I'm in the camp of not wanting to work a lot to take a vacation. I currently have 4 cruises booked and while it was tempting to rent points to help cover the costs, I know how impatient I am and I don't have the tolerance to deal with lookyloos when renting direct to consumer. I also don't want to rent through the third party places because it's still on me to make the reservations. For me, it's easier to work more at my regular job than to work for some random people online, trying to get them a reservation.
A few months ago, I had excess points and thought I needed to "use up" some points. I booked a cruise through MS and booked a Cascade Cabin stay for only myself and my husband. Jokes on me, because now I've borrowed from my next use year for some DL stays and I'm constantly forcing myself to not keep borrowing for other stays. Exchanging through MS is obviously the easiest choice and they are great as far as being helpful and having wonderful service. It's seriously the worst way to book if you care about saving money. $95. exchange fee, any additional fees due immediately (we booked one person on points and one person on cash), worst cancellation policy. However, I would do it again in the future if I had extra points to burn and the cruise was coming up quickly and I knew for sure that I wouldn't cancel.
IMO, the best way to book a cruise is to just pay for it and not use
DVC at all. They are different entities and should be thought of that way.
My next choice would be to rent out your points directly and book the cruise through someone who can give you OBC. There's lots of places like that. I've been booking through Sandi because I like the convenience of emailing and always having the same contact person. She'll give you OBC or a gift card.
Third choice would be to book through MS and just accept the fact that you are paying an absolute ridiculous premium, but isn't that everything Disney?
My last choice would be to use the third party places like the board sponsor. For me, the extra work just isn't a good use of my time. If their client cancels, I have to call MS and change the guest information. They don't offer OBC even though they are doubling their profits by getting commission from
DCL and marking up my DVC points.
Of course, I know that I'm a grumpy old lady, but that's the order I would personally book and why. And proceed with caution if you think you'll have excess points. I don't know how I went from excess to not enough in just a few short months. I'm hoping to normalize my point spending in the next couple of years. If I can't do that, I guess I'll have to buy more.
), you're pretty close to breaking even by going direct through Disney.
