Cruise Points Increases

[DavidPJ]

After our preview and sign-up we were left with the impression that the points required for a Disney cruise didn't change, just like the DVC resorts. Today we found that there was a significant cruise point increase from 2004 to 2005.

Are substantial annual point increases common for Disney cruises? Thanks.

 

[Stitch 626]

I beleive that the only points that are guaranteed not to change are those for the 7 DVC resorts. All other options will likely increase the points required on an annual basis as the cash price increases. The only other one that may be fixed are the II vactions, but I do not know too much about that particular part of DVC so I could not tell you for sure.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Using points for a cruise is considered an out of system exchange. This is true of the non-DVC resorts at WDW too. The only points that can't change are the ones for the DVC resorts. It is generally thought that cruising on points is not a best use of points. The number of points needed each year is negotiated between the cruise line and DVC. It is the same scenario for the non-DVC Disney resorts. They are exchanges, and are negotiated with the individual resorts seperately.

 

[Doctor P]

Actually, I believe the points have now gone down (at least in some cases) between 2005 and 2006 according to previous posts. But yearly increases had pretty much been the norm (and led us to our first add on, LOL).

 

[lovemickeyworld]

It is generally thought that cruising on points is not a best use of points

Hi, new here to the Vacation club and wondering why the points are best NOT used for a cruise? Guess I'm confused about what value to give my points.

I'm currently looking at a cruise that would "cost" us 427 points or if I booked through Disney direct would be $3,278.54. After just purchasing the club, I'm not real excited about laying down another $3300 plus airfare to take the cruise.

I know I'll learn more as I go along here and read the boards, but if anyone has a quick answer, I'd really appreciate it!

 

[DavidPJ]

Thanks for the explanation. Why is a Disney cruise not considered to be a good use of points? This is disappointing because the Disney cruise was one of the significant reasons we joined DVC.

And on a related question, how does one determine if a passport exchange is a good use of points? Or are all passport exchanges also considered not to be a good use of points? If so, then is DVC really just for DVC resorts? OK, I'm sounding a bit negative, but maybe a little buyers remorse is setting in (we just bought last week).

Thanks again.

 

[CarolMN]

Hi, new here to the Vacation club and wondering why the points are best NOT used for a cruise? Guess I'm confused about what value to give my points.

I'm currently looking at a cruise that would "cost" us 427 points or if I booked through Disney direct would be $3,278.54. After just purchasing the club, I'm not real excited about laying down another $3300 plus airfare to take the cruise.

I know I'll learn more as I go along here and read the boards, but if anyone has a quick answer, I'd really appreciate it!

In short, using points for cruising is not considered a good value, because you can rent your DVC points to someone else for at least $10/point. So if you rented your 427 points, you'd end up with at least $4,270 to pay for the cruise that you can book directly for $3,278.54. (That said, renting does require some work on the owner's part and also entails some risk. It's not as easy or as quick to turn points into cash as you may think).

Also, there are some other disadvantages to booking with points -

*you pay a $75 fee to do it (and pay again if you need to make a change)
*not all cabin categories are available for points
*you can only book 11 months prior to departure so cash customers may get the more desirable cabins because they can book before you
*if you cancel, the points you used to book the cruise cannot be used for a DVC resort stay or anything in the World Passport Collection - you have to use them for something else in the Disney Collection or for something in the Adventurer's and Conceirge Collection.

Cruising for points is convenient and many do it - especially if their vacation dollars are pretty much tied up with DVC.

HTH. Best wishes -

 

[dianeschlicht]

Well said, CArol! The other thing with exchanges is that if you purchased DVC to ALWAYS trade out, there are far cheaper timeshares to own for those kinds of exchanges. Now, there certainly are first class exchanges that DO make sense with DVC, but the real point is, if you purchase ANY timeshare, it should be your intent to use it most at the place you purchased. If you plan to mostly trade out, it isn't the best use of your timeshare points. As Carol said, there are additional fees for trades. I personally only find high end trades worth the cost of DVC, but mostly I bought DVC to use for on-site DVC resorts.

 

[Johnnie Fedora]

If you're willing to do the work, renting your points and using the proceeds for the cruise or other vacation option gets you much more value $$$ for your points. We are cruising, and by renting and paying cash for the cruise we saved 200pts!!! Plus there are fewer resrtictions when you book with cash.

Direct exchanges through DVC are costly, IMO. The cruise line has always been hyped in the sales pitch, but they don't tell you it will cost 3 years of points to cruise.

 

[lovemickeyworld]

Thanks for the replies to my question about the best usage of points.

I also did not realize that the cruise was going to cost the $75 exchange fee. I was under the impression that anything "Disney" (villas/resorts/cruises/California and France) was included and not charged the fee.

Please correct me now if I am wrong. I don't even have my complete package yet to be able to call someone on this so I appreciate this forum.

 

[Dean]

Thanks for the explanation. Why is a Disney cruise not considered to be a good use of points? This is disappointing because the Disney cruise was one of the significant reasons we joined DVC.

And on a related question, how does one determine if a passport exchange is a good use of points? Or are all passport exchanges also considered not to be a good use of points? If so, then is DVC really just for DVC resorts? OK, I'm sounding a bit negative, but maybe a little buyers remorse is setting in (we just bought last week).

Thanks again.

