Best way to book cruise on points..

[Lezlee]

Okay.. I realize booking cruise on points not best use of points but if I decided to book cruise on points I learned from past experience if you use half points and half cash you must pay cash immediately and it's not 6 months interest free on Disney Visa.. so having learned from that can I hold cruise with cash deposit and then at later date transfer to points? How long can I wait to transfer to DVC??
TIA

 

[erionm]

You can't really transfer a cruise booked with DCL on cash over to DVC using points. The cash reservation has to be cancelled and a new cruise booked on points subject to availability. Availability of cruises on points is separate from cash availability direct from DCL or a TA.

 

[hockeymom944]

Okay.. I realize booking cruise on points not best use of points but if I decided to book cruise on points I learned from past experience if you use half points and half cash you must pay cash immediately and it's not 6 months interest free on Disney Visa.. so having learned from that can I hold cruise with cash deposit and then at later date transfer to points? How long can I wait to transfer to DVC??
TIA

I booked a cruise in Feb. 2010 using points for 1st adult and cash for 1 adult and 2 children. I put the cash amount due on my Disney Visa and DID get the 6 months financing. Don't know if things have changed since then.

 

[Aurora1959]

You can't really transfer a cruise booked with DCL on cash over to DVC using points. The cash reservation has to be cancelled and a new cruise booked on points subject to availability. Availability of cruises on points is separate from cash availability direct from DCL or a TA.

Good point. It's important to know the distinction. Just because there are available rooms on the ship doesn't mean you can book with DVC points.

When we booked our Med Cruise I did it with the normal cash deposit. Then when we got through to MS we had them "take over" the cruise. It didn't change anything. We still had the same stateroom, etc. She asked for the reservation numbers, etc from the online booking. And the whole time the res # stayed the same.

The only catch was that the original cash deposit wasn't transferred. We didn't have enough points to cover the whole cruise. Ended up having to pay cash for our sons. And that payment was required in full at the time of the "take over". Then we had to wait for DCL to refund us the original deposit.

So that time we were able to do it. It was only possible because the cruise we picked still had DVC allotment available. I know that I considered the cruise from LA to Vancouver in April. But they said that there were no DVC points available for that month anymore and I would have to pay cash. Or, if there were points available, I would only be able to use so many points, etc.

As for the best way to book using points? If you ask my husband he says that's what the points are for. We have Saratoga points but have never even been to the East Coast. We use those points to cruise every other year. Anything left over is for DL.

 

[princesses2]

I tried to convert my cash reservation to dvc to use up points that were expiring but couldn't do it b/c all the points made available to dvc to book cruises for March were already used up. I was suprised by that. I didn't know that dvc is allotted only so many points to book cruises. I thought as long as I have enough points to book, I could book.

I have been told that your cash reservation can be converted to DVC points but you have to do it within three days of getting off the boat. you keep 10% discount (reduction in points).

 

[mousefan1972]

I booked a cruise in Feb. 2010 using points for 1st adult and cash for 1 adult and 2 children. I put the cash amount due on my Disney Visa and DID get the 6 months financing. Don't know if things have changed since then.

It has changed. I booked a cruise, half on points and half cash, in February 2011. I did NOT get the 6 months interest free promo on my Disney Visa.

 

[brandip22]

Could you book yourself and spouse using points, but then closer to the trip, add your kids and pay cash? Just thinking of ways to spread out the payment a little.

 

[com_op_2000]

Could you book yourself and spouse using points, but then closer to the trip, add your kids and pay cash? Just thinking of ways to spread out the payment a little.

Only if there is enough room in the life boat station for the kids or the kids program is not full.

 

[Marc A.]

