Geezer Guides timeshare resort

Day 100 – Already?

By Vicky Wells, on August 18th, 2010

Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
Aug 18 ~ Day #100	Budget to date	Spent today	Total to date	Daily average
Total	$10000	$30.00	$8886.28	$88.86
Miles by Road	Miles by Sea	Miles by Air	Miles by Train	Total Miles
13437+22=13459	4451	000	69	17979

Current Location: Kissimmee, Florida

Today’s Total Expenses: $30.00

Accommodation: $30.00

Day 100 of Our Trip

It hard to believe, but we’re already at 100 days into our trip. Wow! Triple digits already.

Most days it doesn’t seem like we’ve been traveling for that long. But there are days …

We found that the most tiring part of the trip so far is the driving. We’ve put an awful lot of miles on our car and there have been way too many days when all we see is highways – and after a while they just all start to look the same. We have to remind ourselves what State or Province we’re in.

Good portions of the long drives are just plain BORING. But, we need to get from A to B, so we push on.

Now that we’re at the timeshare we had booked in Florida, the majority of the driving is over and, truthfully, we’re really glad about that.

Cheap Tickets & Timeshare

We had thought about spending some time at Universal. After all, the new Harry Potter experience is open.

So, we stopped in at a place offering discount tickets – they seem to be on just about every corner.

Part of their spiel, of course, were timeshare bribes. We were offered $100 to take a timeshare tour of Westgate and we though – why not? Trading some of our time for adding $100 to our trip finances seemed reasonable. And, we know exactly what to expect from timeshare presentations. After all, we already own timeshare at two different places and are using quite a bit of our time during this extended trip. We knew full well that we were going to be talked into buying more. We don’t need it.

The Westgate Resort is actually associated with Interval International and is actually Weeks, not Points. One of our timeshare resorts is Weeks and the other one is Points and we much prefer Weeks. We feel we get much more when we exchange.

Even though we really like the Westgate Resort, and our salesperson was great, as planned, we did not invest in more timeshare and simply collected our $100 cash bribe.

Another Option

As we were leaving the gift center of Westgate, we were presented with another opportunity for a presentation about lowering travel expenses that, apparently, was not timeshare.

The bribes to attend this presentation weren’t as good – a couple of weeks in a condo and another visit to Florida including some theme park tickets – but we decided to attend anyway.

But that’s schedule for tomorrow so we’ll tell you all about it then …

Downtown Disney

Since we didn’t go to Universal City Walk yesterday, we decided to swing by Downtown Disney today – where we KNOW we won’t have to pay for parking.

Although it is mostly shops and restaurants, it’s still a pleasant place just to walk around and some of the shops are interesting.

We even got pictures of each other on the Easy Rider motorcycle in the Harley Davidson shop.

Disney, like just about everyone else, also sells timeshare.

We spoke with one of their reps and they, of course, tried to talk us into taking their tour. Like most of them say, it’s only about 90 minutes (rarely is it ever that short) and they try to sign you up for a tour right then.

Well, as we all know, timeshares offer various types of bribes to get you to take their tours. Anything from cheap or free attractions tickets to cash or gift cards.

So, what does Disney offer? Ice cream! No kidding, that’s what we were told. If we took their timeshare tour they’d let us pick whatever ice cream we’d like.

Is Disney really so arrogant that they believe they can use a bit of ice cream to bribe people to sit through 90 minutes (or more) of someone trying to sell them timeshare?

Perhaps they are. Disney, of course, is a business like anything else. They’re there to make money. Sure Mickey and all the characters are cute, but don’t ever forget that first and foremost Disney is a corporation.

Rain Dates

We also discovered that a lot of the theme parks are now offering rain date passes – so if you’re day is ruined by a lot of rain, you can use your pass again on another day.

Not Disney – if your day gets ruined by rain, well, that’s just too bad. Once you’ve gone through the gate, you’ve used that day of your pass.

And, since we’ve been here this time we’ve had a LOT of rain. We’ve often said that we feel sorry for the people that lose a good portion of their day in the park to rain. And some days the rain has been torrential and has lasted a good portion of the day.

Actually, we’ve been to Florida many times and we’ve experienced a lot of rain almost any time we’ve been here. So, how come they call Florida “The Sunshine State”?

Timeshare and Groceries

By Vicky Wells, on August 14th, 2010

Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
Aug 14 ~ Day #96	Budget to date	Spent today	Total to date	Daily average
Total	$9600	$155.00	$8706.45	$90.69
Miles by Road	Miles by Sea	Miles by Air	Miles by Train	Total Miles
13346+6=13352	4451	000	69	17872

Current Location: Wyndham Cypress Palms Resort

Today’s Total Expenses: $155.00

Accommodation: $30.00
Food: $125.00

Great Night’s Sleep & Leisurely Breakfast

What a great night’s sleep in a wonderfully cushy king-size bed!

As we didn’t have any plans for the day except the timeshare tour and grocery shopping, we were able to sleep in a bit and then have a leisurely breakfast with freshly made coffee – heaven!

