The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Acapulco (day 4)

Up early and we took Whiskey for a decent walk before 9:00am. Turned the air conditioning on in Sherman, and then we walked over to the entrance to the resort next door.

Our representative met us there and had us driven to the main Grupo Mayan resort on the beach. There, we had to show our drivers licences and a credit card (they did not take the number) and we were introduced to our sales rep. This was a typical time share presentation, even though our sales rep assured us that it wasn’t. He also tried to say that the time share company owns Budget, National, and Avis car rental…so we knew that we couldn’t believe anything this guy was telling us. That and the FACT that our timeshare purchase was GUARANTEED to double in value within two years. This guy was really good. Or bad. Yeah, must have been bad. Too funny.

So we had our free breakfast with him, buffet style, but it was nice. Ruth was looking forward to an omelette, so she wasn’t impressed because there were no freshly done egg dishes. But I thought it was fine. Wasted about half an hour answering his stupid questions.

Then did the tour of the property. Nice place and everything, but to be honest we have been to very expensive resorts and very cheap resorts, and we have as much fun at either…just a different atmosphere. We’re not hard to please that way.


But this time share thing doesn’t make economic sense to us. Especially when it seems you can buy a “used” timeshare on eBay or similar for about 10% of what you would pay from these guys. And then they come up with these complicated systems of buying “burn weeks” and how you can make money trying to rent your ownership out. Sorry, keep it simple for me. And then, when you own the time share you still have to get there so you have airfare to pay. And meals to make, and booze to buy, and extras to pay, and maintenance fees and so on. We get fantastic deals to all inclusive destinations from Canada and that is always the best way to go and they simply cannot compete with a good travel shopper.

And then I brought up www.couchsurfing.org and the guy simply couldn’t grasp that concept. Long story short, his supervisor came in to try and close a deal but quickly realized he was wasting his time.


This left us to enjoy the afternoon at the resort. Went to get towels and we were told we had to leave a 300 pesos ($25.00) deposit…for two towels. Okay, whatever. Then, we went to the small waterpark area, but we were told that we had to pay extra for that…we were only allowed at the beach and the main pool area. Okay, whatever. So we went to the beach and sat under a palapa for an hour and a half or so.

All in all, we enjoyed the day…it was a bit of a diversion from what we normally would have done. And no, they wouldn’t let us park Sherman in their parking lot, although had we bought into their membership deal then we could have. Yeah, like that would have been worth it!

And so we have paid for another night at Diamante Trailer Park and in all probability will do the same thing tomorrow night. We are looking forward to meeting our son Alex tomorrow afternoon at Acapulco airport though, and then Tuesday morning we will start heading further south!

10 comments:

  1. Great picture of you two lucky kids! Also, very pretty header photo. I know your son will be arriving soon, so enjoy your family time and have a Merry Christmas! Please give our best to Whiskey too!

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  2. Was hoping you would buy one so I could come and visit!!!!!!!!Thanks for the web site more late night reading...enjoy the time with you kid!!!be safe Les

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  3. Those guys will say just about anything to make a sale. I assume they aren't getting many bites because of the recession. We went to one years ago (1989) and they were high pressure back then, and there was burn weeks, and other "throw ins" that you can buy separately that seemed confusing. Im same as you, KISS method (keep it simple stupid) always works for me. Don't try to brain wash me with little things. Just show me what it is, and the price and let me decide!

    Not nice you only could sit on the beach. Who's to say once you had a swim in the pool or was able to use the other features that you may have changed your mind?

    Enjoy your week!!!

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  4. Looks like a great place, but I have not found a membership deal yet that has made financial sense.

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  5. What a beautiful looking resort! I'm with you on the timeshares though as I'd have to have a lot of extra money just kicking around (lol) to ever consider one.

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  6. Why anyone would ever buy a timeshare these days is beyond me!
    I love home exchanging and have been on over 10 exchanges around the World! And it's FREE....
    Enjoy your travels and Happy Holidays!!

    Debbie
    http://creativetraveling.blogspot.com

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  7. Didn't they offer you any money for doing the timeshare tour? If not check out the ones around Puerto Vallarta where you can get $200 plus perks

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  8. John and Ellen...Thanks John. We hope you and Ellen have a Merry Christmas as well and enjoy the holidays. Give Samantha and Shelby and pet for us.

    Les...Sorry, not a chance! Glad you are enjoying the reading. Have a great holiday season!

    WBY...Believe it or not it was very busy. Kevin and I couldn't believe it and from looking at the forum online about it, many people end up buying and then later regretting it. Guess they didnt look at the fine print!!! Not for us, that's for sure. The beach was our preference over their main pool. Mind you I was looking forward to going on the tube down their lazy river.

    Chuck and Anneke...Neither have we.

    Rick and Paulette...Even if we had the money it's not something we would do.

    Debbie...We are with you. Have you looked at couchsurfing.com and housecarers.com they are great sites to visit as well for travelling the world cheaply. Happy holidays to you as well.

    Steve and Glen...No we weren't offered any money at any time. But breakfast was good and it was nice to have access to the beach along with a palapa and loungers.


    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone.

    Just to let everyone know we may not have lots of internet time over the next three weeks, we will try our best to keep up with everyone's blogs but there maybe few comments posted on them, once Alex is gone we should have more time to keep up with them again.

    Kevin and Ruth

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  9. Steve and Glen...Yep, it is definitely a different one. Beautiful setting.

    Kevin and Ruth

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