# Timeshare Tours in Orlando



## iluvwdw (Feb 28, 2007)

Hi all!  A friend of mine will be going to Orlando in May and is looking to do a couple of timeshare presentions.  She is in the market for a timeshare, but not sure which one so she wants to go see a few and see what they have to offer!  She probably WON'T buy this trip, but based on all of the info she gets and the resorts she sees, she will make her decision when she gets home (possibly resale!)

My question is this...is there a place she can go online to book tours for specific resorts?  I told her about Vistana and I am arranging for her to go on a tour there, but she was interested in others as well.  (Marriott?  Hilton?)

Any info you can give me would be GREATLY appreciated!!  

Thanks!


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## #1 Vacationer (Feb 28, 2007)

We toured the HGVC on International last year and my husband was very impressed with the Hilton tour.  I've heard about Marriott but haven't been on any other tours.  I would also like to know which company offers the best value for your money as well as flexibility.


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## AwayWeGo (Feb 28, 2007)

*Orlando Timeshare Tour Headhunters.*




iluvwdw said:


> Hi all!  A friend of mine will be going to Orlando in May and is looking to do a couple of timeshare presentions.  She is in the market for a timeshare, but not sure which one so she wants to go see a few and see what they have to offer!  She probably WON'T buy this trip, but based on all of the info she gets and the resorts she sees, she will make her decision when she gets home (possibly resale!)
> 
> My question is this...is there a place she can go online to book tours for specific resorts?  I told her about Vistana and I am arranging for her to go on a tour there, but she was interested in others as well.  (Marriott?  Hilton?)
> 
> ...


We've done quite a few Orlando timeshare tours now, mostly for the freebies but also to check out the timeshare resorts up close, not so much with the idea of buying another (but, shucks, you never know) but with the idea of seeing what's out there for potential future exchange-in.  Then again, we'll never get any of the 1s that exchange through I-I, because we're strictly RCI -- so it goes. 

Most of the stand-alone "discount ticket" kiosks that are also timeshare tour headhunter stands are gone.  Zoning requirements were beefed up recently requiring access ramps for the disabled & handicap-accessible restrooms.  Some of the kiosks weren't much bigger than phone booths, so compliance was impossible or impractical & they closed.  Some of those have relocated inside hotel & motel lobbies -- the lobbies, that is, that didn't already have timeshare tour headhunters inside.  Even some restaurants have little ticket stands & tour sign-up desks inside, right by the front door so they can get you on the way in or on the way out.  The headhunters are all around. 

I'll mention a couple of our favorites.  There's a brick stand-alone ticket & tour kiosk out in fron ot Giordano's Italian Restaurant on Rt. 535 near Cypress Pointe that signed us up for the VIP tour at WestGate Town Center.   When we got there, the timeshare tour was about what you'd expect, but the breakfast was on the deluxe side as timeshare-tour free meals go.  VIP clients get to go in the side entrance, under the blue awning, where the food is prepared (according to the tour headhunter) by "the best chef in Orlando" -- omelets cooked to order & all.  I don't know about that "best chef" claim, but the food was top-notch anyhow.  The peons, by contrast, go in through the regular main entrance & get a lesser grade of ready-made grub, which is still OK.  

On the touristy part of Rt. 192 east of I-4, there's a souvenir store in the shape of a humongous orange.  Right inside the door is a ticket & tour desk we've gone to several times -- in fact, the weekday 9-5 guy recognizes us when we show up.  He's sent us on some good tours. 

Last time we were in Orlando (January 2007), the only timeshare tour we took was the 1 being offered by the timeshare resort where we were staying -- Silver Lake Resort Silver Points.  While we were in that part of town we noticed some hand-lettered signs along Rt. 192 advertising $120 cash for taking a timeshare tour.  We asked the guy inside the Big Orange souvenir store about those; he said only WestGate was offering $120 cash.  We'd taken the Blue Awning WestGate VIP tour the previous October.  That meant January 2007 was too soon to sign up again, so we didn't.

Whatever timeshare tours your friend takes, urge as strongly as you can the No. 1 element in _The Wisdom Of Tug_ :  _Buy Resale_.  Resist all the arm-twisting.  Say _No_ to all the high pressure.  Keep on saying _No_. Listen attentively, but with the Baloney Detector switched on & set to _High_.  Buy resale.  Save thousands. 

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​


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## wackymother (Feb 28, 2007)

I have to say, the Westgate tour sounds nightmarish, even for $120.


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## JLB (Feb 28, 2007)

If you will google almost any keywords having to do with Orlando discounts, you will find a gazillion sites operated by Westgate/CFI/Mr. Seagull.  If you google _Two Disney tickets for $25_, I can almost guarantee that you will wind up on a Westgate site.

Most are combined with a lodging offer (you know, 3 days and 2 nights, 4 days and 3 nights).