We’ve been having mostly instant coffee while camping and, while that’s fine, nothing beats freshly brewed coffee.

Timeshare Presentation

As we mentioned yesterday, we had agreed to a timeshare presentation at 11:30am today. We knew what to expect. After all, we own timeshare at two different resorts.

We didn’t expect that the presentation would be at a different resort to the one we were staying at. We were surprised when the salesperson that was assigned to us took us to his car and drove us to another resort several miles away.

Yes, it was a beautiful resort, but Wyndham uses Points and we’re not particularly enamored with the Points system that a lot of timeshare resorts are now using.

Our timeshare in Phoenix uses the Points system. It, too, is a drop-dead gorgeous resort. However, we have never been happy with what we get when we use the points we have there to trade into another resort.

We were told that this presentation would take about 90 minutes. But, because we were driven to another location, we felt we were almost being held captive.

We made it clear we didn’t like the Points system, we made it clear we already owned timeshare and that we felt what we had was sufficient and yet the presentation lasted almost THREE HOURS!

And, true to our word, we didn’t buy any more timeshare.

Wal-Mart, Groceries and Clothes on Sale

We took our $125 gift card for the 3-hour long presentation we went through and headed to a Wal-Mart Supercenter to do our grocery shopping for the next two weeks.

Well, we certainly got the groceries and actually spent exactly $125! No, it wasn’t planned.

What also wasn’t planned was to find a bunch of clothes on sale at close-out prices.

Geoff got a new shirt and I got, well, a few more items than he did. But, for his shirt, my shirts and pants, we only spent $16.00 because of the sale prices. We didn’t spend any more than $4.00 for any single item and most of them were $3.00!

My shopping urge was satisfied – for today, anyway!

Monument Valley to Salt Lake City

By Vicky Wells, on May 21st, 2010

Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
May 21 ~ Day # 11	Budget to date	Spent today	Total to date	Daily average
Total	$1100	$142.84	$1124.50	$102.22

Current Location: Salt Lake City
Mileage: 422 Total: 3478
Today’s Total Expenses: $142.84

Transportation: $68.68
Accommodation: $54.08
Food: $20.08
Entertainment: $0.00

Last night was a much more pleasant sleep as it didn’t get nearly as cold here as it did at the Grand Canyon.

Again, Geoff has breaking camp pretty much down to a science now. I help pack up, too, but he really does the bulk of getting the tent packed away.

After a quick breakfast and the essential cup of coffee we were off to view the amazing monoliths of Monument Valley. Geoff has taken lots of photos and video that he will, no doubt, be posting soon.

As we heeded north on highway 163, I checked out a regular, paper map to see if there was a scenic route we could take to Salt Lake City. It seems that Madge (our Magellan GPS) doesn’t have an option for “scenic route”.

As I continue, keep in the that it was ME that chose this route – you’ll understand later.

Gravel Roads and Switchbacks and Cliffs – Oh My!

From 163 we turned onto 261 which was marked on our paper map as a scenic route. It certainly was that. However, it was also a very steep route with a lot of switchbacks and sheer drops from cliffs well above the desert floor. Yes, you guessed it, sweaty palms and elevated heart rate again. I am soooo grateful that Geoff was driving. I would have simply been paralyzed. I would have made it, certainly, if I was the only one available to drive, but I would most likely have done it at 5 miles per hour.

I took some video from the car as Geoff drove. I think I may have had my eyes closed at some points, but hopefully the camera got everything.

If you are traveling with a trailer or in an RV DO NOT take this route. And that’s just not from me. There are signs along the route, before you get to the switchbacks telling you not to do that. Some larger vehicles just wouldn’t be able to make it around some of the switchback turns and the road gets quite narrow in several places.

It was no wonder that when we turned on the road, Madge (our Magellan GPS) kept saying, “As soon as possible, make a Legal U-turn.” Apparently she knew something we didn’t.

But we made it and I’m glad we went that way. It was quite an experience. We have video of parts of the road and of how high we actually were as well, so watch for the posts.

As we continued along the scenic route we saw such places as Glen Canyon and Dirty Devil River to name just a couple. The drive through the canyons was just so spectacular with many different kinds of rock formations and colors. Is it possible to get an overload of beautiful, incredible, awe-inspiring scenery? I don’t know, but if it can happen it would happen here. Every turn brought more oohs and aahs from both of us. One or the other was saying, “Wow! look at this.” or “Oh, my, that is so beautiful.” or even, “Pull over here so we can get a better look.”

We stopped for lunch along the Dirty Devil River. The Utah government has provided washroom facilities in various places as well as honor-system camping in this spots. The rate is pretty cheap – $6.00/night/person or $3.00/night/person for seniors, with a maximum charge per vehicle of $12.00 or $6.00 respectively. Not bad.

Again, it is difficult to describe the beauty of this route so my suggestion again is, go if you can and take the scenic route.

As we approached Salt Lake City the weather turned nasty and I swear I saw snow in the air even though the temperature gauge in the car was telling us it was still in the 60s.

