Does UY matter for my first purchase?

[MBTigger]

OK - Here is the deal...

We returned from our trip and were given one day DHS tickets because they called our boarding group for RoTR and the ride had problems that day. We are in discussion about returning to WDW in the next 2 years to use those..

As I mentioned before, If we came back planning our next trip we would probably buy into DVC. That looks to be happening. There is a debate and it looks like we are thinking about 2 100 pt contracts. One at Aulani and one at AKL (Or possibly SSR/BLT - jury is out on that)

Now it seems to me that MOST contracts have a DEC UY. For Aulani this is great as I will most likely be a late winter / early spring traveler to Hawaii (there are Birthdays and Special occasions in Late Jan / Early Feb). When I go to WDW would be pretty variable. My current thought is to keep an eye for Aulani Dec UY contracts with either a good price or good points - then later keep an eye open for a Dec UY AKL/SSR/BLT for 100 pts as I am MORE likely to find a Dec UY.
What is your experience with UY? Is Dec really the most prevalent? am I missing something?
Thanks in advance
MB

 

[Sandisw]

I don’t know if it is the most prevalent but you want to certainly pick one that works best for your travel,

Dec UY is not ideal for fall travel. If you think you’d routinely want to go then, I’d search for something like Aug or Sept UY.

I ended up with a few different ones in order to cover my bases but they do have a good amount of points and I can use them for different trips,

If Dec UY works for Aulani trips, then if you end up with a different for WDW trips, then you can just book some nights on each.

 

[jerseyduke]

When OKW hit the market, Disney split up the UYs pretty equally. Since then - NO. AK has 32.8 % of its points in Dec, so yes, thats a lot.
Poly has 28.6%

No other resort is over 20.

Dec is the most common UY, but it does vary by resort. BLT is the lowest at 11%.

if your travel times are pretty variable, you really cant pick an 'advantageous' UY.

It is always best to travel early in your UY if you can, but if you travel at all different times its a crap shoot.

Just remember, even if you have the same UY, you can not combine 100 AK points and 100 Aulani to book at the same resort at 11 months.

I have 2 different UYs for different times of travel, dont rule that out.

 

[ClemTig]

Think of the time of year you like to go. Example- December. 11 month Window is January. So I'd want to bank the points if I missed out. So add 6 months to that. I'd want a use year of July or August in this scenario- so I can Bank Feb 1st (July UY) or March 1st (August UY) if I missed on the reservation, or had points left over.

It's really not super critical, though.

 

[jerseyduke]

Think of the time of year you like to go. Example- December. 11 month Window is January. So I'd want to bank the points if I missed out. So add 6 months to that. I'd want a use year of July or August in this scenario- so I can Bank Feb 1st (July UY) or March 1st (August UY) if I missed on the reservation, or had points left over.

It's really not super critical, though.

Banking is an important factor, but don't forget holding points. Life does happen and you may very well have to cancel a trip 20 days out. If you do, you might be in a situation where you could not care less about loosing points, but, if you have 10 months to try and use them it can't hurt.

Of course its not super critical, its just a form of insurance.

 

[MBTigger]

Thanks Jersey, those numbers give me something to think on.
Certainly if we look to AKL, a Dec UY at Aulani might make a complementary AKV contract easier to find...

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

OK - Here is the deal...

We returned from our trip and were given one day DHS tickets because they called out boarding group for RoTR and the ride had problems that day. We are in discussion about returning to WDW in the next 2 years to use those..

As I mentioned before, If we came back planning our next trip we would probably buy into DVC. That looks to be happening. There is a debate and it looks like we are thinking about 2 100 pt contracts. One at Aulani and one at AKL (Or possibly SSR/BLT - jury is out on that)

Now it seems to me that MOST contracts have a DEC UY. For Aulani this is great as I will most likely be a late winter / early spring traveler to Hawaii (there are Birthdays and Special occasions in Late Jan / Early Feb). When I go to WDW would be pretty variable. My current thought is to keep an eye for Aulani Dec UY contracts with either a good price or good points - then later keep an eye open for a Dec UY AKL/SSR/BLT for 100 pts as I am MORE likely to find a Dec UY.
What is your experience with UY? Is Dec really the most prevalent? am I missing something?
Thanks in advance
MB

https://dvcnews.com/index.php/dvc-p...ear-distribution-charts-updated-february-2018

Here's the breakdown on UY's (last updated in 2018 but it'll have the WDW resorts you're looking at). Dec UY is skewed because they sold so much of AKV in that UY. But AKV is also very large and it's not difficult to find contracts in every UY there. SSR is also very large so it's not difficult to find contracts in every UY. February is very skewed because for some reason they kept selling the Feb UY at BLT for an inordinate amount of time. In any case it might be a wait for the right listing via resale no matter what the UY. I'd base the UY on travel dates and if it also happens to mean there's more contracts in that UY that makes it easier to buy then that's a bonus.

 

[abner1776]

I always felt that the possible loss of banking was the most important criteria when choosing a UY, but I guess that depends on each situation.

As a general rule, you don't want to book trips near the end of your UY because of the banking restriction but then again if you never cancel, then it's never an issue.