Cruise Points Increases

[TheRustyScupper]

. . . annual point increases common for Disney cruises . . .

1) Yep.
2) Remember, DCL is not DVC.
3) DVC only has a trade option with them.
4) This is just like any other non-DVC trade.
5) Point values can always move up or down.

 

[crisi]

Or you could value your points at some sort of dues + amortized cost sort of number. I use $6 for mine - it isn't perfect, but it will do. Which makes the value of those points $2562, plus the $75 and you are still getting a deal on the cruise. However, you might have been able to get a better deal, points are non-negotiable, and with early booking discounts, discount travel agents, etc, its sometimes better to pay cash.

(But the numbers change with each cruise - each season/room - what the cash rates are currently based on how booked the ship is - can you get any other cash discount (onboard booking) - etc.)

 

[DavidPJ]

Don't forget: When you book onboard, you get a discount (ours was 10 percent) and a onboard allowance.

Jodifla, can you please provide details on your comment? When my wife booked the reservation for our daughter, I don't believe a discount was mentioned. Maybe it's already included? What is an onboard allowance? Thanks.

 

[Tiggeriffic]

One thing to note is that even though the points requirements may have
gone done for some of the cruise seasons, they have significantly changed
the seasons. In 2003, we cruised on points the last week in April. At the time
this was considered Value Season. I don't remember the exact number of
points, but I know it was significantly less. I do remember calculating what
I dollar value I was getting per-point and it came out to just under $8/point.
Now, that was using a quote directly from DCL at 11 months out, but I still
considered that a worthwhile trade.

We cruised the last week in April this year and we looked into using points.
This year that week is considered Regular Season. It would have cost us
a total of 868 points for a Cat 6 - (290 + 290 + 144 + 144). Even with
borrowing we could not get 1 adult and 1 child. Therefore we would have
booked 1 adult on points and paid for the rest in cash. It turned out that
this would have cost me $400 less than booking the whole thing for cash
through Dreams Unlimited, which is what we ended up doing. We didn't
bother to rent out our points, but kept them to use later. If we had used
868 points, this would have worked out to be about $5.30 per point. I
didn't consider this to be a worthwhile trade for my points.

Next year the last week in April is Peak Season. The same cruise would
cost me 1028 Points for a Cat 6 - (325 + 325 + 189 + 189).


Here is a table of the number of weeks per season for this year and next
for the 7 day Western Caribbean cruise (which is what we took).

2005 2006
Holiday Season 1 3
Peak Season 2 9
Regular Season 6 9
Value Season 8 4

Remember that this year there is the West Coast cruise, so there aren't
as many weeks available. However, if you just look at the increase in
the Holiday Season and the decrease in the Value Season, it is indicative
of my point.

So, you can't just look at the number of points for a particular season. You
must look at exactly which week(s) you are interested in. For me, it is just
too expensive to use points for the cruise.

 

[Dean]

That's our feeling on point sales too, at least for now. We didn't buy into DVC to become point brokers. We joined to take make use of excellent resorts including Disney Cruise. The cruise may not be the best use of the points, but it's what we wanted to do for our next vacation and it's availability is one of the reasons we joined DVC.

So, we just received a Fed X welcome kit yesterday and my wife already borrowed and booked our cruise for Jan '06. She also planned vacations out for the next 4 years so DVC looks to be working well for us. By the way, the point charge for the cruise actually went down about 6% from 2005 to 2006.

Thanks for your comments.

One should also remember that there are risks when booking with points. Some people seem to think that it's a case of no or little risk with booking through DVC and a lot when renting out points and using cash. IMO, the reverse is true. With cash, you can book usually about 16-18 months out, pay only a deposit and it's ALL refundable until you get to the 60 days window. With points, you pay a $75 fee, then pay the fee again if you make ANY changes even minor ones. If you book part with cash, it's all due up front. You can only book 11 months out when the best cabins are likely to be gone. If you cancel, you don't get your points back as DVC points but as reservation points which cannot be banked and expire at the end of the use year. Done correctly there is little risk in renting out points. Thus the idea that it's high risk to rent is WRONG and the idea it's low risk to use points is even more WRONG, IMO.

I'm reminded of people buying high ticket items and paying too much like Cars, timeshares, etc. Many of them paid far too much and are still happy. IMO, being happy and enjoying an option is NOT the same as it being a good value. They are totally and almost unrelated issues. Ignorance is bliss as they say.

