Has anyone ever done a volunteer vacation?

Has anyone ever done a timeshare presentation vacation? Did it go OK? Did you have to buy? Was it worth it?

• I have a offer for 5 days/4 nights in Orlando from Marriot Vacation Club for $199 (not incld trans, food, etc) and would love to go but was wondering if anyone else has done anything like this. It doesn't say I have to buy on the fine print and I read ALL the fine print and I do qualify to go but I have no interest in buying, I just want the vacation. I need opinions, advice, tales of previous experiences, etc.

• Answer:

  I've done two timeshare tours in Orlando, here is my opinion. While that is a really good offer, I think that you should really consider different options. Timeshare tours are high pressure, they will take up a good part of your day and they just don't make your vacation very pleasant. If you don't mind sitting through the presentation, than you definitely should do it. I prefer staying on site, over off-site, but the condos in the area are always nice. I personally don't want to spend my vacation listening to someone try and sell me something, that I really don't find to be a value. When I went, I actually was interested in purchasing, but wasn't afterwards. Basically, they will put you in one of thier nicer rooms. This way you get a good idea of what they are selling. Then, they schedule a date where you will get together to tour the property. They will take you around the property, take you on a tour of their condo, show you a video, tell you a little bit about all the benefits, etc. Then they will take you to another room where they will start to figure out some prices and show you all the benefits and how it can save you money and such. You will tell them you aren't interested several times, they will try to refigure some things to get you a better deal. Then their final attempt is to get a manager to see if they can work out a better deal for you. Then, once you say you aren't interested, they will let you go. But in order to get any free tickets or anything like that, you have to stay for the whole thing, they have to sign some papers and things that you have to get redeemed. They will be pretty disgusted once you are done if you decide not to purchase one, since they work off of comission, they can be kind of pushy. If you don't mind doing this, than it would definitely be worth it for you. I would say to estimate about a half-day to get through everything. You do not have to buy them, but they are going to try and pressure you into a sale. But they will let you go even if you don't buy one, it may be difficult to get away but you can. Like I said, I've done two of them in the past. While they do save you a lot of money, they can also be pretty annoying. Since I did the first two, I decided to either stay on site or just pay full price for the condo. I think it is always worth giving it a try. You won't be able to find something for less than that, well, I guess you could, but your probably wouldn't want to stay there. But it will save you alot of money and you will get to go to Disney.