Whatever Happened at That Time Share Presentation?

(posted by ange)

I’m sure you have all been checking constantly to find out what happened when Dave and I went to sit through a time share spiel last week. Did our plan to get kicked out early and just take our gifts work? Or are we the proud new owners of a time share? And what about those parting gifts? Did we get everything they said we’d get? What was the catch?

Let me first apologize for keeping you all on pins and needles. I’d have reported sooner, but I’ve been busy. Busy planning my cruise! Ha!

Okay, we sat through the entire presentation and then some. We somehow forgot our “get kicked out” tactic and fell right into the criteria for “perfect match for time share purchase”. We did a lot of nodding and agreeing and generally became very enthusiastic at the thought of buying into something that would enable us to stay in luxurious accommodations practically anywhere in the world. Our faces read “Yes! Sign us up!” In all honesty, and without going into the details (you’ll have to sit through a presentation yourself) it was actually a pretty good deal and made a lot of sense for us, given our desire and plans for travel. In fact, we gave it quite a bit of consideration (or as much consideration as can be given while outside having a cigarette with the salesperson waiting inside for an answer!) However, given my ugly financial status and debt load, it just didn’t seem the right thing to do at this time (oh how responsible I was being!). I mean, I’m trying to get rid of debt and payments, not take on more. Sure, Dave might be in a position for a purchase like this, and I was very tempted to say “what the hell, I’m not getting out of debt anytime soon”, but ultimately, sanity reined us in and we said “No deal”.

The bottom line: I now know how these time shares work and it may well be something we will consider in the future. We got popcorn while we watched the presentation video. Who doesn’t love popcorn while watching a movie? And we walked out with our camera, $75 Visa card, and 2 for 1 Carnival Cruise. Okay, the camera is a piece of crap, not even worth selling and will be given to my 3 year old nephew Markus to play with (I think Dave hopes to inspire a photographer in him). But you can’t balk at the Visa card and the cruise. We’re thinking the 12 day to Hawaii. Aaaahhhh. We don’t have to buy a time share to go on a fabulous vacation; we just have to listen to the presentation.