Free cruise from a timeshare presentation?

My girlfriend just got a timeshare thing in the mail and it says we get a free 5 night cruise on RC for going to the one hour presentation. I think it's a scam and there is no free cruise. She called and we're going to the presentation on Sunday. Has anyone here actually done this and gotten the cruise?

Read it closely.....are you sure it is Royal Caribbean cruise???? They tried to get us to go on one of those and it was a day cruise ....not on a Royal Caribbean ship.....after the last time we did that time share presentation thing in Daytona Beach and it was supposed to "only take one and a half hours" of our time and we were gone for about 5...... I told my husband never again!!!

Read it closely.....are you sure it is Royal Caribbean cruise???? They tried to get us to go on one of those and it was a day cruise ....not on a Royal Caribbean ship.....after the last time we did that time share presentation thing in Daytona Beach and it was supposed to "only take one and a half hours" of our time and we were gone for about 5...... I told my husband never again!!!

It said it was RC and they were using RC logos on the envelope and papers in the mailing.

I went to one about 5 years ago and it sucked. It was an extreme hard sell. I figure this time when they push the time share, I can say the only vacations we take are to Vegas, in which we get comped everywhere and we go on cruises.

Things that usually sound to good to be true....usually are not

There were some people on our Majesty cruise that sailed for free after listening to a time share spiel. So it is possible.

Free cruise probably does not include port fees, taxes, airfare, etc! Be careful! Leave you check book and credit cards at home when you go to the presentation.

My girlfriend just got a timeshare thing in the mail and it says we get a free 5 night cruise on RC for going to the one hour presentation. I think it's a scam and there is no free cruise. She called and we're going to the presentation on Sunday. Has anyone here actually done this and gotten the cruise?

I did one of those, and it's not worth it. We got a "2 for 1" cruise with Carnival. But you have to pay taxes on the "free" one, and the other one is higher than their posted cruise fare. Just this week I did a fake booking to see how it would work out, and if I purchased for two on the cruise of our choice, it came in $250 cheaper than the "2 for 1" deal.

There may also be a requirement to take out their insurance..... FREE should be just that.... and never is... have been on one of these years ago.... the cruise was ONE of the prizes offered for attending the talk.... we got a carriage clock....

As Julius Caesar once said, "caveat emptor"

My girlfriend just got a timeshare thing in the mail and it says we get a free 5 night cruise on RC for going to the one hour presentation. I think it's a scam and there is no free cruise. She called and we're going to the presentation on Sunday. Has anyone here actually done this and gotten the cruise?

You might want to check with your local BBB. We had a similiar advertising campaign in our area. A few weeks later, there was an article in the local newspaper with a warning from the BBB. It seems that some people lost thousands of $$$ because the company was already in bankruptcy.

A call to the BBB in the area where the letter was mailed from, might be a good idea too.

It definitely happened to my DH's friend at work. It is a 5 day RCI cruise and it even includes the airfare. It's for real.

BE CAREFUL! My wife once purchased some tickets to stay in Las Vegas at the FLAMINGO.. well, she thought it was the Flamingo HILTON, it wasn't!! Mislead us big time!!

These things always seem to happen to a friend of a friend.... I'd like to hear it from someone in person..... sorry Lynn the cruiser..... I'm a born sceptic.... as someone said...if something sounds too good to be true it generally is.....

We just went to a timeshare presentation in Napa, which we heard about at a home show. 90 minutes of saying "No thank you" and we were out of there.

Mailed in the coupon we received as our "gift" and supposedly, we are getting two roundtrip tickets from San Francisco to Oahu, with two nights in a hotel. You pay the air fare tax and can add days for $100. We'll see how it goes....

We've done time share presentations before and had success. Read everything! I'm sure there are both good and bad ones, as with anything. If you can handle an hour and a half of misery for a reward, do it!

