Boat Timeshares - A Unique Vacationing ExperienceWritten by Dana Sanders
If you’ve dreamed of sailing seven seas, but don’t necessarily have bank account to buy a luxury vessel, don’t despair. There are ways to make that dream happen without breaking your bank. Boat timeshares offer a unique vacationing experience for almost any budget. By getting involved in a timeshare, you have right to use that luxury vessel to make your dreams come true, but you alone are not solely responsible for all expenses. Timeshares provide an excellent way for someone not willing or able to take on expense of purchasing a great vacationing boat themselves to still experience adventure of life on water. A variety of companies offer would-be Captain Ahab’s ability to take to sea without shelling out a lot of cash. Boat timeshare companies and programs are readily available and accessible across Internet. Boating timeshare companies are active all over world with even some finding their homes on America’s Great Lakes. Basically, a boat timeshare offers a sailor a chance to buy into a piece of a boat for a season. Similar to a yacht club, but without all expenses of owning your own yacht, these programs lets sailors sail minus headaches. Some programs allow members to purchase blocks of time over course of a sailing season to use a boat. Many programs work by giving several “skippers” same boat during sailing season. These skippers book multiple sail times, show up, sail, have a blast and return boat for next skipper to take over. While boat timeshares provide everything needed to sail, members still are responsible for making sure boat is in good condition when it’s returned. Swabbing deck isn’t out of question. However, many timeshare programs will even go as far as to include maintenance, fuel and so on in initial price. This leaves member responsible for simply safely piloting vessel, keeping it clean and enjoying their high seas adventure with their family and friends for a fraction of price of owning a yacht themselves. The insurance, boat licensing and other worries are generally handled by timeshare company itself.
| | Dunn's River Falls in JamaicaWritten by Clint Leung
One of ports of call for our Royal Caribbean cruiseship was Ocho Rios, Jamaica. Probably most famous site in region is Dunn's River Falls and we chose to tour it on our own rather than through one of cruiseship tours. Once we disembarked from cruiseship, there were cabs and shuttlebuses available at pier. Cabs to Dunn's River Falls were $22 US for a return trip. Cabs allowed 1-3 people per vehicle. We were also told at pier that small shuttlebuses also go to Falls at $5.50 US per person. These were also based on return trips. The only problem with shuttlebuses was that we had to wait until they filled up shuttle before leaving for Falls so since we were first on bus, we had to wait about 15 minutes for it to fill up. The driver then asks you when you want to be picked up at Falls for return trip. Our driver suggested 2 hours to see Falls so we agreed on this time duration.Once at Falls, a woman then came onboard shuttle to sell tickets for admission to site at $10 US per adult person which was same rate at park's ticket booth. Once inside Dunn's facility, there were rentals for special rubber shoes as well as lockers. We carried a small backpack so we didn't require paying for a locker. We also brought along our scuba diving booties so we didn't have to rent those rubber shoes on site either. The cruiseship shop was also selling these rubber shoes in advance. Shoes of some type are highly recommended as rocks on Falls can be slippery and some of bottoms of water pools are a bit rocky. If you have old sneakers you don't mind getting wet, they will be suitable for climb up falls as well. Our scuba diving booties turned out to be sufficient. The entrance to site is at top of falls so we took some stairs that were adjacent to falls to bottom where beach and entrance to climb were. There are official guides dressed in blue polo shirts and shorts who will take groups up falls. Normally, they will ask to carry all cameras for you so they can take photos of you as you climb. Of course, they expect to be well tipped for their services. Also,
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