My Awesome Vacation Package

This is your lesson for today, kids: Junk mail may not always be junk mail.

Today I opened an email for kicks claiming that I had won a free vacation package and cruise to the Bahamas! Wahoo! But I was guessing free it was not. How many internet offers was I going to have to complete in order to get my free vacation package?

None, apparently. I click the "yes" button and was given a phone number. Since I had 60 minutes before my laundry was done I decided what the hey, I'd give it a call. Long story short, I was offered a 12 day vacation package that starts in Florida, continues to the Bahamas on a cruise and ends back in Florida - it also includes free Disney day passes and entrances to some casino, whatever whatever.

There was a catch - they were going to knock off $1200 so I only needed to pay $500 remaining. Well, this was a good deal, but not good enough for me. I said no and was sent to the manager (who was ridiculously nice, by the way) and he offered to throw in a 5 day trip to Cancun as well as a 3 day trip to the resort of my choice in the States. Still not good enough for me, so he gave me his employee discount and brought the cost down to $300.

I was tempted, but still couldn't believe it wasn't a scam. So he took me to the better business bureau and had me look up his company and sure enough, they are totally legitimate. He also said he'd throw in a 5 day trip to Spain. Well...

I said ok. But as we were processing the transaction, I was having heart palpitations... what if this was a scam? $300 is not a sum I'd like to lose. They knocked the price down to $200, but I was firm. $99 dollars - would that finalize things? A moment's hesitation and they said I had 10 years to take the trips and would be able to transfer the offers to other people (say, my parents could go to all these places for $99)... well, I'd have been just dumb to say no.

Sure, I do need to pay hotel taxes and docking fees for cruises as well as transportation to the destination, and I also need to attend 40 minute shareholder meetings which are probably going to be pushy and painful, but whatever. Even if I go to one place it will save me so much money it will be worth the $99 spent. I'm feeling pretty pleased right now. :-)