They do 50,000 tours a year from those sites and 800 numbers.

We did one 12/21.  Since we were checking in to a 3-bedroom at OLCC 12/23 (Christmas Week, the toughest Orlando week to get), and it was close to our 100th exchange, Guido was very kind to us.  When he asked how much we spend on hotels and we said we Hotwired our extra nights this trip for $34, that blew most of his presentation, so he just skipped it.  

He said the best he could for us was an EOY, so that we could us II Getaways to go to DVC whenever we wanted.   

That's the same offer we got 20 years ago, minus the DVC part.   

At that point, he and I compared watches/cell phones, he told us how long we had to sit there before our 90 minutes was up, and then he came back at that time and said we could go get our Disney tickets.

You get a decent buffet breakfast, too.

Count on 3 hours from arrival to departure.

$150 seems to be about what they'll give you'll. The two one-day passes for $25 is about $120 value, but then they will give you some more discounted one-day passes if you persist.  Figure $50 each, a $20-$25 savings.

Twenty years ago we got a Mickey Mouse phone.    

We have had some very obnoxious Wesgate tours in the past, but this one was one of the easiest we have ever done.

PS: Some find it offensive, for some reason, that someone would _take advantage_ of a developer by upping the ante like this.  Well, you know they are going to try to manipulate you once you are there, so you have to do whatever manipulating of them you can upfront. 

After that, it is all their ballgame.



wackymother said:


> I have to say, the Westgate tour sounds nightmarish, even for $120.


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## Timeshare Von (Feb 28, 2007)

wackymother said:


> I have to say, the Westgate tour sounds nightmarish, even for $120.



We did one there many years ago.  As we entered, there was this one lady coming out of the sales area saying "Stop trying to sell me $hit!!"  She was not very happy and not very quiet about it either.

Yvonne


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## Timeshare Von (Feb 28, 2007)

*OLCC - Feb 2006*

We did OLCC during our February 2006 trip to Orlando.  For us, it wasn't bad and we got out of there unscathed.  There was one woman, however, who was hysterical at the "checkout" point where you're gifted.  Apparently she had left kids back at a hotel, thinking she'd be back within two hours.  With it going on four, she was furious at the delays and inability to get a shuttle bus back to the parking lot where the car was.  She was crying, sobbing as I say, hysterically and then started to yell and scream.  I thought she was going to go "postal" on someone.

Yvonne


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## JLB (Feb 28, 2007)

Oh yeah, the next week, when I accidentally did answer the phone (at OLCC) on Thursday, and it was marketing just like I figured.  Patty O'Murphy was willing to give us $150, real money not OL Bucks.  Dead Presidents' money she called it.

I just didn't figure we needed our 6th OL tour, but she was pretty insistent.  We didn't do it.


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## riu girl (Feb 28, 2007)

I am hoping to stay at Fairfield Cypress Palms in Orlando again this year.  On our last visit there,  we were unable to attend a sales presentation since my daughter was ill that  week and we had to seriously re-schd all activities.  

My? In the way of Disney tickets, what would we be offered by this particular Fairfield to attend the presentation?  There will be me  and my two children (one who is considered an adult my Disneysince  she will be 10 by then)

Would it be too much to ask for two one day adult Disney tickets plus some Disney waterpark tickets as well.  I thought I read last year about these tickets (touch of Magic tickets, one day theme park plus one day waterpark).  If we could get two of these as a sales incentive, then I would only have to buy for my son.

I know the large orange on I-192 (it is right across from the Fairfield Cypress Palms), but we won't have a rental car that week so I would have no way to get to/from another resort to attend a presentation, so it looks like the Fairfield presentation is our only option.

Sorry, so long. Any info. would be appreciated.

Thank you


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## wackymother (Feb 28, 2007)

riu girl said:


> I am hoping to stay at Fairfield Cypress Palms in Orlando again this year.  On our last visit there,  we were unable to attend a sales presentation since my daughter was ill that  week and we had to seriously re-schd all activities.
> 
> My? In the way of Disney tickets, what would we be offered by this particular Fairfield to attend the presentation?  There will be me  and my two children (one who is considered an adult my Disneysince  she will be 10 by then)
> 
> ...



Are you single? If you're not single, sometimes the resorts won't do a tour if your DH or SO isn't there with you--so you can't avoid a purchase by saying, "I have to ask my husband!" If you are single, they usually have an income threshold that you have to meet. 

You can ask them for anything to do the tour but if they don't have that particular type of ticket, they can't give it to you. They usually don't have a whole lot of options--it's usually either cash or a gift card for a restaurant or whatever or the basic tickets. 

I would just look up the price of those tickets and hold out for that much cash if that's what you really really want. 

