Adding 2nd Contract - considerations (use year, same resort, etc)

[Straulin]

It really does come down to how you want to use the points from the contracts. We have three UYs now because we travel throughout the year and do multiple trips.

We use each one for different times and split stays. So, having points in different UY's works for us and allows me to be strategic in using points toward the beginning of the UY to maximize having to rebook if something happens.

We own RIV, VGF, and SSR. RIV and VGF are the places we stay most often and use the SSR as back up to replace a home resort booking if nights are still there so we can free up RIV and VGF points for the following year! We also use SSR to upgrade the size of the room too!

We actually put our RIV and VGF points in different UYs as well. RIV points are in our AUG and DEC UY, and our VGF points are in our JUNE and DEC UY's....with SSR being in AUG only.

Since we are retired and will be doing trips every month DEC through March (with a few other times sprinkled in), the overlap has worked well for us!

If you want to combine points for single reservations regularly, then I think the same UY is much more important! Good luck!

We did similarly. We have two contracts, each with a different resort and UY. Both contracts are big enough that I do not have to move points around. One is Feb and the other August. That way I always have points available that I can bank if I decide to cancel a trip at 31+ days out.

 

[Cfabar1]

I personally wouldn't look at a second resort until you have at least 250-300 points - maybe more if your current property is VGF or RIV and want a 2 BR.

 

[tom1944]

I personally wouldn't look at a second resort until you have at least 250-300 points - maybe more if your current property is VGF or RIV and want a 2 BR.

I think this makes sense. I am looking at a second contract now and it is one reason I decided to buy more SSR points instead of making another attempt at bidding successfully on a BLT contract

 

[CWTC]

A lot of good points have been made already but here’s my two cents.

For us, ease of use is really important. Could we manage two separate UYs? Yes but it would add another layer of complexity. This is one of the reasons we bought VGC direct - we knew it would be hard to find a VGC with our UY resale.

Another ease of use is we bought where we want to stay - usually we book at month 11 and are done with the reservation. We’ve switched at 7 months to AUL, to the Poly overwater bungalows (spent 8 nights, totally worth the points) and VGC (before we owned at VGC). We stayed once at SSR - see below, last minute trip. We were thinking about buying a bunch of inexpensive resale AUL with the goal of using them to stay 8 nights in a bungalow every few years (or go to AUL) but decided we’d rather buy less points at VGC so we’d have the 11 month booking advantage.

Location is very important to us. We stayed once for a long weekend at SSR and honestly did not have a good time. When we bought SAP points a few years ago, we bought resale BLT because we knew we’d be happy staying there if we couldn’t or didn’t want to switch at month 7. Some people though love SSR so it depends on what is important to you.

Vacation goals are important too - we initially bought enough for 8-9 nights in our preferred travel times (not summer, not holidays) for a 1BR at our first 3 home resorts (BCV, VGF, and BLT). Our first contract was BCV resale (2009, I think) with enough points for F&W every 1-2 years. Along the way we added VGF (2012/2013) and BLT (2020). Then my FIL died - he and my MIL often would travel to WDW with us and they’d stay in a hotel room while we stayed DVC. So our new goal became having enough points at our WDW resorts to get a 2 BR LO if she went with us. So we added on 1 contract to each of home resorts for that purpose. We don’t have enough VGC points to always get a 2 BR but she much prefers WDW.

For us, the restrictions on resale and new resorts don’t matter. We have no desire to stay at RIV, the cabins, or VDH. We do have enough points (direct and grandfathered) that we could if we wanted to but we would not buy direct just to avoid restrictions on DVC2 resorts.

In total we have 7 contracts spread over 4 resorts with a mix of direct and resale in the same UY.

 

[tom1944]

A lot of good points have been made already but here’s my two cents.

For us, ease of use is really important. Could we manage two separate UYs? Yes but it would add another layer of complexity. This is one of the reasons we bought VGC direct - we knew it would be hard to find a VGC with our UY resale.

