Marriott Rewards for booking cruises

[tmoor]

We've been on 3 Disney cruises so far and one scheduled for this November. All of them have been booked through Marriott sister company CruisesOnly. It allows us to pay for a large portion of our cruise upfront with points. I'm just wondering if any of you on this forum has done this as well and if there is a way to book a dummy date while on the cruise and not have to immediately contact CruisesOnly right after disembarking to apply the points? Like, can you possibly book a couple different dates and not have to use your points immediately? Anyone familiar with this? Any tips.

 

[mlayton14]

Wow I never knew you pay with Marriott points. would u mind sharing how Marriott points equate to $ paid towards cruise ? If I had 100k points how much could this contribute to cruise fare ? Thanks !

 

[mmouse37]

We've been on 3 Disney cruises so far and one scheduled for this November. All of them have been booked through Marriott sister company CruisesOnly. It allows us to pay for a large portion of our cruise upfront with points. I'm just wondering if any of you on this forum has done this as well and if there is a way to book a dummy date while on the cruise and not have to immediately contact CruisesOnly right after disembarking to apply the points? Like, can you possibly book a couple different dates and not have to use your points immediately? Anyone familiar with this? Any tips.

Dummy dates work differently now. You don't have to pick a specific date. You just pay $200 and get a voucher to use for a future cruise. I believe it has to be used within 24 months. Let me go look for the thread that discusses the new onboard booking program to make sure I have it correct.

Here you go. This thread link was started recently and explains the new process:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/new-placeholder-policy.3394331/

MJ

 

[ptcbass]

I never knew you could use Marriott reward points on a cruise. Good to know! Thanks for asking this question!

 

[suzu]

Looks like 250,000 Marriott Points redeems for $1,000 towards cruise.

Here is the link http://mr.cruisesonly.com/

 

[tmoor]

Oh, yes. It is 250,000 points equals $1000. We usually book onboard then we have to call our "travel professional" with CruisesOnly to have them apply the Marriott Rewards points to our booking. Sadly, I learned today that my sweet Bonnie that we've used the past 4 years is no longer employed with the company...I so hope she moved on to a better job and nothing bad has happened. I'll have to go through the customer service folks to get another "travel professional" assigned to me if I want that one on one relationship like I had with her. But anyway, thanks for the replies. I'll have to spend some more time on that link you added, mmouse37!

 

[tmoor]

I never knew you could use Marriott reward points on a cruise. Good to know! Thanks for asking this question!

You're welcome. I had never seen anyone mention it on here but we've only used our points to cruise. Some people like the onboard credits or gift bags that some travel agents offer but none of those could ever add up to the 10% off OBB plus use of the points. I have to say I was jealous of those Dreams Unlimited gift bags, though!

 

[tmoor]

Wow I never knew you pay with Marriott points. would u mind sharing how Marriott points equate to $ paid towards cruise ? If I had 100k points how much could this contribute to cruise fare ? Thanks !

It will get you about $250 off your cruise amount. That would be 62,500 points used. Plus you earn back a few points per dollar spent AFTER you cruise. At least I think that is how I remembered. You would need to call them for a more recent answer. One thing I am sure of, each year the points system increases and you have to have more points to get less money off your cruise. It seems to almost double the points cost every two years!

 

[mlayton14]

That's not great value at all. But if I had a million points maybe it would make a difference

 

[timrousbeastie]

We've been on 3 Disney cruises so far and one scheduled for this November. All of them have been booked through Marriott sister company CruisesOnly. It allows us to pay for a large portion of our cruise upfront with points. I'm just wondering if any of you on this forum has done this as well and if there is a way to book a dummy date while on the cruise and not have to immediately contact CruisesOnly right after disembarking to apply the points? Like, can you possibly book a couple different dates and not have to use your points immediately? Anyone familiar with this? Any tips.

Thanks for the interesting tip. I have been with Marriott Rewards for years (platinum working my way towards lifetime), but I had never head of this option. When I spend points, though, I feel I get the best value at category 9 hotels, like the Marquis Times Square. I just booked two suites for 5 nights in November (before our Disney cruise ), paid 360,000 points + cash, and the points saved me around $4,000. Ordinary rooms would have yielded even better value for the points, but it is rare I have the opportunity to spend any (have close to a million from business trips). As long as I can use my points for hotel stays, I'll obviously do that, but otherwise this is a neat option.

 

[tmoor]

It may not be a good value to some. However, with my husband staying in a hotel 3 nights a week every week (except a couple weeks a year) it's hard to get him to stay just for the heck of it. We've used our points to even purchase a new washer and dryer! So a Disney cruise has been our favorite thing to spend those points on.