As noted, the points can and do change, almost always upwards. They have gone up A LOT over the years but 2006 went down slightly. The program is not guaranteed and could be discontinued tomorrow if DVD desires. The way I'd suggest you look at it is to see what the same option would cost you cash and that will give you an idea of the value you are getting on your points. Then you can decide how best to proceed. But remember there are many negatives in setting up an exchange other than just the cost or value of the points. You can throw your points away whenever you want.

 

[ratfam]

I think it really depends on what you were looking for in buying into DVC, and what works for one person won't necessarily be right for another. We bought enough points (through an original contract and an add on a year later with the same use year) to know we could go to our home resort in a one bedroom for one week at any time of year, since we travel on school vacations, and we intend to use the points for one big family trip per year. We like to go to WDW about every three years right now, so we knew that doing an II exchange or traveling to WDW at a non-peak time would leave us with extra points we could bank and use for a more expensive trip another year like a cruise. We bought DVC for its flexibility and to be able to stay at larger units with kitchens and that is what we do. If we go to WDW for a week we stay in our unit for the whole week and don't switch at the weekend, because that makes the experience more relaxing for us. We cruised entirely on points this year, it took about 2.5 years worth of points, but with planning and doing II exchanges we will still always be able to take a vacation every year. If you look at the "cash value" of our points versus the cash cost of our cat 9 cruise we could have done better paying cash, perhaps the same could be said of our II exchanges, but we bought into DVC for its ease and convenience, so I don't really think about it that way. I am also a nervous nellie and I don't think I would ever be comfortable doing a point sale (although I am reading up on point transfer and may consider that in the future) so it wouldn't have been a good option for us.

So anyway, long story short, it isn't necessarily true that cruising on points is bad--plenty of people were doing just that on our March 2005 cruise. It depends on how many trips you want to take each year, how flexible you are, whether you are willing to commit the time to point sales/transfers, and overall what meets your DVC goals.

 

[rinkwide]

Are substantial annual point increases common for Disney cruises?

DVC membership is growing rapidly but the guest capacity of the cruise line and most non-DVC resorts is not. It's pretty easy to guess what Disney will do with point costs as more and more members start to compete for fewer and fewer exchange opportunities.

 

[DavidPJ]

I am also a nervous nellie and I don't think I would ever be comfortable doing a point sale (although I am reading up on point transfer and may consider that in the future) so it wouldn't have been a good option for us.

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.

 

[melkimmom]

In short, using points for cruising is not considered a good value, because you can rent your DVC points to someone else for at least $10/point. So if you rented your 427 points, you'd end up with at least $4,270 to pay for the cruise that you can book directly for $3,278.54. (That said, renting does require some work on the owner's part and also entails some risk. It's not as easy or as quick to turn points into cash as you may think).

Also, there are some other disadvantages to booking with points -

*you pay a $75 fee to do it (and pay again if you need to make a change)
*not all cabin categories are available for points
*you can only book 11 months prior to departure so cash customers may get the more desirable cabins because they can book before you
*if you cancel, the points you used to book the cruise cannot be used for a DVC resort stay or anything in the World Passport Collection - you have to use them for something else in the Disney Collection or for something in the Adventurer's and Conceirge Collection.

Cruising for points is convenient and many do it - especially if their vacation dollars are pretty much tied up with DVC.

HTH. Best wishes -

Very well explained!!!

 

[melkimmom]

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.

I have done that myself for our next cruise in October 05. It was wonderful to book the cruise and only pay $75. I still have 30+ years of Disney DVC Vacation so borrowing from next year it does not bother me. A lot of DVCers are in a borrowing stage anyway . Enjoy yourself and have fun

 

[DavidPJ]

Forgot to mention that we used points for the two of us and paid cash (charge) for our 5 year old. We thought the child point charge was to much and we're better off saving those points.

 

[jodifla]

We will most likely do this in the future, as well. I think it can be a good use of points, depending upon where you are at financially. Right now though, we're paying cash for our upcoming 2006 cruise. Don't forget: When you book onboard, you get a discount (ours was 10 percent) and a onboard allowance. It can really be a pretty reasonable deal (for a DCL cruise, anyway!)

 

[jennypenny]

As DavidPJ mentioned, you don't have to pay for everyone with points. You only have to have 1 guest per stateroom paying with points, and the rest can pay cash. We view it as a compromise. We're going to use our points for the DVC part of our stay, pay for 2 adults (we are getting two rooms) on the cruise with points, and pay cash for the rest. That way, we use up our points, lower the amount of cash, and still have some points for our DVC stay.

We're all borrowers here . It's a good thing you can only borrow one year ahead!

Jenny

 

[erikthewise]

A related issue is using DVC points to stay at other WDW resorts. Shortly before we bought (2002) there was a major increase in the number of points required for such stays. Before this increase using DVC points for non-DVC resorts was frequently more economical than paying even discounted cash rates. In fact Mousesavers used to recommend renting DVC points as a way to save money on resort stays. Since that increase, point levels amount to paying rack rate plus tax or more (and even worse on weekends).

If you have a lot of points you need to use each year, then by all means use them for cruising, especially if you are uncomfortable with renting. I don't have enough points for that to be a problem, and I am happy with paying cash for the cruises and banking unused points. If we took a 4-day cruise in Dec 2005 in our preferred category, it would cost us 434 points (more than 2 years worth for us) but only $2760 in cash. No doubt other scenarios work out better for points.

If one is planning the size of an initial DVC purchase, I think one would almost certainly do better by not including cruises in your planning.