Cruising on Points or Cash, Which is better?

[paslea_pooh]

If we were interested in taking a cruise, would it be better to rent out our points and pay all cash for the cruise or use our points to "pay" for the cruise.

Let's say we took the Disney 4 day cruise to the Bahamas May 2007, it would be 131 points per person for a category 10. How do I find out what it would be to pay with cash?

tia

 

[ericamanda01]

You can just check the Disney cruise line site for the price or call a TA for a price quote. But I can tell you that a TA will almost always have a better price than using points. We have taken 2 disney cruises with a 3rd in the works and we just joined DVC. We looked at the points for cruises and it's much cheaper to pay cash. For us we will most likely rent out our points and use that cash to pay for the cruise at a higher catagory. But the convience factor of just booking it with MS and not worring about it is a nice feature as well.

 

[msdisney53]

It is probably more cost efficient to rent out your points and use cash but I just find it easier to do the points. We have cruised three times and usually use points for DH and myself and then pay cash for our 2 DDs.

Denise

 

[DBBN]

We've cruised 4 times on DCL (we have 2 cash reservations pending). Once on points the other 3 we used cash...I can say with great certainty that we'll never use points again. Primarily because for us using points is such a poor value. I've done a side-by-side comparison in the past but the difference was so great that I no longer compare the two, we simply rent our points and book with cash. For us it really is that bad a deal. Especially since I find renting our points to be easy and I actually enjoy doing so. I will report though that some posters on this board have reported it isn't as easy to rent out your points as I make it sound or I've experienced. Other reasons I don't use our points to cruise include: the exchange fee (last known to be $75.00) and you pay the exchange fee again if you need to make any changes to the reservation, the cancellation policy for a cash reservation is very forgiving compared to cancelling a points reservation (I can't imagine what we'd do with all those reservation points if we needed to cancel a points reservation) and the best cabins are booked as soon as cash reservations are allowed to be booked vs the need to wait until 11 months before the embarkation date to book on points.

Whatever you decide good luck and travel safe.

 

[DBBN]

Just minutes after I posted above I noticed this thread on the DVC Forum. It seems appropriate to post the link here.

"Reservation Points, what a bummer".

 

[Plutofan]

We booked a 4 night crusie for July 8, 2007 on cash. The price per point came out to about $7.5 per point. Your best bet will be to book with a travel agent that offers a cash back bonus when your trip is complete. You also get the best price by booking early. We went to www.mousesavers.com and used one of the recommended travel agents. There is also one that sponsors the Disney Cruise forum. Also canaceling out on cash is a lot easier than if you used points.