Episode 11 – Scientology Timeshare

A unique feature of Cancun Airport, was the 'Information Desk' which by definition was informative, however when offered the chance to partake in free tequila, free lunch, free cab ride, and free tours if we visited a brand new holiday resort and listened to some information for '90 minutes', it sounded like a great deal yes? Although upon committing this offer to text right here, it seems like the writing truly was on the wall! Our '90 minutes' became 240 minutes of set-up for the inevitable sales pitch.

But it wasn't until it came to 'closing time' that things got awkward. The 'no pressure' sales offer became highly pressurised, as we proceeded to inform 3 different levels of sales management that:
a) due to our unpredictable lifestyle & professions
b) our preference for adventure travel rather than 20yrs of the same properties and c) conveniently (for once), the weak Australian Dollar meant the value was lost; - for all these reasons 'we would like to but it's not quite for us' became 'thanks we're not interested' which became 'WE WILL NOT BE INVESTING TODAY!!' They even dug out an Australian guy from the Northern Beaches to develop an affinity with us, who we told the same bloody answers again! These people don't like to hear no... And we said it plenty! So whilst they did usher us hurriedly out the back door of the property, we were still pleased with the outcomes.

We didn't end up overcommitted to an overpriced holiday plan, but indeed did walk away with items much more relevant to our holiday - 2 free day tours each to visit the Mayan ruins AND the bottle of tequila - it wasn't the Don Julio Anejo they promised, but tequila none the less.


After this protracted experience, we felt we had earned a drink so it was straight to the beach for the last rays of the day's sun and 'ghetto cocktails' (i.e. mix your own on the sand with plastic cups). Cocktail hour extended back to the Banana and into impromptu rhythmic gymnastics hour, whence the beautifully hand crafted paper flower display soon became the ribbons required for this innate artistic expression…D