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Back in the sales room, Audrey tells me that if I buy within six days, I can get 10 percent off the selling price, or 24 free points. She gives me a lovely parting gift, a hard-bound promotional book filled with glossy pictures of happy people.

5:30 p.m.

I drive five miles to Marriott's Grande Vista Resort near International Drive, where I've booked a room for the night, planning to attend a sales presentation the next morning. Marriott, the first hotel company to enter the timeshare industry in 1984, is now one of the world's largest, with 47 vacation club properties throughout the United States, the Caribbean, Europe and even Thailand.

The Grande Vista, on 160 acres, is divided into four villages with a total of 22 multistory buildings. My studio room is comfortable but not opulent: The tiling is basic white, the balcony isn't screened and the coffee machine is old-school. But the grounds are beautiful, with palm trees, a golf course, tennis courts, a man-made lake and multiple pools and spas. The clientele, mostly youngish couples with small kids, is a snapshot of Middle America's upwardly mobile class.

Back in the room, I turn on the TV, which is preset to a video about happy people having fun at Marriott properties.

Monday, 7:30 a.m.

The next morning I hit the Marriott sales office when it opens, thinking I'll be the only one there. Wrong-o. There's a line.

Energetic salesman Nick gives me a "courtesy" presentation, a shorter version of the rigmarole given to those with invitations. He recommends that I purchase a "two-bedroom week" at the Grande Vista and another at Marriott's Ocean Point at Palm Beach Shores for a total cost of $47,800, plus about $1,500 in yearly maintenance. He says I can turn the timeshare weeks into Marriott Rewards Points or trade them through a company called Interval International.

When I seem confused, Nick says, "Don't worry. We wrap our arms around you." I want to believe him.

9 a.m.

I head a few blocks to Sheraton's Vistana Villages on International Drive, one of six Sheraton timeshare properties in Florida, South Carolina, Arizona and Colorado. Parent company Starwood also operates four Westin Vacation Ownership Resorts in Hawaii, Arizona, California and the Virgin Islands, and four non-branded properties.

Vistana Villages, too, is crawling with potential buyers. When I tell saleswoman Margarita that I've been to Marriott, she launches into a rapid-fire recitation of that product's lack of flexibility. Sheraton and Marriott, apparently, appeal to a similar demographic. Much of our discussion centers on how simple it is to swap to another property and to trade the timeshare's value into Starwood StarPoints. Margarita also recommends getting an American Express card tied to the vacation club for even more points.

The price for a one-bedroom "premium" villa is less than I expect: $16,900 per week, plus several hundred more in maintenance fees. Margarita recommends, however, the "two-bedroom lock-off" -- a unit that can be divided into two -- for $27,900. Then her colleague Pablo drives me in a golf cart through the palm tree-dotted grounds to see the units, which are decorated with upscale granite, tile and large screened balconies. I like his simple advice: "If you use it, it's probably worth it."

10:45 a.m.

Intrigued by the ubiquitous billboards offering timeshare resales, I stop at International Properties/GMAC Real Estate on International Drive, one of the many companies in Orlando that specialize in reselling timeshares. The timeshare agents I've talked to have all emphasized that buying a timeshare should not be viewed as a monetary investment, but rather as an investment in family and quality of life. And they've all carefully sidestepped my questions about resale values, probably because reselling a timeshare is not easy.

The Federal Trade Commission states, "Don't assume you'll recoup your purchase price for your timeshare, especially if you've owned it for less than five years and the location is less than well-known." Bill Rogers, founder of the Timeshare User's Group, an organization composed of timeshare owners, is even more blunt: "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but selling a timeshare is very, very difficult and in some cases almost impossible," he states on his Web site, http://www.tug2.net/. "The main reason is supply and demand. The supply of timeshare resales greatly exceeds the demand for resales."