Dcl

[antnee]

anyone have any experiences taking a Disney Cruise using points???

 

[ErinC]

We used points to do the 4 day cruise in May 2002. We bought in in 2001 and banked our points, so that we would have enough points to cruise and spend 4 days at VWL after. We loved the cruise, and even though the weather was a big downer we still had a great time. We used points for Me, DH,& DD6. DD2 I paid cash for ($99) plus the $75 fee from DVC to trade to the cruise. There is some debate on this board about cruising on points and if it is a good use of points. For us, it was something that we wouldn't have had the cash to do otherwise, so points were the best option for us. Unfortunately, we won't be going back for awhile since I'm expecting our third child in March, and they don't allow 5 in the lower cat. rooms. We'll have to wait a good while before we can go again.

 

[Credit Man]

We did the 7 day Magic in Aug 2002 on points. It was me, DW, DS, and DD. Although it was a substantial amount of points, The transaction was very painless and all of our needs were met. We will not hesitate to do this again in the future.

 

[rae519]

The main reason we bought was for the cruises. Someday we might go down to one of our home resorts but for now, our biggest enjoyment is cruising (7 nights).
We bought 400 through DVC (HH) and just added 150 at VWL. It does take all of them to do what we want but hey, that's the freedom of having a DVC membership - it's your vacation and you can have it your way!


Rae

 

[AnnMorin]

and think it is a waste of your points but that is always how we spend them. We use points for one adult and one child and pay cash for the other adult. This enables us to go on a Cat 6 seven day cruise ever year for around $1600.00! A far cry from the over $4000 we paid in cash for our first cruise. For us it is points well spent!

 

[szulu]

We've cruised 4 times using points - a 4 day, and 3 7-days, all in cat.4. I booked a 3 day yesterday and will be booking another 7 day in a few weeks. Using points has worked out well for us. Valuewise I feel fine using points. )I figure our cost at about $8 per point and this works out close enough to what I would pay if I paid cash.) We've been members a long time and bought the points to use for vacation and that is exactly what we do with them. We have alot of points though, so we can cruise and still have enough points left for disney time.

 

[minimahaki]

I have taken two cruise using points and we are doing the Members only cruise also booked with points. We are planning to book the fourth cruise for next year while we are on board again with our points. We always stay on deck 7 with a veranda. We recently purchased additional points so we have enough to cruise annually and extend our vacation at WDW.
Lauretta
DVD Member since May, 1993

 

[eva]

We've never cruised before. But we booked a cruise with points for this May. We've done spreadsheets with expected dues and financing to see how much we are actually paying per point. We are saving quite a bit of cash from what DCL quoted us for the same cruise. I know that renting the points out and then paying cash would probably save us more money, but we really didn't want the hassle.

 

[nezy]

The first time I looked in to the price of cruising for a family of 5, I decided I might as well use that money to ADD-ON points, so I could keep using it to cruise or to go to the DVC resorts in the future. We used both points and cash for the first cruise, but now we can budget our points better to use for the cruise, or not.

I have also rented points from someone who had to get rid of them for under $7/pt, which worked out to be less than if I paid cash for the cruise.

 

[nezy]

Lauretta-
Can you book with points while on the ship? Don't you have to go through Member Svcs.?

Do you get any of the early on ship booking benefits?
I just passed right by that desk thinking I would have to call MS.

 

[edith76]

You can't book on the ship, but you can get a voucher. You have 3 days after you return to call member services and rebook. You don't get onboard credit but you save about 13 points per adult. No difference for 3/4 person. For rebook cruises between 11-14 months from your cruise date, you call at exactly the 11 month mark to get discount.(or so I was told by member services)(haven't tried this one yet).

 

[AnnMorin]

Nope no discount!! We were on the Dec 7 Western and have a Decmber use year. We wanted to book with the discount the Dec. 13 2003 but was told we could get no discount because we were on the ship more than 11 months out. I called and booked exactly on Jan 13 this year and booked but no discount for us.

 

[WDWguruDH]

As has been stated, if you search the board, you will see many stating it is a waste of points...they don't really mean waste, they mean it is not the most economical use. With that I have to agree, point for cash value of cruise in a trade, leaves the DVC owner in the hole. But each owner has to weigh the "missing" value to what they gain. We bought DVC because we liked the trading options and have traded out to Holland America for the Alaska cruise. Could I have rented the points and used the money to book and saved some? Maybe, but we had the points and the convenience on the trade made it worth it to us. Thus we received a good value for our points and have never looked back.