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Great experience USING timeshares

jasenj1

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The name of this board is "Timeshare User's Group" not "Timeshare Owner's Group". You can have some good experiences using the timeshare system but not necessarily owning.

E Tour and Travel is an agency that sells timeshare sales tour packages. We fall in their demographic, and they contact us fairly regularly. We bought a package for ~$250 which got us several days lodging, rental car, and two Disney tickets. Typically they put you in a hotel somewhere in Orlando.

We scheduled our trip & tour for Christmas week. When the time came to confirm our reservation, they said they had overbooked and ended up bumping us to staying in the resort we were to tour, Vacation Villas at Fantasy World.

We took our tour and said "no". Then we went over to Downtown Disney for some shopping. We are planning to take a Disney cruise and had some questions about how DVC could be used with the cruises (We were wondering if it would be worth getting into DVC and trading into a cruise vs just paying for the cruise outright. It wouldn't). The people at the DVC kiosk just shift you off to a tour at one of the DVC properties. We drove over to Bay Lake Towers to take our tour. For our time, we were given VIP Fast Pass cards. These get you an immediate use Fast Pass at three rides, i.e. you swipe the card & get a Fast Pass for right then.

The day we went to the Magic Kingdom they filled to capacity. However, using the VIP Fast Passes and the regular Fast Pass we were able to "leap frog" our our rides. i.e. Get a regular Fast Pass for an hour or two from now, walk over to another ride and use the VIP Fast Pass to get on immediately.

Since our condo was very near the Disney property, we were able to get to the Magic Kingdom at opening and ride a few rides before the crowds got bad. Then we headed back to the condo for a few hours in the middle of the day and went back to the park in the evening. The park was FULL until after the fireworks, but then cleared out. We were able to get several rides in before leaving at closing time - 1 am.

In the end, we rode everything we wanted to and more. And ended up with one VIP Fast Pass use left over.

A great experience using the timeshare system without owning.
 

MOXJO7282

Tug Review Crew
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The name of this board is "Timeshare User's Group" not "Timeshare Owner's Group". You can have some good experiences using the timeshare system but not necessarily owning.

E Tour and Travel is an agency that sells timeshare sales tour packages. We fall in their demographic, and they contact us fairly regularly. We bought a package for ~$250 which got us several days lodging, rental car, and two Disney tickets. Typically they put you in a hotel somewhere in Orlando.

We scheduled our trip & tour for Christmas week. When the time came to confirm our reservation, they said they had overbooked and ended up bumping us to staying in the resort we were to tour, Vacation Villas at Fantasy World.

We took our tour and said "no". Then we went over to Downtown Disney for some shopping. We are planning to take a Disney cruise and had some questions about how DVC could be used with the cruises (We were wondering if it would be worth getting into DVC and trading into a cruise vs just paying for the cruise outright. It wouldn't). The people at the DVC kiosk just shift you off to a tour at one of the DVC properties. We drove over to Bay Lake Towers to take our tour. For our time, we were given VIP Fast Pass cards. These get you an immediate use Fast Pass at three rides, i.e. you swipe the card & get a Fast Pass for right then.

The day we went to the Magic Kingdom they filled to capacity. However, using the VIP Fast Passes and the regular Fast Pass we were able to "leap frog" our our rides. i.e. Get a regular Fast Pass for an hour or two from now, walk over to another ride and use the VIP Fast Pass to get on immediately.

Since our condo was very near the Disney property, we were able to get to the Magic Kingdom at opening and ride a few rides before the crowds got bad. Then we headed back to the condo for a few hours in the middle of the day and went back to the park in the evening. The park was FULL until after the fireworks, but then cleared out. We were able to get several rides in before leaving at closing time - 1 am.

In the end, we rode everything we wanted to and more. And ended up with one VIP Fast Pass use left over.

A great experience using the timeshare system without owning.

I agree with you but not in your approach. Not that i have a problem with it at all, but I wouldn't want to have a vacation based on a attending a TS prensentation, other than Marriott because I have personal and have heard of many other horror stories about the presentation ending up being 3-4 hours of stress.

My thoughts are that with the explosion of TS in almost every major location you can easily rent at very good rates without the investment of ownership. Now this doesn't apply to the really high end locations in prime season like Maui and Aruba but otherwise you can rent many places for MF costs or slightly more.
 
Last edited:

jehb2

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You did a Disney timeshare tour just for a fast pass? Did you get anything else?
 

