Is a December UY bad?

[MomtoBJSF]

I think I'm still having issues with the what would be the best UY for us.

Our oldest is in Kindergarten, I'm really anti taking the kids out of school for vacation,while my hubby is ok with it since his parents did that for him. The times we would go would be during Spring break March/Christmas vacation in December and summer eventually ( dreading summer). So which UY would be better for us?.

 

[disneybeachprincess]

We thought long & hard on Use Year & read lots of info on disboards about it as well...we also thought about the future as well as now...kids grow up & taking them out of school becomes harder as they progress in school & eventually that won't be in school at all...so think about that when making your decision

We chose Sept since we plan to travel mostly in the fall/winter months. The advice boiled down to choosing a Use Year a month of two before the months you travel most. Our home resort was important too since we plan to be there most often.

Good luck with your decision & purchase! We have saved for many years to buy our contract & just closed this month I just made our first official DVC reservations this week & was so happy to be welcomed home We have stayed at almost every DVC property as well. It helps to stay at the ones you might choose for your home resort to be sure!

 

[nalajms]

I was stressing over the same thing, and went with an April UY. April gives me enough time to bank if we change our plans in Nov. I can't imagine changing plans in Dec since we'll lose the unused vacation time at work. We'll avoid spring break at Disney going forward. We went this year and did not care for the number of inebriated people walking around and making scenes during dinner.

 

[Deb & Bill]

If you always went in October or November, a Dec UY might not be the best, but you just don't know when you will go again. We bought on our trip at the end of Oct. We got a Sept UY which would always work out great for Oct trips. But most of our trips have been in late May and early June.

We make our points work for us, but we have never had to cancel a reservation and change it to a later date.

If you go in Dec and spring break, Dec would work out great and give you the chance to cancel and rebook before your points expired.

What you have to forget about is that you no longer have a calendar year with a Dec UY. Your points start the last month of the year and go through almost the entire next year until they expire. So when everyone else is talking about 2013, you are still using 2012 points.

 

[montrealdisneylovers]

If you always went in October or November, a Dec UY might not be the best, but you just don't know when you will go again. We bought on our trip at the end of Oct. We got a Sept UY which would always work out great for Oct trips. But most of our trips have been in late May and early June.

We make our points work for us, but we have never had to cancel a reservation and change it to a later date.

If you go in Dec and spring break, Dec would work out great and give you the chance to cancel and rebook before your points expired.

What you have to forget about is that you no longer have a calendar year with a Dec UY. Your points start the last month of the year and go through almost the entire next year until they expire. So when everyone else is talking about 2013, you are still using 2012 points.

How true this is!!! We are relative newbies and have a December use year. We travel mostly at Christmas and would otherwise travel the other winter months which make this use year great for us. However, I always have to stop and think what year we are in point wise. Once you get used to it, it is pretty easy, although you have to stop and think before making any decisions.

 

[disneynutz]

All you can do is try to determine when you will normally vacation at Disney then choose a UY where the first 8 months of the UY covers the most dates.

We hate to travel in the heat months and we always vacation at WDW in December so October was the best month for us.

Bill

 

[MomtoBJSF]

Thanks Everyone, we really appreciate all the great info I get on here .

 

[emilymad]

We have a December UY and it has been a little confusing. We travel all different times of year and even those times will change as we get older. When we bought we went for price and not UY. What we ended up doing is borrowing into the current year. So for our trip in May we borrowed our 2012 points. This way we are using our 2012 points in the 2012 calendar year.

 

[MomtoBJSF]

We have a December UY and it has been a little confusing. We travel all different times of year and even those times will change as we get older. When we bought we went for price and not UY. What we ended up doing is borrowing into the current year. So for our trip in May we borrowed our 2012 points. This way we are using our 2012 points in the 2012 calendar year.

I find the December UY very confusing, hubby says it completely works for us, so we are going with that, we do plan on borrowing into the next year each time.

 

[herb102211]

We ended up going with a September UY. Most of our travel is between September and December so it made sense for us. I guess it all depends on the timeframe in which you plan on traveling the most.

 

[drusba]

If times you are likely to go are Christmas, spring break and summer, December is actually your ideal use year.

