Margaritaville Resort St. Thomas NCL "excursion"

[Lupush]

I got an email today from NCL offering me a $100 on board credit for taking their Margaritaville Resort "excursion" and sitting through a 45 minute sales pitch. Margaritaville is a timeshare property by Wyndham near Coki Beach. The excursion costs $100 per couple and includes lunch, 2 drinks per person, transportation and full use of the resort for the entire day. Has anyone had any experience doing this and is it worth it?

[NYcruzzer]

I got an email today from NCL offering me a $100 on board credit for taking their Margaritaville Resort "excursion" and sitting through a 45 minute sales pitch. Margaritaville is a timeshare property by Wyndham near Coki Beach. The excursion costs $100 per couple and includes lunch, 2 drinks per person, transportation and full use of the resort for the entire day. Has anyone had any experience doing this and is it worth it?

 

Are you sure the e-mail came from NCL ? I've never heard of NCL pitching timeshare properties.

Edited July 28, 2016 by NYcruzzer

[Lupush]

Yes. 100% sure. The contact to make reservations has an @NCL email address

 

 

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[NYcruzzer]

Yes. 100% sure. The contact to make reservations has an @NCL email address

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Interesting. From what I have heard about timeshare "presentations" 45 minutes seems on the short side. Sometimes the sales people can get quite aggressive when you tell them your not interested. Good luck whatever you decide to do, and have a great cruise.

[XCruiseMe17]

I also got the email. I contacted NCL and was told that you can't actually even purchase anything during this 45 minute presentation. I went ahead and signed up. Im on the same sailing as you. I couldn't buy one even if I wanted to. lol

[AdoraBelle]

Wow, super classy NCL.

[Sauer-kraut]

Wyndham offers NCL cruises for those who own their properties. You can "buy" a week cruise instead of going to a resort. It sort of makes sense they are doing a joint 'experience'. If you get to use the resort and get $100 it I think I would go for it.

[Lupush]

I also got the email. I contacted NCL and was told that you can't actually even purchase anything during this 45 minute presentation. I went ahead and signed up. Im on the same sailing as you. I couldn't buy one even if I wanted to. lol

 

lol. I would never consider buying a time share but I figure what have I got to lose with this one? We usually never get off the ship in St. Thomas anyway. Just out of curiosity, what type of cabin are you staying in? I wonder if they're targeting by cabin type or something.

[Lupush]

Wow, super classy NCL.

 

 

I'm sure they have some type of cross marketing agreement in their licensing deal with the Margaritaville folks. Pretty common in the hospitality business.

 

 

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[AdoraBelle]

I'm sure they have some type of cross marketing agreement in their licensing deal with the Margaritaville folks. Pretty common in the hospitality business.

 

 

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My feeling that any business that has to pay you to go to a high-pressure sales experience (with a built in, mandatory time period during which you may not leave) is not selling something it would be wise to buy.

Edited July 28, 2016 by AdoraBelle

[Sand and Seas]

Interesting! Have you researched the resort to see if it's worth taking your time in St Thomas? If it's a nice place to spend the day...:cool:

[Lupush]

Interesting! Have you researched the resort to see if it's worth taking your time in St Thomas? If it's a nice place to spend the day...:cool:

 

 

It looks pretty nice. Beach, nice pool area. Includes lunch and 2 drinks pp. The $100 on board credit will pay for a few meals at Food Republic. Think I might do it just for poops and giggles.

 

 

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[XCruiseMe17]

lol. I would never consider buying a time share but I figure what have I got to lose with this one? We usually never get off the ship in St. Thomas anyway. Just out of curiosity, what type of cabin are you staying in? I wonder if they're targeting by cabin type or something.

At the time I had a studio. I currently upgraded to a balcony. I'm thinking it's just random. In addition you get lunch and unlimited soda, juice and water, as well as 2 alcoholic beverages. It looks nice to me. I'm excited.

 

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[sjnyc323]

I got an email today from NCL offering me a $100 on board credit for taking their Margaritaville Resort "excursion" and sitting through a 45 minute sales pitch. Margaritaville is a timeshare property by Wyndham near Coki Beach. The excursion costs $100 per couple and includes lunch, 2 drinks per person, transportation and full use of the resort for the entire day. Has anyone had any experience doing this and is it worth it?

 

 

It's a great place been there in May from our Escape cruise

[FreestyleNovice]

What's the normal cost of a day pass for that resort?

 

I can't imagine willingly losing 45 minutes in such a situation (and really unpleasantly minutes I assume) to get freebies on a vacation. :)

 

45 minutes is some 10-15% lost in free time on a exotic island! :D But hey.. maybe I will undergo 60 minutes of continously commercials in the ship's theatre before the first tender and getting a free cabana on GSC hehe! Everything has a price, are you hearing me Frank. :D

Edited July 28, 2016 by FreestyleNovice

[sjnyc323]

What's the normal cost of a day pass for that resort?

