‘Timeshares Bring the Family Together!’

By Gaylene Johnson

My dad owned property near Daytona Beach, Florida. Since we are a family who ride (and race) motorcycles, we used to congregate at his place for ‘Bike Week’. Some years only one or two would be able to come, but we’ve had years where there have been as many as seventeen of us there!

Due to ill health, my dad was forced to sell his place, and he thought that his days with all his kids and grandkids coming down to join him for ‘Bike Week’ were over.

Not so! We have purchased seven timeshares at one resort for bike week. Dad doesn’t have any maintenance to do and it’s even better because we’re now on the beach. Family members must tell us by a certain date who is going and then they pay just the maintenance fees and taxes for the unit size they want. It saves us lots of money over a hotel during that week and we save even more by using the kitchens and eating some of our meals in.

The resort is great about putting us all together. We can leave the doors open, so we can congregate and spend time together, or we can shut our door if we want some down time.

If our family doesn’t use the units, we rent them out to friends, who pay the maintenance fees on most of the units we do use. A couple of years ago my sister-in-law’s family wanted to come down to watch my brother race, so nine of them joined thirteen of our family members for a twenty-two person reunion. It was great! We used the resort facilities for dinners and picnics and even threw a birthday party. We had a wonderful time.

It is such a relaxing, homey atmosphere and it doesn’t give you the vacation jitters of being in a strange place every time you leave home. You are just leaving your home and coming to your second home, which is how you feel about the resort when you return to it year after year.

For years, we’ve had three generations participating and soon it will be four. There aren’t many times when four generations of a family can spend extended periods of time together. Timeshares allow us that luxury at a reasonable enough cost, so that the young people can join us too.

My dad has also been able to take advantage of the owner bonus days, so he’s been able to stay an extra two or three weeks at reduced cost.

We’re very happy with our timeshares and will own them for many years!

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