My wife and I have been contemplating doing a DCL trip in possibly January 2025. Since that is a scant 3 years, 2 months away, we have to start planning now!
When I was first looking, I saw that a room on the Disney Dream for a 3 night cruise was 112 points. Except, I realize now that was the point cost PER PERSON. Woops.
Regardless, I was wondering if it is possible too book a cruise PARTLY on points, and the remainder on cash? Likeā¦book one of us through points, and the other pays the rest in cash? This would allow us to use the remainder of our points for a few nights at WDW prior to (or after) the cruise itself.
In theory, we would book the whole trip on points, but it would use up all our points. Not sure that makes the best financial sense, though.
The third option is not to pay for the cruise with points at all. Downside to this is that it means more out-of-pocket costs (although, points could be used for a separate WDW trip then).
I believe Davidās or another rental company has a cruise program? The most cost effective booking is to rent your points out and then use that cash for the booking.
They are converted to āReservation Pointsā, similar to if you used them for exchanging with RCI, etc., so there are some limitations involved. Resale points, however, means you donāt qualify for the discounted rates when offered.
Eligible Disney Vacation Club Ā® Members can enjoy 35% off original Points Chart values when booking with Reservation Points or a combination of Reservation Points and cash for select sailings to the Bahamas and Caribbean on the Disney Magic and Disney Wonder. Terms Apply.
Thing is, the ādiscountā is only for āeligibleā DVC membersā¦meaning, not resale. So, while I can use points and cashā¦Iād have to wait for some other cruise discount that applies to the more general public.
Correct. You have to convert vacation points to āreservation pointsā to use them, which has a whole slew of limitations compared to the vacation points.
But, if they really are limiting the use of reservation points to also not include DCL, then it makes the planning easy. Iāll just plan to pay cash for the DCL I guess!
Good question. I read about it when I was doing initial research, and saw references to reservation points. But then, finding any mention of reservation points on Disneyās own website continues to be tricky. Iāll have to look all over again.
But, regardless, Iām now thinking booking by cash will end up being the way to go, regardless. When I do a āprice pointā comparison, it seems like using points for a cruise is a waste of point value. When I āmisunderstoodā the points to mean the point cost for the room, not per guest, it seemed reasonable to use points.
All I can find about reservation points is that those are what it is called when points are converted to DCL, adventurers by Disney, or the concierge collection. Since resale points canāt be converted, I donāt think that applies.
Thatās very possible. I think the confusion is that when you convert points to use for RCI (which IS allowed), they are also called reservation points, apparentlyā¦so you CAN convert them to reservation points. But apparently only certain TYPES of reservation points!
Good to work through this confusion now, instead of 2 years from now!
