The Big Disapointment

Last year we went to a timeshare presentation in Dallas to see what it was all about. They promised us stuff just to show up and take a look at their presentation. They didn't follow through on their promises and we left unhappy with the entire experience. That company was BlueGreen.

Moving forward 12 months.

We decided to vacation in Branson, Missouri this year. After much research trying to find the best deals before our trip, we repeatedly came across a company called Westgate Resorts. We had previously decided not to do the "90 minute" presentation but in lieu of the supposedly good deal they were offering us, how could we pass it up?!

We arrived in Branson and had to check in to the "Welcome Center". A 30 minute excursion. Next we had to go to the resort and check in there, another 30 minute, line standing, ball of joy.

We were given our room key and headed to our building. A run down, dilapidated pile of wood and plaster. I first noticed the dirt daubers swarming around and later found their nest on the side of the building. We found our way up stairs and opened the door to a still-in-use or otherwise known as a dirty room with someone elses stuff strewn about.

I was already in a pissy mood but I tried my best to look on the bright side, as soon as we can get a decent room, we were off to see our first show.

They finally found us a clean room to occupy and we were on our way. The room wasn't too bad, about what you'd expect from any of the major chains, but definitely not what I expected from a resort.

The next morning found us in our mandatory "90 minute" presentation. Our saleslady was Sue Jones, a late 50's early 60's woman that talked way too much. Being in sales myself, there is a limit to how much you should talk about yourself as the customer is really not concerned with your personal life. Sue, evidently, was not aware of this as we learned about her husband, her kids, their spouses, her grandkids, other companies she had worked for, how long she's been with Westgate, and on and on and on.

We told Sue right up front that we were not buying that day regardless of how good the offer was. We were merely fulfilling our obligation to sit with her for 90 minutes and then we were on our way. She said that was fine and in looking around she told us that only 1 in 4 would be buying today. "Good", I thought. She can finish with us and move on to someone that may buy.

After her lengthy presentation and the tour of the property, she brought us back for the hard close. When she realized that it wasn't happening, she started getting a little huffy with us. She invited her manager over to make his "too good to pass up" deal. We weren't budging. Then came the lady from "corporate", with yet another offer. Nope, we are not buying, they were all told. When they finally got the point, we were rushed out so fast it made our heads spin. Luckily we did move quick because when I looked back, I think they were all getting ready to spit on us. All of this took a mere three hours! (90 minutes my foot).

I will point out, that up until their third strike at us buying, everyone was very pleasant with us, some even nice. After the final "NO" from us, we were lucky to get a smile or nod out of their employees. I think they make notations in the computer that we were non-buyers and therefore just taking up precious space in their run down building.

We went on to do our Branson vacation. Seeing shows and places and generally just having a great time with each other. As time was running short and we realized that I had too much stuff packed into our trip, we decided to stay an extra day. When I booked the room, I told the lady that we may want to stay an extra night and would that be a problem. She said it wouldn't be and to just call back to customer service and they would set it up. I did, and they said that they were full. Really on a Tuesday night, OK. I then decided to go to the front desk and try, again, they were too full. OK, we'll stay somewhere else and probably have a better room. The morning we checked out of our resort room, the building next to us was completely empty, not a sole stayed there. Again, I think we were black listed in the computer.

We found a cheap motel near the highway where the owners actually ran the place and couldn't be friendlier. We finished our last day in Branson and I think we are really done with wasting our time with timeshares.

Timeshares may work out for some people, in fact I know a couple of people that have timeshares, but I don't think it's for us.

I admit that they had some really nice amenities, indoor and outdoor pools, gym, saunas, horse shoes, play areas, etc. But my family doesn't go on vacation to sit by a pool, we're there for whatever the city has to offer. We want to see the sights, experience new things, do things that we can't back home. We only use our room to sleeping and showering, then we're gone the rest of the day.

Here's my ripoff report about Westgate Resorts.

And That's What I Think.

Suicide

I got a call last night. It seems that one of our families long time friends has been hit with a terrible tragedy.

The only child of a friend of mine took his own life. He had recently turned 18 and just graduated high school last month.

This is a terrible event, one that I would not wish on my worst enemy. I can't even begin to imagine the pain that his family is going through. My biggest fear in life is to outlive my children.

The things that we think are important at 18, we realize at 25 and 30 that they did not have the weight that we gave them at the time.

