Cruising, DVC points, bennies, and of course MHO.

[Mickbee]

Why don't DVC members receive any benefits when booking a cruise on-board using points? DVC members seem to be excluded from and benefit or incentive, including the Castaway Club.

DCL has increased the amount of points required to cruise, yet they do not give members any benefits of cash paying customers. Just seems sort of odd to me.

Also, for 2003, the Eastern 7 Day is now classified as a peak week. For 2002 it was not.

Compare 6/29/2002 vs. 6/28/2003 cat 6 Eastern 7 day:

2002 rate:
- 211 points each for first two occupants
- 3-12 yr. old child 78 points
total: 500 points

2003 rate
- 288 points each for first two occupants
- 3-12 yr. old child 96 points
total: 682 points

2003 cash rate is: $5300.00 ish (forgot the tens)

This is a 36.5% increase for in points. At a point rental rate of approximately $9-10.00 per point, this amount is significant.

My intention is not to start a debate about how inefficient it is to use points rather than cash, rather to understand Disney's logic. I was going to post this on the DVC site, but thought that there would be more DVC/cruisers to provide input here because it is more of a combo relation rather than resort.

My assumption is that Disney would rather sell cruise space to "new/ return cash paying" customers rather than give their existing members that have dedicated a substantial piece of the pie to the Disney corporation. It isn't as if Disney loses money when DVC members book because they turn around and use the points allocations for cash paying rates at resorts that have high demand, high rates, and usually have a full occupancy.

I believe and understand the supply and demand game, but it appears that DCL is discouraging DVC members from cruising. If there is an increase in a cash rate increase, it would be rational to assume there would be a corresponding increase points.

I am mildly amused because there is a fairly large effort to sell DVC on the cruises. I am sure they are not pointing out to potential future members that the increase has been this substantial over a short time.

Don't get me wrong, we loved cruising and we love DVC and glad we purchased and understand both are separate divisions of Disney and there are no guaranteed rate locks. However, I just feel that Disney should treat the members that have invested a significant amount of money for future expectations to be only be obligated to incur an equally corresponding rate increase as cash paying customers. They should treat both types of customers the same and on level playing ground.

Thanks for listening and if anyone could add future understand and light to the logic, it would help me and probably others better understand.

As always, thanks ad have fun!!

 

[Lisa F]

This response is more a DVC response than a cruise response, but I assume if the thread gets moved the whole thing will get moved over.

I think the mistake is in the assumption that Disney values the points the way we do. When we cruised on points, it was obvious that DVC values them at what we paid for them, period. There could be many ways of looking at this, depending on whether you finance and count opportunity costs etc., but the bottom line is that if you paid $80/point for points for the next 40 years (just to make the math easy) what you pay disney for those points is $2/year/point PLUS dues (which I will round up to $4 for the sake of easy math). Disney doesn't care that you financed it and are paying more, all that DVC is getting is the cost of the points (not cost + interest, the bank that finances is a separate entity). $6 times the 682 points is around $4000, which is a fairly nice discount on the rate that Disney is quoting for the same cruise. I assume that if points went up for a certain cruise it is because the cash cost is also going up for that cruise.

We did the 7 day eastern last january and when I went to the DCL website and printed out my confirmation based on the number, it actually said what the cash price that DVC paid for the cruise was. It worked out to almost $7/point which is actually more than we paid for our points, including interest for financing.

Anyway, I hope that makes sense. I think what it boils down to is that DVC is under no obligation to value your points at "market rate" for them but rather they value them at what you actually paid (or thereabouts).

Lisa

 

[TnRobin]

One thing you need to keep in mind. DVC and DCL are separate legal entity DCL treats DVC like a Travel Agent.

Once a year DVC and DCL enter into a contract for the next year which defines the exchange rates (Cash and Points) to be used for DVC members. Once that contract is signed, that is the end, the price is set. (Only twice has an amendment been done to reduce points for Fall) These contracts are negotiated way before DCL has decided if they are doing any "Special Pricing" promotions. (Which we have been told are no longer going to be offered). The cash price for DVC has been at or near the Early Booking Savings discount.

As for benefits, I am not quite sure what benefits you are talking about. DVC members get the exact same cruise as everyone else. If you are talking about shipboard credits, well again that is a promotion that is run when and if DCL decides it is necessary to stimulate sales. These specials cannot be predicted when the contracts are designed.