Do not even think that today went without any stress or hickups. Here was the deal!
I booked us into a hotel with a Universal Studio Vacation Promotion. To get the great Super Saving Deal, we only had to attend a Timeshare morning tour to stay in this beautiful hotel and would receive 4 Universal tickets as a gift for our willingness. Yeahh right, I know I should have known better, but it sounded to good to pass. However we got sucked in big times and this will be my lesson for life, never ever will I attend anything with timeshare ever again.
The first eyeopener happened already when we arrived in our hotel room, it was a shitty, old, rundown hotel, with ripped sofa, running tap all night, big marks on the carpet......don't even want to know! When we went down to the reception the next morning, no ones knows anything about the tour or timeshare..ups...the alarm bells are ringing big times! One friendly lady behind one of the desks, reckons that it must be another hotel that we are suppose to do the time share tour. Problem number one, we had to attend the tour to receive our tickets, that had already paid for, wrong move! Problem number two, we did not have any means of transportation to get to this hotel, so we had to order a taxi, which cost us mega bucks as you can imagine! Problem number three, the room was not even near the money worth that we had paid, so we had to find this timeshare presentation. Problem number four, we could not get hold of any person where I had booked the Vacation Package. Problem number five.....Sven... by than he was so mad.... not that I was any calmer!
Off we went with the taxi to the hotel where we were suppose to be at 9 in the morning. By the time we arrive at the hotel, which was an half hour trip away, it was 9.30 am. Lucky us, that hotel did not know anything either about a timeshare promotion, they had worked with the company half a year ago, but the hotel got sold in the middle of this year and so they had moved on. Howeve we were kind of lucky as the ladies behind the desk felt for us and they managed to bring light to our mysery. We had to take another taxi to drive a few miles further ...hoping that this time it would be the right place. BINGO! Half around Orlando and US$ 75 later we had found the place we were suppose to be 2 hours ago. by that time Sven was steaming, and had to be told to calm down otherwise she would call the security to remove him from the premises! They told us that we could attend the lunch time presentation, but all we wanted were our tickets and go back to where we came from. No go...no presentation, no tickets....stuck.....we had already learned that this kind of scam happen all the times and in america it is called "bait and switch" and we told them if they would not return our money back than we would bring it to the press and that they could talk to our laywers....and then we left! By now it was lunch time and another US$ 75 later we tried to calm down in our room. While we rang Visa to report the incident and to stop the transaction, we received an email from the company I booked the package with, to confirm our booking and to explain the details of where we have to go and where the timeshare presentation would take place. At the same time it knocks on the door and the hotel management is informing us that our room reservation had just been just cancelled and that we need to vacate the room, if we are not willing to pay! PAUSE.......I just needed to take a deep breath in to evaluate the situation ....it all felt like we are in a cheap, bad movie scene. We explained what had happened to us and I could virtually feel the bad energy leave the room.....We got it all sorted in the end, stayed in our room and paid for it ourselves, paid for our own tickets, and hoping to get our money back from Visa. What a nightmare after nearly two years of sailing in the beautiful Caribbean and only tried to be ripped once in a while off in a relaxed environment. What a shock to the system this morning..... there is no doubt about it anymore, we have landed back in reality!
NO WORRIES! Nothing can stop us to have a good time anyway and what can help much better then being surrounded by friends. Our friends Aleatha and Eric came with their two sons for a visit. What a delight it was to see them again and our morning nightmare was soon forgotten. We had a blast and we took the opportunity to went to visit Downtown Disney with them. The kids were thrilled to be reunited again and they enjoyed each others company. For dinner we went to the Boston Lobster Feast restaurant and overate on seafood. The Seafood Buffet was amazing and we all enjoyed the different combinations and ways the seafood was cooked and presented. We rolled out of the restaurant and did not have to take another meal for two days! What beautiful memory we created that afternoon and that evening. Thank you Aleatha, Eric, Chase and Reese for making the effort and coming to see us for the afternoon in Orlando. We will see you in Daytona for Thanksgiving. Already looking forward to spend a whole day with you.
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