4-14-09 Tuesday (The 1.5 Million Dollar Vacation)

You must want to know the outcome of the time share sales thingy? OK. So our reservation was for 12:45. It's supposed to take 2 hours. We were moving a little slowly and drove to Harrah's with the intention of grabbing something small to eat before the presentation. Of course we were running behind and couldn't find a food stand in Harrah's with something we wanted. Finally we found a deli. We'd share a sandwich. It took forever for it to be made! It left us 15 minutes to eat and run across the casino to the Wyndham Vacation Sales Center. The plus side is the sandwich was surprisingly thick. We got into the sales center and it was huge and had a lot of suckers, uhhh I mean potential clients as well as gobs of employees. This was a one on one sales pitch, not a group presentation. We were assigned to Vladamir who originated from Russia. Nice guy. He asked us many questions, which seemed to find out our weak spots. Through a series of questions we answered, he came up with a formula and result. How much for our typical hotel room, how many weeks vacation, how many more vacations in our lifetime + 10% inflation, equaled how much it will cost. For us, 1.5 million. The numbers all seemed fair. We watched a short movie. We took a tour of one of their resorts a few blocks away. The tour included a 1 bedroom and a 4 bedroom. Both with kitchens, living rooms, etc. Nice. Vlad wanted us to fill out a credit app. We rejected stating not until we were ready to buy. The Finance guy steps in to double team us. During this process, I asked a lot of questions. I wanted to know about maintenance fees, average points to do something we'd "typically" do, etc. I explained we made a pact that we wouldn't make any decisions today until we brainstormed about our concerns and what nots. He didn't like that. The finance guy made us some bonus point offer. We again said no. Mr. Finance scratched stuff all over paper to illustrate points. I asked for that stuff and he said no, they needed it for the file. They both turned us over to another guy on our way out who innocently asked what we thought about the sales guy and what not. You know, LIKE a survey but then the pressure came back on. He offered us another really good bonus of sorts, but we said no. He was pissy, told us to follow him for our free gift and threw out the papers I wanted right in front of us. Now he didn't know I asked for them but the issue was that keeping it in their file was a lie and this guy threw them out AND with an attitude. We got our Rita Rudner vouchers and left. (We're going tomorrow night.) Almost 3 hours later. I'm sure it will still be worth our time.

So what about this timeshare stuff? Well, a 10 year loan, with interest would be about $300 a month. The points can be used for rental, airfare, etc. There's a lot of good to the program, and I am interested BUT not right now. No jobs = no financing. It's something we'll revisit down the road.

A funny thing was all these bonus offers were "today" only. This is the deal for today. Don't give me that shit, I'm not an idiot. If I come back tomorrow and say I'll buy only if I get this and that, you'd let me walk away? Not.

Well, I'm sure that was much more information than you cared to know....

After the brainwashing, we came home, went to Camping World, and a few other stores. The evening was a trip to Fridays with our coupons. The link I included is to the blog entry where I included them! Has anyone used them? Anyway, we used the appetizer one, then sat at a table and had steaks. A good meal for little money.

Circus Circus has a big top of sorts within the casino. We spent the rest of the evening playing slots and playing carnival games and watching a trapeze artist as well as a juggler. So many people are down on Circus Circus. Yeah it's old. It's kinda neat. An indoor theme park, a circus, gambling, shopping, it's got a lot. The shopping is all vendor booth type stuff. This place caters to the clientele it was designed for. Families with children. I saw some messy areas. Some hodge podge areas. It's really not that bad....... I'll say it before someone else does....."but then again, we live in a trailer." Oh, and it's not a trailer, it has an engine, so that would be a motorhome, moho, RV, or in our case, the TURD.

I'm amazed that water and soda is so expensive here. $2.50 - $3.00 for a coke or bottle of water. In the casinos especially, one would think it would be better priced. A few Indian Casinos we've been to have a free self serve soda fountain. Yeah I know the cocktail waitress comes around and drinks are free but they are tiny. The drinks, not the cocktail waitress. Speaking of servers, the older or outdated the casino, I've noticed the cocktail waitresses follow suit. They're wrinkly, and stuffed into a swanky cocktail dress. Ick!

I took some photos and videos of the circus performers. They were good, however the photos and videos...not so much.