Anyone book cruise before with points?

[LOLA2]

I am really confused. I looked online for a trip for 2 adults 2 kids for a 7 day
costa Maya cruise on November 22 2008. Price w/o insurance and transportation was about $4,200. O.K., so I thought if I were to use points to pay for one adult it should come to about $3,000 or something just estimating. So I called member services and the price for 1 adult points 1 adult $1,800 13yo $1,600 7 yo $1,500. That is $4,900 with points. How can this possibly more than I was quoted on Disneys website of $4,200? And using points. I don't see any advantage of using points because it won't bring the price down, I would actually have to pay $700.00 more.

I just don't get it. I talked to the lady awhile hoping she would shed some light but she just explained it must be a really good deal online. Give me a break.

I feel a little conned because I was so happy when my guide (knowing I love to cruise told me about using points to cruise. That just sold me. But now I would never do it, who would - I really feel like I am missing something.

I know people on here have said it is not really worth it to use your points for cruising, but I had no idea that meant paying more. Someone please explain.

 

[Doctor P]

Here's the deal. When you book a cruise on points, all other cash passengers are basically charged "rack rate" or a slightly discounted rate negotiated by DVC and DCL. You are not entitled to any early booking discounts or any promotional discounts for the cash passengers. When we cruised on points, we planned to pay cash for our daughter. It turned out that it was actually cheaper for us in the long run to buy additional points and then do all three of us on points insted. Cruising on points is not a bad deal, but you really get slammed unless you do ALL people in your party on points. Keep in mind that you are paying for the convenience of using your points other than at DVC resorts. That is part of the attraction of DVC--the options. Also, cruising on points, costwise, IS a good deal when compared to the full price of the cruise or the cost that is quoted just a few months before the cruise.

 

[LOLA2]

Here's the deal. When you book a cruise on points, all other cash passengers are basically charged "rack rate" or a slightly discounted rate negotiated by DVC and DCL. You are not entitled to any early booking discounts or any promotional discounts for the cash passengers. When we cruised on points, we planned to pay cash for our daughter. It turned out that it was actually cheaper for us in the long run to buy additional points and then do all three of us on points insted. Cruising on points is not a bad deal, but you really get slammed unless you do ALL people in your party on points. Keep in mind that you are paying for the convenience of using your points other than at DVC resorts. That is part of the attraction of DVC--the options. Also, cruising on points, costwise, IS a good deal when compared to the full price of the cruise or the cost that is quoted just a few months before the cruise.

Sorry I must be dense because I still don't see how I will ever be able to use this

 

[noahsmom]

Our vacation that starts next week was booked 11 months out using a combination of points and cash. We are using points for 2 nights at SSR, cash for the 3rd. Points for dh and me, cash for ds on the cruise. If I remember correctly ds was about $700 for the cruise.

 

[tidefan]

We are cruising on the Magic 7-night Eastern on Jan 19th all on points. We bought 200 SSR points in April and we also received 2006 points when we bought, so we had 400 points to use for next year. We are taking this cruise on 327 points for the 3 of us (133 each for DW and I, and 61 for DD4).

In this case, I don't think that it was a bad use of our points (our Cat 11 would have been around $2,750 for the 3 of us) as it worked out to about $8.40 a point. At any rate, we still have 73 points left to play with as well. I do think that points are a much better value in the "Value" season for DCL however if you can do it at that time.