Do you use your DVC points???

[dreamscometrue]

Just got back last Saturday, May 14th from 9 days in Disney and we are already thinking about our next trip. Like the saying goes..."It's never too early to start planning your next Disney vacation...." Anyway, we are thinking about a cruise next June (2006). We are DVC members but I seem to remember reading or hearing somewhere that the points are not a good value for the kids. Can anyone share their experiences. I'm starting to try to research but would appreciate any advice you might offer. Do you use points for the land stay and then pay for the cruise???
Thanks in advance for your help----

 

[Jillpie]

We just got back from a 12 day trip, using points the entire time. First, it was 4 nights at BWV, oops..almost forgot, I rented the first two nights (11 points at 10.00 a point, came out to 110.00 for a standard studio). Then, on to the Wonder cruise, 405 points total for our family of five. Then back to the BWV, using points for three nights. I used up three years of points for this trip, thru 2006. So if we wanted to go to DW again in 2006, we could, but would just have to borrow from 2007. Would I do it again this way? Sure, in a heartbeat. We still had to pay for DW food and souvenirs etc, so it still wasn't cheap, but I could NEVER had paid for the cruise and all those nights at DW without using the points.

By the way, we loved our first cruise so much, that we have booked our first cruise on the Magic for seven days next June! It was an awesome time for all of us. But this time we have to go back to reality and use cash...ouch.

 

[crisi]

There is a lot of discussion over this on the DVC board, you might want to ask over there....

Here is the gist of the discussion:

1. They are YOUR points, do what you want.
2. However, if you value your points at $6 per (what I figure as my cost) you might want to do the math and figure out if cruising on points is a good deal for you.
3. Cruising on points has some disadvantages - you pay a $75 fee, if you cancel your cruise your points are put into holding, you can only book 11 months out (by which time your room choice may be limited).
4. Futhermore, if you do the math and figure you can rent your points for $10 or maybe even $12, you may be "spending" an extra $1000+ to crusie (however each cruise has a different ratio of cash/points, so do the math). Keep in mind that renting points does involve a little work on your part, and therefore even if there is savings in doing it this way, it may not be worth it to you.

There may be more. We elected to pay cash as we can easily use our points at WDW and feel we are getting a great value in their use, where we only feel like the value is marginal on the cruise, so we pay cash for that and do both.

 

[ErinC]

We transfered 150 points to another member (easier than renting) for $10 a point. This paid for half of our cruise cost and then we have just been making payments on the balance. We don't have that many DVC points and cruising with points was out of the question for us. I consider this the best of both worlds, I was able to recoup $1500 from my points and still get a really good cruise fare from Dreams Unlimited. Even if you pay for some of your family with points and some with cash, you'll have to pay the negotiated cash rate from DVC which isn't that great of a deal most of the time. It may just depend on what time of year you are cruising. We are going in Sept. which would be considered the "cheapest" time to cruise. Using points was not a good value at all for us. Having said all this, when we cruised back in 2002 we cruised on points (a 4 day), had one less child then too. I don't regret it at all. It was the only way that we could "afford" the trip, and since we didn't have to pay for food and tickets, it was a great value to us. The only disappointment I had with cruising on points was our noisey stateroom. I found out before we left that the stateroom we had been assigned was reported as noisey by several people here. I called DVC and tried to change our room number before we left. I was told I would have to pay another $75 fee just to change my room #. I left it how it was and hoped to change it when we good on board. The room was noisey, but not so much that we wanted to pack up and move all our stuff, so we just lived with it. Had we been booked on cash, we could have made changes beforehand with no fee involved. That's the biggest downfall to cruising on points in my opinion. Best of luck with your decision.

 

[MommaluvsDis]

That's the only reason we bought into DVC was to cruise on points. I'd never be able to cruise on cash every year!

 

[I Luv Disney Cruise]

We are getting ready to go on the 4 day Wonder cruise with our daughter and we have used all DVC points and have no issues with that.

We have a 7 day cruise booked for next year but decided to pay for that with cash. We got a great deal through Steve with Cruises Inc. that it would have been foolish to use our points for the cruise (better deal with cash in this case).

-Laura

 

[KAR3600]

I'm a DVC member, this will be third cruise using points. I have 30 years to us them. What I have used compared to what I spent in purchasing the points, I think I owe Disney alot of money!. I may not get a big bang for the buck in using the points but I do get a great vacation. And the cost is very little (actual cash layout). The best thing I ever did was to buy DVC

 

[dairyou]

We just called to check on the same thing. For a one week cruise (Western) it would cost us 194 points per adult. Since my 13 year old is getting to that adult age it would take us 3 years to save since we only have 225 points per year. I guess we hoard our points too much!

Deb

 

[CarolAnnC]

They price the first two in the stateroom as adults, then a reduced rate for 3rd/4th persons. Check it out..

I have used points to cruise many times. I feel the value is there since the cruise includes all meals, on board entertainment, and transportation between ports of call. Cruising in June!! Whoo Hooo!

 

[Towncrier]

In our case, we did our first cruise on points. We purchased a resale with all the previous year's points intact, so we had a "surplus" that enabled us to do a 7-day cruise in a Cat4 cabin with 3 adults and 2 juniors. We took great pleasure in telling folks at the DVC sales meetings that our cruise only cost us $75.

Having done that for our first cruise, I must admit that we will most likely not ever cruise on points again. In January 2002, DCL offered cruises at a remarkable discount. The point cost for these cruises did not vary, but the cash price was a bargain. So we paid cash for the cruise and banked our points into the following year. Not using points on cruises worked out better for our family, but if you have the points available and want to cruise, go for it.

 

[Lisa F]

We have cruised on points twice. The first time we did a 7 day eastern and I'm sure we "overpaid" by cruising on points but we had the points just sitting in our account and didn't want to have to deal with renting them out. The second time was a 4 day magic NYE cruise (after the 10 day cruise to bring it back onto schedule) and we got a good deal cruising with points. We booked fairly last minute and the cash price equivalent would have required renting our points for $12/point to pay for it.

I love the flexibility of DVC and would hesitate to say "I never" or "I always" when it comes to my points. I just evaluate every situation as it comes up. For the 14 day august panama canal cruise it was worth it for us to rent our points out and pay cash. Someday I may cruise again on points if the opportunity is right.

 

[AnnaS]

We are going on our third (7 nights) DCL cruise this July. We are a family of five and always get two cabins. First cruise, two cat. 11 rooms next to each other. Second cruise - one Cat. 6 w/verandah and cat. 11 across. Our third one Cat. 8 w/porthole and one cat. 11 across. We have also paid for all three with a combination of points and cash. We do not want the hassle of renting and we do not want to give up all of our points so we pay some with cash and some with points. There are different combinations of doing this. If you go through DVC, one person must be booked with points and the rest however you want. It's just easier for us this way. Good luck and let us know what you decided is best for you.