Best Use year for us?

[Pennyguy23]

We will be traveling the first of January every year. Then either March April or may. Then in August. We plan on taking 3 or so vactions a year. What would be the best Use year for us?

 

[phorsenuf]

Gosh, that's a tough one. Yuor dates are pretty much spread out. I guess it would depend on where you want to stay at what time of the year.
I think it would also depend on where you plan to own. If you want to stay at BCV in August than I would think you would want to own there and be able to book 11 months out as that's a busy place in August.
If you're planning to buy SSR and want to stay there or are of the mindset "I don't care where I stay as long as I stay somewhere" then I don't know how much a use year really comes into play so much.
I personally don't worry about the whole 11/7 month booking. I just stay wherever. As long as I'm there with somewhere to stay, I'm happy.

Or am I missing something with booking windows?

 

[LisaS]

We will be traveling the first of January every year. Then either March April or may. Then in August. We plan on taking 3 or so vactions a year. What would be the best Use year for us?

You probably already know this but just in case: UY is when your points "renew" each year. Your UY has nothing whatsoever to do with when you can make a reservation -- you can reserve at your home resort 11 months prior to your check-out date regardless of your UY (and 7 months prior to check out at non-home resorts). UY only becomes an issue if you think you might have to cancel a trip. When you cancel, the points are returned to your account. If it is still early in your UY, you will have many months to use the points for something else and, subject to banking deadlines, may still be able to bank some/all of the points. Because of this, it's best to pick a UY that is just before your primary travel dates.

There is no Jan UY so a Dec UY would work pretty well for you. With a Dec UY, your banking deadlines are: May 31 (100%), Aug 31 (50%), Sep 30(25%). The Jan and Mar/Apr/May trips are within your 100% banking window so if you cancelled one of those trips at least 31 days prior to check-in (to avoid the points going into "holding"), you could bank all the current-UY points that you used for the trip. Any banked or borrowed points used for the trip cannot be banked, but you would have many months to use them for another trip before they would expire on Nov 30th. Even if you cancelled at 30 days or less and the points went into "holding" and therefore could not be banked, you would still have several months to use them for something else.

It wouldn't be too bad for the Aug trip either. If you cancelled at least 31 days prior to check-in you would still be within your 50% banking window and might be able to bank some of the points, if you hadn't already banked 50% or more of your points during your 100% window. Even if you couldn't bank any more points, you would still have 5 months to use the points for another trip.

Hope this helps!

 

[Pennyguy23]

Ok lets say we use 50% on our Januray trip and don't make it again that year. Since we already used 50%, can we bank the other 50% buy Aug31st or would it be 50% of the half we have left. Does that make sense?

 

[MinnieGirl33]

We generally travel Jan, May, Sept (although we are shifting to Dec, May, Aug this year). We have an April UY & it has worked fine for us so far.

My understanding about the banking is that you would be able to bank the percentage of the contract total. If your contract was 200 & you had a 50 pt add on (at the same resort with the same UY), at the 50% deadline you could bank up to 100 & 25.

Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[LisaS]

Ok lets say we use 50% on our Januray trip and don't make it again that year. Since we already used 50%, can we bank the other 50% buy Aug31st or would it be 50% of the half we have left. Does that make sense?

The banking percentages refer to the total points in the contract. And, in the case of a master and one or more add-ons, they refer to the total points owned across all of those contracts. The percentages are also cumulative, so in the 50% window you can bank up to 50% of the points owned, including any points already banked. Same applies during the 25% banking window -- any points previously banked are included in that 25%.

Ex 1: You own 200 pts at OKW. You use 100 pts for a trip in Jan. You bank nothing during your 100% banking window. In your 50% banking window, you can bank up to 100 pts.

Ex 2: You use 80 of your 200 OKW pts in Jan. You bank 50 pts during your 100% banking window. You have 70 pts left and are in your 50% banking window. You can bank up to 50 of those 70 pts because banking is cumulative and the 50 pts banked during the 100% window count towards that 50%.