Fortunately, we had planned to stay at a hotel anyway because this was not the kind of weather that either of us wanted to camp in. Even setting up the tent in such conditions would have been miserable and we would have most likely had to pack it up wet – not a good idea.

We picked up some highway hotel coupons along the way and I started searching for a good place to stay. One of the advertised accommodations was Sky Harbor Suites which seemed really reasonable at only $48/night and that included a suite with a full kitchen. I called ahead and mentioned the coupon. They told me that the rate on the coupon was a “walk-in” rate, meaning we couldn’t prebook it. But, they said they did have some available and we were only about a half hour away, so we took the chance and headed for them.

Sky Harbor Suites was a lovely place and very reminiscent of a timeshare resort. We were able to get the coupon rate of $48/night. Their regular rate is $79/night, so it was a really good deal.

The suite was small but lovely, with a queen size bed and a full kitchen as advertised. After checking in we headed to a local grocery store so we could take advantage of having a full kitchen available to us. We had a lovely dinner of boneless pork chops, baked potatoes and sauteed zucchini along with a glass of red wine. Who could ask for more?

As we watched a little TV and let supper digest we looked forward to a good night’s sleep protected from the cold rainy weather outside.

Avatar – WOW!

By Geoff Wells, on February 25th, 2010

Orlando vacation ~ Day 2

Our home timeshare unit at Carriage Hills in Barrie, Ontario is a two bedroom that can be divided into a one bedroom and a studio. Our studio is very complete with a decent fridge and cooking surface but unfortunately this is not usually the case.

We exchanged once into The Hammocks Resort at Marathon in the Florida Keys and their “studio” was just a regular hotel room with a microwave. The dishes and cutlery were in a milk crate on the bed and we had to do the dishes in the bathroom sink. We were not happy!

The studio at Celebrity Resort – Orlando, where we are staying for the week, is much better than that but sill not up to the standards of our home unit. The one bedroom we have been upgraded to, however is very nice. This is an older resort but well kept. When it was first built I imagine it was quite spectacular.

The Timeshare Bribe

You are under no obligation to attend a sales presentation when you stay at a timeshare resort but they will always offer you a bribe to do so. This being Orlando, the bribe was for discounted attraction tickets and also included breakfast. Since we had not yet had an opportunity to get any groceries the free breakfast was an irresistible incentive.

I guess the decision to attend a presentation or not depends on how you value your time. The offer was for a $200 discount on tickets we were going to buy anyway and the old style high pressure sales presentations are very rare these days. Generally you spend a pleasant 90 minutes chatting with a resort representative and, in our case, since we are writing a book about vacation ownership it was a chance to gather more information.

We chose the 2 Day Touch of Magic pass for 2 which gave us admission to two major and one minor Disney theme areas. The regular price of the ticket is $404 but we paid $196. This does not include parking which costs another $14 a day.

How can a young family with a couple of kids afford a vacation here? The 5 day Park Hopper pass for four costs $1,132, plus parking, plus food. And the exit of every ride is a gift shop selling overpriced junk. Sure glad all our kids are grown – although it is great to see their faces when they see the Magic Kingdom for the first time.

Off To Costco

We were in no particular rush to see the Mouse and needed to get some groceries for the week. So, it was off to Costco. Other than the new North Eleuthera Shopping Center, there is nothing much larger than a US convenience store on our island so, for us, shopping at Costco is an event in itself. We tried to stick closely to our shopping list so we will not have to throw stuff away at the end of the week.

We tried, but this was Costco. The new 1.5 terabyte hard drive was such a good deal and Vicky always needs wants new shoes. That shirt would look good and only $15 for three LED flashlights – you can’t turn that down.

So we went a little overboard but not nearly as bad as we used to. Probably the thought that we will be leaving for our new adventure soon and have to pare our possessions down to what will fit in a couple of suitcases.

Avatar in Imax 3D

We are both huge science fiction fans and have been looking forward to the opportunity to see the new James Cameron film, Avatar. Fortunately it was still playing for a few more days at the Regal Pointe Imax 3D theater on International Drive in Orlando.

Wow!

The trailer can’t come close to the experience of seeing this movie in Imax 3D

We were totally blown away by Avatar. There is so much hyperbole and hype about most everything these days so it is difficult to express just how good this movie experience is. The story is simple and easy to follow but beautifully told. James Cameron has taken the time (2 hr 40 min) to let you get to know and care about the characters. Just about every scene includes a special effects of some sort but they are so seamless you accept them as part of the world the film creates.

This is another triumph by the Weta Digital group that did the effects for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Update March 8 – Weta Digital won the 2010 Oscar for best visual effects

As a regular widescreen movie this would be one of the greats, but in 3D you become part of the actions. Thankfully there aren’t any cheap 3D tricks with objects thrust out at the audience, the 3D effect is simply used to make you feel a part of the action.

When you add Imax to this mix with its five story screen the immersive effect is further enhanced and for 2-1/2 hours you are transported to another world.

Do we recommend this move? You bethca! Don’t miss it and if you have opportunity to see it in an Imax theater, it is truly a life-changing experience.

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