DVC 4 Dcl QT PDQ

[ashman]

I got some DVC promotional materials recently and was looking at what it cost in points to cruise. How many of you DVC’ers use your points to go cruising? How often do you go to the WDW otherwise? It seems like it takes a lot of points to have a decent vacation of any length. If your primary draw is DCL, is DVC a good avenue to explore?

Could I get anymore jargon in this?

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Out of necessity, we used our DVC points January '05 for a 4-nighter. Generally, it is not usually a good deal to use points to cruise given the value of the points in comparison to the point cost to cruise. Many people rent out their points to others and pay cash for the cruises. You can also pay part cash part points to cruise and sometimes that works out welll...though you still have to book through DVC Member Services and requires a $75 non-refundable booking fee. And any changes made to the reservation is another fee.

Plus, if you have to cancel you cannot restore your points to DVC-resort points. That's another downfall.

So there are some downfalls to using points to cruise. Although, it is easy to do and if you have enough points....

That being said, we find it a better value to do WDW with our DVC points. Plus, there are many perks to owning DVC...including discounts on dining and Annual Passes. Since we started a family, we are trying to do DCL one year and then DVC the next. DCL is very expensive and a difficult yearly expense to justify.

 

[MrsMork]

We have used our points several times to cruise. It is very easy, we also rebook within 3 days of returning and save 10% on points. We did buy to use both at WDW and DCL. We banked and borrowed enough to take all kids and grandkids to WDW 4 days and on 4 day cruise. That one trip almost paid for our original purchase. Could we rent and save some $$?. Yes. But we really like the ease of booking with DCL and many of us do this.

 

[Olaf]

It seems like it takes a lot of points to have a decent vacation of any length.

IMHO it's a huge number of points to cruise. For example, our upcoming 4-day cruise is costing us $2,687.89. The same cruise would cost us 425 points. I think that's ridiculous.

Now, if you have a lot points and you get in the position where you need to use them, then what would be more fun than a cruise? But, I would never recommend that someone purchase DVC for the express purpose of using them to cruise. You can do much better paying cash.

 

[Kurby]

IMHO it's a huge number of points to cruise. For example, our upcoming 4-day cruise is costing us $2,687.89. The same cruise would cost us 425 points. I think that's ridiculous.

I agree - even if you rent out your points for $10 pp you'd get $4250 which would more then pay for the cruise and flights plus give you some spending money on that trip.

we are planning on renting out our 2008 points which will pay for our first cruise and spending money and using our 2009 to split between 4 days before and 5 days after at WDW.

 

[WDWLVR]

We've used points to cruise on a number of occassions and I agree that it is a bad investment to buy DVC points ONLY to cruise. The number of points needed is going to go up every year. Having said all that buying into DVC was one of the best things we've ever done. We got to WDW at least once a year and I love having our Boardwalk home to go to.

 

[Pluto 2]

some times you can make out ok using your points to cruise sometimes you get hammered big time. for us using points to go to the med we really got hammered. they just cut the cost of most of the med trips. im on the 14 night repo in august it cost me 754 points for three people in a cat 11.
the cost i figured was going to be around a little under 8 dollars a point.
not too bad. than dcl cut the cost of a cat 12 to around 3,000 dollars for three people 3,000 divided into 754 is not even 4 dollars a point. it cost more then that in annual dues.
im giving my parents a vacation in feb. a cat 11 eastern 266 points the cost is around 2200 dollars i think comes out to 8.27 a point not too bad.

 

[ashman]

Thanks to all who replied. I didn't think that it would be a good fit. Our family leans more towards DCL than WDW, I don't think we would get enough use out of it. Plus my folks have a timeshare in Atlantic Beach NC so we usually go there for summer vacation. AND unlike DVC, that interest will pass to us and won't expire in 2035.

 

[owensjro]

We are using partial points for a 7N Eastern on Jan 19. Using points for the first two adults and paying cash for the 3rd passenger we ended up with something like $9.20 per point. We were aiming to get as close to the $10/point rental that people are getting.

For us, if we had to use cash for the entire trip it would have been difficult. so it made a lot of sense to use points especially since we got so close to the rental rate.

Also, the rate for the 3rd person through DVC ended up being cheaper than I found anywhere else online.

Jim

 

[graysm]

Since our DVC points are already paid in full and we weren't planning to go to WDW, it was GREAT that we could use the points for the DCL. We (me, DD, DS and friend of DD) went on the Western Caribbean from April 21-28, 2007 and we're going again October 25-November 2, 2008 on a double dip. The kids are getting older (12 and 17), so going to WDW isn't as exciting anyone. The DCL opens up alot more opportunities.

 

[Anal Annie]

We bought our membership to use for WDW, DCL and to trade out thru Interval Int'l. We tried to look at ALL of the opportunities owning a timeshare could do for us and the versatility of the entire point system. Some will argue that using pts. to trade out is not a good value either - but that also depends on when & where you want to go. I wouldn't trade out to go to Ocean City, MD but I WOULD to go to Maui for a week where hotel rooms can easily run $400 / n.

