We're all still on UK time. I woke up at 4 a.m. and the rest of the family were up and around by 6.30. This was not ideal, because breakfast wasn't until 10 a.m. We'd been bribed to go to another resort owned by the people we have our timeshare with for a "Breakfast meeting and owners update". In other words, they were going to try to sell us more timeshare.
Anyway,I finally managed to make proper American pancakes (quite nice, too) for a pre-breakfast snack, and then we drove to a huge and very busy complex. We arrived at 10, and waited half-an-hour before Millie came to take us upstairs for breakfast, so we weren't in a particularly good mood. And we didn't much like the resort.
When I say we had been bribed to attend the "90 minute presenation", I'm not kidding. We had been promised a Visa card with $25 credit on it, a $50 gift certificate, a $150 discount on a cruise, a free week, a free breakfast (of course) and a box of cookies. (It was the cookies which swung it.) And in case there was any doubt that they wanted us there, they took a $20 deposit which we would get back only if we showed up. Anyway, it was still raining so we had nothing else to do.
We had no intention of buying more timeshare. We really didn't. And yet when we left there, five long hours later, we had upgraded to a three bedroomed lock-off unit at the new resort. We'd signed the paperwork and everything. Done deal. And we felt remarkably good about it. Property is always a good investment, right?
There are problems with our current resort, you see. We had already noticed this. It is shared between two companies, and they don't get on, with the result that service is patchy and there are no organised activities. Whilst the unit itself is gorgeous, the resort it noticably worse than last time we came. So moving to a newer, bigger and much better equipped, staffed and run one seemed like a good idea.
When Hubby Dearest bought his two bedroom timeshare eight years ago he signed an agreement which stated that should he ever upgrade he was entitled to the same deal. In other words, a two-bedroomed unit at a set discount, and 0% credit. Yes, 0%. Millie was not happy in discovering this. Their usual credit terms are 18%, for one thing, and they didn't have any two-bedroomed units left, for another. So they were forced to allow us to upgrade to a three-bedroomed lockoff (which means it can be divided into two units) for the price of a two bedroomed, and with a discount, and at 0%. So we now have an even more gorgeous timeshare, which sleeps 12 people and can generate an income. And even the lawyer who did the paperwork admitted that we were paying about a quarter of what most people pay.
The sun had come out by the time we left there, so we headed for the pool and splashed around for an hour. It was delightfully warm, and the exercise made us feel slightly less guilty about the vast quantities we had eaten at our "free lunch". Disney tomorrow!
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