If you find an ad that shows they will give you $150 or whatever, bring the ad to the sales presentation with you. Once we had a ts try to tell us that they had advertised TWO tickets rather than the four we had seen in the ad. We had to trot out to the car to find the ad and then they gave us the four tickets. But I didn't like them giving me a hard time about it.


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## JLB (Feb 28, 2007)

That's a trick that isn't talked about much, one OL uses.  Prospects park at the new sales center on East OL Blvd, checkin, and then get golf-carted down to where they action really begins, at RI.

They have you until they decide they are done.

Nothing in a tour is not by design.



Timeshare Von said:


> With it going on four, she was furious at the delays and inability to get a shuttle bus back to the parking lot where the car was.
> Yvonne


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## Timeshare Von (Feb 28, 2007)

riu girl said:


> I am hoping to stay at Fairfield Cypress Palms in Orlando again this year.  On our last visit there,  we were unable to attend a sales presentation since my daughter was ill that  week and we had to seriously re-schd all activities.
> 
> My? In the way of Disney tickets, what would we be offered by this particular Fairfield to attend the presentation?  There will be me  and my two children (one who is considered an adult my Disneysince  she will be 10 by then)
> 
> ...



You can ask for anything . . . but what they have to offer you is another story.  We were just at FF Cypress Palms and they were not giving any tickets away, at all.  That was our preference as well.  Our options were $100 in dining gift cards from an assortment of restaurants in the area ($25 each so you can mix and match) . . . or $75 cash.  We took the $100 in dining cards, all for the Darden Restaurant group (Red Lobster, Olive Garden, etc).

Yvonne


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## Bill4728 (Feb 28, 2007)

The most important thing to tell your friend is NOT TO BUY NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY TO YOU!!

If your friend really likes a TS and would like to think about buying, they need to tell the saleman NO WAY am I buying today NO MATTER WHAT!!. the saleman will say "this deal is only if you buy now" THIS IS A LIE!!  The deal may be good only today but if you do another tour (or call the corporate sales) they will give you the exact deal next week and next month. Also there are very few reason to buy from the developer and the savings of buying resale are HUGE. 

So again you need to make it clear to your friend "DO NOT BUY AT THE TOUR NO MATTER WHAT!"

Good Luck


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## iluvwdw (Feb 28, 2007)

I want to say THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP!!!  I already told her RESALE is the way to go once she finds something she likes!  But she changes her mind like the wind, so who knows.  I did mention that a bunch of places would give her cash or theme park tickets for her time and she said "SIGN ME UP!" :whoopie:   

Thanks again, everyone!


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## mattman27 (Feb 28, 2007)

We got $125 from Horizons last year. We are owners and they talked us into the tour. We went in and told the guy we weren't buying another from a developer and that we were on TUG all the time. He said, "Cool". He asked us questions about how well we traded and if we did it right and gave us some tips. He said we had to stay there for at least 45 minutes and he let us use his CPU for searching the net etc... and we left in 30 Minutes with Cash. 

Best presentation ever. 

By the way SURE, she's not gonna buy this time. Good luck with that.


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## v4albums (Mar 1, 2007)

I am married, and I really would like to go to some presentations for education and entertainment.  Sometimes I travel without my husband, and the circumstances just won't allow both of us to attend timeshare tours together even when we do travel together (I hate to say this, but our kids are not "free child care" material).  Is any way to go around this spousal requirement??


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## Timeshare Von (Mar 1, 2007)

v4albums said:


> I am married, and I really would like to go to some presentations for education and entertainment.  Sometimes I travel without my husband, and the circumstances just won't allow both of us to attend timeshare tours together even when we do travel together (I hate to say this, but our kids are not "free child care" material).  Is any way to go around this spousal requirement??




Usually they do require that you have your SO with you, although I have twice done the "owners update" with Fairfield w/o mine.  ("Owners update" is Fairfield-speak for "sales presentation for those of you who already own with us, as we try to sell you more!!")

Yvonne


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## Detailor (Mar 1, 2007)

v4albums said:


> I am married, and I really would like to go to some presentations for education and entertainment.  Sometimes I travel without my husband, and the circumstances just won't allow both of us to attend timeshare tours together even when we do travel together (I hate to say this, but our kids are not "free child care" material).  Is any way to go around this spousal requirement??



Sure, get power of attorney assigned to you by your husband.  If you have POA, they'll typically let you attend a tour without your husband.

Dick Taylor


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## JLB (Mar 1, 2007)

That seems extreme (to be able to do a TS tour), but it can be done for a single purpose fairly simply.

When we closed on a lakefront lot purchase, my bride had to be in Nashville.  The closing company FAXed her a POA letter just for the single purpose of me signing the closing papers for her.



Detailor said:


> Sure, get power of attorney assigned to you by your husband.  If you have POA, they'll typically let you attend a tour without your husband.
> 
> Dick Taylor


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