Major Policy Change in DVC/DCL Trade Policy UPDATE ON POST #193

[jodifla]

This whole thing just stinks, and is among the reasons I no longer heartily recommend DVC. We still get a lot out of it at this point. But I once thought we'd have our points forever....now, not so much.

 

[rsschneck]

I think this whole situation needs to be a forewarning to all those members who don't plan to buy at Aulani, but plan to book at 7 months out. I don't think the availability is going to be there.

I agree that is why we added on so we could make sure we could travel to Aulani when we want to.

I see a lot of posts from members "saving" their points so they can trade out to Aulani @ 7 months.

I did not want to chance not being able to trade out @ 7 months so we added on.

 

[Jets fan]

I just tried to book a cruise to anywhere, from anywhere and was told for August next year they were full, so I said what about, May, June or July - answer - we have used our allocation for DCL so have suspended all bookings until September when it will be reviewed.

Why don't they just issue a communique that tells us what is going on then it would save all the uncertainty.

Tina

 

[Dean]

Carol,

I'm not sure why some people don't believe what you've posted....I, for one, really really appreciated the heads up. I literally was not going to call until the end of September to change my Dec 2010 trip over to points---and we had been planning an Alaska cruise as well.

After seeing that your call list came though, DH called this morning and put ourselves on the Alaska sailing date call list, and he spoke to a supervisor to get the story (again) just to get more answers.

We're hopeful that the call list will come through between now and sometime next year. Our points are in reservation status anyway..so what's there to lose? Pixie dust and wish us luck!

I don't think there's anyone that doubts that Carol posted the info correctly as best she received it. However, past experiences with such matters and others on this thread getting varying answers, makes us question that she was given the totally correct or complete information.

I think this whole situation needs to be a forewarning to all those members who don't plan to buy at Aulani, but plan to book at 7 months out. I don't think the availability is going to be there.

There may or may not be routine successes 7 months out for HI, Personally I suspect there will be for times other than mid summer, Easter, President's week and Xmas/NY. However, I see no correlation with this issue and DVC resort availability. I realize that some had speculated DVC cruises as a combined trip but that still doesn't lead me to any correlation. Am I missing something?

 

[JimMIA]

I don't think there's anyone that doubts that Carol posted the info correctly as best she received it. However, past experiences with such matters and others on this thread getting varying answers, makes us question that she was given the totally correct or complete information.

I agree, and I semi-fearlessly predict that when some of us receive responses from Member Satisfaction early in the week, they will tell us there has been no change in policy, simply an availability problem. Whether that's the truth or just spin, we'll never know.

 

[CarolAnnC]

I just tried to book a cruise to anywhere, from anywhere and was told for August next year they were full, so I said what about, May, June or July - answer - we have used our allocation for DCL so have suspended all bookings until September when it will be reviewed.

Why don't they just issue a communique that tells us what is going on then it would save all the uncertainty.

Tina

I think they put the cart before the horse so to speak. They put this info out there without an announcement so as to slip it in and hope that there would not be bad press over it.

My gut feeling is that this is coming from DCL and not DVC. DVC has always touted the cruise line as their number one trade out for members. They are losing a good selling point if this is reduced, for sure. Whereas the cruise line has had an enormous number of DVC members trading in and CRO may not be turning around the points fast enough to generate the revenue back to them. Just my thoughts on it..

Again, any one who is not happy with this turn of events should email the Member Satisfaction Team. Perhaps if they see enough members are distressed, to the point of not purchasing more points, they may be able to modify or do away with this unfortunate new policy change.

 

[cruiseletters]

This whole thing just stinks, and is among the reasons I no longer heartily recommend DVC. We still get a lot out of it at this point. But I once thought we'd have our points forever....now, not so much.

