I "won" a cruise...is this a scam?

[footballmom]

This is so amazing! I just won a cruise like you!! Maybe we can go together! Seriously, I threw my card in the trash can cause hubby and I can't do things like that often and knew there would be some time restrictions. I'm always skeptical about "free" stuff. I know our cruise in November on the Conquest is NOT free but hope it will be worth every penny! Can't wait!

[vedward]

In order to get my "free cruise" to Nassau, I had to sit through a SHORT presentation on air filter systems and provide my comments. It turned into a 2 hour + ordeal ....but they didn't get my $3,000 !!!!

 

(I could also have chosen airfare for 2 to Hawaii..but you had to book 2 weeks accommodations through their travel agent..go figure)

 

I'm supposed to mail a card to them 90 days before I want to curise and they'll send info etc. on getting the tix.

 

Doesn't Raddison have a Nassau cruise? (I know..dream on).

 

I need more info on Leaky Bucket Cruiseline...I may be sailing with them.

[TinafromNJ]

Simply put it's a scam.

[GLW513]

I have a similar experience with Time Shares.

 

My wife was a Math Teacher. While the salesperson (being politically correct) was making his pitch, my wife kept shooting holes in his cost figures. At the point where he started stammering and studdering he quickly went and got his "manager". My wife also shot holes in his figures as well. And she did all of this in her head which amazed them...me too!

 

They quickly got rid of us....gave us our prize and led us to the door. The prize being 5 days and 4 nights in Ft. Lauderdale. Then you take the Discovery over to Freeport for 3 days and 2 nights. All in all it went well, except for all of the offers for "Timeshares". The one the disturbed me the most was from the hotel that we stayed at...as memory will served me I think that it was called the Island Princess....directly across from the International Bazzar. They literally hounded us to death. We finally had to tell them to leave us alone.

 

Remember the slogan - "Buyer Beware"

[redneck_dan]

About 20 years ago my dad won a boat and motor at a time share thing. It turned out to be a rubber raft and a rubber band motor. The funny thing was that my father-in-law must have been at the same time share scam because he won a boat and motor too.

[robbyxoxo]

Rduke...id LOVE to hear the other side....id love to be convinced that they are a great deal so i can go out and buy one.......i consider myself somewhat of an authority on timeshares based on the 10 tours ive done, as well as much research online....i even subscribed to a timeshare newsletter for a year!:)......GLWs story is pretty much similar to most of the tours ive been on.......they try and tell me how its cheaper to vacation the timeshare way, and i prove them wrong:)...........like how they tell you that hotel rates are increasing at such a fast pace and how it will cost sooo much more to stay at hotels in the future.....and yet, im paying less now for the same hotels that we stayed in 5 years ago and paid more.......hotels are no different from cruiselines, in that they dont have very good pricing power with the supply and demand out there......so that theory goes down the tube...........you can add up the numbers 100 different ways and its reallyyy hard to make a case for timeshares being more cost efficient.......especially if ur paying 15 thousand for one.........Like Halos said, ive seen them as cheap as $800 for an off season week in cocoa beach......i still wouldnt buy one for that price......i can still rent a hotel on the beach for a week for less than ill be paying for the yearly fees on the condo and the fees to be able to trade..........Halos, i know ur leaning towards sailing a different cruiseline in the future.......please do so before u burn out on carnival and become a bitter cruiser such as myself lol.......ill prolly be bored to death on Celebrity and end up swearing off all other lines except for Carnival lol

[klfrodo]

Excellent debate.

 

As long as it doesn't get personal or too heated, I'd like to hear more from robby and Rduke. We can only become more informed consumers.