Ex 3: You own a 200-pt master contract at OKW and a 50-pt add-on contract at BCV. You use 150 OKW pts at OKW in Jan. You have 50 OKW and 50 BCV points left. You bank nothing during your 100% window. In your 50% window, you can bank the 50 remaining OKW pts and all 50 BCV points! The reason you can bank 100% of those BCV points in the 50% banking window is because they pool your master and add-on contracts for banking purposes. You own a total of 250 pts so in the 50% banking window you can bank up to 125 pts from either/both contracts, including any points already banked.

Hope this helps!

 

[LisaS]

My understanding about the banking is that you would be able to bank the percentage of the contract total. If your contract was 200 & you had a 50 pt add on (at the same resort with the same UY), at the 50% deadline you could bank up to 100 & 25.

Points from master contracts and their add-ons are pooled for banking purposes. So in this case (200 pt master contract, 50 pt add on) you can bank a total of 125 pts during the 50% window (including any points already banked). If you used all 50 pts from your add-on and 75 from your master, at the 50% window you could bank all 125 remaining points from your master. Even though 125 pts is more than 50% of the points in the master contract, it is 50% of the total pts owned in the two contracts.

Let's say you used none of the points from your add-on and used 125 from your master, then in the 50% banking window you could bank the 75 remaining points from your master and ALL 50 pts from your add-on (assuming no points were banked previously).

 

[Pennyguy23]

Great help lisa. I just found out I passed ROFR. My use year is Sept. Can you Pm the deadlines and all the banking info you just wrote with a september use year? Thanks again

 

[LisaS]

Congratulations on getting past ROFR!

The banking deadlines for a Sept UY are: Feb 28/29 (100%), May 31 (50%), June 30 (25%). In other words, you can bank 100% of your points during the first 6 months of your UY (Sep 1 - Feb 28/29), 50% during months 7, 8 and 9, (Mar 1 - May 31), 25% during the 10th month (Jun 1-30), and nothing during the last 2 months of your UY (Jul 1 - Aug 31).

Here is the online chart I use whenever I have to figure out banking deadlines. It is courtesy of the DIS boards own VAScubaGuy! http://members.cox.net/disneyvacationclub/pages/Charts/charts.htm

It's part of his "Unofficial DVC Member Info Guide" website: http://members.cox.net/disneyvacationclub/ There is lots of good info on his site.

 

[Pennyguy23]

Thanks alot Lisa. Do you know if there has EVER been a deal price in buying sold our resort. Even like 2$ off at times?

 

[LisaS]

Thanks alot Lisa. Do you know if there has EVER been a deal price in buying sold our resort. Even like 2$ off at times?

Prior to the most recent price increase earlier this year the price of all of the sold-out resorts was $92/pt. They raised the price of BCV, BWV and VWL to $95/pt, but left OKW at $92 and reduced the price of VB and HHI by $5 to $87/pt. I don't know if that $87/pt price is still available but if not, I expect it would be the same as OKW which I know still goes for $92/pt. The discounted prices for OKW, HHI and VB are the only discounts I've seen on the sold-out resorts, but I've only been spending time on the DVC boards since June 2005.

 

[Dean]

August and Dec will be the best use years for these plans. Even better might be two different use years, possibly at 2 different resorts. Depending on your unit needs and actual timing of travel for each of those trips, you may want to consider non DVC options and possibly trade in for part of your trips through II.

 

[Pennyguy23]

non DVC options and possibly trade in for part of your trips through II?

I'm not sure what this means DEAN. I'm still pretty new. Thanks

 

[Dean]

non DVC options and possibly trade in for part of your trips through II?