We are using pts. for WDW this summer, banked a bunch into next yr. and have booked a 4 n. cruise with our pts. for next July. The number of pts. required to cruise can be high - but it depends on the season and the room category you're shooting for. We snagged a "secret porthole" (cat. 10) for 392 pts. for the 3 of us - the cash price is around $3K. Then we turned around & booked the 3 n. immed. following our 4 n. in the same cabin with a cash ressie (around $2,200). Cash out of pocket for a 3 n. was much easier to swallow than paying cash for both. Well, we wouldn't have pd. cash for both if we had points sitting there to use - that would've been $5,200 for both. The value of the points varies widely by season & category - but also by what it's worth to you to not have to come up with any more cash out of pocket. We're going in July which is an expensive season so it was worth it for us to keep the $3K cash. We also got lucky in that the required # of pts. didn't go up for our particular trip this year.

Next on our cruise agenda, we're hoping to have enough pts. banked & borrowed to pay for one of us on one of the new ships in 2012 so that we only have to pay cash for 2 ppl.

We do not plan to use our pts. to cruise for every vacation tho - just sometimes. We bought DVC for the options it gave us in planning a variety of trips. It wouldn't be economical to try to use them only to cruise. And while we love WDW we also know that we probably won't want to go there for every vacation we ever plan. We like to keep our options open to new places.

 

[Fsued123]

I think it depends on your own personal situation. I live 1.5 hours away from WDW and we don’t to worry about flights, transfers, etc… We stay at WDW every few months for a day or two with the kids, and then use our points (with a little borrowing) on a 3-day cruise. This seems to work out pretty well for us….

 

[kcashner]

We love DVC. However, we usually find that it is not financially a good deal to cruise on points. I calculated what it costs me to use a point based on my purchase price and the dues. Multiply that figure times the number of points needed and add the $75 service charge....then look at the cost of the cruise in dollars to find which is the better deal.

There have been times when the cruise was "on sale" for a reduced number of points, and you can do points as a rebooking while on board deal.

If you have "extra" points that you need to spend, the cruise is great. However, I wouldn't join DVC if my planned use was cruising. We find that you get your best value at DVC resorts, next best value at anything Disney, and third by going outside of Disney. That doesn't always hold as sometimes the Interval International weeks can be a huge savings.

 

[tidefan]

IMHO it's a huge number of points to cruise. For example, our upcoming 4-day cruise is costing us $2,687.89. The same cruise would cost us 425 points. I think that's ridiculous.

Now, if you have a lot points and you get in the position where you need to use them, then what would be more fun than a cruise? But, I would never recommend that someone purchase DVC for the express purpose of using them to cruise. You can do much better paying cash.

Wow. Our points weren't near that much for a much longer cruise. We are doing a 7-night Eastern on the Magic in January '08 for 327 (133 x2 + 61 for DD4) points. I don't think that it's really a bad value in the "value" points season. We had a special situation in that we bought into SSR this past April while we were at WDW for a conference. We were given a December Use Year and were given 200 2006 points maintenence fee free. So, we will get our next batch of 200 points in Dec '07.

Since we have already been to WDW this year and our DD will start Kindergarden in August '08, we figured that if we wanted to do the 7-night during the Value Season that we ought to go ahead and do it now. Plus, we still have 73 points to use or bank during the rest of the year...

That being said, if we wouldn't have gotten the extra year of points off the bat, we probably wouldn't have jumped at the cruise. In the future, we will mostly be using points at WDW and go back to Princess (or DCL again on cash) for cruises, but we wanted to do DCL at least once while our DD was young.

 

[3DisneyKids]

Another DVCer here who is aboslutely in love with the DVC ownership and how it works, etc.

As others have stated, it is generally a poor use of points to cruise on points. There are some instances (as stated above) where it works out to be almost the same (value-wise) as cash to cruise on points. However, that is only under certain circumstances. The majority of the time, it does not make good points-sense to cruise using your points.

However, if you want to go through some extra hassle....you can rent out your points and then use that cash to pay for your cruise. This would be a much better deal than just cruising on points. But again, you have to jump through some hoops here.

As a general rule, the best value for DVC is staying at DVC resorts. Yes, you can trade out to all of these exotic locations that they advertise, but those locations are hard to come by (having to plan and wait 18 mos - 2 years in advance), and is still often more points than its worth.

We love, love, love our DVC....but the biggest limitation is that it really is best only for staying at DVC resorts. If you go to WDW every year and want/need larger accommodations, then DVC is a great choice.

 

[Olaf]

Wow. Our points weren't near that much for a much longer cruise.

I agree, I think the point totals for our cruise are nutty. And it's only regular season. It is Cat 7, with a navigator's veranda, but still.

Your situation is one of those where a cruise makes sense. You have a lot points to use, and the time to use them.

And those of you in Florida can get those Florida resident rates, which really blow the points total out of the water.

 

[Fsued123]

[/quote]And those of you in Florida can get those Florida resident rates, which really blow the points total out of the water.[/quote]

While I agree the FL resident rates for DCL are enticing, I don't see myself staying in a cat. 11. Plus as someone already mentioned, saving 30 points while booking on board, wasn't a deal I could pass up...