I found that if you are booking for regular season, and especially July cruises, you are almost comparable to cash prices in say cat 8 and 9.
If you dont have that much available cash, but have points available , why agonize over it. Part of the value of points is the experience . You are absolutely getting a fair trade off with
dcl, its not like you are trading for a broken down condo on antigua or something similar.
You are also getting meals, and rather nice ones at that. Its like tradeing for an all inclusive.
In some situations, you get much more for your money if you rent and pay cash, deffinately, and sometimes , when you factor in all your options (inclucing the fact that time is money) points are indeed the way to go.
The call in 3 days worked out well for me last year, I called within 3 days for a cruise more then 11 months out, and they noted it on my account. Now I didnt have to book on the spot , I had time to ponder and compare but still had the option to get the discounted points if I decided to deffinately cruise dcl, the glass was half full in my situation.
This summer I did called within 3 days and being 11 months out had to book there and then, It was alot of pressure and initially took cat 9 for the 26 point savings, but then dh couldnt live without his verandah so just last thurs, I paid another $75 and changed categorys. The 14 month thing can really work for you.
You pay $75 only once as a booking fee, and you pay again only if you change your origional booking. They will allow you to switch rooms within your same category without paying, but if you change passengers or categorys they charge you.
ps( im so happy about my change, although I didnt save as many points technicaly, I got the cat 7 room that was really a cat 5 but there is a bit of metal on the side so they changed it to cat 7 , but it is really an open verandah with plexiglass, looking at the deck plans on travelocity it is still classified as cat 5)
Any more questions about points booking just ask I have a few experiences with it now.