 

 

 

I can't imagine willingly losing 45 minutes (and unpleasantly minutes I assume) to get freebies on a vacation. :)

 

 

 

45 minutes is some 10-15% lost in free time on a exotic island! :D But hey.. maybe I will undergo 60 minutes of continously commercials in the ship's theatre before getting a free cabana on GSC hehe! Everything has a price, are you hearing me Frank. :D

 

 

We actually paid $80 per person through shore excursions. Didn't have the offer you received. We didn't go to presentation but they offered if interested. We just enjoyed the property

Edited July 28, 2016 by sjnyc323

[bobandgloria]

could you post the phone number i am on the same sailing

[punkincc]

It looks pretty nice. Beach, nice pool area. Includes lunch and 2 drinks pp. The $100 on board credit will pay for a few meals at Food Republic. Think I might do it just for poops and giggles.

 

 

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How do you figure the $100 OBC will pay for meals at Food Republic? You will have a $100 charge to your account for purchase of the "excursion" offset by the $100 OBC bringing your charge back to zero. Any meals purchased at FR will be on your credit card when you leave the ship.

 

You do get a "free" excursion, of questionable value at this point. I've never seen a time share presentation which did not take up the better part of a morning or afternoon. They'll have potentially hundreds of people to talk to unless they are doing some sort of group presentation. I also would question the statement that you can't even buy a timeshare if you wanted to. What would be the point of this very expensive offer to cruise ship passengers if they had no ability to make the expense back in the form of a sale or two here and there.

 

If it's worth a couple hours of your time, or more, go for it. Personally, I'd be heading over to Trunk Bay in St John. I hope those who sign up for this will come back and report on how the experience actually turned out.

Edited July 28, 2016 by punkincc

[XCruiseMe17]

How do you figure the $100 OBC will pay for meals at Food Republic? You will have a $100 charge to your account for purchase of the "excursion" offset by the $100 OBC bringing your charge back to zero. Any meals purchased at FR will be on your credit card when you leave the ship.

 

You do get a "free" excursion, of questionable value at this point. I've never seen a time share presentation which did not take up the better part of a morning or afternoon. They'll have potentially hundreds of people to talk to unless they are doing some sort of group presentation. I also would question the statement that you can't even buy a timeshare if you wanted to. What would be the point of this very expensive offer to cruise ship passengers if they had no ability to make the expense back in the form of a sale or two here and there.

 

If it's worth a couple hours of your time, or more, go for it. Personally, I'd be heading over to Trunk Bay in St John. I hope those who sign up for this will come back and report on how the experience actually turned out.

 

 

The NCL agent that contacted me stated that after the presentation you can either say you want more info or not and then you can meet with the reps once back on the ship and you go from there. Apparently no sales are made on the property. You can do the excursion and not go to the 45 minute thing, but you wont get the $100 back. You only get the money back if you attend the presentation.

[aubreyc1988]

I did a timeshare presentation a couple years back at at Ron Jon in Orlando area.

 

It was FREE to attend, and I got free stuff for doing it. I think free shuttle that was worth 100.00 pp at the time.

 

 

and I would NEVER do it again, such a HUGE waste of time, there are like a million other better things to do in St. Thomas

[tominabox1]

I got an email today from NCL offering me a $100 on board credit for taking their Margaritaville Resort "excursion" and sitting through a 45 minute sales pitch. Margaritaville is a timeshare property by Wyndham near Coki Beach. The excursion costs $100 per couple and includes lunch, 2 drinks per person, transportation and full use of the resort for the entire day. Has anyone had any experience doing this and is it worth it?

 

 

You have to pay for it?

 

NO. They are selling you a time share. They are aggressive. You will feel bad for not buying one.

 

My wife and I sat through one at Ron Jon in Port Canaveral. Even I almost bought one. Really time shares are not the terrible thing people have made them out to be but we didn't actually end up using any of the facilities, we were really after the free transportation from Orlando airport. We'd never do it again, its just a waste of our time, and their time.

[NYcruzzer]

The NCL agent that contacted me stated that after the presentation you can either say you want more info or not and then you can meet with the reps once back on the ship and you go from there. Apparently no sales are made on the property. You can do the excursion and not go to the 45 minute thing, but you wont get the $100 back. You only get the money back if you attend the presentation.

 

You mean the hard sell will continue onboard ? Not sure why NCL would want to get into the sleazy world of timeshare sales. Not much upside for NCL . Can't add much to their bottom line.

[XCruiseMe17]

I don't know if they sell it to you on board. I'm just saying what the lady told me on the phone. Obviously if you weren't interested you wouldn't say you wanted more info. Maybe it's just me, but 45 minutes doesn't seem like a big deal. The resort looks incredible.

 

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[punkincc]

I don't know if they sell it to you on board. I'm just saying what the lady told me on the phone. Obviously if you weren't interested you wouldn't say you wanted more info. Maybe it's just me, but 45 minutes doesn't seem like a big deal. The resort looks incredible.

 

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If indeed it is actually 45 minutes, which no one has yet to confirm. I will be very very surprised if that turns out to be the case. But if reports don't sound good, you can always cancel the excursion, I assume.

[aubreyc1988]

You mean the hard sell will continue onboard ? Not sure why NCL would want to get into the sleazy world of timeshare sales. Not much upside for NCL . Can't add much to their bottom line.

 

because of the Margaritaville on the ships, maybe it gives them a discount on their contract or extends it for less money lol