I have a question for those of you that have booked on points thru DVC.
Did DVC give you any choice of room in your Category?
Do they assign you a room over the phone?
Just trying to see what info DVC gives you when you book with them.
Any help would be appreciated as we are strongly considering a 2012 Dream cruise using points.
Thanks

 

[erionm]

I have a question for those of you that have booked on points thru DVC.
Did DVC give you any choice of room in your Category?
Do they assign you a room over the phone?
Just trying to see what info DVC gives you when you book with them.
Any help would be appreciated as we are strongly considering a 2012 Dream cruise using points.
Thanks

AFAIK, booking thru MS is no different than booking thru a TA. They should be able to reserve a particular stateroom number if it's available when you call to reserve.

 

[Rob S.]

AFAIK, booking thru MS is no different than booking thru a TA. They should be able to reserve a particular stateroom number if it's available when you call to reserve.

That is correct. The one time I cruised on points (Feb 2009), the CM at MS put me on hold while she called over to DCL. There was some back and forth asking questions. The call lasted over 30 minutes.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Could you book yourself and spouse using points, but then closer to the trip, add your kids and pay cash? Just thinking of ways to spread out the payment a little.

You'll have to pay the $95 fee again to modify the reservation.

 

[mousefan1972]

I have a question for those of you that have booked on points thru DVC.
Did DVC give you any choice of room in your Category?
Do they assign you a room over the phone?
Just trying to see what info DVC gives you when you book with them.
Any help would be appreciated as we are strongly considering a 2012 Dream cruise using points.
Thanks

Yes, I was able to choose a cabin when I booked through MS. First I had to confirm that the category we wanted to book was available on points. Then the CM rattled off a list of available cabins, and I had the Dream deck plan in front of me on my laptop so I could see where they were. I picked one, and he assigned it to us.

 

[dvcbrad]

I know there's always plenty of debate in here about this, but in my opinion the best way to book on points is to rent the points and book a cash reservation. You get the financing, you get the flexibility, if you go through a TA (like Dreams Unlimited) you get on-board credits, and ... it's a better value usage of the points than booking directly with them! It's a little work to rent the points but worth it ... again, in my opinion.

 

[laurio]

We had booked on-board in 2009 for our 2010 cruise using a cash deposit, and we were able to transfer our reservation to our points when our use-year opened up in Feb 2010. We were able to keep our same stateroom, and only paid the $95 fee.

MS made it a very easy process, and we will probably use points to cruise again in 2013.

 

[CarolAnnC]

We had booked on-board in 2009 for our 2010 cruise using a cash deposit, and we were able to transfer our reservation to our points when our use-year opened up in Feb 2010. We were able to keep our same stateroom, and only paid the $95 fee.

MS made it a very easy process, and we will probably use points to cruise again in 2013.

This procedure was made virtually impossible as of Aug/Sept 2010. At that time DVC started enforcing limits on how many cruises would be made available each year to DVC members. Many DVC owners who wanted to do exactly as you did were not allowed and they ended up having to either cancel, or pay cash in full thru DCL.

Right now I believe cruises on points are (for the most part) booked till October 2012 via DVC.

 

[zalansky]

I know there's always plenty of debate in here about this, but in my opinion the best way to book on points is to rent the points and book a cash reservation. You get the financing, you get the flexibility, if you go through a TA (like Dreams Unlimited) you get on-board credits, and ... it's a better value usage of the points than booking directly with them! It's a little work to rent the points but worth it ... again, in my opinion.

Excellent point, thank you.

 

[Rob S.]

I know there's always plenty of debate in here about this, but in my opinion the best way to book on points is to rent the points and book a cash reservation. You get the financing, you get the flexibility, if you go through a TA (like Dreams Unlimited) you get on-board credits, and ... it's a better value usage of the points than booking directly with them! It's a little work to rent the points but worth it ... again, in my opinion.

I would normally agree with this, but in my case I had recently added on at BLT and received some "developer points" that would only have been good at SSR. I decided to use them for a cruise instead. Another factor was that the cruise I booked was less than 90 days away and it ended up turning into two cruises. That was when they had that "bounceback" offer and you could book a second cruise for $99 (which I did).