I have actually completed a booking going through the DVC process. There's an active reservation in my Disney Experience!
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Here's what I learned:
EDIT: BIGGEST LEARNING... the DVC people have the wrong information.
-The people you reach first at DVC cannot view the Star cruiser inventory. They can only give you a 'quote' for how much what you want *should* cost. Then they put you in the real SW phone queue (the same one AP's eventually get into also) to talk to someone who can actually make the booking. Expect another 2 hour wait in that queue after you talk to DVC
Also, DVC has to free up the requisite points in your account before they will transfer you to someone who can check the inventory. So they will make you cancel reservations if you otherwise don't have enough points between the appropriate use year + 50% borrowing + if you want to pay cash for up to 24 points. Without knowing whether you can confirm the reservation you want.
EDIT: Don't let them do this to you if you want to keep your reservation!!
The DVC people are wrong!! The website is wrong. You can pay all with cash even as a DVC member. See below.
Fortunately, you can check on this yourself. It appears the availability calendar here:
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/star-wars-galactic-starcruiser/planning/#availabilityCalendar is updated in real time. So you can't tell which room types are available, but you can see if a date is completely sold out. (However realistically it's pretty much all standard rooms that are available. Both times I was able to reach an actual SW booking agent who could see the inventory, they told me all the suites were sold out.)
Also, If you have 3+ people in your party, you can pay for the 3'rd person (86 points) with points, and the first 2 with cash. So for those of us who like to maximize the $ value of your points, this is an option.
The above is what the DVC person told me. They were wrong. When I got to the actual star cruiser person, he said it had to be all points, or all cash for the entire reservation. HOWEVER, they let me book it all with cash as a DVC member.
While AP members can make a reservation with a 20% deposit,
DVC members must pay the entire cash cost at booking. However, that is all refundable except for the $95 fee if you cancel 90+ days out. The thing to be aware of is that (like any Disney Collection experience), the points cannot be refunded back as normal DVC points. They become 'reservation points' that can only be used in the Disney hotel system, not the DVC properties.
DVC person was wrong, there's no such thing as paying cash and points. (Although these terms would apply if you paid for it all with points.)
