use TS to go on cruises

[erniehart]

Hello all, new here
My wife and I just went to a TS presentation at Willamsburg Plantation. We didn't buy or anything but they did peak my interest in timeshares and upon further research it seems timeshares are not as bad as I had thought.

The big problem for us though is that for our vacations we really enjoy cruises, We have been on 4 of them and loved every one. we did an all inclusive in Dominican Republic and did not like it. We like seeing different things every day.

With that said is there a good way to use a timeshare to go on cruises and what should i be looking for.

I saw some information that seemed to indicate a point system might be possible.

 

[VacationForever]

The issue is that it is not of good value to use timeshare to exchange for cruises. Pay for the cruise directly. Find a good travel agency that gives you additional perks.

 

[Passepartout]

We find that when you can make it work, to either have a TS week pre-cruise, or at the end works well. It adds another element of complexity, but when it works it's cool. Like a cruise of the Baltics coupled with a Scotland TS stay, or Mediterranean cruise with a Barcelona or Rome or??? stay. Caribbean and a Florida TS stay is easy. But as mentioned- using timeshare 'points' or whatever the annual fee pays for to get a discount from the full retail price of a cruise is a very poor use of those dollars.

Jim

Whatever you do DO NOT BUY a TS from a developer. They are identical to those you can buy resale on eBay or here on TUG for pennies on the dollar- or even for free.

 

[moonstone]

+1 for not using points for a cruise (or All Inclusive vacation). As others have said it just isn't good value, as you can get a better deal (& perks) booking the cruise on your own, then adding to the vacation with a timeshare stay either before or afterwards. When we first looked into using our timeshare week for a cruise, not only would we need to pay the exchange fee but then a fee for the 'all-inclusive' part (meals & activities) as well as port fees...

We have taken 3 cruises out of FL with a timeshare stay (once the week before & twice the week after the cruise) and our DS did a week in Rome followed by a Mediterranean cruise for their honeymoon. We prefer the timeshare stay for the week after the cruise as we are very active on the cruise and feel the need for a few days to recover before our drive home. Our DS wanted to start his trip with the timeshare stay so he would already be in the area and avoid any flight delays and possibly missing the cruise departure.


~Diane