Advice on Points and Use Year

[cpc430]

I've been researching DVC and following resales for the last eight months and we are hopefully looking to put in our first offer on a contract in the next month or so. I wanted to put my thought process out there and get your feedback on the best use year and the number of points we'd likely need.

In buying where we want to stay, my first choice is BLT although I'm not opposed to owning at AKV. Ideally, I'd want a property with a longer contract length left (although I know things change and we may sell before we reach that point), but mentally, I feel better about that.

I have two children who are currently in 4th and 2nd grade and a husband who's job has vacation block out dates from February 1 - April 15th and August 1 - October 15th, which at this point in our lives, means we will likely travel in the Summer (late June or July) or possibly Thanksgiving week or Christmas break. We live in California so it's not likely that we would take weekend or long weekend trips to Florida for shorter stays (although we may stay a night or two at the Grand CA for a special occasion). In traveling to FL or Aulani, We'd likely stay at least six days at a time, if not longer. We were at WDW for 8 days last Christmas and have another WDW trip planned in late July the year for 12 days.

Since our most likely time of travel would be July, I am thinking that a June UY would best serve our travel needs of summer or the holidays. Then I order of preference, I would consider April, March, and February. I'm seeing a lot of February UYs. Would this still be a good option for traveling in the summer? I would not want August, September, or October. I'm not sure about December would work in our situation or not.

As far as number of points go, I was thinking the 200-350 range. We also have hotel points through Hilton if we don't have enough points to stay at DVC for the entire duration of our trip. If we decided on the higher number of points (above 300), I'd ideally like to split it over two contracts. I think two 160 point contracts would be great, if I could find them.

Thanks for reading my ramblings. Would love to hear your thoughts. Should I stick with just looking at June UY?

Should also mention, we'd likely want a one-bedroom as our kids get older. And as much as I'd love to travel to Disney every year, I'm thinking that maybe two years on, one year off is more realistic.

 

[disneynutz]

If possible pick a UY who's 8 months covers the majority of your stays.

Decide where you love to stay, when, size of room, buy enough points to stay there yearly of every other year if that's what you want.

Keep your contracts titled the same, same UY, same resort, which will give you one master account and one membership.

Later if you buy another resort, keep the UY and title the same and have them added to the same master account.

Bill

 

[cpc430]

Thanks for the reply Bill! Looking at it with the 8 months we'd be likely to travel, June UY would be what's best for us, with likely travel from June - December.

Thanks for the tips on titles and the master account. I wasn't aware that two different resorts could be added under the same master account if they have the same use year.

What is the benefit of having one master account? Would I be able to use all my points seamlessly at the 7 month mark and not have to make two reservations? I know the 11 month advantage and those points would remain only usable with their respective home resorts.

Also, if I am transferring points between accounts, is there a fee for that?

 

[disneynutz]

What is the benefit of having one master account? Would I be able to use all my points seamlessly at the 7 month mark and not have to make two reservations?

Also, if I am transferring points between accounts, is there a fee for that?

Points can be combined at 7 months without a transfer, one reservation per resort/room type.

No fee for transfer but the points do not appear in your account. Transferring IMO can open up a whole new world of issues, rules and problems.

I have learned to keep is simple, especially with Disney.

Bill

 

[cpc430]

No fee for transfer but the points do not appear in your account. Transferring IMO can open up a whole new world of issues, rules and problems.

I have learned to keep is simple, especially with Disney.

Bill

Thanks for the tip. I agree its definitely easier to keep things simple.

I think we are now leaning towards finding two contracts with June UY. Now just deciding if we should get two at BLT or one at BLT and one at AKV so that we have the 11 month window at two resorts. We would likely travel to Aulani as well, but having never been there, it's not so much on my radar.