Our Orlando Family Vacation Part 1

We have returned from out three nights, four days family vacation to Orlando, Florida.  It was quite an experience to say the least.

AVOIDING THE TIMESHARE SCAM

In this first part I will describe what happened to us and what we did to overcome some obstacles.  One of the first obstacles was that when I first made reservations with the Holiday Inn Resorts Hotel, I did not know they were part of a grand scheme dealing with timeshares.  Be very careful about "resorts" or hotels that do that. If you are not careful they will sweet talk you into signing a long term agreement that you will not be able to get out.  They first lure you in with a very low price hotel stay.  They quoted me for $250.  And then they told me that the money would be returned to me in cash if I went to one of their presentations to their resorts. Then they sugared it up by upgrading my stay by giving me two free tickets to Seaworld.  Seaworld was our destination anyway because our son loves sea life and whales.  It was too good to be true.  The scheme unraveled when I asked them if they would be picking me up to go to their resort.  They told me that they would not. (Although they led me to believe that they would.)  This is when the first red flag popped up.

Holiday Inn Resort, Orlando Florida.  I cancelled my reservation to avoid their timeshare presentation.

I was upset when they told me that so I did some research.  I found out that timeshare sellers do that to unwary vacationers.  I read so many horror stories where participants are kept in their presentations for up to four hours, until they are convinced to signup. They told me it would only take two hours.  But reading these accounts made me call them and cancel my reservation with them.  They returned part of my money but not all of it.  No way would I loose four hours of vacation time and drag my wife and two kids into this.  So we made another reservation with another hotel.  I thought I would be free from these type of schemers but I was not.  Stay tuned to find out what happened with our second hotel.

GOING TO THE AIRPORT

Crowne Hotel Shuttle.  These are the good guys where I parked out car.

Since this was our first trip outside of our beloved city of Chicago I had no clue how we were going to get to the airport.  So I found out that the easiest way would be to rent short term parking with a hotel that offered free shuttles.  And that is is what we did.  It was very convenient.  For four days I spent around 60 bucks.  My car would be parked in the hotel parking lot and when we got back from our trip, we would drive back home.  This was more sensible for us than getting an Uber or Lyft car.

ARRIVAL IN ORLANDO AND MAIN HOTEL STAY

The flight from Chicago to Orlando was a little less that two hours and twenty minutes.  Before our trip, I was actually thinking of driving to Florida.  But my brother, who had driven to Florida before discouraged me.  He told me that it took him a total of 18 hours to get there.  And he also told me that it is very scary to drive up the mountains.  So we took a flight instead.  When we arrived in Florida we opted to rent a car.  I am glad we did because although the Westpark Hotel granted us free shuttles to Seaworld, when we got there, they told us that we had to book it one day in advanced.  Having our own car meant we did not have to depend on them.  We were free to roam Florida any time we wanted.

Westpark Hotel in Orlando where where we finally stayed

However, when we got to check-in to the Westpark Hotel, to my utter disgust, this hotel was also a timeshare establishment.  I think that a lot of hotels in Florida are like that.  As soon as we checked in the clerk steered me into another front desk.  The person in this other desk smiled politely, but she had the look of a shark.  She told me she wanted to give me an unsolicited package and a free breakfast for the following morning.  Second red flag!!  The look of my face changed.  And they all noticed I was pissed!  I told them, "NO!"  I was not interested.  Then that same lady said, "We have other free giveaways to give you if you come to our resort presentations."  I was still more pissed and repeated myself to her. Suddenly, what appeared to be the security guard and a third front desk person, slipped a singled sheet agreement for me to sign.  I read the form but I screamed and told them I would not sign it because they had not asked me to sign it at the end of my check-in.  This was another of their ploys to have them call me and bother me with the buying of a timeshare during my stay.  But I returned their paper and took my luggage to our room.  I do want to say that as far as I know the Holiday Inn Resort Hotel and the Westpark are not related.  However, like I said previously, I believe many hotels in Florida operate this way.  So please be aware!  Once this ordeal ended we were free to begin our vacation.