Use year does not affect when you can go (any time of year) or when you can call to reserve (always 11 months out for home resort, 7 at others). Its importance relates to the risk that you might have to cancel a trip and then being able to bank current use year points. You can bank up until end of eighth month of your use year. Thus, what you want to avoid is the possibility of having to cancel a trip that is scheduled to occur in the last few months of your use year because your cancellation date would likely occur after the banking deadline date expires. If you have Dec use year and usually go in Dec, spring break or summer, any cancellation that is likely to occur will occur when you still have time to bank points assuming those trips use current use year* points that can be banked, e.g., cancel in October 2012 a Dec 2012 trip that uses Dec 2012 points and you will have until July 31, 2013 to bank those points or until Nov 30 2013 to use them if you decide not to bank. Even a rtrip as late as August can be cancelled in June and leave you more than a month to bank. Thus, based on what you provided December is your ideal use year.

*Current use year points for a trip are always the points that are issued in the same use year as the trip itself. When you call in Jan 2012 for a Dec 2012 trip and have a Dec use year, the current use year points for that trip that you would use would be ones issued December 1, 2012 for your Dec 2012-13 use year because the trip takes place during that use year. Points from Dec 2011 would need to be banked for that trip.

 

[MomtoBJSF]

If times you are likely to go are Christmas, spring break and summer, December is actually your ideal use year.

Use year does not affect when you can go (any time of year) or when you can call to reserve (always 11 months out for home resort, 7 at others). Its importance relates to the risk that you might have to cancel a trip and then being able to bank current use year points. You can bank up until end of eighth month of your use year. Thus, what you want to avoid is the possibility of having to cancel a trip that is scheduled to occur in the last few months of your use year because your cancellation date would likely occur after the banking deadline date expires. If you have Dec use year and usually go in Dec, spring break or summer, any cancellation that is likely to occur will occur when you still have time to bank points assuming those trips use current use year* points that can be banked, e.g., cancel in October 2012 a Dec 2012 trip that uses Dec 2012 points and you will have until July 31, 2013 to bank those points or until Nov 30 2013 to use them if you decide not to bank. Even a rtrip as late as August can be cancelled in June and leave you more than a month to bank. Thus, based on what you provided December is your ideal use year.

*Current use year points for a trip are always the points that are issued in the same use year as the trip itself. When you call in Jan 2012 for a Dec 2012 trip and have a Dec use year, the current use year points for that trip that you would use would be ones issued December 1, 2012 for your Dec 2012-13 use year because the trip takes place during that use year. Points from Dec 2011 would need to be banked for that trip.

Thank you so much for breaking it down for me, it makes a lot of sense, really appreciate it. Looks like we will be going for it

 

[drusba]

We have December as one of our use years and for years had the same pattern you are contemplating -- Christmas time, spring break or summer and the December use year was always fine for those. Believe it or not, you do eventually get to the point where you no longer have to do that (our last is recently done with schooling). Despite that we are going again this year in summer (June) and then Christmas (actually for NYE and then first week of January); old habits are hard to break. Moreover, the school break pattern you are about to enter will never really completely end because we are now doing it at times because of grandchildren in school.

Also, summer was never actually as bad as initially dreaded (we usually chose June) except for one week when we went and it rained (poured) about 17 hours a day (unusual even for Florida) and despite large crowds they are actually much lower than Christmas time or either of the Easter weeks.

 

[Sandisw]

I find the December UY very confusing, hubby says it completely works for us, so we are going with that, we do plan on borrowing into the next year each time.

Here's what has made it easy for me to understand things. Everything, in terms of what points can be used for trips, is based on the UY you are traveling in. When you make the reservation (11 or 7 months out) has no impact on that.

Any trip can be paid for using banked points from the UY prior to travel, the UY of travel, and borrowed from the UY after travel. If you don't worry about the calendar year, it will be fine.

We have a Dec UY and as long as I keep that in mind, it works. For example, if you want to travel in say August of 2013, you would be traveling in your Dec 2012 UY. You could then use banked 2011 UY points, 2012 UY points and borrow 2013 points.

Hope this helps! Congratulations!

 

[helenk]

I have a December use year and love going in May and December so it works perfectly for me. I do not have young children so I do not have to worry about school etc. But even if I take my grandchildren once they are in school I know I can still go in June and even July without worrying about my points since they have to be banked by the end of July.
I even went in September a few years back, sometimes you do want to go at diferent times. I do enjoy going in December for the holiday decorations and then in May for the Flower and Garden festival.
At first it was confusing for me having the Dec use year, but once I got use to it, I have no working things out now.