Almost Ready to Buy...Please Help

[kly]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post but I have been reading this board for a few months now.

I have two questions before I purchase…

First…does it matter when the UY starts? Can I choose the month? What things should I take into consideration when selecting UY?

Second…some people on this board have split their contract in two resorts. I asked my guide and she said that I could do 100 pts in AKV and 100 points in BLT. What is the benefit of doing that? Is it just the 11 month window? If yes…say that I want to stay at BLT, can I use my 100 AKV points towards the BLT reservation at 11 months.

Thanks so much…

 

[logan115]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post but I have been reading this board for a few months now.

I have two questions before I purchase…

First…does it matter when the UY starts? Can I choose the month? What things should I take into consideration when selecting UY?

Second…some people on this board have split their contract in two resorts. I asked my guide and she said that I could do 100 pts in AKV and 100 points in BLT. What is the benefit of doing that? Is it just the 11 month window? If yes…say that I want to stay at BLT, can I use my 100 AKV points towards the BLT reservation at 11 months.

Thanks so much…

Ok - first things first, take your time and make sure you have a pretty good handle on this before plunking down a single penny.

The importance of your UY is largely dictated by the ability to bank points that you may not be using in a given year. For example, if you're not going this year and need to bank the points into next year. Ideally (and I'm not a UY expert - a little help please ?) you want to get a UY that it right before you typically travel. That way, if for some reason you need to cancel your trip you still have time to book your points (needs to be 4 years prior to the END of your UY I believe). So if you typically travel in August, you really don't want a Sep or Dec UY, as you wouldn't be able to bank your points if you had to cancel.

There are several different UYs, but I don't have a list of them off the top of my head so others will need to chime in.

In terms of splitting the second 100 pts into smaller contracts (and possibly different home resorts, it really an advantage should you ever want/need to sell any of your points. For example if you had a single 200 pt contract at BLT, and decided you wanted to own 100 pts at BLT and 100 pts at AKV, you would have to sell your 200 BLT points, then go buy 100 @ BLT and 100 @ AKV. If however you have 100 pts at each and decided you wanted all 200 at the same, you would only need to sell one contract and buy one contract. For splitting the 2nd 100 pts into smaller 50 pt contracts the benefit is that typically smaller contracts command a higher per point resale price.

In addition, with banking/borrowing you can also put yourself in a situation where you could have 200 BLT or AKV points available to use prior to the 7 month window.

If you have 100 pts at BLT and 100 pts at AKV you will only be able to use your BLT points at BLT until the 7 month window, and the same with AKV points.

Please do yourself a favor and make sure you have every possible question answered (here preferably) prior to signing any papers. Much better to make sure you're as well informed as possible PRIOR to buying.

Chris

 

[JoQuo711]

Another restriction on travel that DVC encompasses into its "Rule of Four" is that you can't book AND travel to non-DVC resort on points in the last four months of the year. You can book prior to the last four months and then travel during the last four months, but not both for the same trip. Basically, you want to pick a use year in which you'll be traveling in the last four months as little as possible, to save you a headache. That's not to say you can't travel in those months, it'll just take a bit more careful planning.

As far as split ownership goes... you only get 11-month priority on reservations booked with points owned at that location. As Chris posted above, what you can do is alternate hotels and bank points every other year for each, so every other year you'll have 200 points to go to one of the locations. Or you can do split stays each time, if that works for you. Assuming you love both resorts, the only con I can see in a split ownership would be the fact that AKL dues are currently ~25% higher than BLT dues. This will change on an annual basis, though, so there's no way to predict what they will be relative to each other in the distant future.

 

[smshick]

Hi,
We just purchased 200 points at BLT last week via Disney. I have been reading on the disboards as well. You might want to read also the *********** website. Has lots of info.

To briefly answer your question, use year does matter. Read the above link for more specific info. Yes, in most cases you should be able to pick your use year if you buy through Disney. We like to travel in the summer through Christmas, so we picked a June use year.

I was also considering splitting my points like you were. I asked our guide. He said at 11 months out, if I wanted to book at BLT, then I could only use my 100 BLT points to book a reservation. It did seem like a bit more bookkeeping as well, so we decided to just buy 200 BLT points. He told us BLT is smaller than Animal Kingdom, so we shouldn't have a problem booking AK if we did it right on the first day of the 7 month window.

I'm sure others will help explain as well. I'm still very new at this.

Siao Mei

 

[chalee94]

here is a good thread for understanding UY.

the general rules are:

1) if you always travel in december (for example) then buy a UY that starts right BEFORE you travel (like oct or dec).

2) if you travel at different times during the year, but never within a given 3 month period (for me, jul-aug-sept is too hot), then buy a UY that starts right AFTER the period when you never travel (oct would work well).

but if you never have to cancel a reservation, UY should never be an issue.

