Questions for those that have booked DCL on points??

[christianweecare]

I know many of you have advised that using points to book DCL is not the best use of points. Nonetheless, I am interested in hearing from those of you that have booked your DCL ressie using points. Here is our scenerio:

My sister & her family are booked in two cabins on the Wonder for this Dec. She will be rebooking while on board for all of us for a future cruise thereby receiving the onboard discount and onboard credit. If I want to transfer that ressie to DVC using points, how would I go about doing that?

What have been your experiences using points for your cruise? Pro and con. Any and all advise welcome! TIA!!

 

[brewcrew]

We used points for our cruise in June. We are a family of six and needed 2 cabins. We had to bank, borrow and use a current year (900 points) and still had to pay out of pocket. We will not use points for a cruise again until our children are grown and we can use less points.

 

[DVC4me4Ever]

We are just a family of 3 so please consider my point of view is from our family size.

We have booked many DCL trips with points. As a matter of fact, we have never paid cash for a Disney cruise. Altogether I would say we have taken about 10 cruises in the past 11 years.

We have spent from about 400 points per trip for a shorter 4 day cruise all the way up to over 1,100 for our 15 day Panama cruise. In my opinion each and every point spent is 'worth' it to us.

I do not agree with what appears to be the majority of opinions here on the DIS that DCL with point is not worth it. It seems as if most folks want to go to WDW or DL over and over and do nothing else with their points. We wanted the variety of vacation experiences and that is why we did not buy into other timeshare offerings. We do not want to be tied down to one location/one city/one type of room/certain time of the year and other specifics to timeshare ownership. We use our points for what I feel is the best....a huge variety of vacations that we have shared as a family.

Don't get me wrong, I love WDW and DL and we go there quite often but love other places and types of vacations.

If you want to rebook another cruise while on this one and use points, all you have to do is call MS within 3 business day from your disembarkation date. You will get a reduction in points for your next cruise if you do it that way.

Sorry for the long response but this is something I feel very passionate about as you can well tell.

I am having some trouble getting this reply to post so I sure hope it doesn't post many times over!!! If it does, here's my apology right now....

 

[MissMet]

We are just a family of 3 so please consider my point of view is from our family size.

We have booked many DCL trips with points. As a matter of fact, we have never paid cash for a Disney cruise. Altogether I would say we have taken about 10 cruises in the past 11 years.

We have spent from about 400 points per trip for a shorter 4 day cruise all the way up to over 1,100 for our 15 day Panama cruise. In my opinion each and every point spent is 'worth' it to us.

I do not agree with what appears to be the majority of opinions here on the DIS that DCL with point is not worth it. It seems as if most folks want to go to WDW or DL over and over and do nothing else with their points. We wanted the variety of vacation experiences and that is why we did not buy into other timeshare offerings. We do not want to be tied down to one location/one city/one type of room/certain time of the year and other specifics to timeshare ownership. We use our points for what I feel is the best....a huge variety of vacations that we have shared as a family.

Don't get me wrong, I love WDW and DL and we go there quite often but love other places and types of vacations.

If you want to rebook another cruise while on this one and use points, all you have to do is call MS within 3 business day from your disembarkation date. You will get a reduction in points for your next cruise if you do it that way.

Sorry for the long response but this is something I feel very passionate about as you can well tell.

I am having some trouble getting this reply to post so I sure hope it doesn't post many times over!!! If it does, here's my apology right now....

I completely agree.

 

[christianweecare]

Thanks, 4Ever! I have a few questions about your advise about rebooking. We won't actually be on the Dec. Wonder cruise. It will be my sister's family on that cruise. She will be rebooking on her cruise for all of us. Of course, she will put down a cash deposit. How do I go about turning that reservation over to DVC so we can book on our points? Have you had any experience with a similar scenerio? Will we get to keep the onboard discount and onboard credit? Will be converted into a point reduction? I am not sure how all of this works!

 

[rescuetink]

I was told by the sales person I purchased my points from (which I did on the DCL in May this year) that the best way to use points for us with a family of 4 was to use the points for my wife and I, and pay cash for the kids, as the first two travelers on DCL are the most expensive, and the rest are cheaper. I'm not sure how this all works, but that's what I was told!!

We plan to use our points to go back on the DCL in 2011 as we love cruising with them. I have not one bad thing to say about DCL, and we'll be back again after 2011 again!!

