Lesson learned: Do NOT book DCL through DVC

[com_op_2000]

I have taken 8 DCLs, 7 of them paid completely or partly with DVC points, including 2 with multiple rooms. I have never had an issue with miscommunications between DCL and DVC.
The one time I paid cash for DCL through an online travel agency, DCL lost the reservation after I took the cruise, and I had to get the online agency involved to get it credited back to my list of cruises taken.

 

[Dean]

I do not understand this at all. IF they cancelled outside of penalty where they didn't truly "lose" points, their points spent on DCL would all be converted to be able to be used ONLY at things like Disney Hotels, another Disney cruise, Concierge Collection, etc. Unless they cancelled super late in their use year I see no reason why they should have lost their points. (again qualifier: IF they cancelled outside of any penalty period. Just like booking cash w/DCL there are penalty periods as sail date approaches where one can lose $$ if they cancel)

I see no reason the person could not have booked something and perhaps rented it out or donated it and considered the gift a tax write-off.

It was a combination of things including not enough time and lack of availability that worked for them. I suppose they could have tried to rent it, I'm sure I'm not remembering the entire breath of the issue at the time. The bottom line was they had to cancel their cruise and were going to lose the points. Also, one cannot take a tax deduction for the donation of a reservation but maybe one could have rented and thus pocketed the money or a donation. To be honest, I've never looked at the rules on renting a reservation point option.

 

[southerngirl528]

Ohh, bwvBound! Reggie is just gorgeous!!! I do miss being with horses….

 

[BWV Dreamin]

David's now offers a cruise in exchange for your DVC points. Not exactly sure how it works but is another option to use your points for a cruise without having to go thru MS.

 

[bwvBound]

David's now offers a cruise in exchange for your DVC points. Not exactly sure how it works but is another option to use your points for a cruise without having to go thru MS.

Wow, Hope -- I wish I'd known that earlier. Thanks!

Link for others: https://www.dvcrequest.com/dvc-cruise.asp

 

[darkwing818]

I have taken 8 DCLs, 7 of them paid completely or partly with DVC points, including 2 with multiple rooms. I have never had an issue with miscommunications between DCL and DVC.

I agree with "com_op_2000"; 4 of our 15 cruises have been done using points & we've never had any issues. I guess we're just lucky. Cheers

 

[Dean]

I agree with "com_op_2000"; 4 of our 15 cruises have been done using points & we've never had any issues. I guess we're just lucky. Cheers

Still there is risk compared to using cash and it is more expensive than owning the lower amount of points and paying cash for the cruise for periodic cruising. IMO the risk and cost is considerable comparatively speaking. Actually I think the risk of renting is far less than the risk of using them for a cruise. Certainly anyone is able to use their points as they want but to plan to do so, esp repeatedly, they are essentially saying they don't care if it's more expensive to do so or that they are taking more risk to do so and that's their choice. Certainly if one has the points they won't use it is a choice that some must make. The cleanest way to discuss it, and where it comes up most often, is for those looking to buy in and considering cruising where they both have both have to buy more points to do so and do so retail.

 

[edith76]

Think it depends on who you get at MS. We are long time members with a lot of points. Back at the beginning of cruising with points the reps seemed better trained. I've done 32 DCL cruises with points and all of those bookings went well. A few times I did get an MS person that I had to walk through the booking but that's not a big deal. Several weeks ago however I called to book 2 more cruises and the process was a nightmare. It took more than 90 minutes, most of which was the mess she made out of my points. I don't know how many times I could say 'do not take any of my AKL points' and have it not sink in or the more clear 'I want to save all of my AKL points' which she did not comprehend either. I finally got off the phone and called back. A nice young man answered and after I told him what happened he passed me along to someone else who fixed it. Did make me wonder what would have happened if someone was booking their first or second cruise with this woman.

 

[southerngirl528]

Same here Edith76, though I have not booked nearly as many DCL cruises with points as you. I have gotten advisors while booking cruises that were not quite as well versed but I have never had anyone that didn't do a good job.

I hear what Dean and others are saying that a cruise is not the most cost effective use of points and I would always discourage someone from buying DVC if one of their main goals was to use their membership to book cruises. Not at all the best "bang for the buck". That said, I am a decent number cruncher and when I booked most of my DCL cruises using points, I compared what I could book the cruise for on cash and the approximate value per point when figured on a per annum basis though for full disclosure most of my points-booked cruises were booked several years ago. And as a single mom it was a blessing to book a lovely cruise and have only $95 cash outlay for that booking. For those of us that bought 20 years or more ago, we had to start with a lot more points than is required now, and the price per point was less. FAR less. It is good to read of so many folks that have successfully rented their points. I just don't see myself doing it for a lot of reasons. Mainly, I have WAY too much fun using all my points for myself and my big family! Yay!!!

 

[Dean]

Same here Edith76, though I have not booked nearly as many DCL cruises with points as you. I have gotten advisors while booking cruises that were not quite as well versed but I have never had anyone that didn't do a good job.

