Disney Cruise closed out to DVC

[o.t.4disney]

I just got off the phone with member services. I was intereseted in booking a 7 day cruise departing 8/21/04. It is value season and it fit our schedules perfectly. I was told that DCL closed out all bookings to DVC members. Has anyone experienced this before. This was our opportunity to use points for the cruise. What can we do?
I would be grateful for your advice.

Carl

 

[DisZip]

From what I understand, using DVC points for the cruise is not the best value.

Why not rent out your points and pay cash for the cruise?

 

[Keggy]

We had tried booking a 7 day for this upcoming May and the cruise was all sold out as well. I think the cruise only has a certain amount of rooms that you can use with points available and once those are booked = that is it. You can always try a different sailing date?
We ended up deciding to stay on land and we are staying at OKW for the week instead.

Kelly

 

[Belle and Rella's Dad]

We just booked one in Nov. for a cruise this May 1 using our points. Since then I have added on two people using cash, but I did not have a problem at all booking through MS to get a 7 day Eastern cruise.

Sorry this happened to you, I hope that this doesn't become the norm.

 

[disgirl]

I am sorry to hear this happened to you, we are thinking of taking a 3 or 4 day cruise in 05 on points. I wonder if they do not allow people to pay with points after a certain month before departure date.

Belle and Rella's Dad: quick question for you: When you added the two people using cash, did you call the DVC number and just say you want to add the other people and they take care of the reservation with the cash payment? I ask because I am contemplating using points for two of us and maybe paying with cash for my then 12 year old. I believe I can do this, correct? Does DVC do the whole reservation for you? Thanks so much!

 

[Belle&RellasMom]

disgirl...we called MS and added my parents to our original reservation which was made with points...we ended up having to pay the seventy five dollar fee again since my parents were a change to our original reservation...eventhough my parents are the ones paying cash, we used points for them and paid cash for two of our daughters since we were getting two category 10 staterooms (had to with a family of five)...MS handled everything for us and so far we have not encountered any problems!!!

 

[Dean]

That is one of those special itenaries for DCL. The current cash price is about $2068 for 2 adults for a cat 11 and would be 246 points plus the $75 fee. At a value of around $8 pp, that's fair. The problem is that the cruise is more expensive, not that the points are less. It is likely this cruise was much less in dollars a few months ago.

As to the blackout, I guess there's nothing preventing it but since it's listed in the DVC materials, I'm surprised they would black out those dates, especially for that late in the summer. I'd talk with Jackie or the supervisor in charge of exchanges to get a clearer picture. Changing the rules midstream and cherry picking always bother me but it is frequently within the rules. I just read through the restrictions and see that DVD reserves the right to blackout if they chose but for the DC and DCL see no indicating that DCL reserves that right (like some of the CC options do).

 

[disgirl]

Thanks Belle&RellasMom. I hope you have a great time on your cruise.

 

[DVCLady]

Delete

 

[Belle and Rella's Dad]

Good luck to everyone with this it must be that we were very lucky, because not only did we book the cruise but we ended up with two of the SPH rooms. The pixie dust must have been all around us.

Hope everyone has a great New Year full of all your Disney wishes!!

 

[Keggy]

It really depends on how far out you book the cruise. I don't know how far out, we as members can book. SOmeone above mentioned 11 months? I suppose the closer to the 7 month window you call, the better odds you will have that they still have rooms left available to be used on points.

To use your points to book a cruise you have to cover the complete cost of the person in points. So if you have 4 people sailing in a stateroom and you have enough points to fully cover 2 people you are required to pay cash for the additional two passengers. The debate comes in as to the cash price for the additional two passengers. It has been quite expensive in the past. It is cheaper to go through a travel agent, but then you would have to pay cash for the entire four passengers. Not everyone has the cash to do that and that is why they want to sail on points. Does this make sense at all?

 

[Lisa F]

When we booked our NYE cruise about 6 months ago, there was a fair amount of availability on the ship but MS warned me when I called to check availability that availability for DVC was VERY limited and that if I wanted to use points on that sailing, I should book very soon. She basically told me that only a set percentage of the ship can be booked using DVC points. My guess is that when DVC negotiates their rate, they only negotiate that rate for a set number of rooms. At the time when we booked we paid 242 points for the cruise and the cash rate was $2200 for the both of us in a cat 11 (being a NYE cruise and booking fairly last minute) so we feel we got a good value using our points at $8.78/point.