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.

The Timeshare Trap

A few years ago I received a telephone call from a telemarketer who said that I could get four free tickets to Disney World in Orlando, Florida and a week's stay at a five-star resort for only $250.00. I was skeptical, but still interested. We had wanted to go to Disney, and our daughters were getting old enough to handle a trip like that. I told the person to call back after I had discussed the idea with my husband. We checked out the company and looked at what they had offered. It all seemed okay except that we have six in our family, not four, but we thought we could still afford it since the price was so low, we could buy two other tickets for Disney World at the regular price. We waited for the call back from the company, and sure enough, they called. We said we were interested; they said all we would have to do is go to a "presentation" about their resort. Both our parents had done the free trip from a timeshare when we were kids, and they didn't seem harmed by it, so we thought: "How bad can it be?" We took the trip 2 1/2 years ago at Christmas time. We had a nice condo that had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a family room and a small kitchen. It was as nice as those things tend to be. We went to Disney a few times, and then we went to the dreaded "presentation" It consisted of separating us from our three youngest children, and having us sit through a high pressure sales pitch about how we need to take more vacations, and how we "deserve" to take trips, and "don't you love your family enough to take them to new places?" It was awful! The thing lasted six (yes six!) hours. We were so exhausted and upset that we finally agreed to plan another trip to be taken at a later date to "try the product" again. They promised us that we would not have to go through the "presentation" again, and if we changed our minds, we could purchase a condo at the prices we were quoted on that day. Okay. . . Fast-forward to this year. . . please see next post for the conclusion.

Back From Disney; On To Indiana

We had a great week in Orlando where we spent four days hopping around the Disney parks and one evening we went to the Medieval Times dinner show. There were storms on three of the days, but the rain didn't seem to matter much. The girls and my husband and I did just about everything there is to do at Disney. We all got a little (too much maybe) sun and had lots of laughs and thrills thanks to the genius of the FastPass at the Disney rides. Now it is down time for two days and then the girls and I leave for Indiana where we will be spending the better part of July visiting family and friends. The girls have only been out of school for a week and a half and already the summer feels like it is nearly over. When we get back from our visits it will be August and only a few weeks until the new school year starts. My how time flies when you are having fun!

Off We Go!

Flying to Disney today with four kids in tow. Dog is in the kennel; hope she behaves. Kids are packed and jazzed; hope they behave. I'm ready to go; hope I can keep my cool.

Disney, Here We Come!

We are getting all packed up for our trip to Disney World later this week. It takes several days to get all six of us ready to go. We went to Disney World a couple of years ago during the Christmas holiday. We had fun even though it was crowded. This time everyone is a little older, and taller, and the prospect of being "big enough" is really charging up my two youngest daughters. My youngest one will still be too little to ride some of the rides, but hopefully she won't have to be stuck riding only the spinning teacups (I refuse to do that one!) and the Dumbo ride and all the other similar ones that just go around in a large circle. The other thing that is different about this trip is that we are flying. The thought of herding four children into a plane for a two hour flight was much more attractive to me than packing us all into the car and driving for thirteen hours. Since our oldest is fifteen, this would have been almost as bad as being held hostage for thirteen hours. Only our oldest daughter has flown, so the flying thing is super exciting to the girls. The other thing, and best part about the trip is that we will be meeting up with my sister and her family while we are there. They are flying down from Indiana and we are flying from Virginia. I have not seen my sister in almost a year! It has been a very long and lonely year for me so this will be the cherry on the top of this vacation. My girls miss their cousin so much that my youngest daughter said she is "just gonna tackle him" when she sees him. He's sixteen years old, I'm sure he'll enjoy that! The girls really love their aunt, uncle and cousin that much! Even though this kind of vacation holds no rest and relaxation for me, I think it will rejuvenate me enough to get through one more year of being away from my family. Onward to Disney!

We're Taking the 'Journey'

Okay, so I have been whining and complaining and worrying about the high cost of fuel for our Chevy Suburban. I have been worrying that the eight year old, 150,000+ car might not last until we can "afford" a new more fuel efficient car. Well, yesterday, we decided to bite the bullet and go ahead and trade in our old faithful Suburban named Silvi (why, I don't know--one of the girls started calling it that), and are leasing the new 2009 Dodge Journey for three years. Our thinking is simple: we will lease this more fuel efficient crossover that we can squeeze all six of us in for three years, then hopefully at the end of the lease, some car company will have figured out a vehicle that runs on hydrogen, or corn oil, or used baby diapers, or something, and we can trade our outdated Journey in for something that is the wave of the future. I'm feeling pretty good about our decision. I think in the long run, we will save money. We decided to go all out, and opted for the $2.99 gasoline price guarantee (www.letsrefuelamerica.com) instead of the meager $1000.00 rebate, since we are expecting the gas pricing to continue rising from now until who knows when. I think we will save more than $1000 using that option. The dealership told us that we were only one of two customers so far who have chosen the gas option because a large portion of their products have huge refunds--but not the Journey--so I'm satisfied with our decision. At any rate, I am sure I will be blogging about the car in the future, so just stay tuned!

Squish the Rocks and Get the Oil!

This "oil crisis" is really bugging me, but like some other folks that have been blogging about it lately, I'm beginning to think this problem might be just a tiny bit good. For too long we have been coast on foreign oil, going along our merry way, but now with prices climbing and the future looking gloomier, we Americans need to put on our thinking caps and the old castoff coats of ingenuity that have been hanging on rusty nails for decades now, get busy, and find a way to use our own natural resources. We need to push ourselves away from the Middle Eastern oil banquet table, and start taking care of our own needs. There is some hope that a few people have found in the sandstone in Utah and some other western states. There are some ideas flowing about how to squish the oil out or heat it up underground and extract the oil. Hey, I think this is great, but let's get going on it--the sooner the better! I predict that in the next year or eighteen months lots of new ideas for oil, alternative fuels, and innovative cars will be popping up all over. I love American will power and ingenuity! Let's Go!