I have recently been reminded again of the risks of travelling when one is tired, or tired because they are travelling... In October I let myself be talked into getting a ride to the hotel in Shanghai with "some guy", in my exhaustion the official cab line looked real real long... Thankfully I did arrive safely, however it cost my company an extra $40...
Well, the Saturday before Christmas I got back from S Korea / China just in time to drive out to SD and SW MN for the holidays. Then the family and I came back on Friday, packed up on Satuday and caught a 6:50 AM flight to Cancun MX on Sunday for a 5 day vacation.
Unfortunately, the Cancun airport has something that I have never experienced before. Between where you collect your baggage and where you exit the airport, they have an area where unsuspecting tourists can be directed to a bunch of official looking people who are there to "help you". Or so it seemed at the time to my fuzzy brain.
So with my family listening, our new best friend Hugo starts discussing all the great things we can do on our vacation and how much he can save us. Needless to say the deals were great, my daughters were excited and had forgotten their desire to just sit on the beach, and I wanted to get to the hotel. Therefore I did what many stupid American first time to Mexico tourist Dads would do, I paid the man and signed.
As those of you who have taken many vacations in developing countries may know, the fine print read that I needed to attend a "time share" presentation in order to claim all of my great deals. Then to make it worse, the place we are staying at also wanted to offer us great deals if we attended their presentation, so they tried to talk us into cancelling on the airport friend so they could be our new "bestest friends"...
Thankfully we put this all behind us on Monday morning by attending the "airport guy's" sales pitch and thereby claiming the goodies we "worked" so hard for... Maybe I'll tell you more about what my family learned about this sales technique. I am amazed that apparently 30% of people they get to attend sign up on the spot. Needless to say, I said "NO"...
By the way, today was the Chichen Itza tour. It was great except they let ~1,000 sales tables setup along the walking paths. It felt like running a gauntlet of people asking you to buy things. (strangely most of the products were apparently made in even lower cost countries...) And tomorrow the girls get 3 hours with dolphins.
So remember to follow the crowd and just say no while travelling, especially when your brain is mush. And more importantly.
HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!
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9 comments:
We have sat through many time share pitches to get free lodging and find it is a good deal for us. They have all been low pressure, as they seem to believe us when we say we are not going to buy.
On my teacher's salary we went out last night to a Mexican restaurant for a happy hour margarita and came home and stuck taquitos in the oven. If they cut my pay to give new hires a raise I will need to make my margaritas at home as well.
I advise my daughters to choose their education and career path wisely. It is important that they enjoy it AND the income level supports the standard of living they desire.
And as a woman I knew in college believed... You can fall for a spouse who has good prospects or poor prospects. Why would one marry one with poor prospects...
Ironically, you think you have it bad... I fell in love with and married a pre-school teacher... Now you want to talk low income...
By the way, you aren't on union steps and lanes are you? If not, I assume you are already paid actual market rate, not some arbitrarily set higher number. For better or worse.
Unions help with my salary indirectly, as my district tries to narrow the gap between their schedule and that of unionized public schools. We do have a compacted step and lane schedule which also helps a little bit.
At least one of my kids has a knack for making $. My older son (20) works as a ticket broker in his spare time, which is helping him get through college debt free. One of his best days was $1600 profit on the gopher - badger football game.
There is a lot of money in sales if you have the right personality. I mean Hugo sold me on something I normally would not have bought.
Remember that unions also require the employer to pay less productive employees more money than they are worth. That means there is less money to spend on the best employees. Definitely a double edged sword.
My concept of merit pay for teachers has always included a class size component. You have class size limits for grades K-2 or K-3 that every teacher is expected to handle, but beyond that you add "merit points" for teachers who can handle larger classes well, and they can and should get paid more. That is, of course, in addition to the "merit" of how well the kids improve. We obviously have objective measures of both of these things, and so merit pay has a solid factual footing. It isn't nearly as hard as the unions make it out to be.
As for the topic at hand, we've had lots of opportunities to take one of these pitches, including "free" cruises, but have never taken one. It just doesn't make sense for us. Vacation for us has always meant "someplace you've never been before" and in fact we rarely stay in one place more than 1 night. 3 nights with an (expensive) option for a lifetime in one place is just nuts.
Our international trips have convinced us that you need to have a strong spine and a strong gaze that looks past these "opportunities." Be aware of them but pretend to be fixated on something else. Serendipitous delight can await, but I much prefer having everything nailed down and arranged in advance. "Sorry, I'm meeting my guide."
In hindsight I am torn... I think it saved us $800+. We spent only $512 for the following.
5 of us took the all day tour to Chichen Itza.
The girls had three 45 minute sessions with the dolphins (1. Interaction. 2. Pulled by dolphin while they held fins. 3. Pushed forward by their feet.
5 of us went sailing / snorkelling, where 2 of us drank too much. (ie 18 yr old Daughter and Myself. Her first serious buzz.Or so she claims.)
5 of us got a day pass to live, eat and drink like a member at Marina El Cid.
By the way, if you want an all inclusive resort off by itself. I highly recommend it if you can afford it. It was BEAUTIFUL and other than the sales thing, the staff was GREAT !!!
We actually stayed at the The Royal Cancun which is in Cancun's Hotel district. I think I liked it more only because it was in the city and was not all inclusive. I enjoyed walking to the local convenience stores and looking around for food. Also, I probably would have come back 20 lbs heavier if I spent the whole time at El Cid...
I much appreciate the detailed review. Chichen Itza (or something like it) is "on the list" (though not anytime soon). Cancun is not, and we generally avoid beaches, preferring the mountains, or jungles, or tundra. And we don't dally in our travels or spend time on something we don't care about, like a sales pitch. Vacation is, to quote the board, "2 weeks that are 2 short after which you are 2 tired 2 work and 2 broke not 2."
I love that saying, after 3 weeks of travels, I am really looking forward to some boring office work... And down time at home.
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