# ICE Gallery/ICE Rewards for cruises?



## lkszjohns (Aug 3, 2006)

*www.icegallery.com* and *www.icerewards.com*

Can anyone explain what ICE is, and if you think it’s a good program?

Does anyone have a membership?  Have you ever used it?

They say they have the best cruise prices or will meet or beat anyone else's.  True?

Also, they say they will give me 10K points for my Westgate week, which is what they say a 7 day cruise will cost.  And I can earn points booking travel, but they didn't even tell how many per dollar spent.  Ughhh!

I haven't been able to get any good information on this program.

I was calling in with a question about my Westgate timeshare and they just gave me the number for ICE without any additional information.  I called ICE asking about their membership and they would told me that I could get bonus weeks and exchange for cruises, but I already get that through RCI, so I didn't understand why I would pay more to sign up with them.

The ICE rep told me that Westgate was paying for the first year and I could use that time to understand the system, but after the first year it would be $199 per year.  Or, I could get an 11 year membership for $599 paid upfront.  After about 2 minutes, without even giving me any time to really understand the membership or even attempt to explain the point system, she told me I had to choose.

It was worse than a timeshare presentation.  They at least give you something to look at and an hour long explanation.

I finally told them I would not make the decision without showing it to my husband, who won't be home for a couple hours and she agreed to give me 24 hours to look over the website.

Any input would be appreciated.  THANKS!


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## Carolinian (Aug 3, 2006)

I have not seen a ''cruise exchange'' program that was much of a deal compared to the cash prices of the cruise discounters or cruise consolidators, although on numbers I have seen in the past, ICE was a little better than RCI.  Always consider ALL of the real costs, and then compare with the discounters cash price.  Some of the largest are, in a sticky on the Travel Info board.


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## dougp26364 (Aug 3, 2006)

IMO, they're not worth the time or the effort. I've called them 3 or 4 times and the exchange values are laughable at best and an insult at worst. From what I can decipher on their web site, 10,000 points generally translates to a discount of $300 per person. That's hardly a free 7 night cruise in most cases. Even in the cheapest inside cabin. 

I believe the cruise discounter they use is called Our Vacation Store. From what I've seen on their web site, their prices are never the lowest. Any time I've called ICE Gallery for a price without exchange, they've always been one of the highest.

We have two lifetime memberships with them. At this point, I've tossed all of the information. I gave up on them several years ago. The only reason I checked back into them recently was the HOA at one of our timeshares issued owners a certificate that was supposedly worth a one week timeshare exchange. When I looked at it online, it was only good for 2,500 points. The site was difficult to understand but it appears that those 2,500 points are worthless, which brings me back to my opinion of ICE Gallery, they're worthless.


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## Dave M (Aug 4, 2006)

Here's a thread from earlier this year that confirms what I have seen written here consistently in recent years - not worth the money.


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