using pts for a cruise

[BWV Dreamin]

I definitly plan on using my points for a Disney cruise. I consider the Cruise an additional resort/destination, part of the whole Disney timeshare package. The reasons I prefer to use my points is that I can book at later timeframes and get the same accomodations and I don't have to pay additional money...just use the points I've already bought. I think you can cancel just like at any other resort with the same guidelines (correct me if I am wrong on this). So why pay more money? To me, that defeats the reasons for buying the points in the first place.

 

[crisi]

I think you can cancel just like at any other resort with the same guidelines (correct me if I am wrong on this). So why pay more money? To me, that defeats the reasons for buying the points in the first place.

Points used to cruise become "reservation points" when canceled - which have additional restrictions - they can only be used for other trade options - you can't use them to book SSR for instance.

The other big difference is that points to cruise change from year to year - for someone like me with enough points to take my "regular" trip and not a lot of points to spare - that makes it difficult to plan two years out to know for sure how many points I'll need. I much prefer the certainly of planning fixed point options because I'm not in the position to be able to pony up extra points (unless I'd rent some). But if I had points to spare, I think I'd use them however I wanted - or if I had all my vacation eggs in this basket, we'd either use points to cruise or rent them out (which I think its still using your points to cruise - its just changing the value of them).

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Points used to cruise become "reservation points" when canceled - which have additional restrictions - they can only be used for other trade options - you can't use them to book SSR for instance.

The other big difference is that points to cruise change from year to year - for someone like me with enough points to take my "regular" trip and not a lot of points to spare - that makes it difficult to plan two years out to know for sure how many points I'll need. I much prefer the certainly of planning fixed point options because I'm not in the position to be able to pony up extra points (unless I'd rent some). But if I had points to spare, I think I'd use them however I wanted - or if I had all my vacation eggs in this basket, we'd either use points to cruise or rent them out (which I think its still using your points to cruise - its just changing the value of them).

Thanks for the update on that cancellation policy. Well, hopefully they won't increase the points too much, especially with the coming of the new cruise ships. Can you elaborate on that "reservation status"? Thanks,

 

[crisi]

According to my member guidebook, when you book a non-DVC option your "vacation points" are converted to "reservation points" Reservation points "may not be converted back to vacation points. They may only be used for booking a future Member Getaways vacation within the same Use Year." Which means you can't bank or borrow those points, you need to use them outside the DVC resorts, and you need to use them before they expire.

Also, I'm not up on current information on booking cruises with points, but in the past there has been a small additional fee ($75 or something) and you had to pay out of pocket for port taxes (also not much). Its possible that either one or both of those fees is not currently in effect.

 

[Muushka]

Yes, between not so hot return for point value, and lousy point refund if you cancel, for us using points for a cruise is not a good idea.

 

[tidefan]

With rentals or transfer or points easily going at $11-12 per point, why not rent the points and pay cash for the cruise? Seems to me you are giving Disney at least 30% of your point value each time you allow them to give you a value of $8 per point.

The hassles of renting are not worth the $2-$3 dollars per point to me. To me, the included food and transport are worth the $2-$3 premium on points. As another poster pointed out, it doesn't always work that way, much of the time the deal is not worth it, however, we got a free year's worth of points when we bought in April that we weren't using, so we figured why not use that surplus on the cruise before DD4 starts Kindergarden and we could still go in the value season.

 

[rugrats2001]

remember that each year of dvc ownership, cost per point will go down, so our cruises have cost us less than $10 per point at this time and i was told by a guide that you figure your cost at $5 per point for a vacation. so our first 7 day cruise in 2000 will have cost us $2250 for three in a category 6 stateroom. sounds pretty comparable to the cash deals out there. and we talked to a family looking to buy points on the cruise and she told me that they spent $5000 for the same category for four.

I'm sorry, but I just don't think that is right. The guides are salespeople, not unbiased financial advisors. When you purchase a DVC membership, you should include the annuity value of your original purchase price at a reasonable rate of interest (I use 5%), plus your MF, to compute the true cost of your points each year.

Regardless of the Time-Share marketing laws in Florida, your purchase price is an INVESTMENT in real estate; a depreciating investment, but an investment none the less. Therefore, it SHOULD be expected to pay a reasonable amount of interest.

