Booking Cruise with Disney Vacation Club points

[hetherp]

I am trying to book a cruise with Disney vacation Club points. Our orriginal thought was to try for a 7 night eastern cruise on August 21, 2004.

I checked and although there is availability on the cruise it is now closed for booking with points. Does anyone know if DCL will open up some more availabilty?. Also we are comming from the UK and this was our only option for a 7 night cruise should I go for a 3 or 4 night, is the 4 night worth the extra?

We have a DD 11 and a number of special occasions to celebrate, Wedding Anniverary Landmark Birthday and only a 2 week window that we wanted to make special.
Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks


Phil

 

[shelly3girls]

Wow, I thought you could book DVC as long as there were cabins available. I didn't realize they limited the number of DVC cabins reserved on a cruise. Is it just a specific category sold out, or were you not able to get anything?
I think the 4-day is worth it. We loved our cruise and tried to book another one this spring, but waited too long. I think the extra day is worth it, 3 days would not be enough for me.

 

[kcashner]

Hmmmm...I didn't realize that the ship would close to DVC when it still had availability.

I'd strongly suggest the 7 day cruise. However, you might consider renting your DVC points to someone else (the going rate is about $10 per point), and cruising on cash. There is a lot of information about renting points on the DVC section of Disboards.

Basically, you make an agreement with a private individual that they will rent a certain number of your points. You make a reservation thru DVC in their name, and DVC sends a confirmation to both parties. Then, they send you the money for the rental. Some people do very complex contracts about cancellation, etc. based on the use year of the points. That seems silly to me (sorry). I basically make it a non-cancellable agreement--the money is due within X days of getting the confirmation, and after that, it is a done deal. If the renting party can't keep their planned use, that is their problem, not mine. If I don't get the money in the agreed time, I can cancel their reservation (and that is stated up front). The fact that I've made it non-cancellable allows me some freedom to be "reasonable" if I am approached with a special circumstance, but this has never happened.

Then, you can take the money you got from the rental and use that to book your DCL cruise.

 

[jel0511]

Yes, it's true that DCL only allows a certain number of rooms to be booked on DVC points and when that allocation is gone, they don't open up any more rooms. I don't think it's an allocation by room category, but a total number of rooms allowed to be booked. If you truly want the 7 day cruise, renting your points out and paying cash would be your only option. The 4 night cruises are good, and it is long enough to get settled. Our first crusie was a 7 night (different cruise line) and our second was a 4 night. The 4 night was o.k., but in our opinion not long enough. The Bahamas really don't do anything for us, so we'd never take another one, but only because of the shortness and the fact the Bahamas are the only port.