 

[ratfam]

I think it depends on what you characterize as "risk", which will again depend on your situation and the likelihood your plans will change. The issues related to using DVC points to book DCL I would characterize as transaction terms, not risks. They are what they are, and they are either acceptable to you and workable in your situation or they are not. For someone like me, who is essentially limited to traveling during a one week spring break, there is much less likelihood that we would cancel other than for the kinds of reasons that we buy trip insurance to cover. I am admittedly very new to the idea of point rental, but to me "risks" are the possibility of nonperformance by either party in a point rental, the possibility of liability for actions the renter may take while in a reservation under my name, tax consequences, etc. many of which are unknowns unless contracting with someone you are very close with. It is good to know that rentals do seem to work for a number of people.

If these boards are about helping other DVC members then we should recognize that members will have different perspectives on how to maximize the value of their membership because they will define value differently. For some it will be strictly monetary, for others it might not be. How I define maximizing the value of my membership may differ in the future when I am not dealing with traveling with younger kid issues and when I have the flexibility of traveling whenever I want and maybe more than once a year but for now its often about overall experience and, yes, convenience of arranging the experience. Which doesn't mean that I (or anyone in my situation) am ignorant or short sighted, just that we are at a point where other factors weigh heavily. As a new poster here, to me it is important that members who are considering using points to cruise understand that yes, it may not be the most cost effective way for many, but there are many others who are using their points to cruise and it works just fine and is a perfectly valid option.

 

[Dean]

I think it depends on what you characterize as "risk", which will again depend on your situation and the likelihood your plans will change. The issues related to using DVC points to book DCL I would characterize as transaction terms, not risks. They are what they are, and they are either acceptable to you and workable in your situation or they are not. For someone like me, who is essentially limited to traveling during a one week spring break, there is much less likelihood that we would cancel other than for the kinds of reasons that we buy trip insurance to cover. I am admittedly very new to the idea of point rental, but to me "risks" are the possibility of nonperformance by either party in a point rental, the possibility of liability for actions the renter may take while in a reservation under my name, tax consequences, etc. many of which are unknowns unless contracting with someone you are very close with. It is good to know that rentals do seem to work for a number of people.

If these boards are about helping other DVC members then we should recognize that members will have different perspectives on how to maximize the value of their membership because they will define value differently. For some it will be strictly monetary, for others it might not be. How I define maximizing the value of my membership may differ in the future when I am not dealing with traveling with younger kid issues and when I have the flexibility of traveling whenever I want and maybe more than once a year but for now its often about overall experience and, yes, convenience of arranging the experience. Which doesn't mean that I (or anyone in my situation) am ignorant or short sighted, just that we are at a point where other factors weigh heavily. As a new poster here, to me it is important that members who are considering using points to cruise understand that yes, it may not be the most cost effective way for many, but there are many others who are using their points to cruise and it works just fine and is a perfectly valid option.

The risk to an owner of renting is very small if done correctly. The risk to the other party is not really relevent except as it affects the amount you can charge. If you rent current years points in the first half of the use year and plan payment in such a way that you can cancel without penalty and bank if need be, there is little risk. The risk would be that you missed on other rental opportunities. If you accept other situations to rent, you have more risk but it is controllable. So anyone who essentially wants little or no risk and still do a rental, has that option available to them.

As for controllable risk with using points for exchange options, it will be less for some situations than others. I would submit to you that even at it's lowest risk, it is still far greater than the situation I presented above as rental options. But they are your points and you can make any decision you want. All I want to do is make sure you know what the situation is. But don't confuse comfortable or even informed choices, with good ones, they frequently are not. But anyone should look at their exact situation and weigh the pros and cons to be sure, as I've stated many times.

 

[Johnnie Fedora]

2005 2006
Holiday Season 1 3
Peak Season 2 9
Regular Season 6 9
Value Season 8 4

Remember that this year there is the West Coast cruise, so there aren't
as many weeks available. However, if you just look at the increase in
the Holiday Season and the decrease in the Value Season, it is indicative
of my point.

So, you can't just look at the number of points for a particular season. You
must look at exactly which week(s) you are interested in. For me, it is just
too expensive to use points for the cruise.

Interesting way of looking of comparing the DCL points chart. You are exactly right that a strict comparision needs to be made for the points vs. cash price for you particular week of interest.