 

[CarolAnnC]

Thanks, 4Ever! I have a few questions about your advise about rebooking. We won't actually be on the Dec. Wonder cruise. It will be my sister's family on that cruise. She will be rebooking on her cruise for all of us. Of course, she will put down a cash deposit. How do I go about turning that reservation over to DVC so we can book on our points? Have you had any experience with a similar scenerio? Will we get to keep the onboard discount and onboard credit? Will be converted into a point reduction? I am not sure how all of this works!

You cannot do this. DCL booked on cash is a completely different inventory than DCL booked on points via Member Services. You can book the cruise yourself with MS, but you cannot have a rebooking discount if you did not take the cruise to begin with.

 

[CarolA]

I have used my points and would do so again (I don't really pay much attention to the "don't do that" group LOL! IMHO the cruise isn't a bad deal. I don't find many of the options worth the "hype" much less doing LOL!)

That said I don't think you can take the reservation your Sister makes and "convert" it to points.

 

[christianweecare]

Thanks for your responses so far! It helps to hear your experiences. It will be interesting to see how all of this actually plays out.

Anyone else?

 

[Inkmahm]

Thanks, 4Ever! I have a few questions about your advise about rebooking. We won't actually be on the Dec. Wonder cruise. It will be my sister's family on that cruise. She will be rebooking on her cruise for all of us. Of course, she will put down a cash deposit. How do I go about turning that reservation over to DVC so we can book on our points? Have you had any experience with a similar scenerio? Will we get to keep the onboard discount and onboard credit? Will be converted into a point reduction? I am not sure how all of this works!

You've just discovered yet another reason why booking on points is a bad idea. You CAN'T get the reduced price if you pay with points! What a waste of a good reservation that would be if you tried to convert the reservation your sister makes for you into one with points.

Do the comparison yourself to see why it would make no sense. Figure out the cash price with the discount that your sister will get for you. Don't forget to consider onboard credits that you can also get with cash, but not with points.

Then look at how many points that same reservation would cost you. Compare that to the points times $10 each. I use $10 because I'd transfer my points to a fellow member on the rent / trade board at $10 or $11 each. I've done that to get the cash to pay for our DCL cruise. It is simple and painless to do. A couple emails with the person I was going to transfer to and one phone call to MS and it was done. I do NOT rent to non-members. Too much hassle.

My bet is you will see the benefits of paying cash for your cruise if you do your homework. I will never ever pay for a cruise with points. I'm an accountant by trade and I just can't bring myself to waste $ paying more for something than I have to. Not when it is so easy to convert the points into $ to use to pay for the cruise.

 

[christianweecare]

Thanks, Inkmahn! You have a good suggestion. We have never transferred our points to anyone before but your suggestion of only transferring points to members is worth considering. I would assume that transferring points between members would be the safest way to go about doing that.

I think I was lead to believe by a CM at MS that the onboard credit would be adjusted to our points ressie. Apparently, that was incorrect.

 

[Inkmahm]

Thanks, Inkmahn! You have a good suggestion. We have never transferred our points to anyone before but your suggestion of only transferring points to members is worth considering. I would assume that transferring points between members would be the safest way to go about doing that.

I think I was lead to believe by a CM at MS that the onboard credit would be adjusted to our points ressie. Apparently, that was incorrect.

Go ahead and check with MS, but I believe there are no onboard credits if you pay with points. No discounts, period.

For me, I think it is not only safer to restrict my transactions to fellow members but also less hassle. I don't want to have to call MS and make a reservation for someone else. Or to have to deal with date changes, possible cancellations, etc. Once a point transfer is made to another member, I no longer have any connection to those points. They aren't in my account any longer and the other member controls them completely. I like it that way. It works the same if I am transferring points IN to my account. I prefer to control the points rather than rent from another member and have them have to do the reservation legwork.

 

[Alexander]

We too have looked at crusing with our points, we got deals that using points just couldn't touch. When I did the math (and I'm not an accountant) there was no way I could justify "paying" with points. I rented out less than 1/3 of the points it would have taken to cruise and paid cash for the entire cruise.

For example, our last cruise:
April 2009 Points to Cruise: 316 Plus $95 Booking Fee
April 2009 Cash to Cruise: Just under $1200
Suggested Value: Points $3160 Plus $95 Equals $3255 for cruise
Rented out 130 Points for $1300 and paid cash with 186 Points Left
Even one adult would have been 115 points plus $95 (that's higher than the suggested value for the whole family of four)

I completely understand that to each is own, and if people choose to use points, that of course is their choice. There are always a bunch of families at the DVC party that have used points, so obviously people are doing it. I personally find it very hard to justify.

