OK, I give information about the
DVC Cruise since I was on the last one and will be on this one. However, these are the only cruises I have been on so I can't comment on regular
DCL cruises using points.
The DVC Cruise costs more points than other cruises. This is based on a number of factors:
1. It's a charter meaning DVC charters the boat and to book it you must go through Member Services and they call DCL to find what room you get.
2. It is very popular as the entire ship usually books up the first day of booking. For this year's cruise it was Saturday, December 3rd and it sold out around 4:00PM. For the SSMC 2005 the day was I believe Saturday, October 20, 2004 or around there and it booked up by 1:30PM that Saturday.
3. The cost is more mostly because of the demand and we get better goodies than regular cruises or so I have heard. Last year we received a Welcome basket for each person booked in the cabin and smaller gifts every night such as Mickey pins geared toward our itinerary (Pirate Mickey for Pirate night, King Mickey for Fantasy night) then on the last night every person on board received a signed Don "Ducky" Williams print of Mickey and Minnie on
Castaway Cay on the Beach with the ship in the background and a "Members are Magical" towel spread on the sand.
4. The entertainment is second to none as far as Disney cruises go. Last year we had Ducky Williams do two presentations, Art Linkletter did two talks and Susan Egan sang the last night twice. Also we had a pirate night, fantasy night, Chef Gordon from HHI gave a presentation, Christopher White, a Disney Ambassador, gave a talk, someone who wrote a book about Disney trivia was onboard (I missed that one). There were so many activities you really had to pick what you wanted to go to and miss others.
There is a big group of DISers sailing this year and different people in the group have been organizing events/get-togethers before, during and after the cruise. One person is organizing early dining so we can all sit near each other at dinner. The thread is located on the Cruise Meets forum but there is a sticky on the top of the DVC Planning page to get to it. It really should be a great time. This year we are stopping at CC twice, last year it was one day at Key West and one day at CC. Both cruises are/were four night cruises.
Oh and one more thing about the Member cruise is you can pay all cash if you want and I believe you can't do that if sailing regular DCL cruises booked through member services. Can someone please clarify this?
Hope this helps,
Jeff