[lalapet]

I have to butt in here a little. We own a time chare and we love it. Okay so maybe you could find a cheep hotel where you want to go. The thing about a timeshare is this. We are a family of 5. We purchased 5 years ago on Florida ( we can use it anywhere ) We paid $4,800. Partly because my husband's family all own there and partly because my husband is the haggel king. We paid $80 a month and it is paid off now. This place has everything. On site water park, Mall with 4 dance clubs and resturants. Various lakes with more ammenities than we would lnow what to do with. Free breakfast by the pool, three nights durring the week when you get free dinners. Great things for the kids, and they will do anything for you. You are treated like royalty the moment you check in. Anyone could sit there and break it down and find a cheeper way of doing it but that applies to everything in life doesn't it? We anjoy it. Somtimes it is worth a little extra to have the perfect vacation. Money comes and goes but the memories last forever. It's all a matter of personal preference.

 

 

Oh and yes they came through with our free airline tickets for taking the tour. Tickets for 5. Plus free attraction tickets when we bought.

[rduke]

robbyxoxo- all right I accept the challenge- Lets start with the 10 year costs.

 

we bought our Florida timeshare in 1994 for $10,000(paid cash thus no interest charges) we have a 2 bedroom that we lock off- get one week for each bedroom thus we have 2 weeks there. then because this resort is so popular they give us an additional week for each week we DON'T show up at our home resort. Thus that gives us 2 additional weeks of time share 2+2 =4 weeks total. We have been to our home resort only once(very nice ) but we use our time share for places all over the world. We pay maintence and insurance-$400 yearly. Then we pay an ex change fee that averages about $140 per exchange or X4 per year of $560 per year.

 

So our 10 year cost are:

 

Unit- $10,000

maintence fees & taxes-$4000

exchange fees-$4760

Total cost-$18,760

 

The condos we stay at our handpicked and always have full kitchens, living rooms, dinning room and the resorts have many ammenities are all in what they call the red zone so the average cost to spend a week would be probably average a$1000 per week(some a little less but others could be a lot more) For the purposes of this example I am going to use $1000 per week. These are nice resorts,,,well maintained and do rent condos out for up $200 or more per day. to be continued

[rduke]

We have used 34 weeks of time share in the 10 year period 34X $1000=$34,000 $34,000 minus $18,870 costs=$15000 Savings

 

oh but you say you could stay you could find cheaper places to stay that would be sort of nice....but I tell you like Winston Churchill once said" I am easy to please...just give me the best of everything" And that is what we like to do when we travel Stay at the best that is available. Couple that with fact my wife is a self made gormet cook that would rather cook than go out for the most part( we still eat out some when we travel, however)

 

Now lets look at what it costs us this year....maintence & taxes-$400, exchange fees $560 so for under $1000 we get 4 weeks in resorts that would have cost us $4000 we own the title on our timeshare and plan on leaving it to our kids after we are gone say 20- 30 years down the road.

So thats why I like time shares but you must think of them for the long term..after all life itself is long term!!

[klfrodo]

Great post Rduke.

 

The number 1 takeaway from this is that you were able to pay cash for your timeshare thus avoiding interest costs. Would you agree?

 

Question? The numbers are your personal information and I'm not asking for numbers but do you build any equity in a time share?

[rduke]

Thanks for jumping in Lalapet....you covered some points on amenities at the resorts that I had sort of skipped over!! There are many very happy timeshare owners that we meet every time we travel!!

[waterbound]

a year or two ago we went to a timeshare thing because we had recvd a postcard and it was for a carnival cruise.. however as listed above it is very limited.. we had to send in $50 pp within so many days of doing the timeshare.. which was refundable upon taking the cruise.. However the times are very limited.. You pick 3 sailing dates in the off season and then you mail those days to you.. within 30 days or 45 ( I cant remember which) they will mail a letter to you telling you if you got that date.. if the first one isnt avl, then they will let you know.. but they wont tell you at that time if they can meet the second or third.. within 30 to 45 days of the second date they do the same thing.. if it is avl they will let you know.. if not they will let you know at that time, etc.. If they are unable to accomodate you then you can request in writing that $100 back ... You have to be flexible and be able to cruise within 30-45 days notice.. It just didnt work for us.. we couldnt get a date and so I requested my money back and got my refund with no questions asked.. It would have been nice to do it, it just didnt work out.. so for us it was a waste of time because we didnt get the timeshare or the cruise ..

