It’s been said that your best customer is an existing customer, and Marriott/Westin timeshare resorts certainly seem to live by that saying. When you check in, you meet with a “concierge” who gives you information about the resort, a discount card, some reusable bags, and offers an inducement to get you to go to an “Owner’s Update”…which is a session intended to get you to buy some more timeshare points.
We usually say “no” and skip the update because we’d rather be on vacation than listen to a sales pitch, but once in a while we say “yes”, either because there actually are changes in the program that we’d like to know about or because the inducement is worthwhile. Usually, they offer resort credit or Marriott points, neither of which is very exciting, but this time our concierge Max offered us a free Teralani Adventures sunset cruise, so we bit.
Our session was at 8:30am this morning (good timing, because it left the rest of the day free), and it was painless. The salesman, Ray, was entertaining and informative – he even answered a few questions we had. And (unlike some previous sessions we’d endured) there was no hard-sell! Yes, he did suggest that we buy more points, and his manager Andy drew up an offer, but they took “no” for an answer very easily, and we were out of the session in the promised 90 minutes, in plenty of time to walk to Whalers Village for lunch at Leilani’s on the Beach.
Diane had had problems with her mask when we went snorkeling yesterday, so we visited The Snorkel Store to see if they could help. They didn’t try to sell her a new mask; instead, they said that the seal looked good and suggested she might have over-tightened the mask. We’ll find out if that solves the problem tomorrow.
And then it was time to walk back down towards Whalers Village to check in for our free sailing. They do “beach boarding” (no gangway – you walk through shallow water to reach the ship and climb up the stairs). They couldn’t use their usual boarding location because of high waves, so the whole group walked to the other side of the Sheraton at Black Rock where things were much calmer.
Soon, we were out on the ocean, enjoying the views, some adult beverages, and some appetizers.
The wind meant that they could put up the sail instead of relying on the engine.
It was a little rough at times, but nothing to worry about.
We returned to the beach as it was getting dark.
And then we walked back to the Westin; it was a very good day.
