2 Different Use years, how bad is it?

[jerseyduke]

So I have one VGF contract with an April UY.

I can potentially see owning at 4 different resorts, the remaining 3 through resale. (5 if they build a Poly)

Trying to find the right size contract, with an April UY, making it through ROFR, etc, seems to be awfully restricting.

So is it so bad to have 2 UY?

Does anyone have a link to the pie charts of use years? Properties I am looking at are BCV, VWK, and OKW. Vacation habits aside, is there one very common use year between the 3 of them?

 

[Minniesgal]

It isn't ideal but it is manageable.

It also depends what you want to do. If you see yourselves using each individual contract individually to book home resort stays not that important.

If you want to combine contracts to do non home resort stays I'd say essential.

for the most flexibility and least hassle same UY but that doesn't mean different UYs can't be worked.

We have a very small contract with a different UY and the only problem we have if if we need to borrow points as we can't borrow points from both contracts in the same reservations. We make this work as we like split stays so tend to do two separate reservations one with each contract.

 

[jerseyduke]

I think (if I did 4 different resorts), I would try and break it up 2 in 1 UY, 2 in the other UY....that way I think it would alleviate the borrowing issue.

(of course, ideally i will do them all in 1 UY)

They would be mostly booking for home resorts, so the idea of 2 UYs did not seem that bad to me. I wouldn't break it up more than that

 

[Missyrose]

We've got three home resorts with two UYs and it isn't bad. Just have to remember two banking deadlines.

 

[Sandisw]

We have two but they both have a decent amount of points that it allows me to use as its own membership.

 

[shellbelle1971]

At one point we had 3 different use years and 4 properties. It wasn't bad at all. Never lost a point. Of course, I'm kind of ocd about DVC planning. YMMV

 

[robinb]

It's a PITB. I owned 2 UYs for years and it was difficult to use them together for one reservation. I could book a few days with one contract and a few days with another contract and link them together but I could only book in WHOLE days. Need 2 rooms at 10 points each? I would have to book day 1 using contract A for 10 points and day 2 from contract B for 10 points.

If you own two resorts with the same UY you may combine the points to book in the 7 month window. Need 2 rooms at 10 points each? That's OK, you can use 2 points from contract A and 18 points from contract B.

 

[holula]

We have two UY, October and December.

Generally we travel in Oct and use our Oct UY points, and Jan/Feb or early May and use the Dec UY points. It's annoying to have to have two membership numbers and two logins but other than that we don't mind it. It allows us 4 waitlists instead of the normal two!

 

[disneynutz]

It can be done but why if you don't have a good reason for more than one account/member number.

All it takes is one screw up or points in the wrong account to make you wonder what you were thinking.

Bill

 

[drusba]

Have two. Each use year is a separate member number and for purposes of banking or using points you are two different members; likewise for paying annual dues since each use year has its own bill and statement which has to be paid separately. If you are on automatic withdrawal from your checking account, you will get two separate withdrawals per month. You need to follow two banking dates (no big deal). Both your use years will appear on your website page on the members' official site.

The two use years cannot be combined to make a single reservation. If, for example, you want to reserve ten nights in a row in the same category of room and points in each use year are enough for five of those nights, you either have to transfer points from one member number to the other before reserving or you make two separate reservations, one for the first five nights using one use year, the other for the second five nights usung the other use year and then have MS link the two reservations. When doing those two reservations at exactly 11 (if they are for the same resort) or 7 (if for different resorts) months out you make the first one 11/7 months out from initial arrival date and then the second one 11/7 months out from the first date you will use that second use year. Also, having the linked reservations affects the trip as follows: (a) you cannot really do on-line check-in because that system will not recognize the two reservations as one; (b) the linking does assure that you won't have to change rooms; however (c) you will have to do a mini check-out and check-in on the turnover date during which they close out your account and begin a new one and you get new keys, and a new parking pass if you have a car.

None of the above is an overwhelming downside although I would definitely prefer that one be able to keep same room keys and room account for the entire time of a linked reservation -- in fact, before Disney "improved" its computer systems, that is actually what occurred.

 

[Dean]

So I have one VGF contract with an April UY.

I can potentially see owning at 4 different resorts, the remaining 3 through resale. (5 if they build a Poly)

Trying to find the right size contract, with an April UY, making it through ROFR, etc, seems to be awfully restricting.

So is it so bad to have 2 UY?

Does anyone have a link to the pie charts of use years? Properties I am looking at are BCV, VWK, and OKW. Vacation habits aside, is there one very common use year between the 3 of them?

Unless you plan specific trips where a given UY is important, I wouldn't. I'm not sure what resorts you're thinking about but other than maybe GC and VG, you should be able to find an April contract for a considerable savings over retail. I would not do multiple small contracts at many resorts unless you have specific plans for a given trip periodic trip for something you're unlikely to get otherwise.

 

[dcfromva]

As with all things DVC, no one size fits all. I believe that it all comes down to how you plan to use your points. I agree with Dean that it might be problematic if you are planning to get a bunch of different small contracts at different resorts and cobble them together (at 7 months) to make one reservation each year. But, if you were doing that--you wouldn't be able to get much benefit from the 11 month booking priority anyway...
On the other hand, different UYs can give you some additional flexibility if you aren't planning to mix the points and you are mostly planning to make reservations at the 11 month point each year. As previously mentioned you will get 2 waitlists for each use year.
Having different UYs will allow you to have different banking windows which I consider to be an advantage. Not all points have to be banked by the same banking window--good when a last minute opportunity pops up.
As long as you have the names on the deed the same way, you can access your membership with all your different UYs under the same log in.
When and if you sell a contract in the future, it is really easy to keep a contract with a different UY separate from your other points.

 

[lorie13]

We have two and may have a third if the contract we have at ROFR passes. I use the dvcmember website for all my transacations and I find it okay with multiple UY, it just takes patience and care (no rushing), but all your information is in one place and is viewable via drop downs.