 

[ToddyLu]

For instance. ...DH is a Fireman and has to schedule all vacations a year in advance. Our use year is Dec. We will get our points then, then the vacation schedule comes out in January, so I can be very close to the 11 month mark when booking since we go to WDW usually Oct-Dec. It will be more difficult for us to book say in March because we are within our 7 month window then and we bought AKV becasue that is where we want to stay as our home resort. I feel like we could get SSR or OKW, but it is a roll of dice so we bought where we knew we would want to stay. It will be easier for me to get AKV on shorter notice since it is my home resort--unless of course they are booked up. Either way we will stay somewhere in March and definitely AKV in our preferred Oct-Dec time frame. That is why DEc works for us. We have never had to cancel a vacation.

 

[kly]

Do you all think this is a good incentive?

$13 off at AKV ($99 pt) for 200 pts + 4 day cruise or I get a 3 day cruise if I do less than 200 pts. This is the offer that my guide gave me yesterday. Dec 08 UY...so I will get 200 pts now and another 200 in 6 months.

Thanks.

 

[ToddyLu]

Just so u=you will know. We signed our paperwork 6/10. We received 210 points free for 2008 and will get 210 more this Dec. which is our UY also. We paid $94 a point. We do not cruise. Add up the cash value for a cruise and see if it is a good deal. Sounds like you are getting close to what we did. I got $10 discount plus another $8 for using a referral.

 

[ToddyLu]

THought about doing 200 and then looked at the fact that 210 would only be a few dollars more a month and just gave us possibly an extra night somewhere.

 

[chalee94]

For instance. ...DH is a Fireman and has to schedule all vacations a year in advance. Our use year is Dec. We will get our points then, then the vacation schedule comes out in January, so I can be very close to the 11 month mark when booking since we go to WDW usually Oct-Dec.

this makes it sound like you don't understand UY. UY only affects your banking window - not when you can book.

if i buy a resale contract with an oct UY that is stripped (i.e. with no points in the 2009 or 2010 use years) and doesn't get any points until oct 2011, i still can call at 11 months out in jan 2010 and book dec 2010 at my home resort by borrowing those 2011 pts.

 

[VTNuke]

Do you all think this is a good incentive?

$13 off at AKV ($99 pt) for 200 pts + 4 day cruise or I get a 3 day cruise if I do less than 200 pts. This is the offer that my guide gave me yesterday. Dec 08 UY...so I will get 200 pts now and another 200 in 6 months.

Thanks.

The cruise is a great incentive, one that would really have me looking at buying direct from Disney if I didn't already own. With that said, I would still price the difference between buying direct and buying resale. There are some great deals out there for resale. You may also have a bit more choices with the resorts you want. Most people around here will tell you to book where you want to stay. Take a look at the availability section of this website and you'll see what books up quickly at the 7 month window. For example, December 2009 Treehouse Villas are pretty much booked up already and we're only at the 6 month mark.

 

[ToddyLu]

this makes it sound like you don't understand UY. UY only affects your banking window - not when you can book.

if i buy a resale contract with an oct UY that is stripped (i.e. with no points in the 2009 or 2010 use years) and doesn't get any points until oct 2011, i still can call at 11 months out in jan 2010 and book dec 2010 at my home resort by borrowing those 2011 pts.

No I understand use year, I just can't plan my vacation until every Jan. DH has about one week to decide when he can take off. He has to wait on seniority and the guys above him picking out their dates first. We are then bound to the schedule. So yes, I will always bank by 7/31. We have always booked our trip at 11 months out and stay around Oct-Dec. I am hoping We can plan a quick trip, too. But if I want a trip in March, I will only know about it in January. So we decided on AKV since we love the look of the resort and on such short notice it will be where we want to stay for those trips. I know it is very confusing and I am beginning to babble.

Knowing our schedule for vacation a year in advance made Dec. a decent use year choice--since our planning for the following year is about that time....that is what I meant.


Addonitis is already beginning to affect us...DH won't let me add on until our first trip....dern it. When we do I think it will be resale.

 

[Sandisw]

No I understand use year, I just can't plan my vacation until every Jan. DH has about one week to decide when he can take off. He has to wait on seniority and the guys above him picking out their dates first. We are then bound to the schedule. So yes, I will always bank by 7/31. We have always booked our trip at 11 months out and stay around Oct-Dec. I am hoping We can plan a quick trip, too. But if I want a trip in March, I will only know about it in January. So we decided on AKV since we love the look of the resort and on such short notice it will be where we want to stay for those trips. I know it is very confusing and I am beginning to babble.

.

Maybe I am misunderstanding your post, but it sounds like you expect to be able to still book a room at AKV with only two months notice because you own there. At that point, there may or may not still be rooms there and you will only be able to book a room at resorts that still have availability. Home resort advantage is only a benefit during the 7 - 11 month window.

Good luck!