7-Day Cruises in summer?

[anonymice]

Hi all-- We're considering buying into DVC and have questions about the cruises:
Do the 7-day cruises run during the summer months?
If the number of points per person is less than what we have available, even with banking and borrowing, what happens? Do we pay the rest in cash? How is that calculated?
For a family of 5, it looks like we'd be in a deluxe family suite w/verandah (cat. 4). Do those points include any of the 3 children or does each child cost extra?
We already know how great the cruises are; we've only ever heard positive things. Any info/experiences regarding these questions that anyone can share would really be appreciated!!!
Thanks!

[Stimpy]

There are 7 day cruises during the summer but the last few years including this summer and next, Disney has been doing special cruises in Europe (this year) and the Panama Canal/West Coast cruises (last year and next year).

You can do partial points for your party but I think it would be more along the lines of using all points for 1 member of your family and paying cash for another....ie I don't think you can use half points half cash for 1 person's fare. I'm not sure about that since we have always paid cash since it works out to be cheaper for us. I do know you can use points for some people in the stateroom and pay cash for others.

If you don't "need" a veranda, you may want to look into getting 2 connecting inside staterooms for your family. Sometimes it winds up being cheaper than getting the Cat 4.

[tiggerguy2000]

As stimpy was saying about using points for as many as you can and paying for the rest.The further ahead you book the cheaper it would be so using your points could go toward extending your disney stay before and after if paying for the cruise.My first cruise I did the 2 cat 10 adjoining inside rooms on the 7th floor(7505,7507) instead of putting everyone into a cat 4 room that is only 5 feet longer then a cat 10 room.You can put the kids in one room and yourself in the other.The cost is the same so it's your choice Room with a ocean view deck cramped in like sardines or 2 rooms inside with no view but twice the room and 2 bathrooms.Your on a boat it's all ocean view outside.At night after 9 it's quiet and dont forget waking up for the sun rise it's awesome.

tiggerguy

[anonymice]

Thanks! That sounds like it would make more sense for us too: it looks like getting connecting inside staterooms might not only be cheaper, but would also give us more space and another bathroom.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure that I can use the Disney cruise as an incentive to convince my husband to buy into DVC because I'm not sure that using DVC points would be the most cost-efficient way to do the cruise. My husband looked into booking through regular channels and (depending on how much cash we'd have to pay after using all our current, banked and borrowed points) it might actually be cheaper to just book it retail. Maybe I'm missing something....

[tiggerguy2000]

becoiming a dvc member for the cruise is never going to sound good because it takes alot of points.They dont show any summer dates and most are in the fall,winter and early spring.A cat 4 room in regular season is 344 points for the first 2 and the cat 10 is 201 points for the first 2 so you can see the point difference.here is a better example why to join the DVC family(2 bedroom beach club cost around $5,000 for a week stay)You use between 270 to 350 points.I have 500 points and go twice a year for 10 nights in a 1 bedroom villa each trip so lets not think what the cash cost would be.The perks are great like concierge free parking at the resort,discount of a hundred dollars for annual pass and so on with discounts on everything.i can't wait to say welcome home and if you do please give me a shout so you could give them my name.

tiggerguy

[Stimpy]

I agree. The points for using at the DVC resorts are a tremendous value. I would never use our points for a Disney cruise. (Although I know others do and are happy with that decision) We've cruised a few times with Disney and have 1 more coming up. It's always been much cheaper for us to pay cash than to use points.

This year we actually rented 70 extra points we had to a friend for $700 which we applied towards our cruise payment...those 70 points would have hardly put a dent into the points we would have needed for 1 person to cruise (Cat 6) but the $700 helped pay off a big chunk of the cash payment.

From what I understand, using points can sometimes work for you since point values do not change as the cruise gets closer. The earlier you book a Disney cruise on cash, the cheaper it is. As you get closer and the ship fills, the prices go up. IF there are DVC allocated staterooms available close to the sail date, it could be possible that they are "cheaper" than cash rooms. But we always book very far in advance so I don't know how true that it :)