I think it’s about time for a Vegas recap. To begin with, I’ll just say it was definitely an interesting trip this year.
This was the 3rd year in a row we went, and every year has had its own stories. This year has topped the weirdness of past visits though.
The chaos began within the first 10 minutes of our arrival and extended through the end of the evening.
Here it goes…
Why the Word “Timeshare” Makes Me Cringe
We checked into our hotel and started walking through the main casino area to get to our room to unpack after the 5-hour drive. A man at a booth stopped us to talk about who knows what. I was honestly not even listening, and Matt barely was, but then the topic of “free show tickets” was brought up. That’s when we started paying attention.
The man informed us if we sat through a timeshare tour, we would be rewarded with super discounted tickets. We could choose from a random Cirque du Soleil show, a Titanic museum, Blue Man Group, the hotel’s version of Medieval Times, or a few others. As long as we went to the timeshare tour/presentation, which included a free buffet, we would be given the discounted tickets. We didn’t have anything planned for the rest of the day and really liked the idea of seeing a Vegas show, so we hesitantly agreed to the timeshare viewing and chose Blue Man Group.
A few hours later, we registered with the hotel people running the timeshare dealio (it was actually a legitimate offering from the hotel and didn’t seem shady) and waited for the bus to pick us up. We were expecting this timeshare experience to go like this: Get to the place. Grab food from a buffet and listen to someone present for 2 to 3 hours. We were expecting it to be boring, but we had no idea what was in store.
We were then taken to the main timeshare site and each group was assigned a sales representative. I’m pretty sure we were given the most hyper, insistent, crazy sales guy they had because I had problems dealing with social interaction the rest of the night. He was absolutely exhausting.
Anywho, the three of us got in his car (not expecting to go off site again), and drove to a restaurant like 10 minutes away for a buffet. He was talking nonstop the entire time journey, stopping at random places to discuss in the car how a timeshare would change our lives (while aggressively talking with his hands in our faces). After spending some quality time at the buffet, we finally went back to the main timeshare location to take a tour.
We informed him up front that we, like most other groups there, were not interested in the timeshare, and we like everyone else were just there because of the discounted tickets. Sure, timeshares seem like a good deal, but this man was wearing on our patience like no one ever has before.
After being there for FOUR HOURS (felt more like 10) with this man talking our ears off (along with his manager), we finally got on the bus. That’s when I realized our ticket vouchers said we could only redeem the tickets before 6pm–the bus wasn’t going to leave until 6pm. We were livid and could not believe we had just sat through the most miserable day ever, paid $50 for discounted tickets, and got nothing to show for it.
We asked for our money back, and ONE MINUTE before the bus left, the guy ran back and told us we could redeem the tickets after 6pm if we talked to some man named Daniel. So we ran to catch the bus. Once we got back to the hotel, we power walked to the show as to not miss it. We were able to redeem our tickets. It was SUCH a big sigh of relief.
Blue Man Group: Being Part of the Show
Once we sat in our horrible seats, an usher woman asked if we wanted to be part of the show, so Matt happily agreed and I hesitantly agreed with fear. About 15 minutes into the show, the lady came back and directed us to our “new seats.” So we walked into the first level of the show, and a spotlight went on us, sirens went off, and a close-up video of Matt and I was on the screen, so everyone was staring at us and the blue men were angry. It was funny (because we already kind of knew this was going to happen), and we moved from the absolute last row in the top level to the FIFTH ROW up front–aka 2 rows behind the splash zone. We went from needing binoculars to being able to see their eyes moving.
It was actually a blast, and Matt says it was worth the horrible day. I, however, am still hesitant to decide whether the show, in all its awesomeness, was worth the awkward, wearing day with Mr. Timeshare Salesman Dude.
I AM really happy we were able to see the show, and it was amazing that we were able to get 2 tickets for $40 rather than 2 tickets for about $240. Guess the whole experience was just another weird adventure and story to add to the collection.
OKAY, now that you are more than ready for me to stop adding to this post, I’ll just do a quick note about the rest of our Vegas time.
The Rest of the Weekend
1. I really want to see Britney Spears, and I’m not ashamed to say that.
2. I like helping people carbo load for races.
3. Matt and his team were awesome at their race and placed at a very respectable spot within the 300+ other teams. 🙂 Oh, and there were no people on his team who passed out from heat exhaustion like last year, so that was a nice change.
Overall, I’d say it was a successful weekend. We lost a bit of sanity, but we also had a great time hanging out with his teammates and the other volunteers. Next year…I think we’ll skip the timeshare tour though.
Questions for you:
Have you ever been through a shady sales “adventure” like this?
Have you ever seen Blue Man Group perform or another cool show?
