Is Timesharing right for us?

[moerderin Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close moerderin]

My wife and I recently got a sales presentation for the GrandView in Las Vegas, and if you would have asked our sales representative, we missed out on the best opportunity of a lifetime by not buying the timeshare then and there.

I got home and spent hours upon hours searching the web for information, and it sounds like it's a good thing we didn't buy right away because:
1) we weren't educated, it's the first we ever even talked to somebody about timeshares
2) there are better deals by buying from anyone OTHER than the developer.

In conclusion, is a timeshare right for us?, here's some information about how we travel:
- We've only done cruises so far, and love it. At some point in the future we may do vacations that aren't cruises, but not any time soon.
- IF we were to do a regular vacation (at a resort as opposed to a cruise), we would ONLY want an all-inclusive resort, it seems like all the timeshares I've found so far you have to cook your own food, or go out to restaurants.
- It's near impossible for us to plan ahead (and believe me, our wallet suffers from it). We usually decide on a vacation ~60 days or less before leaving.
- We don't ever plan on going to the same place every year.

I feel like I've read just about everything I can on timeshares since I got back from Vegas, but the only person I've been able to talk to is somebody trying to sell me a timeshare. It would be nice to hear from actual people, and possibly other timeshare owners (esp. in the same situation as us).

Thanks,
Nick

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

No, it is not for you.

You are looking for cruise. And very likely a designed tour that move you from one place to another in the near future. Stay in one resort does not sounds right.

For all inclusive resort, it usually more economic benefit to rent directly from tour agent, they can give you better discount.

Jya-Ning

[Luanne Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Luanne]

I agree, at this point in time it doesn't sound like timesharing is for you.

[moerderin Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close moerderin]

Thanks for the quick responses!

[Pstreet1 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Pstreet1]

I think anyone seeing your post will say it's not for you. Should you ever go to another timeshare presentation, don't get sucked in by their pitch that you can trade your points for cruise vacations. They have all kinds of ways to make that particular angle look attractive to cruisers--but using a timeshare that way basically results in your paying about the same thing you would have to book the cruise directly with a wholesaler like Discount Cruises, Last Minute Cruises, Cruise, Cruise Line, Cruise Vacation PLUS the amount of maintenance fees you pay every year on your timeshare PLUS the membership fee to belong to RCI or II to trade--though some of the programs have some sort of internal cruise trading thing which avoids the RCI membership. Anyway, even with a cruise option, timesharing is not for you.

[x3skier Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close x3skier]

From your perspective, a timeshare would be like a cruise ship that never leaves the port, you get to cook your own meals, the price for the "cruise" would be more than the Brochure price but you have to take it every year except it would "might" be moored in another port.

You could hang out here or at www.tugbbs.com to learn more about time sharing to see if it would ever be right for you.

Cheers