Help with cruise for points anyone?

[niall]

Hi All
great forum.. lots of interesting stuff.. so i have a question and this really is a 6 pointer:

I would like to go on a European cruise somtine in July / Aug. There are 4 adults and 3 kids (12yr), i would like to use all my points (308k RCI) and then pay the balance for the week / 2week cruise by check/card.. can anybody point (excuse the pun) me in the right direction?

all help will be much appreciated.
thanks in advance.... Niall

 

[fnewman]

Most people will say don't do it because you will get so little for your points. For certain, I don't think it is possible to get a cruise for 'free' no matter how many points you use. The only time I would use points for a cruise would be if I was not going to be be able to use them otherwise; in that case, whatever you can get is better than nothing, IMHO.

 

[PeelBoy]

I have never exchanged into cruise, by weeks or points, but have studied it for a few days during my TS exchange vacation.

After factoring in MF, and exchange fee, RCI and II cruise deals are always $50 to $100 more than the online travel agencies, for an inside cabin. For outside or balcony, you are like giving RCI or II your week for free.

 

[fnewman]

So, that just states my point more clearly - basically, based on your analysis you will achieve a 'savings' approximately equal to your MF, but that only makes sense if you were going to lose your MF for that year anyway because you were not going to be able to use your points

 

[abc31]

You might be better off renting your unit and using the money towards a cruise.

 

[dougp26364]

Before tossing the baby out with the bath water, what you'll need to do is call RCI and ask them what the discount off the cruise will be. Then you'll need to sit down and do some math.

Generally speaking the $$ saved on the cruise will be less than the dollars spent on exchange fee's and maintenance fee's. BUT, that's NOT ALWAYS true. You must call first and find out what the discount is before jumping to conclusions.

Using my HGVC points, the discount has been approximately what we paid in MF's for that year. We have made that exchange twice. Both times have been on Caribbean Cruises, one 4 nighter that was essentially paid in full and another 6 nighter that we had to come up with a couple of hundred dollars.

Determining factors seem to be the expense of the cruise and the expense of the cabin. You'll need to decide what cabin catagory, cruise line et... and check the lowest price for you cabin catagory you can find on the internet. Start by reading the forums at Cruise Critic. Their posters can point you in the right direction even though their webmaster no longer allows posing direct referals on their forums.

Once you have determinded the lowest price for the cabin catagory you want on the cruiseline of you choice, then contact RCI's cruise dept. and find out what costs are associated with the exchange and what discount your points will get you. Keep in mind that the discount may be per cabin so, if you get two cabins side by side rather than one larger cabin to hold eveyone you discount may be larger.

Only after making the call, checking on prices and doing the match can you decided if it's a good deal for you or not. I've done three cruise exchanges. The one we did through I.I. was not a good deal but, I wasn't going to be able to use the week, depositing for use next year was going to net the same problem and we were going to take the cruise anyway so, I pulled the trigger and at least got a little value out of that week. The next two we essentially broke even on the cost of our MF's but again, those were weeks we weren't going to be able to use and we were going to take those cruises so I might as well get some usage out of MF $$ I was having to pay anyway.

There have been numerous times where the money didn't work out and we didn't make the cruise exchange. MOST of the time it's not a good deal but there have been times when it worked out for us.

 

[dougp26364]

So, that just states my point more clearly - basically, based on your analysis you will achieve a 'savings' approximately equal to your MF, but that only makes sense if you were going to lose your MF for that year anyway because you were not going to be able to use your points

It also makes sense if you'd rather take a cruise tour than take a land based vacation. Sometimes, we much prefer to cruise than to be stationary for a week. A European cruise is a wonderful way to get the flavor of several different countries without having to pack or unpack at each stop plus, be guarenteed to find food (back on the ship) that's to your liking. My wife can be a picky eater and foreign travel can be a gastornomical crap shoot for her (don't read between the lines there).

 

[BillR]

Goggle the cruise lines - Call a couple of Cruise Travel Agencies - Call AAA Travel - then compute the cost compared to the cost of your points. I would guess that your cost with points would be 10% to 25% higher.

 

[dopeyfav]

I have discussed this option with RCI & quickly decided it was not a good value.

Go directly to the website of the cruiseline you are interested & check the exact cruise you discuss with RCI & I almost guarantee little or no price difference by you paying cash.

