Points "Cost" for Cruise?

[Crystal_27]

Hi guys! DH and I are very, very seriously considering buying into the DVC. However, we would like to do a Disney cruise every other year. Can someone please tell me the approximate points cost for a cruise? If you could give an approximation based on cabin category that would be even better (i.e., Category 6 vs. Category 120. I sincerely appreciate it. Hope to be an owner very soon!

 

[hellerjw]

It varies by cruise type, length of stay, season, etc. Here are links to the point charts for the 3-night Bahamas cruise & 7-night Eastern Carribean cruise to give you an idea.

http://dvc.disney.go.com/dvc/common/blankPage?id=PointsChartCruise3N07Page

http://dvc.disney.go.com/dvc/common/blankPage?id=PointsChartCruise7NEastCarib07Page

 

[Crystal_27]

Thank you so very much for sharing those links. That is exactly what I was looking for. That will certainly give us an idea of how many points we will need in order to do what we want to do. Thanks again!!

 

[crisi]

You should be aware that unlike DVC resorts, the point cost to cruise can (and usually does) go up every year. When you buy DVC to stay in DVC resorts you are locking in a point cost (dues go up, but the room that costs 272 points for a week will always (well, there are some caveats, but for this purpose....) cost 272 points. A cruise that costs 272 points this year may cost 302 points next year.

 

[Crystal_27]

You should be aware that unlike DVC resorts, the point cost to cruise can (and usually does) go up every year. When you buy DVC to stay in DVC resorts you are locking in a point cost (dues go up, but the room that costs 272 points for a week will always (well, there are some caveats, but for this purpose....) cost 272 points. A cruise that costs 272 points this year may cost 302 points next year.

Ahhhh, I see! Can you stomach one more question? Can you use a portion of your points to reduce the price of a cruise?

I am honestly surprised at how many points a cruise uses (although it's great to know for planning purposes). We were thinking we could take our families on a cruise using our points, but we'll have to work up to that point level before we can do that. I had envisioned taking a DVC vacation every year, with every other year being our "cruise" year. However, if you can use your points to reduce your cruise price, I guess that won't be so bad. Anyway, I do appreciate you all taking the time to answer my questions.

 

[crisi]

You can pay for one person on points and the rest of the people on cash. Or two people on points and the rest on cash.

Each persons fare however has to be either points or cash, you can't combine them for any individual.

You'll also (IIRC) have a booking fee for using points that you wouldn't have paying cash.

While they are your points to do with what you want, most of us don't believe buying points for the purpose of cruising is a good choice. Buy enough points to go every other year and pay cash for your cruises.

 

[Crystal_27]

most of us don't believe buying points for the purpose of cruising is a good choice.

Now that I understand what I'm looking at in terms of points to cruise, I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment. Now I'll have to calculate if it makes financial sense to buy points for a trip to the resorts every other year. Anyway, MANY THANKS for your clarification on this issue!

 

[kiingor]

You should be aware that unlike DVC resorts, the point cost to cruise can (and usually does) go up every year. When you buy DVC to stay in DVC resorts you are locking in a point cost (dues go up, but the room that costs 272 points for a week will always (well, there are some caveats, but for this purpose....) cost 272 points. A cruise that costs 272 points this year may cost 302 points next year.

Really ? the room points never go up ?

 

[crisi]

Functionally, room points stay the same.

Caveats: Some seasons can move around a little from year to year. Most notably Easter. So if Easter falls mid-March next year (i have no idea when Easter falls) it will be much more expensive to go in mid-March than when Easter falls mid-April.

2nd: DVC can reallocate points for a resort. In other words, the number of points are fixed for the resort, but Disney could decide to make the very popular Early December more expensive. In order to do that, they'd need to make another time of year - say May - cheaper and spread the same number of points over the entire year. Or they could make weekends less expensive and weeknights more expensive. They did this once at OKW early in the program and most of us believe its unlikely to happen (or unlikely to happen in any significant way) in the foreseeable future - but 35-50 years is a long time.

Now points do go "up" in two other ways - each year your dues for points will adjust - generally up. And each year it generally gets more expensive to buy more points.

 

[kiingor]

Functionally, room points stay the same.

Caveats: Some seasons can move around a little from year to year. Most notably Easter. So if Easter falls mid-March next year (i have no idea when Easter falls) it will be much more expensive to go in mid-March than when Easter falls mid-April.

2nd: DVC can reallocate points for a resort. In other words, the number of points are fixed for the resort, but Disney could decide to make the very popular Early December more expensive. In order to do that, they'd need to make another time of year - say May - cheaper and spread the same number of points over the entire year. Or they could make weekends less expensive and weeknights more expensive. They did this once at OKW early in the program and most of us believe its unlikely to happen (or unlikely to happen in any significant way) in the foreseeable future - but 35-50 years is a long time.

Now points do go "up" in two other ways - each year your dues for points will adjust - generally up. And each year it generally gets more expensive to buy more points.

didn't know that.... i'm liking this dvc more and more

 

[crisi]

Now that I understand what I'm looking at in terms of points to cruise, I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment. Now I'll have to calculate if it makes financial sense to buy points for a trip to the resorts every other year. Anyway, MANY THANKS for your clarification on this issue!

We use our points every other year and it works great for us. Banking and borrowing work well. I think it works best if you take very similar vacations year after year. DVC means that one vacation will impact how many points you have for the next. So we usually go the same week in October in the same type of unit. Now, we've been working on getting my family down and have been in point hording mode, so we've shorted ourselves last trip - then the family trip got postponed and we are using the banked points from the short this year, but none of the current year points for the family trip - that means a really short trip this year, but a family week the year after. Its a game of "if we do this, then we can't do that."

Buying from Disney, it does mean you'll need to plan your vacations to use 320 points every other year (or average that) - which can be a lot of points if you don't go often. A smaller resale may be a better bet.