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| Downtown Branson Riverwalk |
The only caveat is that this place can get expensive. So we picked out one show to see, the "Whodunnit Hoedown," and figured that would be just about all we could afford... until we went to Walmart. Inside the door there was a booth advertising discounted tickets. Who could resist?! Over we went and what a surprise-- there was a catch. We could get tickets for two events--any two events--for $10 each. All we had to do was spend a couple of hours listening to a sales pitch for a vacation program. Again, who could resist? The next day we went to hear the pitch. It was a good pitch. A great pitch. Flawless, even.
I know what you're thinking. "What do full time RVers need with a vacation program? We're on a full time vacation already." Well, what they offered was the only vacation we would ever be interested in... cruises. Their point system could be spent on either their world-wide vacation properties or we could spend them on a cruise. Every year. Now, a cruise every year was a very tempting prospect. (We love cruising.) Not only that, but they gave us double points plus some. And all our discounted tickets for free. We signed on the dotted line... lines (lots of lines), collected our tickets and went home.
We had a great time at our two events. We saw The Duttons, which we loved. The music was amazing. They are one talented family! The second event was the Wonderworks house (my favorite).
In the meantime, however, doubts began to rise up -- first in Mark, then in me. We got to thinking about the wisdom of putting ourselves in ten years of debt, considering how uncertain and potentially perilous times have become. We asked ourselves whether we could get our money's worth out of this vacation program as we'll be in our 80's by the time we pay it off. Maybe we'll still be healthy and vibrant enough to enjoy cruising and other travel at that time-- maybe not. We called their "cruise specialist" to see what kind of cruise our initial points would buy. Two phone calls over two days and two promises for a return call went by and... well, crickets, as they say. The more we thought about it, the more we wondered how wonderful this vacation program would probably not be.
And then I did the math and realized that for the same monthly cash outlay we could literally go on one really nice cruise every year and quit when we were ready, without the stress of debt hanging over our heads. In the end (and before our 5-day buyer's remorse window expired), good sense got the better of us and we cancelled the contract.
And booked a cruise with our Capital Vacations down payment refund.
Our Branson adventure is over. We had a lot of fun and learned a few lessons (hopefully), and we look forward to going back again one of these days.
For the holidays we are parked at Mark's daughter's in Shreveport, Louisiana. We have a nice level concrete pad to park on, 30 amp power, and sewer service. It's very comfortable (during the winter) and we consider ourselves wonderfully blessed to be able to spend so much time with them.
We hope you all have a blessed and happy Thanksgiving celebration.
Until next time, safe travels and God bless!
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| The Capital Vacations Branson property. "Stormy Point." Quite nice. |
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| Tour of "Stormy Point" |
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| Whodunnit Hoedown is a dinner theater. Don't go for the food, though. It's cafeteria quality, but okay. The show was fun. They use members of the audience to play the parts of the four murder suspects. |
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| Whodunnit Hoedown -- List of suspects |
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| Yes, Christmas is already everywhere |
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| Downtown Branson Riverwalk |
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| Wonderworks, a kind of sciency museum (sort of). The virtual roller coaster and 3-D movie were fun. |
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| As we enter, we hear the creaking sound of potential disaster |
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| "Flaming Margarita" (we had to try it) |
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| This was the "medium" size |
