Mystic Dunes Resort--Beware!!!

We decided to use our Mystic Dunes Resort visit this summer. We had paid $1350.00 for the use of a two bedroom condo at the resort in Kissimmee, Florida. Each time my husband called to make the arrangements and check on our reservations, he asked if we would have to attend any kind of presentation or anything that had to do with the sales of their condominiums. Each time he was told "no, you have already done that, this is just your chance to see the facility again, and buy if you want." We foolishly believed them, but you should not, if you are planning to do anything like this, please be aware that they will do anything and say anything to steal your time, wear you down, and try to wrangle a sale from you. When we got down there and tried to check in, they told us that we would have to take a "survey." I thought my husband's head was going to pop off! He was so angry and told them that he wanted to talk to a manager, but the guy they got to talk to us didn't say anything different. I calmed my husband down, and convinced him to just say we'll do whatever and then we would figure it out later. They assigned us a guide to "help us plan our activities"--hell we were there for one reason and one reason only--Disney World. We weren't interested in dinners at their club house, their market days, their karaoke nights or any other the other activities they touted. We did use the pool one day, but that was all we were interested in that had anything to do with the resort. We ended up scheduling a "meeting" with our guide on our last day there so that we would not have to give up any Disney time. My husband was seething, and told them that they were liars and that he was very disappointed in our stay. The great time we had on our vacation had nothing to do with the Mystic Dunes Resort--it had everything to do with seeing my sister and her family and our family having fun together. It didn't matter where we slept, really. The resort stay was just to fulfill the obligation we had imposed on ourselves two years ago. So, as it turned out, we spent 90 minutes with our guide, then they sent another guy over to offer us a condo for $198.oo a month, and we could have the title to the land that day. We declined the offer, asked that our credit card number (which they demanded of us when we got there, in case we rented bikes or ordered drinks at the pool or something--we didn't of course)be removed from their records. Finally, they sent over a vulture of a woman, who was quite rude to us, who told us we might have met our obligation, but we had to turn in this green paper when we checked out. At the check-out desk we were told we didn't have any charges on our credit card (no kidding!) and we were free.
I have to say that we learned our lesson and will never do that again. If we go back to Disney, we will definitely stay in one of the resorts on the park grounds where there is ample transportation, food and no smarmy sales people drooling over the prospect of getting you to spend your money on their "product." If you get any calls or mailings (e-mail or otherwise) that have the name Mystic Dunes or Tempus Resort on it, my advice is to delete it, don't answer the call, or throw it away. A few free Disney tickets aren't worth the pressure they put you under.

Disney Channel

Say what you will about the Disney corporation, but you have to hand it to them; they do a great job of giving kids what they want. From the High School Musical(s) phenonmenon to the Disney Channel "Happy U Year" shout outs, they have kids fascinated. I just visited http://www.disney.com/ and saw the New Year shout outs my girls put on there. They are really cute. I sent them to my family so they could see them as well. All of the videos on the site are clean, short and a great way for kids to communicate. Disney has done it again!

Patrick Dempsey Doll

Since I have a house full of girls, I was considering taking them all to see the new movie, "Enchanted". The Disney Channel has really been pushing this thing and the girls think it looks good. I am rather neutral about it, but what I find interesting is, as a fortysomething mom, that a forty-one year old man has a doll made in his image that is being marketed to little girls. I just find it a little creepy. They did a better than average job capturing Mr. Dempsey's charming looks, but I'm still a little creeped out by it. Maybe it is because there has only really been Ken and the GI Joe guys that have been seen on store shelves all these years. Maybe something else that is hanging me up on the doll is that I know how old the actor is. There is just something weird about letting a six year old girl play with a 41 year old man doll. I would rather buy the doll for myself. The other thing is that I haven't seen any dolls of actresses who are in their forties being sold at Target stores. The whole thing is odd to me.