were trying to divide and conquer with me and my wife.

Now the next thing that they pulled was really upsetting. The guy started talking about me being a workaholic and that I was basically going to work myself into the grave. He was telling us about a friend of his who was a workaholic and never took vacations and got brain cancer and died. He basically was saying that if I did not buy a timeshare I was going to die. My wife is very overprotective and this really upset her. What he did not know is that her aunt actually died of brain cancer so this really hit home. My wife got very upset and started to cry. He then asked "does the truth hurt?" I told him I was going to break every bone in his body twice and started to get up from my seat. He then very quickly excused himself because he realized I was about to kick the crap out of him. Natalya then left us alone and said to push this chair out after we had a chance to talk about it. Me and my wife did not even discuss it I was more trying to calm my wife down. She threw the chair practically and Natalya then came over and thanked us for our time after one me pitch and me telling her no a few more times. It probably also helped that she could see my wife was upset and I was really pissed off.

After that we had another person who sat us down and basically asked us how we were treated and the like. He talked about how they don't badger people and the way we were treated was inappropriate. He then talked about how bad it was and how he would like to make it up to us. He discussed something called an exploratory membership. He made it out like it was free at first since we had such a hard time. He then did the price close and all the soft selling. The price was like $2,000 and it was good for a couple years. It came down to like being able to take three or four vacations at the various resorts that they had partnerships with. My wife was greatly traumatized by this previous moron's tactics and she seemed to be happy at the idea, so I thought I would try it. We were told that "when we purchase" since it will show us how great it is the $2,000 will come off of the price. We proceeded to go over some things with the no pressure closer and then got our discounted tickets and went on our way. Suffice to say we did not go to Disney world. We were there for five hours instead of an hour and a half. We asked numerous times to leave after the 90 minutes but were told we could not. This is not the fact. You can leave as soon as the 90 minutes is up. I advise giving 2 hours just to be safe, but you can give 90 minutes if you wish. Roughly a day was ruined for like a $60 discount on tickets and my wife was traumatized and I was about as mad as you can imagine. The guy saw me on the way out that traumatized my wife and actually ran the other way. I was about to go up to him and have a "talk".

The rest of our trip was pretty nice. Did some shopping at some of the local malls and outlets and did go to Disney world. We also met up with a friend of ours who lived in Orlando and went to sea world with her. In addition we did the usual local dinning experiences and checked went to Emril's for our honeymoon dinner. I will say of Orlando though a lot of stores have Disney shirts for $1.99 advertised, but when you get in there they might have one shirt, so it's just a way to get you in the door. Another thing important that I noticed while in Orlando was the meaning behind a bumper sticker I once saw. The bumper sticker said "Would the last American to leave Florida please bring the flag?" The reason is the large amount of people in the area who are obviously from "out of town". After being around the area I know exactly what they mean. You will too if you visit. The people were nice though and we did not have any issues, but I would not be lulled into a false sense of security about the city. There was stuff in the paper about tourists being robbed everyday.

This issue with the timeshare ruined a good part of our trip. I eventually will write a more detailed article on timeshares. There are people who are aware of what they are and that the company sponsoring a trip is trying to sell them something, but we had absolutely no clue. We thought we got a hotel stay just for going to see about some cookware. Some salesman of timeshares makes it out like you are stealing from them if you don't buy. That is crap. They know a vast majority won't buy.

Here are some very basic things to watch out about timeshares. First off I have never heard of a timeshare going up in value like our salesman claimed. What they were trying to sell us at $25,000 plus I had seen on eBay for like $5,500 and less, because people buy it and decide they don't want it. Another thing to know is that you will always get lower offers and deal with at least three people. The first will be your salesperson, then a hard closer and finally a no pressure closer. Sometimes a second no pressure closer will be thrown into to offer a really low priced timeshare that is at another resort that was a foreclosure because someone did not pay their maintenance fees or something like that. These can be bought for as little as $1,500 and allow you to visit sister properties. On the subject of maintenance fees you should know they start typically at $400 per year and there is not a cap on them. They are do yearly if you use it or not and I have heard of people paying $800 per year. Many financial planners advise against timeshares and the ones who do not usually say they are much overpriced. If you were to buy one you should buy it on the secondary market from one of the suckers who bought at the presentation from the salesperson. The real benefit is when you have a larger family and you want the suite benefit to use the kitchen to cook your own meals. If it is just the two of you or maybe one child it is a waste. Sometimes you can't even get the thing to use it when you want to. You can always rent one off someone who bought it and does not use it. In short I would consider these one of the biggest scams in finance and in my opinion, the people selling them are probably the least educated and shady salespeople I have encountered and I have done sales before including mortgage sales before the meltdown. The only financial scam bigger than timeshares is probably that credit protection that you do not need that most loan companies try to get you to take. I will include a link to another article about timeshares and I advise you to read it. It includes information on Kings Creek Plantation in Williamsburg, Virginia. It is even worse than the experience I had with these guys and when we stayed there the room was much a craphole.

http://reviews.ebay.com/Timeshare-tours_W0QQugidZ10000000001889138