The Lifestyle Preview Plan visit through TV supplies a golf cart Gracie. We booked a six day visit after seeing (several times over) a television commercial and deciding to order the free DVD and info.
We were told we'd get a two bedroom, fully furnished villa - complete with golf cart. We actually got a three bedroom that was beyond our highest expectations. It comes with a full sized washer and dryer and dishwasher with enough of the sample size products to operate each applicance many times. Set your trash out everyday on the LSP visit if you want. Someone picks up your plastic bags daily.
Our villa was across from an outdoor pool, shuffle board court and pickle ball court. (The preview villas are in a preview section so everyone you encounter at these facilities are previewers just like you. That was fun. We compared and gushed about what we'd seen. Just got to know other people and their experiences. All positive too.)
We went to a grocery store our first day and bought breakfast stuff, coffee, soda and snacks for the villa. You will want to have coffee or your breakfast on your lanai in the mornings and plan your day. Get one of the big maps of TV. You can buy that the first day you arrive. Ask the person who takes you to the villa to show you where to buy one. It's worth having it at all times.
We weren't prepared for the governor on the golf cart that slows it down for safety and insurance reasons on the visitors' carts. We laughed as people passed us as we trudged along the beautiful paths that go on and on and everywhere you need to go.
Everything is perfectly choreographed by the TV employees. From the second you walk into the sales center to find out where to stay to the minute you leave. They are waiting to direct you to the proper person and get you set up in your villa.
Someone actually either drives you (if you don't have a vehicle) or lets you follow them (they will be in a golf cart) to the place you will be staying during your visit. This person will show you around your villa, show you how to operate the golf cart, explain the free meal coupons, gate passes, visitor passes and go over your free country club golf tee times.
You are really on your own as far as doing things. That is up to you. But trust me on this, everyone is willing to help if you have a question, get lost or need more information about ANYTHING. There are movie theater showing the newest release movies. The movie schedule is day and night.
We had an appointment with a TV sales representative to show us some homes. There are NO pressures. We actually got worried when no one from sales called us after we made reservations. We found out later that houses sold so quickly, unless you going to buy sight unseen, they was no need to tell you details about listing we saw online.
The coordinator or whatever they call the person who books your golf and such checked on us by phone before we came. It was like the perfect waiter. Not to much to be bothersome and just enough to serve our needs.
After we got to TV, we spent one day with our sale agent and then we drove around on our own and visited some open houses and wrote down addresses and phone numbers of realtors who had these homes listed. We worked with our TV sales rep one more day and found an "outside" realtor to show us other homes.
There are for sale by owners you can see this way. There are listings by MLS realtors that TV realtors can't show you. The same is true with MLS, they can't show the TV listings. Our TV sales agent said she'd set up an outiside realtor to show us other listings besides TV listings. We declined and found someone on our own.
We took a day off to explore and drove our vehicle around. TV is a very large place and the roads are confusing at first. You get your bearings after a while. We went in various rec centers. Drove to the polo fields. Listened to music on at Lake Sumter Landing Square. We drove our car the first night to the square just because we didn't know what to expect.
We took our cart the next night. I would suggest that if you partake of alcoholic beverages, take a cooler with you. We didn't know people do that and paid for a drink at the bars set up for the nightly live entertainment at the squares. The drinks aren't expensive, but I watched people do it and thought I'd suggest it.
We ate at the Lighthouse Restuarant at Lake Sumter Landing and enjoyed the meal and the service was great. We ate at other places around both squares. Some places, the food was good. Some places, the food was adequate.
We played golf at the Palmer and Cane Gardens. I read about the courses before we went and called our hospitality person and asked to change one of the courses they normally let you play on for the LSP visit. I wanted to play at Cane Gardens. I had read it was beautiful and it truely is breathtaking. She called me back after making the new tee time for the day that I said would work. The drive to Cane Gardens was longer than the other course, I said I didn't mind and she said no problem.
There's so much to tell. It is indescribable to an outside listener. You really have to experience TV. It's like trying to describe a concert to someone whose deaf, or a sunset to someone who can't see.
We bought before we our visit was over. Sorry to be so long winded. I love TV. We did so many things I couldn't list them all here.
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