New DCL 2004 points up on the official DVC site

[larry_poppins]

The good news is that the points have gone down for cruises during the value season. I have only checked the 7 night cruises. The bad news is that they are up by a point or 2 for the rest of the year.

Larry

 

[Minybear]

Thanks Larry for your info. I checked this morning and they were not posted. Thats good that they finally got them up.

 

[Dean]

I don't believe anyone has posted that the Cat 3 choice was added to the points option. While there were fairly minor changes in the 7 day points costs for the first 2 people, there were major changes otherwise. The increase of roughly 10 points per person per category for the 3 & 4 day cruise is significant. They added a graded per person charge on the 7 day cruise where the better the category, the higher the extra per person charge. So overall I see this as a significant increase in a situation where a 20% decrease would have been more appropriate from a value standpoint.

 

[Jimbo]

I noticed one big change. They've changed the way that they charge for the 3rd through the 5th person in a cabin on the 7 day cruises. It used to be a flat amount based on the age of the child. Now it's also on a sliding scale based on the stateroom category.

For example, suppose you're taking an Eastern Caribbean cruise in Value Season, and you're taking an 6YO child. In 2003, the child's cost was 71 points. In 2004 it's 58 points for categories 9-11, 72 for category 8, 85 for categories 4-7 and 111 for category 3.

They also broke out 3, 4 and 5YO's into their own pricing category. Kids this age used to be part of the 3YO to 12YO group.

Both of these are positives for our planned 2004 cruise. What do others think?

 

[Happy Birthday Cat]

Here is an example of the cruise I am going on next year and the difference if I had paid in points:

7 Day Western Regular Season, Cat 6:

Points for 1st and 2nd Person in the cabin only went up five points from 247 to 252 points. This is a 2% increase.

They have broken the under 18 rates into one additional group as has been mentioned.

In 2004 kids 13 to 18 are 164 points. Up 28 points or 21% from last year's 136 points.

Children 6 to 12 (last year this catagory was 3-12) is up 28 points from 110 to 138 points. A 25% increase.

On a cash value basis it works out to be about $7.40 per point for a child and about $8.60 for an adult (approximate, I didn't have my calculator).

So I would say rent your points and pay cash for this cruise.

HBC

 

[wdwstar]

does anyone else have a problem bring up the acrobat reader, i have it on my computer settings, but i always have a problem bring it up on the dvc website, 1 time out of 30 times i seen the point chart. im really interested in the point chart for the 2004 cruise, if someone would like to email with it, it would be great. or ill call my guide and see if they have one to send

 

[Dean]

Originally posted by wdwstar
does anyone else have a problem bring up the acrobat reader, i have it on my computer settings, but i always have a problem bring it up on the dvc website, 1 time out of 30 times i seen the point chart. im really interested in the point chart for the 2004 cruise, if someone would like to email with it, it would be great. or ill call my guide and see if they have one to send

Change your settings to post process with application instead of view with plugin and you should do better.

 

[Johnnie Fedora]

Crusing on points isn't anything but a rip-off to the DVC member. The same applies to all the DC.

Disney will keep uping the points until the captive audience leaves the theatre.

 

[ripleysmom]

I think it is ridiculous to charge more for the extra children or adults based on their category. The cost of having the nicer room is borne by the original 2 cruisers in the room, not by all of the room occupants.

DCL truly does not seem to want any DVC members cruising.

 

[Tagrel]

Wow, just when you think it couldn't get any worse. The new point scales for various categories for the 3rd-5th cruisers is ridiculous.

Since I already decided using points directly for the cruise was a huge points 'mistake' (at least for us), I've booked a 2004 cruise already. At the going rental rate of $10 a point I'm saving over $2000 on our cruise by booking early and paying cash.

Those 200 points saved will be paying for our second week at BCV after a 7 day cruise.

I just can't understand anyone paying with points. I know it is 'easier', but to toss 200 extra points to Disney for nothing isn't something I'm willing to do.

 

[roelongo]

The 3 day cruise we are going to take in Feb 04 went up 24 points total 9 per adult and 3 per child.

 

[Doctor P]

It should be noted that the new prices for extra persons in different categories applies to cash reservations also. There has been some discussion of this on the cruise board. The cost of our Western cruise went up 4 total points for the three of us. That is the smallest increase in many years. This is for category 11.

 

[erikthewise]

There are some amusing inconsistencies; I'll just mention one.
The value season increment for doing the 4-day cruise instead of the 3-day cruise is 14-points in categories 7-11, but in categories 4-6, it's only 13 points! For children it is 13, 14, or 12 depending on your age category. But the amazing thing is that on the fourth day, everyone is equal! Age and category no longer matter. And it's a great deal compared with the first three days! Don't they feed you on the fourth day?

Really makes you wonder.

Apparently DVC wants to encourage you to do the 4-day cruise so you stay in the DVC resorts on the weekends before and after. I would think DCL could care less about that.

Amazingly enough, for the cruise we are considering and our family configuration, it's a complete wash -- exactly the same. I wish it were so for everyone.

 

[Johnnie Fedora]

Originally posted by ripleysmom
DCL truly does not seem to want any DVC members cruising.

I disagree, DVC is the goose that continues to lay golden eggs. I think Disney wants to maximize the number of points they get from DVCers for "in-house" exchanges. Every year they must laugh outloud and ask...How high can we go before DVCers stop crusing on points??

CRO can rent your points, and after paying DCL for your cruise, pocket any extra money they get. I bet each Disney department that handles the exchanged points take their "cut"...and a healthy one.

 

[ripleysmom]

Well I won't be cruising on points anytime soon.....

 

[Dean]

Originally posted by Johnnie Fedora
I disagree, DVC is the goose that continues to lay golden eggs. I think Disney wants to maximize the number of points they get from DVCers for "in-house" exchanges. Every year they must laugh outloud and ask...How high can we go before DVCers stop crusing on points??

CRO can rent your points, and after paying DCL for your cruise, pocket any extra money they get. I bet each Disney department that handles the exchanged points take their "cut"...and a healthy one.

While I'm sure there's a fee for DVC to rent the units through CRO, the bulk of the funds goes back to DVC to pay for the other options (DCL, etc). There is no profit margin on the rentals.