Cruising Advice

[toolsnspools]

I'm looking to book our first cruise next year. We are a family of 5, so we need to get a level 4 stateroom. Anything bigger would be out of our price range. It's going to be a 4 night Bahamas cruise on the Disney Dream. So what do I need to know before booking the trip? I know this is a wide open question, but any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Wow! Spend the day at work and look at all the advice I get. :ROFLOL:

This is all good stuff. I figured out the cost/point and you're right, it's not a great deal. Just shy of 300 pts saves us about $2,900 on the cruise, and the same amount of pts got a week at AKL that would have retailed for $6,400. We probably won't get the chance to go down twice in the same year though, and DW really wants to ride the boat. :shrug: I suppose I could rent out the points and use the $$ to pay for the cruise. I'll have to look into it.

As for a passport, Disney highly recommended getting them. You can use a certified copy of your birth certificate, but if you get sick and need to fly back, it is almost impossible to do.

Now, I don't want to sound like I am discouraging you from getting passports, because truly I am not. But there are emergency repatriation laws in place for exactly that - emergencies.

I am just sensitive to people saying you have to have them. I have a friend who's previous travel agent told them they couldn't go on a last minute cruise because they didn't have passports, and that is completely incorrect.

There is certainly no downside to having them, however, so if you've got the money, do it! I am going on a last minute Mediterranean cruise in two weeks, and if we hadn't have already had passports, it wouldn't have been possible.

 

[gettingsmaller]

Not being a DVC owner, I haven't looked into this much, but I DID find this website while checking out alternatives for a friend: http://www.dvcrequest.com/disney-vacation-club-members.htm

This site rents points for $13/pt. I'm not sure what they offer the owners for the points, but--of course--it would be less than that...
Of course, there are always alternatives like eBay, etc... just depends on how much time you're willing to put into it yourself vs. letting someone else deal with it, I guess...