Why Am I Writing About Wyndham Timeshares?

I'm a mostly normal, incredibly good-looking (humble too) retired guy. Wow, I love to say that I'm retired! I love to travel and have been a timeshare owner since the mid-1990s. My children are adults now and I am very thankful that we owned timeshares and were able to enjoy some fantastic vacations. Let me digress and explain how this all started.

In about 1993, my wife and I got pitched for a timeshare in Gatlinburg, TN, where we had just driven our motor home for a much-needed family vacation. I don't recall the resort's name, but we were immediately suckered into it - lock, stock, and barrel. I am very good at saying "no", but those timeshare sales folks were very convincing that if we didn't purchase from them at that exact moment in time, then we must not care about our family at all. How could we possibly say no when it would mean we were horrible parents?

Anyway, my better judgement set in (aka "buyer's remorse) on the drive home and we ended up canceling the contract, realizing that it was a spur of the moment purchase, made without any research or real thought about it (not to mention we probably couldn't afford it).

I did like the concept of having a guaranteed vacation each year and was a bit tired of hooking up sewer hoses to our motor home, so I spent the next year or so educating myself about the various timeshare companies, their programs, locations, costs, etc. I finally decided to purchase with the leading timeshare company at the time - Fairfield Communities, Inc.

Their program was innovative and flexible. It was called the FairShare Plus Program. Instead of having a set week each year at the same resort, we were given points, based on how much we purchased. These points could be used at any of their 30 or so resorts in the US, and could even be used for less than full-week stays (which was convenient, since my vacation time was usually limited to weekends). Their resorts were top notch and in close proximity to me in the southeast US.

So, we made our initial purchase. We found the program was very flexible and never once forfeited any of our vacation time. As we could afford it, we increased our ownership. We purchased from Fairfield several times, but eventually found that we could purchase from other owners and save a lot of money. So, we purchased to a level that eventually allowed us to travel to timeshares about 30 days out of the year. After enjoying the luxury of the Fairfield resorts for several years, we actually sold off our motor home, because we didn't want to "rough it" anymore.

You might be wondering, why in the hell is this guy telling me all of this? It's actually not a happy travel story that I wanted to share with you. I wanted to share with you what has happened in the past few years to make this great vacation ownership investment become a thorn in my side.
I'm tired now though (I did tell you I was retired, didn't I?), so what I really wanted to tell you (about how my timeshare company was bought out by greedy corporate thugs who systematically raped, pillaged, and burned my ownership) is just going to have to wait. Since I just started this blog tonight and there is nobody out there actually reading it, I think we won't have a major problem with suspense killing anyone before I get back to continue the saga.

Goodnight all...