Use your points for something else & shop for a cruise.

vacationstogo.com & onlinevacationcenter.com both have some good discounts.

Good luck.

 

[dougp26364]

Goggle the cruise lines - Call a couple of Cruise Travel Agencies - Call AAA Travel - then compute the cost compared to the cost of your points. I would guess that your cost with points would be 10% to 25% higher.

Unless they've changed in the last 6 months, TA's are not suppose to discount off the published price or rebate any portion of their comissions when booking Royal Caribbean or Celebrity cruises. I believe all other still allow these practices and you can find lower prices by shopping around. Many online do-it-yourself agencies offer the best rates with savings sometimes of several hundred dollars per person.

We've taken 7 cruises over the last 4 years. 3 of those have been a cruise exchange and two of them essentially covered our MF's for the resort we used. The one time it wasn't a very good deal was when I was faced with a use it or lose it scenario. In that case I still recouped at least $400 or our $600 MF. I'd never go that route again unless I was backed into a corner (use it or lose it and we had planned on taking a cruise anyway) but the other two times worked out reasonably well without any significant lose of $$.

 

[dougp26364]

I have discussed this option with RCI & quickly decided it was not a good value.

Go directly to the website of the cruiseline you are interested & check the exact cruise you discuss with RCI & I almost guarantee little or no price difference by you paying cash.

Use your points for something else & shop for a cruise.

vacationstogo.com & onlinevacationcenter.com both have some good discounts.

Good luck.

I think there is a sticky at the top of the travel forum that lists several of TUG members favorite discount online cruise TA's.

 

[MusicMan]

Unless they've changed in the last 6 months, TA's are not suppose to discount off the published price or rebate any portion of their comissions when booking Royal Caribbean or Celebrity cruises.

That is also true, I believe, for Carnival, but in almost all cases the TA will throw in some freebie/onboard credit/something that the cruise line won't give you. It's usually worth asking.

 

[PeelBoy]

I think there is a sticky at the top of the travel forum that lists several of TUG members favorite discount online cruise TA's.

Doug, there is an assumption in your argument. That's you could not use your week and could not get much juice by depositing it to RCI.

In that case, cruise exchange is a good option.

Cruise exchange definitely is not an added value, except in your scenario.

 

[dougp26364]

That is also true, I believe, for Carnival, but in almost all cases the TA will throw in some freebie/onboard credit/something that the cruise line won't give you. It's usually worth asking.

Carnival may have changed but, their policy had been not to allow advertising lower prices. They have been allowing TA's to discount but it has to be under the table and not advertised. IOW, you have to ask for a quote. RCI and Celebrity on the other hand will punish any TA they catch discounting under the table.

 

[dougp26364]

Doug, there is an assumption in your argument. That's you could not use your week and could not get much juice by depositing it to RCI.

In that case, cruise exchange is a good option.

Cruise exchange definitely is not an added value, except in your scenario.

Pretty much but I'm sure there are TS owners that feel a cruise exchange, even if the discount is only equal to their MF's, is a good deal. Personally I don't see the value in that if one pays from a few thousand to several thousand dollars, just to have their yearly MF's discounted back to them for a cruise. Which is why we've only done cruise exchanges when our situation has changed so that we would have a week we couldn't use in one way or another.

But, we only need one cabin. I have seen posts that indicate the discount is offered per cabin and, if I'd have needed more than one cabin and if the discount had been $625/cabin, then it might be a better deal.

 

[PeelBoy]

I have a question about the cruise discount.

Last time, I used my one bedroom pink week in Outerbanks to study RCI cruise. If I use a 2 bedroom July 4 week in Myrtle Beach, will the discount be bigger? These 2 weeks have different trade power, because of season and unit size.

If so, the RCI cruise discount may be a good indicator of trade power.

 

[lynnray]

didn't make sense for us

I have been shopping cruises for next year and the RCI deal was more expensive than booking through a cruise travel sight online - the best one I found was smartcruiser.com. Check them out and use your points for something else. Good luck.

 

[geekette]

Run the numbers.

I don't know about the Points side, but on the Weeks side, it starts to make more sense on the higher-priced trips where you need several cabins (RCI price is good on every occupant in up to 4 cabins).