I wish that I had know that something this severe was bothering this young man. I would have tried to explain to him how much he still had to look forward to in life, how much he has touched the lives around him. He was a good kid, well liked, always helpful, easy to smile.

If you could, please pray for his father, Chris and his Grandmother, Beverly.

There is help.

The Big Vacation

Our kids have had quite a summer vacationing with several grandparents, going from Albuquerque to El Paso to St. Louis. When they finally got back, it was time to take them on a trip with us.

Our choices ranged from Los Angeles to Minneapolis, to Memphis and Houston. We decided, though, that the best "bang for our buck" with maximum excitement was Branson, MO, the live entertainment capitol of the world.

I wanted to completely plan the trip before we left - hotel, shows, activities, there'd be no spare moments on this trip.

In searching things to do and places to stay on the web, we found that almost every website for Branson is owned by Westgate Resorts. We looked into a timeshare last year in Dallas and was not impressed, so we'd keep researching. Well, I found a deal that was (seemed) too go to pass up, I called and guess who answered? Yep, Westgate Resorts. I got a silver tongued young lady on the other end that lasso'd me quick. I told her that I needed to check with the wife since we had already decided against the timeshare/90 minute presentation thing. She says to me, if you call me back I'll throw in free tickets and $30 towards dinner. We were already getting a great deal on the room . . . So you guessed it, I called her back after checking with the other half. (A mistake I now regret.) - More on that in the next post.

Now back to the vacation.

SATURDAY
We arrived in Branson that afternoon, checked into the resort and headed for a place to eat. We had tickets to a show called The Promise. So I figured we should find a place to eat in that area. We found a place around the corner from the Mansion Theater called All American Cafe. They had a live saxophonist playing. The food was alright. The kids loved The Promise, it's a play about the life of Jesus. It was not only my third time to visit Branson, but also my third time to see this show. It's very good.

SUNDAY
We got up Sunday morning and had to sit through a timeshare presentation. Once we got away from them, it was more fun in town. We had tickets to see Legends In Concert. The kids, my daughter especially, likes Elvis, so I thought this would be a good show for them. There was also Shania Twain, The Blues Brothers, Johnny Cash, and The Temptations. It was a very good show.

That night we had tickets to The Dixie Stampede. A dinner and show much like Medieval Times. The kids loved it. I'll admit that I enjoyed it, too.

MONDAY
The next morning we went to see the Amazing Pets show. Both kids love animals and what better way to see them than trained. We also had breakfast there at the attached restaurant, but service wasn't very good.

This was supposed to be our last day in Branson, but we decided to stay an extra day to shop around and play a little.

Next we headed for the Shepherd Of The Hills Inspiration Tower. I love to go up into towers, although it was not my first time in this one. Then we headed for a few souvenir shops and on to Ride The Ducks.

Looking for a new place to eat, we decided to check out Branson Landing. Built downtown, on the river. This was new since I had last been to Branson. It reminded me a lot of Kemah.

We were going to take the kids to a magic show but they decided that they'd rather go swimming at the pool instead.

TUESDAY
The first order of business on Tuesday was to check out of the resort and check into a place we found the day before. It was a little cheaper and ALOT friendlier. Then on to more fun. We went to a local winery called Stone Hill Winery, where we toured and found out that they are the most awarded winery in Missouri. Then we hit The Track, a go-cart track elevated above the ground on wooded tracks. It was a blast.

Then we headed back to Shepherd Of The Hills for their Historic Homestead Tour. It was very interesting and educational.

We finished the day off at Celebration City, one of their local amusement parks. We closed it down after the fireworks at 10:00 PM.

WEDNESDAY
Well, it was time to leave Branson, but while we were in the Ozarks, why not do one more thing that I enjoy - caving! We took a small detour from our route home and went to Hurricane River Cave in Arkansas. They've found a sabertooth tiger dating back 30,000 years and an indian boy skeleton in this cave.

Alas, Wednesday night brought us back home where we needed to rest up from our busy trip.

And That's What I Think.

The New Luby's ?

Just an obervation . . .

So Luby's in our area are few and far between. I never gave it much thought, but I guess the senior population still has to eat somewhere.

We unexpectedly found their hang out when we went to dinner at 5:30 in the evening last Saturday.

My wife kept pointing out how many aged people were enjoying the meal with us while I stood fast that the older crowd would be leaving by 8:00 PM and the younger crowd would be coming in.

