Does matching UY matter for Riviera resale?

[DVC Newb '23]

We're awaiting closing on our first contract (VGF) and are in the market for a small contract at Riviera as well. Everything I've read encourages keeping all contracts in the same use year to keep everything under one membership account and make booking easier if using points from multiple contracts. I've recently realized that since we're only interested in resale contracts it would have very little impact to buy a Riviera contract with another UY since we wouldn't be able to use them any where else and our VGF points can't be used at Riviera either.

Am I overlooking something that would make me want to stick with the same UY anyways? Our current UY is April, so looking at only April contracts limits our options quite a bit.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

 

[wnielsen1]

In your case, it matters very little.

 

[Sandisw]

I agree that if all you will have is resale, then it won’t matter. But, be sure that whatever UY you do choose still works with your travel times so if you do have to change or cancel, you have some options for using those points.

 

[intamin]

It really should only limit you if you have a direct Riviera contract already, but since it sounds like you don’t then it really doesn’t matter and if you really wanted direct RIV for whatever reason later on you could add it to the resale contracts UY. However, if you did intend to get direct RIV later on it may be beneficial to have in the same UY as the rest of your points to combine but that’s the only case I can see it mattering.

 

[RoseGold]

Opposite UY isn't a great idea if you are planning to split stay, but anything close will be fine.

I think it's an advantage, because you get extra waitlists.

 

[DVC Newb '23]

Thank you all for your replies! I didn't even think about having access to more waitlists with a second UY. Since we don't plan to purchase direct this has opened up a lot of possibilities without adding any real drawbacks.

 

[Sandisw]

Thank you all for your replies! I didn't even think about having access to more waitlists with a second UY. Since we don't plan to purchase direct this has opened up a lot of possibilities without adding any real drawbacks.

While you will get more waitlists, it will only apply to RIV for that membership. And, with restricted points you’d want to be booking at 11 months just to be sure you have that trip locked in.

 

[HappyDisneyWife]

I know I’m late to respond, but I wanted to share some firsthand experience. I previously had 2 UY spread out for different trips (Feb & Aug). When the first RIV resales showed up, those weren’t an option… and I thought just like everyone else is… these very restricted points will be used by themselves anyway, so how could it matter?

There is 1 very unique situation where it is a major pain. Transfers. I haven’t done them very often, but it was awful. As you already know, with your restricted membership, you cannot see RIV’s inventory when booking. On the flip side- with a resale RIV membership, you can only see RIV. It can also just be trickier to use your points when there is one lonely contract. When I’ve txfr’d (my own) unrestricted points to complete a RIV res, it worked out fine… but when I had to cancel that bc of covid, things started getting messier. Then, when my sister wanted to txfr some points to use elsewhere… the nightmare really began. I couldn’t see or use the txfr’d points anywhere without calling (even after the 7 month mark when txfr’d points become easily used in “regular” accounts). I thought once I had the res in place through member services, I’d at least be able to modify it myself. No dice. Not even guest name changes (which I had to do). Nothing could be done myself, and I call MS as little as possible. So I nearly jumped to the add-on tool to buy a small direct add-on just to fix this issue!! I didn’t, but I’m still looking for ways to make this membership easier to use in the future.