Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Cancun Day 2: Visiting a timeshare to get free stuff
While we were at the airport, there were tons of timeshare reprentatives trying to get you to go visit their properties. I’m not sure if they were from different resorts or all from the same one. They were all dressed alike, so it seemed like the same one. We decided to listen to one of these smooth-talkers, not because we were interested or anything, but because they were giving away free tours if you go visit them. These trips easily cost $100 or so per person for the high end ones, or $50 for the cheaper ones. We managed to wangle the most expensive trip out of them plus a less expensive one in return for visiting the Mayan Palace. They would pick us up from our hotel, drive us to their resort, give us free buffet breakfast, a tour of the place, and then talk our ears off in an attempt to sell us something. They promised it would take about 90 minutes of our time, not including the shuttle ride.
After an uneventful 45-minute drive, we arrived at the impressive grand entrance to the Mayan Palace. They aren’t actually in Cancun, it was in the Mayan Riviera farther south. They were still building it out, but it was still very pretty. The tour started with a questionnaire where the resort representative tries to get information out of you about your vacationing habits, expectations, and other things to use against you later. Then we were led to the buffet breakfast hut. I use the term “hut” loosely only because it looked like a straw-covered roof, but it was huge. Just look at it from our table:
Here’s the view we enjoyed while we were eating:
(Click for bigger view)
Afterwards they took us on a physical tour of the property where we got to see many of the beautiful things they have to offer, like their expansive pool:
We got to see their VIP suites and all the things we would get if we were to buy from them. The view from the balcony looked like this:
Everything was very pleasant, but then came the dreaded sales pitch. They sat us down in an air-conditioned room full of other potential victims and started their shpiel. They were amicable, but extremely persistent. The rep was friendly enough, but then he called one of his comrades over after he couldn’t get a yes out of us. This guy was pushy with a capital P. He tried to get us to admit the real reasons why we wouldn’t buy, then tried to reason why were being idiots for passing up their offer. When we finally convinced him that he had no chance with us, he actually got mad! We said sorry, to which he replied, “Don’t feel sorry for me, I just live here.” I’m not sure exactly what he meant by that, but he was extremely rude.
We don’t care though, because him being an asshole didn’t change the fact that they still owed us four tickets to some very nice attractions. More on those later!
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Categories: • Sometimes I have a life