I always associated Applebee's with Chili's and Bennigan's. They all have well stocked bars in them, play current tunes and are fashionably decorated. However, in our town at least, Applebee's is the new Luby's.

The next time you go to Applebee's, take a look around. LOL

And That's What I Think.

TOY'S R sUckS

Do you recall this story? Toy's R Us had a contest to award a $25,000 U.S. Savings Bond to the first American baby born in the U.S. in 2007. They quickly disqualified the first baby born just after the stroke of mid-night because her mother was not a citizen. Now we all know that any child born on U.S. soil is automatically a U.S. citizen and therefore this child was the winner. Toy's R Us decided to make up the rules as they went along. Of course, after public outcry they reversed their decision, but they had already stumbled in my book.

I remember when Toy's R Us was THE place to go for the latest and greatest toys and games. Looking back, I can see their slow decline as a friendly company. In 2005, after declining sales they were bought out by a consortium of investors.

The new owners have made changes more toward corporate America than towards a family, kid friendly environment. Don't bother buying an extended warranty through them, it isn't worth the paper it's written on.

The real kicker for us happened this past Christmas. My son received a present from an out-of-town grandma. This gift was something he already had, a Thomas The Train railroad set. It had a huge "Toy's R Us" label embedded into the packaging, not a sticker. There was no doubt where the gift came from. We decided to return it to our local store to exchange it for a different Thomas The Train set. Although it was just after Christmas and there was little doubt that the train set came from them, they refused to let us exchange it because we didn't have the receipt. We explained that Grandma didn't keep the receipt not to mention that she lived 600 miles away and it was too large to ship back to her, not that her store would accept it either without a receipt. They simply gave us a shrug of their shoulders and a too bad for you attitude. I let them know then and there they will never see us in their store or any other Toy's R Us store again!

When companies decide to shrug their shoulders at consumers, it's time to turn our backs on them. There are plenty of other places to buy toys and games. Without our business, they wouldn't exist.

Toy's R Us, I hope you go out of business, SOON!

And That's What I Think.

UPDATE: Here are some links to others that feel the same as me and/or had bad experiences w/ TRU
Link 1
Link 2
Link 3
Link 4
Link 5
Link 6
Link 7 - multiple examples
Link 8 - more multiple examples

The Big Haiku

It rained in our beer
Rangers lost but Phillies won
Fireworks were awesome




And That's What I Think

The Big Weekend

In honor of my brother who celebrated his last birthday over an entire weekend, Jenny and I took advantage of being kid free and had an anniversary weekend.

We started out Friday night by trying our town's newest restaurant, The Cheesecake Factory. It looked nothing like the place Penny works at on one of our favorite shows. It was decorated very nicely, the food was very good and, yes, we did enjoy some cheesecake afterwords. The prices were a little steep, however, costing the two of us what all four of us would have paid at any other chain restaurant. No complaints, though, we enjoyed it.

Saturday morning we got up and headed for the border for a little gambling fun. I seriously think that if our state legislature were to visit a casino in either one of our neighboring states and see that 90% of the cars there have Texas plates, they would reconsider allowing casinos here in order to keep the money here. DUH! I will say that I have been privileged in the fact that I have been free from being around smokers for a long time. This realization hit me like a brick as we walked through the casino doors. The smoke was so think we almost needed flash lights. Well, maybe not quite that thick, but for non-smokers it was annoying.

After a few hours there we headed towards home with a detour to a German town for a good dinner. While there, we also made a stop at the local German grocery store to stock up on some real beer.

When we got back into town we stopped to play a few games of Bingo. Good cheap entertainment. Alas, that's all it was since we didn't win.

Sunday we got up and went to see an adult movie. Wait a minute, not that kind of "adult" movie, I meant a non-child type movie. Remember, we're kid free for the weekend. We saw "The Happening" and it wasn't. The movie itself was alright, but there was no climax, it just sort of ended.

That evening we finished our anniversary with dinner at Texas de Brazil Churrascaria. This was our first time to enjoy this type of food. It is an all-you-can-eat, meat smorgasbord with a salad bar. I've never eaten so much meat at one sitting in my life. According to our waitress, this is the kind of steakhouse they have throughout Brazil. We thoroughly enjoyed eating here and will bring the kids the next time we go. It was very expensive, but very good.

All in all, we had a good 9th Anniversary. We even decided where to celebrate our 10th Anniversary next year, but you'll have to wait for that info.

And That's What I Think!