Not sure if this is how they all work.. just wanted to give you my experience.. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.. and by the way the timeshare was very nice and I thought reasonably priced.. when we get a little older and the kids are grown up and on their own, I would definitely think about doing a timeshare...

[robbyxoxo]

Rduke!:)....u make a good case!.....but....im gonna throw some curveballs back at ya........the fact that you are getting 4 weeks, while only paying ONE week worths of fees($400) greatly helps your argument....im not sure how many people are gettin that good of a hook up.........but lets work with those figures......the one major thing that isnt being accounted for, towards not buying a timeshare, is the $10,000 price tag......because if i DONT buy the timeshare, i now have that $10,000 to invest elsewheres.....so lets say its sitting in stocks the past 10 years earning 10 % annually....so thats an extra thousand worth of gains each year that i can put towards paying for my hotel stays......so in reality, your costs are not only the $960 per year, but also and additional $1000 that you've lost by putting the $10,000 into the timeshare......so that gives me $1,960 a year to book 4 weeks vacations at a comparable hotel..........and i AM agreeing that most of the timeshare resorts are very nice places to stay............so with that amount i can afford about an $80 a nite hotel after adding on taxes......which makes this a close race! lol.......but lets remember you can always squeeze that 80 bucks for more by booking through priceline or similar........u can get hotels as nice as the Venetian in Vegas for as cheap as 100ish per nite on priceline.............and 80 bucks would land u very nice hotels most places when booked through priceline...............your 4 weeks for the price of one, makes this a harder case for me to make lol........but your case isnt the average for sure.....and the large majority of the people buying timeshares directly from the tours, dont take 4 vacations a year......most are prolly lucky to take one............also, they try and make timeshares sound more appealing with the whole trading thang and being able to trade for great places overseas and far away......but i think most people forget to consider how expensive the airfare will be when flying to a cancun timeshare......however, when air is purchased as a package with your hotel stay, it becomes more economical...............As i said in one of my earlier posts, if your more of a spender and lookin for luxury, maybe you can make a timeshare work for you so that its not that bad of a deal.....You have worked it pretty well if you're getting 4 weeks and using them all each year.....but I know most people that own them arent doing that......and i dont think most people that buy them are the type that would normally be staying at expensive resorts anyways.............Your argument has peaked my interest some though!.......if i could find the same kinda hookup that uve got with the 4 weeks for $960 per year, id almost be tempted.....but only if i could buy the timeshare for like nuthin lol........my cheapness just wont allow me to go more than that :).....Rduke, u made a good case for your situation.....i think where as most people that buy come out as suckers, uve come out quite well:)

[Vicar]

ROBBYXOXO

 

ALRIGHT POD PERSON FROM ANOTHER PLANET, WHAT DID YOU DO WITH ROBBY WHEN YOU TOOK OVER HIS BODY?????????????????

 

*LMAO*

 

Seriously though, I could not agree with you more .

 

I have sat through a one of these things myself and it just didn't sound good at all. More fine print, more hidden fees, more little "extras", more BS.

 

A fee if you want to change your week, a fee if want to a certain location.

Fuggededaboutit *LOL*

 

GF and I are hardly jetsetting travellers , but when we go we go as top shelf as we can. Some years we shoot the works and take one real luxury trip. Some years we take maybe two smaller mid priced trips.

 

Between our work schedules and a house and two kids between us, we can't commit to one week a year . we may go away in the summer, maybe the fall, who knows.

 

We are both still young and there are a lot of trips ,big and small ,to a lot of places that we still want to do. And tieing up that kind of money into a time share just isn't wise for us.

 

Thats just us, if it works for others GOD BLESS!!!!