I think the time-share companies make so much money selling time-shares they can afford some pricy giveaways. We got the free cruise deal for a 3 day Carnival Cruise many years ago [we didn't buy anything, just had to listen to the high pressure sales pitch]. When we went to book, the dates were extremely limited and it was for the lowest possible category and didn't include airfare. By time we added up what our free cruise would cost us, it wasn't worth it and we never went. On another free vacation deal we were offered for listening to a vacation speel, the salesperson never signed the certificate and it ended up being worthless. That place is no longer around. I have decided it isn't worth my time and effort to get the free goodies offered by these companies-as I have no intention of ever purchasing anything [i'd rather spend my vacation dollars on cruising or other self-planned trips]. Can't say whether your deal is worth it or not, but is it worth your time to find out?

Leave your credit cards, debit cards, & check book at home when you go to the presentation. They really pressure you to the point you will walk out without the gift or winning. They will want your card number for the free cruise.

We did one of those timeshare things a few years ago... We went because it was literally something to do to kill 6 hours of time before our flight... We got to see a nice property, free lunch, etc, etc,... we knew we wouldn't/couldn't purchase a timeshare with them so it was easy to keep saying no... which we did as we were passed off to 6 different sales people...

Ever see that South Park episode about the timeshare schpiel???? It's a classic and very much represents the experience...

By the end of the schpiel, we hadn't purchased anything and our "vouchers" for the free cruise were for VERY limited dates... something like, a 4 night cruise that leaves on a Tuesday in a month that doesn't end in 'y', while there is a full moon, in a leap year that is also an election year for 20 states' governors...

Still, it killed 6 hours and we had a good time watching all these salespeople try to sell us something we had no intention of purchasing...

I just did a google search on "silverleaf resorts scam" and it looks like it's a huge scam. Tons of complaints about them.

There are companies that do this legitimately. The Time Share people pay about $200 for the voucher and they will buy a ton of them. They are in with travel companies like Inerval International which is a time share travel agency. It is the lowest level cabin so they hope to make money from the upgrade. Plus their may be taxes depending on the company. If you do not live close by then you will need airfare.

In order to redeem the voucher, you most likely will never speak to a person. You will receive a voucher to mail in. You mail in the date you want and they will mail back if it's available,. If it's not, ypou mail back another date and so on until they have an available date.

My parent's time share is one that is open for renting to folks who do not "own" the unit. Because they can make more money off of those folks, they will call my parents and offer them these vouchers in exchange for a few days off their "plan".

It may not be a scam but it is not an easy or free thing to redeem

Besides the timeshares, there is some "survey company" giving out the 5night cruise, but they make it impossible to claim it. A friend of mine won it at a bar last summer. The screwed around with the paperwork, she filled it out, chose her dates. Than a month later, they tell her she has to be 25. When she told me this I told to call them back and raise hell. RC is 21. They resent papers when she cleared that up, she sent them back. They told her to choose new dates. She chose January or February. They told her too bad, nothing available, but if you want to go to Miami we'll put you on that ship. At that point she walked away from it.

Its important to keep in mind the simple saying, if its too good to be true, it likely is...so check it out to validate that what you think is being given is really being given. To that end if you think its a free make sure its really free and that you will not be stuck with all kinds of surcharges.

Its important to keep in mind the simple saying, if its too good to be true, it likely is...so check it out to validate that what you think is being given is really being given. To that end if you think its a free make sure its really free and that you will not be stuck with all kinds of surcharges.

Exactly :) Nothing is free these days, if you agree with their terms be prepared to pay the taxes...

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Exactly :) Nothing is free these days, if you agree with their terms be prepared to pay the taxes...

 

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Oh yeah...we covered that in Econ 101...wow that was a long time ago, it was I think class 2 on first day of college. :D Brings back memories.

The best presentation of a time share I've ever seen is Disney Vacations. I feel they are a bit more honorable, I guess in part because they know they are eating up some of your WDW vacation time. In the end I still decided their offer was just a bit pricey compared to the amount of time we would use it.