A little help before a jump, please!

[franw]

I am sitting here getting ready to mail back our package when I started reading about the importance of the 11 month window. I'll try to keep it simple. I am about to buy 300 points from WDW at BCV with a February - 11 month window. All I really need to know is whether I should be able to book my vacations in October or November (not Thanksgiving time) or late spring (after spring break). We never go high season because of the crowds. Am I making a mistake? Somehow the scheduling aspect of the purchase never crossed my mind until I started reading the board. I would hate not to be able to go at our favorite times of the year. Any input would be most appreciated. I've been putting this purchase off for five years and hope that I am doing the right thing. Thanks.

 

[momsully]

You can make your reservations 11 months prior to your checkout date. You do not need to have the points when you make the reservation, just when you plan to stay. If BCV is where you want to stay the most then I say do it!

 

[TheRustyScupper]

1) Flexibility is a big benefit of DVC.
2) It can also be the biggest problem.
3) Ressies are first-come-first-served.
4) For a particular week, you need to call before others.

5) Also, DVC attendance is opposite park attendance.
6) The periods you like are VERY busy at DVC, due to lower points.

 

[jaysue]

You can make your reservations 11 months ahead of checkin date at your HOME resort (i.e. where you buy your points) and 7 months out at any of the other resorts. Hence you should buy where you want to stay and then if you get something else at the 7 month window becasue you wanted to stay somewhere different, that is a bonus.

The times you mention are busy - Food and Wine Festival, Jersey Week etc. in Oct/Nov

We did not decide to go in November until 3 weeks ago - about 5 1/2 months prior and we were not able to reserve at BWV or our home resort BCV and are taking OKW which is just fine with us since OKW is nice as well

You can always book solid at one of the resorts and then waitlist for another if you really want to stay at the other resort

Realistically, while the 4 WDW DVC resorts have their differences, strengths and weak points as well and each person views them differently, they are all good resorts and all have good locations, views and rooms. With this mind, we do not get too hung up on which of the 4 we would stay at for each trip.

thanks
jaysue

 

[donald@home]

Do you mean that you have a February Use Year? And is your question weather or not you will be able to book when you want to go with the February Use Year? If so, the time you book has nothing to do with the Use Year. The Use Year is when the points are deposited into your account. You can make reservations whenever you want to make them (11 months at the BCV, 7 months other DVC resorts) for whenever you want to vacation, as long as you will have the points in your account when you check in.

 

[jaysue]

Use year is important for banking points in case of cancellation of plans - for example you can bank 100% of your use year points up to 6 months after your use year.

So it is important especially if your plans are likely to change that your peak or all vacation time is within 6 months of your use year month so that if something happens and you need to cancel and assuming that is more than 30 days prior to the ressie date that you cancel, 100% of the points can be banked

thanks
jaysue

 

[franw]

Thanks to all of you for helping me understand. I didn't realize you could book before the points were deposited. I am excited to be joining DVC especially after reading your board for so long and seeing so many positive posts. I've asked members for years if they had any regrets and every single one has said that they only wished they had joined sooner.

 

[jimmytammy]

You wont regret it, go ahead! I like so many others wished we would have joined sooner cause we could have purchased more pts. at a lesser price. Oh well, we have 39 more yrs to think about that

 

[bcvillastwo]

It takes a little time to get up to speed on when and how you can use points. But, when you have questions you can always ask on these boards or call member services.

As to regrets, I hear many say their only regret has been that they didn't buy into DVC earlier. I don't feel that way at all. It took us some time to warm up to the idea and I feel it was time well spent because when we made the purchase we were pretty confident that we were going to love DVC.

Sometimes taking your time with big decisions is the best thing to do. When I've purchased things on impulse I can't think of one instance where I didn't look back and say I could have made a better decision. It may have been an OK decision but never the best one.

To summarize, I would be very surprised if you regret your decision to buy into DVC. We just love DVC!

 

[franw]

Thanks. The package is in the mail. A little clammy from all the sweating over it but thanks to all the responses I feel better about it now. We haven't missed a year yet in 10 years so its not like we aren't going to use it and, hopefully, thirty years from now, my grandkids will be thinking about me when they are using it.