Monday, July 20, 2009

Odds and Ends

I’ve wanted to share some additional Las Vegas stories* for some time now and figured I would throw in a few links as well. Well, now is that time.

* When I checked into my Vegas hotel, I casually handed the person at the reception desk $20 and asked if they had a complimentary upgrade. The individual said yes, moved us from the South Tower to a nicer room in the North Tower and handed us a coupon book with buy one, get one free tickets to Penn & Teller and Jubilee, two free admissions up the Eiffel Tower and more.

* I did my good deed of the month by giving the Eiffel Tower coupon to a grandmother who was taking her two grandchildren up the Vegas version of Paris monument.

* If anyone is heading to Vegas soon and would like come coupons, please let me know. Although the coupons indicate that they are non-transferable or available for resale, how would they know?

* I attended my first and last timeshare presentation. The theme: vacation or die. Basically, life is short so you should take advantage of time away with family and friends as often as possible. What better way to do this than spending $5000 a year on a timeshare? Does anyone have a timeshare and want to explain how this makes sense financially?

* The timeshare presentation and tour ended up taking three hours instead of the two that the promised. During the presentation, they also said that they would not hard-sell. Naturally, at the end of everything, they brought in the closer, Fat Tony (his name was Tony and he was larger than The Simpsons character of the same name). He did a hard-sale.

Here are a few links for your Monday:

Pictures of Long Island native and now former Pittsburgh Penguin Rob Scuderi with the Stanley Cup (PSAMP)

Behind the Steel Curtain, one of the best Steelers blogs out there, interviewed Ross Ohlendorf of the, um, Pittsburgh Pirates. I just hope that BTSC doesn't expand to interviewing fake Brian St. Pierres, write stories about California Tortilla or create a Trivia Tuesday. If they do, I'm through. (Behind the Steel Curtain)

Justin Hartwig hurt his toe. One For The Other Thumb has a lead suspect. (OFTOT)

If there is a story about Peeps, there's a good chance that I'll link to it. (DCist)


Finally, I still need to share my thoughts from the Def Leppard/Poison/Cheap Trick concert I attended last week. Look for that later this week.


* Yes, I know that I have been back from Las Vegas for about three weeks now. If you really want to read more, check out Part I and Part II of the trip.

7 comments:

tiny350Z said...

You really need to see the time share episode of South Park.

We stayed at a time share in Daytona. We did not partake in the "hard sell". I would like someone to rationally explain a time share's benefit to me also.

Messiah said...

That $20 bribe for the upgrade is a total bad-ass move! I don't think I'd have the balls to do that. Nice work.

getfreshdesigns said...

Timeshares would be for someone who wants to vacation in one spot, but they do not have the money to buy a place of their own or they just don't have the time to go there very often.

not really sure why people do it, but apparently they do.

Marc said...

I have nothing to add except 1) kudos on the upgrade move and 2) my verification word is "bacne" and that's cracking me up.

JW said...

Here is a link to a great blog article on Timeshare pros and cons.
http://blog.redweek.com/2009/07/timeshare-pros-and-cons.html
This will help you make sense of it and see why it's great for some.

Sean said...

Tiny - I have not seen the South Park timeshare episode. It sounds like I need to check it out.

Messiah & Marc - The friend I was with did it first, otherwise I'm not sure that I would have had the balls to do it either.

GFD - Welcome back! Timeshares are a big business so apparently there are a lot of people who buy and use them. What's interesting about your comment is that you highlight people who want to vacation in one spot. The company sold their product by talking about all the places you could go.

JW - Thanks for the link!

TimeshareRelief said...

Hopefully you got some more free stuff for your time spent at the timeshare presentation.

Timeshares are really only for people who are disciplined enough to go to the same location year after year after year.

Otherwise, like you said, it doesn't make much sense b/c you don't really own anything except for time at the resort which can be hard to book.

The South Park timeshare episode rocks!