Margariet

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And you paid $250 to do a timeshare presentation? :eek:
 

PigsDad

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And you paid $250 to do a timeshare presentation? :eek:
If you read the OP, they said the $250 got them "several days lodging, rental car, and two Disney tickets". Not a bad deal, if you don't mind the sales presentation and you know what you are getting into. Not my personal cup of tea, but I certainly wouldn't knock others for taking advantage of the deal.

Kurt
 

Margariet

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If you read the OP, they said the $250 got them "several days lodging, rental car, and two Disney tickets". Not a bad deal, if you don't mind the sales presentation and you know what you are getting into. Not my personal cup of tea, but I certainly wouldn't knock others for taking advantage of the deal.

Kurt

It's Orlando so they always have to fill up space. I only do timeshare presentations when they pay me a lot ! ;)
 

PigsDad

TUG Member
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It's Orlando so they always have to fill up space. I only do timeshare presentations when they pay me a lot ! ;)
What presentations pay you enough to cover several days of lodging, a rental car and two Disney tickets? Please do share, as I might even be enticed to sweat it out in the "boiler room" for such compensation. :) I know rooms are cheap in Orlando, but rental cars have really gone up in the last few years. And two 1-day Disney tickets are worth about $150, right?

I am familiar w/ Hilton's preview packages, but last I saw they were about $149 to $199 for usually 2-3 nights lodging, contingent on participating in a sales meeting. But it certainly didn't include the car and Disney tickets.

Kurt
 

jasenj1

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You did a Disney timeshare tour just for a fast pass? Did you get anything else?
Well, we legitimately did have questions about how cruises and DVC work. And we had a couple of hours to kill before dinner at the Polynesian. (Better to spend it touring Bay Lake Towers than letting the wife wander around the gift shops! :p ) And not just a fast pass, but three fast passes for each of us. Without the extra fast passes, we could easily have spent a couple extra hours in line.

Adult one day tickets are $90. So that alone is worth $180.

We had a great time and felt the time and money cost was a good deal.

- Jasen.
 

gypsygirl1

TUG Review Crew
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The name of this board is "Timeshare User's Group" not "Timeshare Owner's Group". You can have some good experiences using the timeshare system but not necessarily owning.

E Tour and Travel is an agency that sells timeshare sales tour packages. We fall in their demographic, and they contact us fairly regularly. We bought a package for ~$250 which got us several days lodging, rental car, and two Disney tickets. Typically they put you in a hotel somewhere in Orlando.

We scheduled our trip & tour for Christmas week. When the time came to confirm our reservation, they said they had overbooked and ended up bumping us to staying in the resort we were to tour, Vacation Villas at Fantasy World.

We took our tour and said "no". Then we went over to Downtown Disney for some shopping. We are planning to take a Disney cruise and had some questions about how DVC could be used with the cruises (We were wondering if it would be worth getting into DVC and trading into a cruise vs just paying for the cruise outright. It wouldn't). The people at the DVC kiosk just shift you off to a tour at one of the DVC properties. We drove over to Bay Lake Towers to take our tour. For our time, we were given VIP Fast Pass cards. These get you an immediate use Fast Pass at three rides, i.e. you swipe the card & get a Fast Pass for right then.

The day we went to the Magic Kingdom they filled to capacity. However, using the VIP Fast Passes and the regular Fast Pass we were able to "leap frog" our our rides. i.e. Get a regular Fast Pass for an hour or two from now, walk over to another ride and use the VIP Fast Pass to get on immediately.

Since our condo was very near the Disney property, we were able to get to the Magic Kingdom at opening and ride a few rides before the crowds got bad. Then we headed back to the condo for a few hours in the middle of the day and went back to the park in the evening. The park was FULL until after the fireworks, but then cleared out. We were able to get several rides in before leaving at closing time - 1 am.

In the end, we rode everything we wanted to and more. And ended up with one VIP Fast Pass use left over.

A great experience using the timeshare system without owning.
 

TUGBrian

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as we get asked every day, this site is for anyone interested in timeshares. owning one is NOT a requirement!
 

pedro47

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Welcome to TUG. Where "Knowledge is Power." by Bacon.

To the OP: I feel you have learned a lot in touring various timeshare resorts and their sales presentations. You have learned to say "NO" and that is the Key IMHO. Good for you.
Good luck........
 
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