Another prospective DVCer with questions

[zigzag]

Hello Everyone

What a great resource and mine of information the DVC board is, however as a prospective DVC purchaser I have a few questions which hopefully someone can help me with.

1a - If I regulary vacation in July or August what is the best use month to purchase?

1b - or does use month not really matter after the first year (ie can I make a reservation at 11 months if the account shows that points will be available at vacation time)

2 - Banking - can you bank/bring forward as many points as you wish or does it have to be 100% of your annual points?

3 - Top ups from Disney, if I buy via a reseller can I top up points direct from Disney, and is this easy at the sold out resorts?

4 - OKW (I think) recently had its contract length extended, what are the chances of similar at some of the other resorts wihich currently have a 2042 close?

5 - I would like to try different resorts over the years but my vacations will be limited to school holidays for a number of years to come. Can i book at my home resort at 11 months and then at 7 months see what availability is like at other resorts, and if its good can I then swuitch my reservation from my home resort to the other resort.

Thanks in advance for any help you experts out there can give me.

 

[bookwormde]

For canceling and being able to bank points a month, which you do not plan on traveling in the preceding 3 months, is best. For school schedule this is generally December.

Yes you can bank 100% of your current year points (not banked or borrowed points) but you have to do it at least 4 months before the end of your use year

Yes you can buy 25 or greater points at any resort/use year that are available, sometimes you have to be on waitlist at resorts like BCV

No one know if DVC will extend the other resorts

Yes you can book home at 11 and change to other resorts as available at 7 you just have to be careful managing your points if you are borrowing any.

bookwormde

 

[5forDiz]

1a - If I regulary vacation in July or August what is the best use month to purchase?

1b - or does use month not really matter after the first year (ie can I make a reservation at 11 months if the account shows that points will be available at vacation time)

2 - Banking - can you bank/bring forward as many points as you wish or does it have to be 100% of your annual points?

3 - Top ups from Disney, if I buy via a reseller can I top up points direct from Disney, and is this easy at the sold out resorts?

4 - OKW (I think) recently had its contract length extended, what are the chances of similar at some of the other resorts wihich currently have a 2042 close?

5 - I would like to try different resorts over the years but my vacations will be limited to school holidays for a number of years to come. Can i book at my home resort at 11 months and then at 7 months see what availability is like at other resorts, and if its good can I then swuitch my reservation from my home resort to the other resort.

Thanks in advance for any help you experts out there can give me.

1a - Opinions may vary & vacation habits often will change as years pass
but an early UY month might be best, for example :
February UY would allow you to have until Sept. 30 to bank points.
If you had to cancel a reservation for July or August this may be important but keep in mind your reservation would need to be cancelled 31 days or more before check-in or the points would go into "Holding" status and would not be able to be banked but would have to be used during that UY. But you would still have through Jan. 31 to utilize them.

1b - You can make a reservation 11 mos. before your check-in day at your Home Resort for up to 7 days. Example you have borrowed and used your Feb 2009 UY points into 2008 UY but on Jan. 1 2009 you want to make reservation at 11 mos window at your Home Resort for Dec. 1 2009 ...you can make this reservation because even though you used your 2009 UY points you would be borrowing 2010 UY points for Dec. 1 2009 reservation.

2 - You may bank or borrow whatever number of points you decide. Banking must be done in first 8 months of your UY so for example if your UY is February you would need to bank your Feb. 2008 UY points by Sept. 30, 2008 and they would be available for you to use from Feb 1 2009 - Jan 31 2010.

3 - You can do add-on contracts directly from Disney - minimum purchase is 25 points. Sold out resorts are available but usually there is a waiting list.
An add-on directly with Disney will get you the same UY month as your master contract. You can also add-on points through a resale agency but it may be hard to get the same UY month. Some members have different UY months on their contracts however, and coordinate their points just fine.

4 - Disney has not indicated it will offer extension of contracts at any other DVC Resorts with 2042 expiration at this time. OKW is only one available at this present time to extend to 2057 if you a) buy an already extended contract through Disney or an already extended contract which was done by a member and is available via resale OR if you buy an unextended OKW contract via resale you may extend it to 2057 by paying $20 per point premium to Disney ( may even be up to $25 by now ). It also is not known if the option to extend an unextended OKW contract with Disney will expire at an upcoming date.

5 - I don't think it can be an actual reservation "switch" so to speak :
you can call MS to check availability at resorts that are not your home resort at 7 months out but I believe what takes place is that MS will cancel out your initial reservation before they actually input the new reservation you want instead ( possible in the interim moments between 1st reservation being cancelled & new reservation being input into system that those dates of the new reservaton could 'disappear' due to another Cast Member already in process of booking those dates for another member - - probably very unlikely and unusual that this will happen because MS makes their very best efforts to ensure things like this will go smoothly ).

Also, school holidays/breaks/vacation times are extremely popular travel times for DVC families so it would definitely be wise to book your Home Resort at 11 months out.

Best wishes or your decision

 

[dudelydude]

Thanks for the insightful questions and great answers. I learned something today.

 

[zigzag]

Thanks for the replies guys, its much appreciated.

Im sure Ill be back with more questions as I progress futher.