Vacation Village at Parkway, Kissimmee, Florida 12/04/2013
DECEMBER 4, 2013 (Wednesday)
Getting up earlier here than our normal. Must be the sunny skies and relatively warm weather. Was around 85 today. Lovely.
We started off by going to the timeshare presentation. It was at Summer Bay Resort (also known as Crown Club, I believe). Summer Bay is the place that one of their big units dropped into a sinkhole a few months ago. Luckily no one was hurt and the security guard did a great job of getting everyone out. The people in that particular building lost everything though – clothes, personal items, computers, phones, etc. Patrick said they were compensated well.
We signed in and were greeted by Patrick. What a nice young man, very knowledgeable and just a real neat guy. We talked for awhile, he showed us how their system worked, and then we went on a tour. The tour was really interesting. We took a boat over to the other side of the resort and then took a shuttle to their vacation homes. My oh my they were lovely. They even had their own swimming pool and hot tub per home. Very high end and gorgeous. The shower itself was big enough to hold a party. After the home, we toured one of their regular units. Also very lovely (but I’d rather the home – duhhhh). Right across the road was another pool. Patrick said they always had something going on at that particular pool and while we were there they were showing off a alligator. Fun.
Once back at the presentation area, Patrick went over the numbers, brought in another man with more numbers, and then brought in a woman for the closing and gifting. Everyone was very polite, professional, and no pressure. It looks like a really good system but at this point what we’re doing is working and we can’t justify spending so much money for a few extra perks they offer. Their bottom, bottom line was around $7,000 for every other year 40,000 RCI points, $239.00 club fee and $378.00 maintenance fee annually. Their Crown Market Club fascinated us and we were tempted. It looks really good but you pay for it yearly, like RCI. We didn’t buy, but really wanted too just because we liked Patrick so much.
We went to gifting and got our three 2 day tickets to Disney World. We paid $314.00 for our part. A normal one day ticket to Disney World is around $100.00 per person – so basically we got our tickets half off (or around $300.00 off).
We really liked the no pressure, the salesman, and the tour. We like to look at other resorts. Patrick was also very interested in our take on the resort. We told him what we do, how we do it, and how many resorts we’ve been in. They do have a higher end place.
When we left we headed for the Millenia Mall in Orlando. We only got a little ways before we wanted lunch. Michael wanted to wait to get to the mall and have lunch there, Lexi was hungry now. I had a coupon for Cici’s lunch buffet (a pizza and pasta place). There was one really close so we just went there. They have a little pasta and lots of pizza. They also had several desserts available and a small salad bar. It was filling and good but very high calorie.
We drove to the mall, around 20 miles away. What a beautiful place and it’s all decked out for Christmas. Never seen a mall like this. Neiman Marcus, Macy’s, Apple, Microsoft, Sony, Coach, etc. We needed to go to the Apple store to try to get Lexi’s phone fixed or exchanged. They tried a couple things and we’re hoping the phone is okay now. We’ll see or we’ll have to get to another Apple store down in Weston. Was nice seeing the mall, and they have a Cheesecake Factory there. I was surprised that I was able to control myself and not go in and get something. Still full from lunch.
We left the mall and went home. We’re tired and walked a lot today, training for Disney World tomorrow. That was our day. Hope yours was great!