HGVC Cruises - Not a Good Deal?

[SallyMagoo]

I called a HGVC cruise agent to inquire about the prices for an Alaskan cruise we want to take next summer (2007), including how many HGVC points would be required, additional cash, etc.

I had priced a Celebrity cruise we wanted at about $3,250 on the cruisequick.com website; this is for 3 people in an inside cabin and includes insurance, taxes, etc. I understand we would get some additional bonuses through cruisequick for shipboard credit, etc.

We would have 12,300 HGVC points available to borrow (including 2008 points) for the cruise. For the same type of cabin as referred to above, HGVC tells me that we would have to use all our points (12,300) and pay an additional $2,110 for the cruise. That figure doesn't include an additional $69 fee for the reservation; I think it includes insurance.

It seems to me that just paying cash for the cruise is a much better deal, and keeping the HGVC points for other exchanges is better. They are only giving us about $1,000 credit for 12,300 points. We spent a lot more than that on maintenance fees for the points. I had expected a better deal would be offered.

Any comments?? Thanks.

 

[lakers]

Your analysis is correct -- booking a cruise through HGVC is not a good deal. In my opinion the cruise option exists only so that Hilton can use it in their sales presentation, not because it provides any benefit to owners.

 

[Bill4728]

Your analysis is correct -- booking a cruise through HGVC is not a good deal. In my opinion the cruise option exists only so that Hilton can use it in their sales presentation, not because it provides any benefit to owners.

I think Lakers statement should say "booking a cruise through HGVC any exchange company is not a good deal."

Does anyone know if it is ever a good deal to use any exchange co. to book a cruise?

 

[JimJ]

The last sale pitch we went to with HGVC several years was that we needed to buy HGVC so we could have the points and then "Just call Conrad and he would make all the arrangements for us. We wouldn't have to worry our pretty little head off about anything." I guess they forgot to mention that these "arrangements" might not be a good deal.

 

[dougp26364]

HGVC recently changed it's cruise TA from Our Vacation Store to Cruises Only. I was wondering how this might affect HGVC cruises.

To the contrary, we've received fare (not great) value for the two times we've exchanged for a cruise. Once we used 14,000 points which essentially paid for our Junior Suite cabin on Enchantment of the sea's 4 night W. Caribbean cruise. The value to us was a couple of dollars short (maybe $50, I forget the exact amount) of what our MF's might be when all was said and done.

This year we are taking Radiance of the Sea's (Royal Caribbean) and using 7,000 HGVC points to discount the cost of the cruise. Again, the benefit when all is said and done is about $600. MF's for us were approx. $650. There were points we were not going to be able to use and I had an additional $500 in vouchers with Royal Caribbean that had to be used by the end of the year to it made decent sense to us to do this.

I do not recall being charged an exchange fee for either of these cruises but, they may have just figured that in to the total cost of the cruise.

Keep in mind that Royal Caribbean/Celebrity doesn't allow TA's to rebate any portion of their comissions (discount) so it's tough to find a better deal through a cruise brokerage on either of these lines. Also consider that Alaska is an extremely popular cruise with a limited amount of cabins that can be sold vs the Caribbean with an almost unlimited inventory of cabins. There may be less urgency to give up a good discount for something they know they will sell for cash vs. a cruise that may have excess inventory.

We've looked at exchanging for cruises more than we've actually exchanged. Most of the time the answer is a resonding NO, it's not a good deal. Every now and then it's not to bad but it's never a great deal. If I can recoup my MF's from a unit that I may not be able to use, then IMO it becomes a decent deal. So far I've been able to do that twice in two years with HGVC but neither has been an Alaskan cruise and both have been through Our Vacation Store instead of Cruises Only. I'm not sure what the futrure might hold.

 

[alwysonvac]

I called a HGVC cruise agent to inquire about the prices for an Alaskan cruise we want to take next summer (2007), including how many HGVC points would be required, additional cash, etc.

I had priced a Celebrity cruise we wanted at about $3,250 on the cruisequick.com website; this is for 3 people in an inside cabin and includes insurance, taxes, etc. I understand we would get some additional bonuses through cruisequick for shipboard credit, etc.

We would have 12,300 HGVC points available to borrow (including 2008 points) for the cruise. For the same type of cabin as referred to above, HGVC tells me that we would have to use all our points (12,300) and pay an additional $2,110 for the cruise. That figure doesn't include an additional $69 fee for the reservation; I think it includes insurance.

It seems to me that just paying cash for the cruise is a much better deal, and keeping the HGVC points for other exchanges is better. They are only giving us about $1,000 credit for 12,300 points. We spent a lot more than that on maintenance fees for the points. I had expected a better deal would be offered.

Any comments?? Thanks.

I don't think it's a bad deal.

I figure my HGVC points cost me about twelve cents per point for 2006
(Total MF + $85 annual club dues) divided by the total annual number of HGVC points = .12 per point

So 12,300 HGVC pts = $1,353 in Maintenance fees
$1,353 HGVC credit and $2,100 additional cash = $3,463 (only $213 more than your quote from cruisequick.com not including the $69 fee for the reservation)

 

[KenK]

The last sale pitch we went to with HGVC several years was that we needed to buy HGVC so we could have the points and then "Just call Conrad and he would make all the arrangements for us. We wouldn't have to worry our pretty little head off about anything." I guess they forgot to mention that these "arrangements" might not be a good deal.

I think the sales folks need to be re trained. Why call Conrad ???

JUST call Paris!

 

[SallyMagoo]

I don't think it's a bad deal.

I figure my HGVC points cost me about twelve cents per point for 2006
(Total MF + $85 annual club dues) divided by the total annual number of HGVC points = .12 per point

So 12,300 HGVC pts = $1,353 in Maintenance fees
$1,353 HGVC credit and $2,100 additional cash = $3,463 (only $213 more than your quote from cruisequick.com not including the $69 fee for the reservation)

I understand your analysis, but we have a 4800 annual package, so 9,600 points cost us about $1,300 in maintenance fees ($650 per year), so there is an additional 2700 points in the 12,300 total that we pay another $325.00 or so for;
Adding up $213, plus $69.00, plus $325.00 equals nearly $600 in losses for using the points over paying cash. Then add in about $150 in shipboard credits for purchasing through cruisequick--it makes the difference much more than $213.00. Paying an additional $1,150 in cash for the cruise and keeping the points makes more sense to me.

Thanks DougP for giving me perspective on the issue.

 

[boggie]

We recently went to an owner's update meeting(tried to sell us more points of course) while in Vegas last week. The rep/salesman talked about using points for cruises and basicly told us that using the points to book the cruise is not usually a good deal. He went on to say that a better way to do it is to pay cash for the cruise itself booking the cheapest cabin available on your own and then to call HGVC to use points to upgrade to a better cabin. According to him it takes minimal points to upgrade compared to a huge amount of points needed to book the cruise. I have no idea how many points it takes to upgrade, but this might be a strategy worth investigating.

If anyone else has experience doing this, I would like to hear about it.

Thanks,
Boggie

 

[alwysonvac]

I agree that using points for anything other than a HGVC stay will never yield the best deal. But if you're looking to use your yearly annual fee towards a different vacation option I personally think it's ok (not great but ok).

For example an Alaska cruise would cost us over $5,000 after we pay for the cruise, airfare, hotel stay before/after the cruise, transportation, shore excursions, ship photos, drinks on board, souvenirs, etc.

So we would have to spend $5000 in additional to our annual HGVC fees. We haven't used our HGVC towards a cruise yet but depending on how much vacation time we had left and our annual vacation budget for the year we might choose to take the HGVC credit in the future.