I hear what Dean and others are saying that a cruise is not the most cost effective use of points and I would always discourage someone from buying DVC if one of their main goals was to use their membership to book cruises. Not at all the best "bang for the buck". That said, I am a decent number cruncher and when I booked most of my DCL cruises using points, I compared what I could book the cruise for on cash and the approximate value per point when figured on a per annum basis though for full disclosure most of my points-booked cruises were booked several years ago. And as a single mom it was a blessing to book a lovely cruise and have only $95 cash outlay for that booking. For those of us that bought 20 years or more ago, we had to start with a lot more points than is required now, and the price per point was less. FAR less. It is good to read of so many folks that have successfully rented their points. I just don't see myself doing it for a lot of reasons. Mainly, I have WAY too much fun using all my points for myself and my big family! Yay!!!

Generally a cruise returns between $6 & $7.50 per point. I just selected a 7 night next April randomly and the return was $7.56 pp. There have been a few exceptions over the years where the return was more but for most, they were either new itineraries or when one had missed the early booking discounts. Less discounted cabins/dates may give a better return at times. Certainly anyone can do what they want with their points and it is a different decision process if one already owns. My suggestion is to look at each option to see where one stands. Because of the way the cash price is figured, doing part points and part cash periodically is likely the worst approach. For those that are set on using points on cruises but don't have enough to do it all with points, I'd suggest looking at the return for each option and making their own decision but usually it'd be better to do part of the time all on points and do the rest on just cash than to use part points/part cash periodically if possible with the other parameters. Again look at each side of the ledger to make sure that's true for a given option. I'm always amused when people talk about avoiding renting due to risk because there is far more uncontrollable risk using points for a cruise than renting IMO. In my example above the difference is roughly $3-4K before taxes (590 points cat 10A).

 

[southerngirl528]

Well written post on booking cruises on points vs. cash, Dean. I think it's nice when someone expounds instead of just shooting down some poor soul that says they just did or are going to book DCL on DVC points. Explanations for one's opinions can well delineate the "why's". I only disagree with one sentence in your post #30, Dean:

because there is far more uncontrollable risk using points for a cruise than renting IMO

This makes no sense to me unless you are strictly talking about value. I've booked about 5 or 6 DCL cruises on my DVC points since DCL's inception (I was a member long before the Magic was ever even built). I had zero issues and do not consider it risky in the least. I'd love to hear your detailed description of why booking through MS at DVC is "far more uncontrollable (a) risk". Thanks in advance.

 

[Dean]

This makes no sense to me unless you are strictly talking about value. I've booked about 5 or 6 DCL cruises on my DVC points since DCL's inception (I was a member long before the Magic was ever even built). I had zero issues and do not consider it risky in the least. I'd love to hear your detailed description of why booking through MS at DVC is "far more uncontrollable (a) risk". Thanks in advance.

I don't want to get too far off on this thread but I do want to address your question. My opinion is that there are no situations where buying to cruise currently is reasonable and that it never have been it's just even worse now due to the price increases and removal of the option for resale. My opinion is that the risk for renting is less than the risk for cruising done appropriately. The statement you quoted was simply related to risk not finances though that is also a risk as I noted and I'll expand.

The facts are that one can control the risk of renting by either doing transfer paid up front or by renting current UY points early in the UY non refundable with reasonable payment policies. The potential dollars involved are also factual and easily $13-15 a point done in this manner possibly more for some situations. One should account for taxes. Booking cruises on points requires a boatload of points in many cases and returns are in the range I noted for most cruises planned in advance with very limited exceptions. Any cash portion is a discounted book rate usually more than an early discounted rate and is due at the time of booking. Points used for cruises become reservation points and if not used, expire the end of that UY and are not returned to use for DVC resorts and cannot be banked.. There is a fee and some additional limitations as for availability, and the possibility of additional fees with changes. Insurance returns an amount c/w the value per point not the rental value. Cruises booked on cash are changeable, cancellable up until a certain date (varies a little) and can be modified if there are price reductions at least up until the cancelation/full payment date. I believe every statement in this paragraph is true and factual, if there's anything off or anything I left out, please say so.

If fooling with the rental is not worth the actual dollars involved, that's up to the individual but in the example I quoted above they'd be saying that it's not worth fooling with for $3K or more and this is not a unique example.

 

[jodifla]

we used our points for a DCL cruise a few years ago. We were only 3 months out, and the prices cash vs. points was only marginally more. It was nice on the cash flow to just have to fork over $95.

 

[CarolMN]

Those who would like to discuss the merits of using points to cruise should do so in this thread:

Using Points for the DVC Collections

Please! Thank you!

 

[bwvBound]

We have returned from the 3n cruise on the Disney Dream. The cruise, ground transportation and baggage handling were PERFECT. An excellent weekend getaway! We rebooked the same, direct through DCL via onboard incentives, for next year.

Thanks for the feedback and encouragement, all!

 

[MouseOfCards]

DVC playing middle man IMO has always been a problem. DVC reservations, room requests, DME, we have had issues with them all. We always do a second contact to verify that the first CM did their job.

Bill

Thanks for the useful info.

 

[Sammie]

You can't transfer for monetary gain. It really surprises me how that is not seen as deal breaker because it is for me. I mean throw all the DVC guidelines out the window and ignore them all if you ignore this one.

Monetary gain or loss not even considered, renting to me is more risky than booking with DVC for a cruise.

 

[apple9117]

wow good to know!