Poll: DVC perks used by owners & recommended?

[Dean]

Originally Posted by CleoPahd

We booked the Dream on points. I know many say it's not a good use of points, on top of the $95 fee. However, in our case it worked. I think it really depends on the circumstances. For the dates we are cruising it was only 79 pts per person, so 158 for both me and my husband. When we compared it to the cash price vs renting our points the price was very close. Close enough that we felt it wasn't worth the hassle of renting our points. We looked at other cruises where there was no question that paying cash would be the way to go.

I think the key is to look at specifics. The points chart was somewhat favorable for the Dream which is likely whey the system got overbooked with DVC points. One of the common "mistakes" people make in comparing points vs cash cruises is missing the early booking deadline and not taking that into account when comparing.

[Mjasp]

My daughter is 19 and plans on buying DVC in the future, she had a good point when I told her about the age old debate for cruising, she said well if you have DVC already and can't afford to take a cruise by cash, well then it is worth using your pts then isn't it?

[DizDays]

We used our points to book the Members Cruise in 2011. Absolutely ridiculously high points. But this is a first time adventure and, I hope, worth it for the experience. If the poll can get fixed to allow each category to be answered, I'd be curious to see what the numbers look like.

[GrumpyBelle]

We are using some of our points on our upcoming Alaskan cruise. For us it is worth it since the points were prepaid. We are not interested in renting out points. We got them to vacation as we see fit.

[Dean]

Originally Posted by Mjasp

My daughter is 19 and plans on buying DVC in the future, she had a good point when I told her about the age old debate for cruising, she said well if you have DVC already and can't afford to take a cruise by cash, well then it is worth using your pts then isn't it?

To a degree. However, one who plans to buy in has the opportunity to make a better choice by buying less DVC points and using the money saves (up front and dues) to pay cash for the other options with a significant long term savings, less stress, more guarantees and more options.

[Doug7856]

We used DVC points once for a 3 night off season cruise. The points were valued at a little more than $8 per point in that transaction. It was an underbooked, inexpensive cruise. At the time I felt the value was good. We had cancelled plans for a trip and were looking for options during that particular use year. It would not be a regular transaction for us, but once was fun.

We have not used any of the other exchange options. We love our DVC accommodations and see no need to exchange into RCI -- although I thought it was an important option when we bought into DVC.