If your only visits to Walt Disney World have seen you confined to the Disney property, you might not have seen the booths. Otherwise, it's a pretty good bet you've seen them. Found at a very high percentage of eateries in the Kissimmee area, these booths promise cheap tickets to Orlando area attractions, including the Disney parks.

At a McDonald's in Kissimmee: Cheap tickets for Disney World - a bargain?

A scam, right? Bogus tickets, maybe. Or perhaps tickets with weird conditions on them -- like they are only usable certain days at certain parks?

Nope. In fact, the tickets are exactly as advertised. This is not a scam, they are not bogus tickets, and the tickets are good for one or more parks -- whatever you are promised, is what you get. So how do can these guys offer tickets for $25 each (or two for $50)?

They can do this because they buy the tickets at cost and sell them at a loss. But before you rush out to buy them next time, know that there is something in it for the seller, too. To pick up your cheaply priced tickets, you must attend a timeshare presentation.

A hugely profitably timeshare company can afford to lose money on selling cheap tickets because it rakes in so very much more money from even a single sale - a day spent losing money on 300 tickets to Walt Disney World, but closing one deal for a timeshare, is not a wasted day for a company.

The company in question is Tempus Resorts. There may be more out there, but all the booths I saw in Kissimmee were from Tempus, and since the sales pitch begins the moment you even approach one of the booths, let spare you the need to inquire by sharing my experience with you.

Surprisingly, the booth managers have a lot of latitude about how good a deal to offer you. They have a lot of attractions to choose from, including Disney (including water parks and DisneyQuest), Sea World, Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios, and more. Disney parks are normally the most expensive, and the Tempus booths are no exception. Their best deal is normally $25 each if you buy two tickets, but if things are slow in the off-season, they may offer you tickets for as low as $17 each.

To get your tickets, you must agree to attend a timeshare presentation at their central headquarters. Tempus has recently partnered with Wyndham Resorts for a new, more centrally located timeshare complex called the Palms Resort. It looks impressive, ritzy and enticing, and claims to be a five-star facility.

Tempus's Palms Resort in Orlando is central to Disney World, Sea World, and Universal Studios.

The presentation is said to last 90 minutes, but in reality, no human can extricate himself from a high-pressure timeshare sales presentation in so short a time -- budget two or three hours for this if you really want to do it. Is it worth the savings to give up three hours? You could use the tickets the same day or wait for the next, but either way you give up time that could be otherwise spent consuming the artificial reality that is Orlando and its attractions. Would a $50 savings for two tickets be worth half your day? If you have the money to fly to Orlando and pay for a hotel, at some point time becomes more important than money.

Add to that the pressures you would face at a timeshare presentation. How easily can you say "no"? OK, fair enough -- most of us can say "no" pretty easily. But can you do so 50 times in the space of a few hours? [Have a glance at the side bar on the right to read Brian Bennett's experience at one such timeshare presentation.]

Forget car salesmen and mutual fund cold-callers: these guys are well-trained, well-paid, and have no problem exerting an extraordinary amount of sales pressure. I admit they are good. And that's half the problem. Would your day at Disney be enjoyable if you're trying to shake that off? Unless, of course, you were actually in the market for an Orlando timeshare. Then you might find all of this worthwhile.

So let's look at the actual deal they offer. I spoke with a booth manager and didn't actually attend the timeshare presentation (I'm no fool), so the numbers she gave me are probably more inviting than the real numbers.

Her rough sketch: Purchase your timeshare for $8000 to $12,000 (financing is available), which gives you the right to one week a year at your Orlando timeshare. You sign up for a specific time period, too (this also affects how much your timeshare costs in the first place). You can trade your Orlando place away for any Tempus or Wyndham Resort worldwide, and there are a lot of them. Clearly, though, the Orlando option is the premier attraction. You also pay an annual maintenance fee of around $350, which can be itemized on your annual tax bill. Generously, the program is eternal and can be deeded to your children.

Too good to be true? Not really.

Let's compare that to Disney's own timeshare offering, the Disney Vacation Club (DVC). For a timeshare at DVC, you pay $17,000 up front (also can be financed) and a steep annual maintenance fee of $600. That's much more pricey. Disney, however, puts you on-property (always a plus) and it works on a points system. Should you not use your points one year, they carry over to the next year. Some rooms cost more points than others, so your vacation per year may be as small as five days or as long as 14, depending on what kind of room you want. Disney's plan expires in 40 years and cannot be deeded to children.

For a lot of reasons, the Tempus deal is much better financially. The lack of an expiration date and the ability to leave it to your children alone make the package a much better deal, even forgetting the smaller cost outright and the lessened maintenance fee. Sure, it's off-property, but do you really need to be treated like royalty to enjoy your vacation?

They really are valid... but are they worth it?

My problem is more fundamental. Let's do the math on Tempus, the better deal. If you bought the cheapest room for $8000 and paid annual maintenance fees of $350, after 40 years you have paid $22,000, assuming the numbers I got from the booth were fully accurate (unlikely), maintenance fees don't rise (also unlikely), and you didn't use financing up front (very unlikely). But let's work with $22,000. One simple division by 40 years says that you've paid $550 a year for the right to use your timeshare one week each time. Six nights for $550 is not a horrible deal, especially since we're talking about a furnished apartment complete with kitchen rather than a hotel room.