 

[christianweecare]

Inkmahn & Alexander: Both of you make very good points!

Alexander: Thank you for your example. That helps me understand the rational.

Inkmahn: How do you personally handle arrangements for payment when you transfer points to another member?

 

[rowbear]

I have done this and would not do it again. For that number of points I could have had 4 vacations instead of one very short one. The food was slightly better than some other cruise lines but that is not saying much. When it comes down to comparing quality over quantity a standard disney vacation wins in both categories... higher quality and more quantity.

ETA: Think about it. You are giving up going to the greatest vacation spot on the entire planet several times for a small cruise where you have the least amount of control over your vacation. It is essentially a floating summer camp.

 

[NE14DisneyWorld?]

We were on the Wonder last week (Thur - Sun) and while on-board booked the 14 night Western TransAtlantic for 2010 on points. We also attended the DVC member gathering the first night and found out they offer a discount on the number of points to takes to book a cruise if you book while on board. Our reservation was a bit complicated because my daughter wanted to also book for the same cruise and we wanted connecting staterooms. The Cruise Line rep was able to book her room (with another adult and two childern) and I paid her deposit, then the rep booked our room and did not take a deposit, but secured the room. She told us we had three days to confirm with Member Services and secure the reservation, or it would expire. When we left the ship on Sunday, I called Member Services with my cell phone and secured the reservation then with no trouble at all, and received the discounted amount of points. The CM from Member Services confirmed we still had the same connecting staterooms, they just took over the reservation. While my daughter received the 10% discount and on-board credit from Disney and our travel agent, we did not get any on-board credits. ... However, our cruise is paid for and we were not planning to use the points anyway, and I do not like renting!

Tammy

 

[christianweecare]

We were on the Wonder last week (Thur - Sun) and while on-board booked the 14 night Western TransAtlantic for 2010 on points. We also attended the DVC member gathering the first night and found out they offer a discount on the number of points to takes to book a cruise if you book while on board. Our reservation was a bit complicated because my daughter wanted to also book for the same cruise and we wanted connecting staterooms. The Cruise Line rep was able to book her room (with another adult and two childern) and I paid her deposit, then the rep booked our room and did not take a deposit, but secured the room. She told us we had three days to confirm with Member Services and secure the reservation, or it would expire. When we left the ship on Sunday, I called Member Services with my cell phone and secured the reservation then with no trouble at all, and received the discounted amount of points. The CM from Member Services confirmed we still had the same connecting staterooms, they just took over the reservation. While my daughter received the 10% discount and on-board credit from Disney and our travel agent, we did not get any on-board credits. ... However, our cruise is paid for and we were not planning to use the points anyway, and I do not like renting!

Tammy

That's very interesting. So maybe the CM at MS was telling me the correct information after all.

 

[Inkmahm]

We were on the Wonder last week (Thur - Sun) and while on-board booked the 14 night Western TransAtlantic for 2010 on points. We also attended the DVC member gathering the first night and found out they offer a discount on the number of points to takes to book a cruise if you book while on board. Our reservation was a bit complicated because my daughter wanted to also book for the same cruise and we wanted connecting staterooms. The Cruise Line rep was able to book her room (with another adult and two childern) and I paid her deposit, then the rep booked our room and did not take a deposit, but secured the room. She told us we had three days to confirm with Member Services and secure the reservation, or it would expire. When we left the ship on Sunday, I called Member Services with my cell phone and secured the reservation then with no trouble at all, and received the discounted amount of points. The CM from Member Services confirmed we still had the same connecting staterooms, they just took over the reservation. While my daughter received the 10% discount and on-board credit from Disney and our travel agent, we did not get any on-board credits. ... However, our cruise is paid for and we were not planning to use the points anyway, and I do not like renting!

Tammy

What were the points that you paid compared to the points that you would have paid had you not booked while on the cruise? And what was the OBC amount that you did not get?

I don't like renting, either. That's why I only do transfers to other members.

 

[Inkmahm]

Inkmahn & Alexander: Both of you make very good points!

Alexander: Thank you for your example. That helps me understand the rational.

Inkmahn: How do you personally handle arrangements for payment when you transfer points to another member?

I have collected with paypal and also paid for a transfer with paypal. Another member preferred sending me a bank check rather than using paypal and I was fine with that, too.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

I have collected with paypal and also paid for a transfer with paypal. Another member preferred sending me a bank check rather than using paypal and I was fine with that, too.

I don't think we are supposed to recieve money for transfers......