[rduke]

Robbyxoxo- I thought you might come back with the arguement that my case was unusual...not typical...an isolated occurance. I was active in Debate in both high school and college. this was one of the tacics the was used if one could not logically explain away a condition. It was a tacic that seldom worked then and will not work now!!

In the course of time I have talked to many timeshare owners that have just as good of deal as I do! If you could just spend a week or two at a timeshare resorts talking to these owners on why they like time sharring...all the benefits etc. You might really be surprised in what you learn!! The reason timesharring gets such a bad rapp is the crazy, almost illegal , marketing methods that are used. If that could somehow be changed then timeshares would not be looked at the same way you think of the used car salesman!!

[halos]

[quote name='Vicar']ROBBYXOXO

ALRIGHT POD PERSON FROM ANOTHER PLANET, WHAT DID YOU DO WITH ROBBY WHEN YOU TOOK OVER HIS BODY?????????????????

*LMAO*

Seriously though, I could not agree with you more .

[/QUOTE]



[COLOR=DarkRed]Isn't this funny???????? I agree with him too. I can't stop laughing!!![/COLOR]

Robby, my DH and I came (-) this close to purchasing a time share here in Maine. One week here gets me two weeks anywhere else (whoda thunk it??) anyway...the reason we came to our senses is that we realized that the majority of our cost when it came to vacations every ear was (1st) the plane fare and (2nd) meals...the hotels are the cheapest part of getting away...so the timeshare didn't make sense for us for that reason...especially for the money they wanted anyway :eek: !!
I really believe that if they were all that great, people wouldn't have such a struggle trying to sell them. We backed out less than 24 hours after making a deposit. I'm glad we did.
I'd much rather cruise...if they want to sell me a timeshare on a ship, THEN I'll change my mind.

So, Robby, you REALLY are 39...you weren't just pulling my leg?? :D

[dromMOM]

My Brother - in - law...................... actually went on that time share offer 2 years ago..

We were invited to attend but I was very wary..
They went had a nice time.. did go on the Carnival cruise... ended up with a Time Share.. On Singer Island.. Beautiful place.. we have enjoyed these past two years visiting them during Christmas.. We will be visiting them at their time share this year when we return from our Valor Cruise...

So... the Cruise is valid.. but you do have to sit thru.. time share meetings...

So you must decide if it is worth it.. Many friends in my neighborhood go to these all the time and enjoy the freebies..without buying...

[robbyxoxo]

LOL.....yes despite my behavior here at times, im still really 39 lol.....i told you all this time that im quite normal in real life situations lol......so its still me here :-p.......Halos...u and i thinking a lot alike on this.....and thats why we both are cruisers.....add up the airfare and meals when vacationing the caribbean, and it just makes cruising seem soooooo cheap and a great deal......Rduke....i agree with a lot of what your sayin as well!:).....i know there are some out there who know the system and use it to its fullest and actually come out ok......and YA, timeshares get much of the bad rap because of the sale tactics......I still think though that most of the buyers end up with a much less sweet deal, and coulda done better on their own.....Plus im still asking why anyone would ever by from the timeshare people direct, as opposed from buying a resale for way less?.......peace and love Robbyxoxo

[emerald777]

I've attended several timeshare presentations just to receive whatever the freebie offered and would never seriously consider spending that much money for a week in a condo. When I vacation, it's either on cruise ship or in a casino in Vegas (where my room and food is always free). But reading this thread got me curious. So I went to Ebay and checked out the TS's for sale there. The large majority appear to be only a couple hundred dollars each and then the annual maintenance fees. Are they basically giving these units away? Or is there some hidden costs I'm not seeing??

[rduke]

Robbyxoxo- The answer to your question by buy new rather than second hand is an easy one for me to answer. with a second hand unit I would never get 4 weeks.....probably 2 or maybe only 1. And we both agree that my case is much stronger when I have the 4 week program. Anyway I am sure neither of us have really changed our minds based on this discussion so its time to move on. Perhaps we will meet someday on a cruise!!! Chow!!