# Any thought to a vacation in a retire community?



## Micheal (Jan 28, 2009)

After requesting some info from the "Lake of the Ozarks" Visitor Bureau via a frequented retirement site my mail box is being bombarded with flyers from retirement communities........ must be they (the Lake of ...) sold my info to a retirement community mailing list. :grumble:

Anyway, reading through some of the flyers I've noticed that many offer anything from an overnighter to a 4 night stay, along with entertainment/activities, of course the high pressure sales pitch, tours of the area, and even a meal or more tossed in; all at a very reasonable cost considering........

So, the high pressure sales aside, :hammer: have you ever considered maybe "visiting" one as maybe an alt. to staying at a motel/hotel per say? 
I mean what better way of finding out about an area, it's people, etc. - cheaply?????? 

And no I do not play golf!!!!! So not a "selling" point.:bowtie:


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## jassytoo (May 14, 2003)

Not me. I like a little peace and quiet on my vacations. Being bugged by salesmen for 4 days would drive me mad.


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## Shrek (May 1, 2002)

Being retired is a permanent vacation. Who needs to be bothered with sales pitches.


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## Big Dave (Feb 5, 2006)

My buddy down the way went to one of those things in Branson area. They (HE SAID ) locked them in a room to listen to the sales pitch. He is still fuming about it two years later. I agree with Shrek. Go if you must be wary and let people know where you are.


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## TheMartianChick (May 26, 2009)

I've never done any timeshare/retirement community trips in Branson, but we used to do them all the time in Florida. They really aren't a big deal. You agree to sit through a presentation (Usually 1 1/2 hours -2 hours) in exchange for all or most of the cost of your accomodations. Most serve food, so we always went early for the free muffins, fruit and juice (we avoided the bacon and eggs like the plague!). We ate while they talked to us and then we politely declined to buy one at the end. The rest of the trip was our own time to spend as we pleased useing the resort/retirement community amenities. 

Considering the fact that we were able to stay for 4 days in a resort for far less than a standard, cramped hotel room....It was well-worth it! We had access to swimming pools, jacuzzis, paddleboats, onsite waterpark and we were close to Disney etc... Here is the first one that we'd ever stayed at. 

Liki Tiki Village - Welcome To A Family Focused Kissimmee Resort

The whole concept of staying and listening to the sales pitch was so foreign to us, that we were prepared to bolt to a hotel if they got too pushy! As it turned out, we didn't have to and we had a blast. It was one of the ways that we were able to afford a really nice family vacation every year. We've done them in Colorado, the Bahamas and Bermuda. It really cuts your costs if you aren't paying for the accommodations.

We liked doing them so much that we signed up for others once we arrived. During our first Orlando vacation, we never had to go to an atm (in the first 7 days) because some of the companies paid us in cash to listen to the spiel. We also ended up with a total of 6 theme park tickets (2 tix per spiel). At the time, adult tickets were about $50 each. Now they are much higher. Trading 2 hours of our time in exchange for hundreds of dollars of accomodations, cash or theme park tickets was an easy choice for our family.


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

1. Always have a 'junk email address' for things like this. yahoo, hotmail, gmail - all give free email address. I have one I use entirely for 'free offers' -- they have to pay for those freebies somehow so they sell your email address.

2. Its usually a cheap vacation but you will be stuck listening to a usually 2 hour sales presentation - some sales people are pushier than others.

We've done the time share thing in Orlando -- a two hour formal presentation and then another 15 minutes with a salesman at the door before we left. We had no intention of buying so I guess you could say we booked under false pretensions, but it was less than half the cost of a comparable hotel and they threw in 2 Disney tickets.


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## Micheal (Jan 28, 2009)

mnn2501 said:


> 1. Always have a 'junk email address' for things like this. yahoo, hotmail, gmail - all give free email address. I have one I use entirely for 'free offers' -- they have to pay for those freebies somehow so they sell your email address.


There in-lies the problem.... Its "snail mail" (USPS) that I'm getting. If'n it was e-mail the "delete" key works great, but when your postal mailbox is cramed with this stuff it gets to be a pain.........


> 2. Its usually a cheap vacation but you will be stuck listening to a usually 2 hour sales presentation - some sales people are pushier than others.


Go along with that!!
But I'm thinking that where else that you could get a more willing group, other then that high pressure salesperson, to share the general area/county/state info then at one of these locations. The many times I've traveled it is most times a difficult thing to get people to open up about taxes, healthcare, shopping, etc.... without getting a strange look from the person your asking.


> We had no intention of buying so I guess you could say we booked under false pretensions.......


I look at it this way - They offered, you accepted. There's nothing "false" about that. :bowtie:


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