If you were to purchase AKV this year at $96 per point, a 50 year annuity at 5% would give a payout -per year- of about $5.35 per point. Combined with the MF of $4.62 -per point-, you would have a cost of about $9.97 per point this year. Ten years from now, the cost -per point- to you would be $5.35 per point plus the then-current MF per point. Unless the MF goes down, your cost per point can't decrease.

This is the figure that I use in computing whether DVC is working for me. I don't think it makes financial sense to pile up all of the 'expenses' in the first few years so that the next 40-some years look rosier than they really are.

For us, DVC makes pretty good sense; For some others, not so much!

 

[pogopossum]

i guess i just look at it differently. i just want to know how much has it cost me so far to do what i have done so far, or points used versus dollars spent right now. i don't want to extrapolate out not knowing what costs will actually be, or whether i sell my membership. if that happens then my cost per point goes down even further.

that being said, using the formula year to year the sum continues to go down, even with cost increases to points. in our eighth year of membership last year our cost per point was around $9.90. the dynamic changes this year as we have added on AKV. with this calculation you can figure out your break even year fairly easy.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

So as to minimize the cancellation issues, I would probably try to book last minute for a cruise. I wonder what the availablility is for DVC members, say Cat. 5-6 last minute? Anyone tried this?

 

[Muushka]

On our cruise in 2004 our table mates were DVC members who booked (with points) at about 1 month out.

I think yours is a very good idea. If we ever had points to burn (Ha!), that would be a good way to use them. We always book our cruises so far in advance that it makes no sense using points because you never know what will happen. Having said that, we have booked our vacations and cruises pretty much 11 months to 1.5 years in advance and have not had to cancel one. Yay!

 

[pogopossum]

we've always booked ours with points at least a year in advance as well and have never had to cancel yet. after our last cruise we looked at booking our next one as soon as we got home to get the rebook discount, but it just wasn't time to add on yet for the extra points we would need for the 10 or 11 day southern cruise. but now we have done the add on and there will be a lot less borrowing or banking going on for next years december cruise.

speaking of which, i've been meaning to call MS, anybody know how soon can we book that?

 

[crisi]

So as to minimize the cancellation issues, I would probably try to book last minute for a cruise. I wonder what the availablility is for DVC members, say Cat. 5-6 last minute? Anyone tried this?

There are a limited number of rooms available on points for the most part - when they are gone they are gone. Plus, cash prices get more and more expensive as you get closer to the cruise, so if there is a cash room available but not a points room, the cash room would be really expensive (one of the advantages of booking on points is that the point price is fixed for the year).

I don't know, but maybe you can get the travel insurance for a cruise on points that you can get when you book DVC - or maybe one of the other travel insurance companies would insure it.

(I'd book a cruise early in my use year - ours is April - so a May or June cruise - if we had to cancel, we'd have reservation points - but would have time to do something with them).

 

[dunbarfamily]

Ok. You guys are going to think I'm an idiot. But I have to ask...

When you're talking about how many dollars it is a point to use your points vs paying cash, is it a better deal to have a higher per point dollar figure or a lower one? How do you figure out how much it is a point? Do you take the cash price and divide it by the points needed?

Now I'm going to bury my non-mathematic head in the sand....

 

[pogopossum]

When you're talking about how many dollars it is a point to use your points vs paying cash, is it a better deal to have a higher per point dollar figure or a lower one? How do you figure out how much it is a point?

not an idiot, you would sorta be talking two different things. what your figure would be is value of that trip per point, this you want high. say it was a seven day cruise and it cost $5700 for your family in cash, but it cost 625 in points, the value of this cruise using points is $9.12 per point. i see that you are new members, and based on what you have paid in so far it won't look like that good a deal, but a cruise vacation willl accelerate your break even point, because that $5700 goes against what it cost to buy in.

my calculations for our membership included total of down payment + total cost of loan + annual dues paid in so far + transfer fees for using our points outside of dvc 7 times divided by the number of points used for all of these vacations. which as of last year was down to around $9.90 per point. we are in our eighth year and each year this calculation has gone down. so it would be fair to say that at the end in 2042 i anticipate everything that we will have done will have cost $5.00-$6.00 per point. then that cruise you took in 2007 or 2008 will have only cost $3125.00 - $3750.00.

given all that, and wanting convenience, i would just rather cruise using points.