Just Buy Your Own Cruise
Written by Parsonsgreen
Somer Fortenberry is a national sales director in Mary Kay who desperately wants to reach the Inner Circle this Seminar Year. (Side note: Remember that time a former sales director exposed how Somer cheated to get to nsd? Fun times.)
To get to Inner Circle, Somer must bring in $650,000 in commissions from her downline. To accomplish this, she is offering a special prize to her team – a four day cruise to the Bahamas.
You need at least 20 points to go on the cruise. That gets you the cheapest possible interior room, but you still have to pay your own taxes and gratuities. And you better believe you’ll be rooming with another consultant!
There are various ways to earn points.
- Recruit a team member who purchases $600 inventory – 1 point.
- Purchase $600 in inventory – 1 point.
- A consultant who has ordered $4800 in inventory will be a Pearl Star, so she will have earned 8 stars plus an additional point for being a star.
Therefore, to earn this cruise, those points will cost anywhere between $12,000 to $14,400 in inventory. Somer will earn commission on all these purchases, regardless if the consultant sells any of this product. The contest will also include one star quarter for the 2025 seminar year so she’s already banking on this to give her a head start on next year.
Let’s look at what you’d pay for this cruise on your own. The cheapest rooms start at $289 per person with double occupancy, all the way up to a suite for $774 with double occupancy.
The cruise itinerary includes:
- Day One: Ship will depart Port Canaveral at 330pm.
- Day Two: Nassau
- Day Three: Princess Cays
- Day Four: Sailing
- Day Five: Ship will arrive in port at 8am.
Travel to the ship, your hotel stay, any excursions, and income tax on the prize is completely the consultant’s responsibility. And Somer reserves the right to only award the prize if the consultant is in good standing with the company.
Let’s recap: Buy $12,000 wholesale products to receive a prize worth $289.
Doesn’t this seem like a fabulous prize?
Visit the
289 back on $12K of purchases is 2.4%.
Considering little if any of this product is ever sold outside the downline, this shows that MLM is really just a buyer’s club with referral bonuses and cash back on purchases. At least with a cash back credit card you get cash back on things you normally purchase, and you can use that cash however you wish.
No one would seriously charge an extra $1000 on things they don’t need just to get $24 back. But that’s exactly the kind of thing MLMers are trying to convince you to do.
Trying to keep the momentum going after a double credit month don’t cha know! 😆
I’m sure she isn’t covering the cost of your travel there (air fare, gasoline), either.
I would have been all kinds of excited about this “opportunity” before I started thinking for myself.
Thanks for unpacking it!!
Plus port fees and taxes, hotel, parking, local transportation, tips. Be ready to pay for lots of extras on the ship, including juice and soda.
This ship had a fire a few weeks ago caused by a lightning strike. Irate passengers created a Facebook page about it because —according to the news report I saw — they received no compensation or credit from Carnival.
Only three full days? Not worth it.
If I’m correct, this is the Carnival Freedom which, according to reviews, is a no-frills “party boat.” One reviewer said, “You get what you pay for.”
Hallways smelled like sewage. Vaping and pot-smoking common.
– Stand in line to board the ship.
– Stand in line for meals,
– Stand in line for elevators.
– Stand in line for drinks.
– Stand in line when tendering.
– Stand in line to disembark.
Have a great time.
Plus, if you book through a travel agent, you can get airfare, hotels, and excursions bundled into the whole package. Not to mention you get to go where you want, for as long as you want, with PEOPLE YOU ACTUALLY LIKE. Even if it ends up being $5000 for a couple with taxes and agent fees, that’s not much more than that Pearl Star order that doesn’t even get you halfway there.
Significantly less than than Pearl Star order by the time you factor in tax and shipping. With the added bonus that you don’t have to store all that crap and feel guilty about your lack of “bee-lieve” level and personal failure every time you walk past the spare room you thought would be your office.
Frosty Rose, love love love this response!!!!! Did you hack my subconscious and post it?? Or was our programming just that good?? 😱
Ya’ll are all missing the point, the cruise is a FREE PRIZE! One that’ll be talked about and fawned over for a long time afterwards. Think about it this way: you could take your free pink Caddy to and from the free cruise.
Can someone estimate the commission she makes for each person who hits 20 points?
This is where my brain breaks when I try to figure it out!
https://www.shanisoffice.pink/uploads/5/0/9/8/5098161/compensation-plan-en-us.pdf
INDEPENDENT NATIONAL
SALES DIRECTOR THROUGH
ELITE EXECUTIVE NATIONAL
SALES DIRECTOR
CAN EARN:
• 50% profit potential on personal retail
product sales.
• Earned Discount Privilege.
• 4%, 9% or 13% personal team commission.
• 13% Sales Director personal unit commission
and 10% NSD personal unit volume commission.
• 9% offspring commission on first-line, 4% on
second-line and 2% on third-line.
• 2% top 10 fourth-line and beyond commission
for all NSDs.
• 2% fourth-line offspring commission for
Elite NSDs only.
• Opportunity to develop leaders in designated
international markets.12
So if she has a consultant on her personal team, I come up with $4320 in commissions from $12000 Wholesale. (13% for having her on the team, 13% for being the sales director and 10% from her unit production)
For a personal recruit … as much as 25%, plus bonuses and prizes. For people in lower levels,
Easy peasy – The minimum she ears for $12,000 wholesale ordered by someone is $240. That’s the bare minimum. She is making much more off most orders. So even worst case scenario, she is out of pocket ZERO for this prize. I guarantee that’s how she came up with her points needed. What gives her zero out of pocket cost in the worst case scenario.
On a separate note – if you do happen to be in Nassau, you’ll want to go to John Watling’s Rum Distillery (www.johnwatlings.com). And really anywhere in the Greycliff district. I’m saving my non scam MLM dollars to move there.
And that doesn’t include any additonal she’d get from that consultant’s downline
I’ve had “Come Sail Away” stuck in my head all day and it’s all Somer’s fault }:(
I was never in Mary Kay, and I’m just here for infotainment. These people make it look as if they are doing something for others, when it’s benefitting THEM.
Offering prizes that require big orders to win…giving away E-Starts as prizes…asking people to buy products for nursing home patients (to help boost their production numbers)…
They use euphemisms such as, “Loving on my team”, “Our team car”, and “Giving back to the community.” Ha!
The nursing home stuff makes my blood boil. One consultant was pushing people to “donate” (PURCHASE) foot cream from her as a gift for the local nursing home. Most residents are barely mobile and have very limited range of movement. Not sure any of them can actually touch their toes and use this pointless “gift” but she sure acted like it was such a charitable gesture.
The foot cream ended up in the trash or in employees’ homes.
I would be way more impressed if qualification was based on actual sales numbers to customers outside of Mary Kay. But they’re not because IT IS A PYRAMID SCAM. The company would collapse if they actually did it the right way.
“24 points upgrade to ocean view”
Ocean view does not mean balcony. It means your cabin will have a porthole. Expect the porthole to be very dirty and severely scratched.
Somer will enjoy her balcony.
Someone who went on one of these short cruises described the ship as “a floating Motel 6”