I have to agree with jodifia, one of the reasons we bought the amount of points we did was to have the flexibility to cruise and stay in the resorts without having to go in the rental business as well. If this situation becomes the norm we wont be keeping the amount of points that we currently own. We currently are going to be cruising on the panama west bound, we were going to wait to book our next cruise until we got off the ship so that we could have the benefit of the recent cruiser discount. Now we feel like we shouldn't wait to book that nov. of 2011 cruise with the family because by Jan. it might be closed down. When I talked to a member service rep yesterday she told me she expects that a lot of people will lose that small perk. I guess that's another win for dvc, more points used up for one transaction. I know that sounds very cynical I guess i'm just feeling like were working at polar opposites right now.

 

[DVC Mike]

If you want flexibility with your DVC points - rent out your points and use the cash to book a cruise or whatever.

 

[bookwormde]

My guess is that this is a DVD created problem that DCL and DVC are reacting to. DVD used the cruise incentive and that has filled up most of the typical slots for DVC members to book on points.

While it is just I guess I think that the DVC slots were given away to DVD and thier sales promotion. This is the problem when DVD drives the ship and member just get the backwash. Thanks again Jim Lewis for thinking of what is best for the membership.

bookwormde

 

[tjkraz]

My guess is that this is a DVD created problem that DCL and DVC are reacting to. DVD used the cruise incentive and that has filled up most of the typical slots for DVC members to book on points.

While it is just I guess I think that the DVC slots were given away to DVD and thier sales promotion. This is the problem when DVD drives the ship and member just get the backwash. Thanks again Jim Lewis for thinking of what is best for the membership.

bookwormde

The cruise incentives date back to January 2009 so it seems somewhat unlikely that cruise bookings would just now be impacted.

 

[cruiseletters]

The cruise incentives date back to January 2009 so it seems somewhat unlikely that cruise bookings would just now be impacted.

That may be when they started but they ended just a short time ago. I have some friends that recently bought with a cruise incentive or a few dollars less per point

 

[Mineu]

I called back this morning to offer a wider range of dates for my "call back" only to discover that I did not have one set up-thank you nice agent from yesterday. So, the agent says he will set it up for me-who knows at this point. I also offered to drop the onboard offer from my reservation-nope that won't help either. I did ask for the member survey call back and that was an even more depressing result. Sorry-nothing they can do-changing dates won't help, dropping the onboard offer won't help-nothing will help! And he was very skeptical about the "call back" option yielding any results. I explained how this just does not seem right as I was all set to book weeks ago and they are the ones that said to wait-to 1) switch my reservation and get the onboard offer 2) they couldn't pull up points for the 11B and would need guest services to work on it and 3) they needed the letter from the travel agency. So, I said I have X allotted for vacations this year if I can't use the points on the Alaska cabin-I will have to cancel one of my cruises and will need to do so before final payment December 25. He did not seem to think that the policy would change before then. What a great Christmas this will be

 

[Deb & Bill]

If you want flexibility with your DVC points - rent out your points and use the cash to book a cruise or whatever.

I guess David will be doing some really hot business now.

 

[needtogomore]

I guess David will be doing some really hot business now.

Yes and that will inpact on Disney selling rooms, so they will come up with some other not so brilliant idea.

 

[Cmbar]

I called back this morning to offer a wider range of dates for my "call back" only to discover that I did not have one set up-thank you nice agent from yesterday. So, the agent says he will set it up for me-who knows at this point. I also offered to drop the onboard offer from my reservation-nope that won't help either. I did ask for the member survey call back and that was an even more depressing result. Sorry-nothing they can do-changing dates won't help, dropping the onboard offer won't help-nothing will help! And he was very skeptical about the "call back" option yielding any results. I explained how this just does not seem right as I was all set to book weeks ago and they are the ones that said to wait-to 1) switch my reservation and get the onboard offer 2) they couldn't pull up points for the 11B and would need guest services to work on it and 3) they needed the letter from the travel agency. So, I said I have X allotted for vacations this year if I can't use the points on the Alaska cabin-I will have to cancel one of my cruises and will need to do so before final payment December 25. He did not seem to think that the policy would change before then. What a great Christmas this will be

This is really depressing. I guess they are just going to stop all bookings ... period. Did the agent at least look for you? Or did he just say "nope, can't do it". I guess the MS agents that book DCL won't have anything to do for a year.

