Cruise points vs. cash or both?

[tink_about_it]

I posted this in the cruise line forum but then thought maybe I was wrong. This may be more of a DVC question...I would appreciate any advice you cruise veterans have to offer...

We are a family of 6. We would really like to cruise without spending $6-7000 like we've been quoted. We are DVC members. It would cost us a little over a year's points to use points for 2 of us. So how does this work then if we paid cash for the other 4? If it matters, our kids would be 12, 10, 6, and 4 at the time of the cruise. I believe we'd need 2 rooms, right? I don't think any rooms sleep more than 5? So what is best for us?

 

[Dean]

I posted this in the cruise line forum but then thought maybe I was wrong. This may be more of a DVC question...I would appreciate any advice you cruise veterans have to offer...

We are a family of 6. We would really like to cruise without spending $6-7000 like we've been quoted. We are DVC members. It would cost us a little over a year's points to use points for 2 of us. So how does this work then if we paid cash for the other 4? If it matters, our kids would be 12, 10, 6, and 4 at the time of the cruise. I believe we'd need 2 rooms, right? I don't think any rooms sleep more than 5? So what is best for us?

As I'm sure you know (cash or points) you pay full price adult for the first 2 in each cabin. So if you got 2 rooms (even if connecting) a 7 day cruise would costs you anywhere from 750 points up to almost double that for a Holiday cruise Cat 11. To get everyone in a given room I think you'd need a category 2 or higher and I'm not sure you can reserve that cat on points. If you do decide to use points and later cancel, your points are very restricted and cannot be used at DVC resorts plus they expire at the end of the UY. If you do points plus cash, you have to pay the cash portion in full at the time of the reservation and the cash portion is usually higher than you would have paid through DCL for that component.

Call DVC and see what the specifics would be so you have an apples to apples comparison.