Another ease of use is we bought where we want to stay - usually we book at month 11 and are done with the reservation. We’ve switched at 7 months to AUL, to the Poly overwater bungalows (spent 8 nights, totally worth the points) and VGC (before we owned at VGC). We stayed once at SSR - see below, last minute trip. We were thinking about buying a bunch of inexpensive resale AUL with the goal of using them to stay 8 nights in a bungalow every few years (or go to AUL) but decided we’d rather buy less points at VGC so we’d have the 11 month booking advantage.

Location is very important to us. We stayed once for a long weekend at SSR and honestly did not have a good time. When we bought SAP points a few years ago, we bought resale BLT because we knew we’d be happy staying there if we couldn’t or didn’t want to switch at month 7. Some people though love SSR so it depends on what is important to you.

Vacation goals are important too - we initially bought enough for 8-9 nights in our preferred travel times (not summer, not holidays) for a 1BR at our first 3 home resorts (BCV, VGF, and BLT). Our first contract was BCV resale (2009, I think) with enough points for F&W every 1-2 years. Along the way we added VGF (2012/2013) and BLT (2020). Then my FIL died - he and my MIL often would travel to WDW with us and they’d stay in a hotel room while we stayed DVC. So our new goal became having enough points at our WDW resorts to get a 2 BR LO if she went with us. So we added on 1 contract to each of home resorts for that purpose. We don’t have enough VGC points to always get a 2 BR but she much prefers WDW.

For us, the restrictions on resale and new resorts don’t matter. We have no desire to stay at RIV, the cabins, or VDH. We do have enough points (direct and grandfathered) that we could if we wanted to but we would not buy direct just to avoid restrictions on DVC2 resorts.

In total we have 7 contracts spread over 4 resorts with a mix of direct and resale in the same UY.

Excellent plan.

I think everyone should make their purchase on their plan of use. I have a plan for our first 10 years of ownership and luckily the first 2 years have worked out exactly how I had imagined.

I believe our second 10 years will be less park focused for my wife and I and more independent and flexible for our daughter and granddaughter.

Now who knows what the final 10 years will be but I will worry about that in the future

 

[takemetomickey]

Thanks so much for all the info everybody!!

 

[lilsonicfan]

One way that some people use two different UY/memberships is that they will bank/borrow/alternate. So they might use all of their 2024 and 2025 points by borrowing, in the 2024 UY for say their AKL contract, then in 2025 they might use all of their 2024 banked and 2025 points in the 2025 UY for their BWV contract.

 

[RoseGold]

I have opposite UYs because I travel multiple times a year. I need two UYs to be able to span the whole year without putting points at risk. And I use my four waitlists.

 

[TinkAgainU]

I have opposite UYs because I travel multiple times a year. I need two UYs to be able to span the whole year without putting points at risk. And I use my four waitlists.

I also have multiple memberships to have multiple waitlists. But different Use Years add complexity, and you are still subject to the one transfer in/out per year (I've heard of them being flexible about that if you own both Memberships but it's certainly not something to depend upon). Lots of trade offs to setting up multiple Use Years - you need to be a person who thinks "complicated is fun" ... if you don't always enjoy "working" the Genie+ system for example, just have one Use Year lol.

 

[LadybugsMum]

I have opposite UYs because I travel multiple times a year. I need two UYs to be able to span the whole year without putting points at risk. And I use my four waitlists.

This is how I'm set up as well - Feb UY for my VGF contracts and Aug UY for my BWV contracts. I have points year round and we can travel in the "off" seasons.

 

[Genie+]

Ease of use mattered to us. We kept UY same. Bought 2 different resorts to get 2 home priority windows. It is working well to alternate between those resorts with bank/borrow.

 

[GogoDenali]

It depends on what you’re looking to do with the extra points. If looking to go longer or bigger at your home resort at 11 month absolutely match use year and resort. Adding because you want to book an extra separate trip right before your use year? Then change to the opposite use year on the next contract. Just want more cheap points to play with and book at 7 months? Doesn’t matter use year, just look for the best contract period.