I am willing to be flexible on my dates, but I don't understand if it IS availability or it is just they have STOPED the bookings. I can't seem to get that straight.

CarolAnn, I am so glad you got your situation corrected, but I really don't understand how you did. Can you explain further? How is it possible they were able to call you back and have the cruise you want for the large amount of points you have committed to the cruise? I find if hard to believe that they simply had a DVC member cancel on the cruise you want for the same amount of 1500 points. That is a great deal of points and it doesn't make sense that they would be able to move that around while those of us who want to book a 165 point cruise can't. Do you know how the "call list" works? I want to put myself on the call list, but I am so angry I don't want to call MS.

Thanks

 

[Mineu]

According to the agent they have stopped all "new" DVC/DCL reservations for Alaska. Moving existing DVC/DCL reservations to different dates is a different situation and is the right thing to do for existing DVC reservations. The agent I spoke to did not bother to check other Alaska sailings for me-he seemed to know that they were not available. He did offer to check MR or cruises beyond October 2011-which I declined as we are committed to an Alaska cruise. It's funny because the DVC supervisor seemed to be blaming DCL for the change and DCL seems to be saying it's a DVC problem. Who knows at this point...but I do not have a whole lot of faith in the call back option for Alaska cruises right now.

 

[Cmbar]

According to the agent they have stopped all "new" DVC/DCL reservations for Alaska. Moving existing DVC/DCL reservations to different dates is a different situation and is the right thing to do for existing DVC reservations. The agent I spoke to did not bother to check other Alaska sailings for me-he seemed to know that they were not available. He did offer to check MR or cruises beyond October 2011-which I declined as we are committed to an Alaska cruise. It's funny because the DVC supervisor seemed to be blaming DCL for the change and DCL seems to be saying it's a DVC problem. Who knows at this point...but I do not have a whole lot of faith in the call back option for Alaska cruises right now.

Do you think that is for the Dream sailings as well? I would consider the MR itinerary as well. Maybe I will have my DH call. I am too mad right now! Thanks!

 

[LisaS]

How is it possible they were able to call you back and have the cruise you want for the large amount of points you have committed to the cruise? I find if hard to believe that they simply had a DVC member cancel on the cruise you want for the same amount of 1500 points. That is a great deal of points and it doesn't make sense that they would be able to move that around while those of us who want to book a 165 point cruise can't.

I'm guessing here but perhaps because CarolAnn just wanted to change the dates for a cruise she had already booked they were able to accommodate that. If the problem is that DVC has more points allocated to cruises than they can cover (by renting rooms via CRO) they will not make any new reservations but might be able to change the dates of existing reservations booked with points. If they are going by the number of cruises booked, again she's not adding to the total since she's cancelling one cruise to book one for different dates.

 

[FLWIDisneyFan]

I agree that its a total points issue and that new cruises will be the problem. Whoever (DCL or DVC) takes the hit if they can't sell the rooms converted to cruises is the group who implemented the policy. My bet would be DVC but I not completely sure how the CRO works.

 

[CarolAnnC]

I'm guessing here but perhaps because CarolAnn just wanted to change the dates for a cruise she had already booked they were able to accommodate that. If the problem is that DVC has more points allocated to cruises than they can cover (by renting rooms via CRO) they will not make any new reservations but might be able to change the dates of existing reservations booked with points. If they are going by the number of cruises booked, again she's not adding to the total since she's cancelling one cruise to book one for different dates.

Thanks LisaS, that is my guess too! My points simply shifted from one date that I had booked on points almost a year ago, to another date. So nothing really changed the total already committed to DCL.

Cmbar - have you emailed the Member Satisfaction team yet? That is a venue that may help overall when they see the member response...