Booking Criuse with points, is it worth it?

[CDNmouse]

(A) Book a Disney Cruise using DVC points, or
(B) Rent my points, book a Disney cruise and pay for it with the rental money?

Is it a bad decision to use my DVC points to book a 4 night Bahama cruise next year?

I haven't run the numbers by yet but I wonder if I might be better off selling my points next year and using the cash received to pay for the criuse?

My home resort is the Beach Club and it looks like I could get $10/point. If I rented out all of my points next year and what I have left this year it would probably come close to paying for the cruise for all four of us.

Any thoughts or recommendations?
Gary

 

[nikkistevej]

That is what I am doing for my 2009- 7 night cruise. I was going to have to use all of my points for like 3 yrs , now I am just selling points for 2 years and have a little left over.

 

[pouncingpluto]

A lot of people will tell you to rent out your points and book the cruise on cash. And that probably is the best way to get the most for your money. Plus, you would be able to cancel if you needed to up until (I believe) 90 days out. If you cancelled a points booking, the points would become reservation points, and that's a bit of a pain.

That said, we're going to book on points for a 7-night cruise for next February. I've messed around a little with renting points out in the past, and it is a hassle to me. I'm not thrilled with the going rate for points, and I'm really busy right now. Some renters are pretty high maintenance, and I don't want to deal with that.

When we bought DVC, we hadn't planned on my quitting my job and going back to school. So in the future, when I'm working again, I think we'd just pay cash for a cruise and bank the points.

 

[CDNmouse]

Thanks guys,

That is what I think I will do. The DCL is a lot of points for a family of 4. The four day cruise would wipe us out of points.

Guess i better read over how to rent before doing it though.

All the best,
Gary

 

[Anjelica]

just keep in mind the time of year you go and that 99% of your meals are included in your DCL where as with DVC they are not. I think some folks don't include that when stating it isn't worth it, etc.

 

[matilda]

We recently became a DVC member and when discussing the cruise with our sales rep she suggested the best way would be to use points for the adults and pay cash for the children as the 3rd and consecutive travellers are supposed to be at much cheaper prices. We have three children so are looking at doing that for the 7 night cruise in April 2009.
Goodluck and keep us updated on your choice and how it worked for you.

 

[Dean]

just keep in mind the time of year you go and that 99% of your meals are included in your DCL where as with DVC they are not. I think some folks don't include that when stating it isn't worth it, etc.

Actually what's included or isn't for each option has nothing to do with the comparison. The question is home many points it would cost to use the points vs how many you'd have to rent. You then need to consider the other nuances including cancellation issue and risk of each. Once that is done it is my contention that at the same cost, renting points is much easier and much less risky than using points directly if done in advance. Once you get within a few months of the cruise, some of the other benefits of renting drops out and the cash price is higher. However, this doesn't mean that it's still a good deal to use points in this situation. The fact is that for shorter notice you've likely missed benefits and prices and will pay far more. Thus one option, likely the best in the short notice situation, is to delay and plan further in advance when you can get a better price. But it's good to have choices.

 

[epicureangirl]

From purely a cash perspective, you should rent the points and pay cash for the cruise. That said, I am still booking my December cruise with points. I'm a new owner and am not yet comfortable with the idea of renting my points -- I would consider it if it were to another member, but there's no way I'd want to hassle with renting a reservation. No thanks.

I had a nicely loaded contract and do not plan to go every year. For me (this time) I feel good about using the points. When I'm a more seasoned DVC'r I'll probably think differently.

Also, as someone else mentioned they do not think $10/point is a good deal. I second that. I can't for the life of me figure out why people would allow the cost to be $10/pt year after year when the membership cost, maintenance fees and Disney room prices have gone up dramatically year after year. Shouldn't the points be more in the range of $13-15? Okay, rant done.