How I got Free 3 Night Stay – Orlando, Florida

I looked through many sites before booking the one I wanted to go with. I tried getawaydealz as well as orlandotouristinformationbureau.com. The reason I went with OTIB was because they had CSC centre that was easy to reach and their rep was very friendly who answered all my questions.

I submitted my form online and they contacted me to review the process and for payment. I was VERY skeptical of this but was so curious about timeshares as a potential investment. The package I went with was $169 for a 3 night, 4 day stay in orlando with $200 credit (visa gift card) after the presentation.

It was essentially a free stay at the hotel and more!

There were other packages as well that were more expensive, but the quality of the room you would get would be better as well.

After my confirmation email, I was provided a confirmation number. I then called the hotel [Calpyso Cay] that they placed me in to talk to the front desk to confirm that they did indeed have a reservation in my name.  The front desk was friendly and did confirm this for me which reassured my booking.

We arrived at Calpyso Cay and checked into the welcome center. The ladies at the front desk were welcoming and friendly. We did have to pay resort fees there of $15 per night.  But I believe that is standard at all resorts and this was communicated to me before.  1 thing that did not go as planned was the timeshare presentation time. On the form that I submitted I requested the presentation to be as early as possible (8AM) but instead I got a 12:30PM time. The ladies at the front desk told me that I would have to reschedule it with the tour office, which was not opened at the time of the check in. This was quite frustrating. The next day I visited the tour office early [tried calling, but no one asnwers!] and asked them to change my time, unfortunately they could not do this and i was stuck with a 12:30PM time. In retrospect I would call ahead before my vacation to the tour office to ensure I had an early timeshare presentation time.

The room we were provided was at the Calpyso Inn. It was a bit old but it was good enough for us since it was basically free. I asked the front desk and they did say regular price is $115 per night.  We gotten a 1 bedroom SUITE so it was quite nice to get a separate living room, and a fridge and microwave. They also served free hot breakfast in the mornings. Also free parking and free shuttles to the themeparks. However, we took the shuttle once and it took us 3x as much time as if we had driven. We had opted for Uber and Lyft rides after that which was not too costly.

The resort is very family friendly, we enjoyed our time by the pools, hot tubs and played mini-putt. They also offered free luggage storage which was great for us since our flight was not until 8PM on our day of departure.

As for the timeshare presentation, it was located beside the welcome center. They had a nice seating area with drinks and coffees and few snacks. Andrew was our salesman and he was very enjoyable to talk to. We sat down among 5 other groups at a open concept room with monitors at each desk. It was a calming environment as it was open and did not feel locked up.  He went through some pictures of his life. Then asked us a series of questions about our travel preferences. After that he went through the timeshare offerings and the tools that can be purchased. We asked a few questions and was cooperative with answering all his questions. We were honest about our visit and had told him about the tour package we were offered and that we were looking forward to getting the $200 credit after the presentation. Then we went for a quick walk around the resort and to a villa. It was quite nice in the villa, 3 bedroom, kitchen is stocked, it seemed like a nice place for vacations!

We went back to the office and he did already make us aware of the process and that his boss would talk to us and try to give us a deal. When his boss came to talk to us the deal was cut from $25K to $15K to own a timeshare for 2 weeks. He went through different financial plans with us and asked us if this was feasible. We just told him honestly that it was not something for us since our travel plans do not usually stay in resorts. He understood and said OK and we were on our way. It was quick and painless.  The whole presentation and discussion took us 90 minutes [ and it could be longer too if you arnt cooperative]. I feel that it could be even shorter if we did not ask as many questions lol. Andrew walked us to the check out desk where we got our $200 credit in the form of a visa gift card. We redeemed it right away for universal studio tickets.

This was my first timeshare presentation and I was SO skeptical but really it felt like there was no pressure to buy. It really helped that we got matched with Andrew as well, he was understanding of our situation. And we were able to learn more about this investment option. I would sign up for timeshare tours again!

DOT