However, I don't know about you, but I do not look for the most lavish vacation spots when I go to WDW. I'm there for Disney and maybe Universal or Sea World, not for fine trappings when I sleep. I can book a motel room even closer than the Tempus Resort for $40 per night in the off-season, and maybe as much as $80 during the peak periods. I save money at my motel versus the timeshare.

Even Disney's own offerings aren't outrageous in comparison to the timeshare. Disney's All-Star Movies offers rooms for $110 a night in the off-season (they cost more in the summer). Disney likes to cover all price points, of course, so you'll find rooms in the $200 and $300 range elsewhere, too.

Discounts, but at a price.

Most importantly, making my reservations year by year rather than using a timeshare gives me freedom. Don't underestimate the financial importance of choice: if I choose not to go to WDW in one year, for example, I can save my money toward the next year's trip. But with Tempus, I am "forced" into spending the equivalent of $550 every year to go to WDW. What if I don't want a vacation that year, or can't afford it?

Bottom line: if you're not in the market for a timeshare, I strongly suggest you steer clear of those "cheap ticket" booths you see throughout Osceola and Orange counties. They are not worth the time and hassle, frankly, even if they gave away the tickets.

About the only people who should consider getting their tickets this way are those who are either 100% bulletproof from sales pitches or who are honestly looking for an Orlando timeshare. If the latter, I hope you consider my words of caution today - you are locked into taking a vacation every year. And there's much to be said for freedom of choice.

If you'd like to write Kevin Yee, you can reach him at: kevin.yee@mouseplanet.com

Photos on this page, unless otherwise noted, by Kevin Yee.

Besides the offsite timeshares that are scattered around the WDW area, Disney has it's own timeshare called the Disney Vacation Club (DVC). To learn more about the DVC, check out MousePlanet's Disney Vacation Club Trip Planning Guide.

Here's what Brian Bennett had to say about his experience when he stayed at a timeshare back in the fall of 2000:

"Today Barb and I got up early to do the obligatory tour of Westgate. The folks here just had to try to sell us a timeshare, and they didn't pull any punches in the attempt. We got to the welcome center, as instructed, at 7:30am. They took a digital picture of us (that we could pick up later in the day) and then ushered us into a room that had a light breakfast spread. Our sales rep, Ron, left us for a few minutes as we ate, but arrived in time to start the discussion.

"I won't bore you with all of the details, but here's some highlights (I'll compare Westgate to our experience at the Disney Vacation Club's (DVC) Old Key West Resort (OKWR) in the following discussion). Of course, prices weren't discussed until the very end, so I'll not tell you what they are until then either.

"One of the first questions was, "where are you members now?" That was not something we'd discussed with anyone since we'd arrived, so it must have been either a standard question used to direct the rest of the pitch, or else it was noted from a previous phone discussion, or else they got our names from a timeshare listing somehow.

"The flexibility of a point system (such as that used by DVC) was admitted. However, the sales guy tried to explain that x number of points today wouldn't be worth the same value in a trade a few years down the road. He's wrong, and I explained to him that we actually use our points to book a room at our home resort, then trade IT out. The value of the points (at least for a DVC member) maintains its value.

"The cost of maintenance is less at Westgate, by 40% or so, versus OKWR at Walt Disney World.

"The fact that the DVC is on site is an obvious advantage for us -- due to the WDW transportation, but Westgate really is well located for folks that like Universal, SeaWorld, and other Orlando destinations as well (or better).

"Members staying at Westgate Lakes receive six meals each week for each member of their party. That's an excellent perk!

"The DVC severely restricts member trades through Intervals International to just the top-end resorts. Westgate allows their members to trade throughout the Intervals International network (a big advantage, if you're planning your purchase to trade out frequently).

"Westgate offered a deal that would have cost about $21,000 for a two-bedroom attached to a one-bedroom (equivalent to a two- bedroom and a studio, at OKWR) that you get EVERY OTHER year. You can use either unit one year and use the other unit the next, you can use them both every other year, or you can trade one and use the other. It's a pretty flexible program.

"Today, just today, one time only, we would be eligible for a $2,000 discount.

"Financing was available at 17 3/4% for five years.

"The sales rep made a strong point that the Westgate Timeshare is deeded. The DVC is too, but it's a deeded lease which means that after 50 years from the opening of the resort, the program is done. In contrast, the Westgate Timeshare never runs out.

"When we declined, for financial reasons, a manager was brought in to give us a special deal. The story (I have no reason to believe it's not true) is that a unit had just been acquired by Westgate as a member wanted to upgrade. If we acted today, and were willing to delay our use of the unit until next year, we could do the same thing for $11,000.

"Still, we declined. The last pitch, brought in by someone from the development company (the third person we'd talked to this morning about buying a timeshare) was that we could come back in two years and stay for a full week. If we wanted to do so, we would have to pay $250 down and about $50 per month until the full price of approximately $1,100 was paid. If we did this, and decided upon our return to buy in, the full amount would be applied to our timeshare cost.

"Still we declined. Only then were we shown the door. By the way, as you can see in the picture (on the left), there were a TON of people involved in this tour thing. Ron said that this was a seven-day operation, and this was just for the 7:30 am tour. I'm only conjecturing when I figure those tables are all filled up later in the morning and in the afternoon, but it's not a stretch to think that's the case.

"I had to hand it to these folks, they have a great product (if I had the money, I would seriously have considered a purchase -- but for trading more than personal use), and they're as tenacious as the dickens. It just wasn't the right timing for us. One other thing, the tour was supposed to be a 90- minute tour, but it actually kept us occupied for just short of three hours."

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