I'm not sure what this means DEAN. I'm still pretty new. Thanks

Most of the times you quoted have the potential to fall into very slow times at WDW and for DVC and thus be easily available through Interval International, a timeshare exchange company. If you can travel for Jan starting the weekend after the holiday, late April, May prior to the holiday weekend and the second half of August/Sept AND can make due with a 1 BR or studio, you can fairly easily trade into DVC consistently if you plan ahead at least 11-12 months. And one can do so by buying some other timeshare options (not all) cheaper than you could buy in at DVC assuming for 7 days starting on a Saturday. A 2 BR is hit or miss but still possible much of the times However, If you need a 2 BR consistently or these times don't fit you or you would go other than 7 days starting on a weekend, it wouldn't work very well. Although I'm a member, I've traded in 3 weeks this year including a 1 BR at OKW in Jan, 1 BR at BWV in Sept and a 2 BR in Dec at SSR coming up. I also have a 2 BR for VB for next May. Total cost including exchange fees and the extra $95 fee about $2500 for the 4 weeks. I also picked up a 1 BR SSR week for next Sept Holiday weekend using a bonus week. I've supplemented some of the trips with extra points that I own for a couple of extra days here and there. Had I used points directly, it would have been 895 points. Though had I been using my own points I would have likely only did Sunday to Thursday and would have gotten a 1 BR for VB for somewhat less points overall.

Thus I've come to the conclusion that the best way for DVC tips for a subset of people is a combo of a small points ownership and trading in through II. And the larger DVC becomes, the better this strategy will work. The other benefit to this strategy is that it gives one other vacation options outside WDW for likely an even better value than trading to WDW and certainly much cheaper than trying to trade DVC for non DVC options. And the $$ saved can be used for weekend stays at WDW for shorter trips or to supplement other trips.

 

[Pennyguy23]

So with Interval International, am I renting from other members, or are you talking about a different timeshare I am really sorry but you kind of lost me. I am very interested in what you are saying. I got some of it but not all. I just went to the website and was looking around. How do you go about renting from someone and how do you know how much it costs? Please let me know a little more. Thanks very much.

 

[Dean]

So with Interval International, am I renting from other members, or are you talking about a different timeshare I am really sorry but you kind of lost me. I am very interested in what you are saying. I got some of it but not all. I just went to the website and was looking around. How do you go about renting from someone and how do you know how much it costs? Please let me know a little more. Thanks very much.

If you're totally new to all of this, it does get confusing, even for long standing DVC members. My references are to buying a non DVC timeshare and then trading in through II, an exchange company. There are costs and risk associated with doing so including the up front cost of the other timeshare, yearly fees, the exchange costs and in regards to DVC, an extra $95 fee when you exchange to WDW but not HH or VB.

Lets deal with a real world example. Say you bought 10,000 Bluegreen points to use yearly. Up front costs around $4000-5000 or so and yearly fees around $700. You could then reserve any resort in their system (around 50 or so) but you'd also have the option of joining II and trade through them potentially to DVC. For 7000 points, you can get a 1 BR that will easily trade in to DVC during the times I quoted earlier. That gives you about 1.5 exchanges a year or a similar usage at non DVC resort either directly through BG or through II. Or even through RCI, another exchange company, though DVC doesn't work with RCI. Of course you could try for a 2 BR but the odds are so much less it's likely not worth going that route. Assuming a 10 year return on principle, you'd be spending about $1250 per DVC week using this example. You'd give up much of the flexibility of the DVC system in doing so. And while exchangers are at the mercy of the system more than owners at most timeshares, that's true to a FAR less extent currently at DVC than at most places.

One thing about BG is that the more points you own, generally the lower your per point dues. While for 10K points you might be paying 7¢ a point, for 35K, it might be 4¢ per point. There are many other variations and systems and each will have their advantages and disadvantages with a wide range of costs. For 72K, I'm ore in the range of 3¢ per point however since I can use points to pay dues, I can actually negate the dues and a portion of the up front costs and still get about 3 trades per year including to DVC and elsewhere.

Or you could buy a cheap FL Beach week or similar for $500 and yearly fees of $450-550 and trade through II as well. Less cost but less options and flexibility and likely more long term risk. The list of possibilities goes on and on. In general I like the lower cost high demand Marriott's, esp the lockoff's, for trading and some of the other points systems like BG, Fairfield, Hyatt, Sunterra, Worldmark and Starwood. There are many variables as to what's best for a given situation and person.