DVC Purchase need referral and questions answered - Updated 11-29 we are now owners

[mattnday]

My wife and I have been debating this purchase forever. We actually had 2 weeks fail the ROFR with disney already. Admittedly we were offering low but the offers were accepted so we thought what the heck.

Now we are at DisneyWorld for 12 days staying at a very nice HGVC unit but are feeling the urge to give DVC another go. This time we are thinking of making the splurge to Saratoga with the reffered owner promotion.

We are pretty young at 34 with a 5 year old son and have been Disney freaks for what seems like forever so the extra years seem to make sense as we will probably use it 20 years or so before considering selling it. We have averages 2.5 trips to Disneyland per year over the last 3 years with our son.

Unfortunately or fortunately depending on your view we live in California. This has always been our only reason for not making this decision sooner. We own 6 other timeshare weeks including Hilton and WorldMark.


I am looking for the following information to help us make our decision:

1)Owner referral in case we go to DVC in the next few days to buy Saratoga

2)I understand the $15 dollar incentive. What use month can we expect if we make this purchase?

3)Is there any chance of still getting a Dec 2006 use month or even November for that matter

4)Is there a use month that would be better for us if we will be traveling in November the most?

Thanks for all your help

Matt, Daidrian and little Zach

Please pm or email me a referral to mattnday@yahoo.com

 

[RobDoc]

I am looking for the following information to help us make our decision:

1)Owner referral in case we go to DVC in the next few days to buy Saratoga

Check out this thread for members offering to be a referral. That is the best source for referral information. Hopefully, no one will try to post referral info in this thread.

2)I understand the $15 dollar incentive. What use month can we expect if we make this purchase?

3)Is there any chance of still getting a Dec 2006 use month or even November for that matter

There is no November Use Year. Some have reported getting a December Use Year recently, but others have gotten February. (There is no January, May, July or November Use Year). The incentive is only for the SSR buildings still to open (the first 12 are already sold out and the remaining 6 will be opening beginning in December and continuing into 2007).

4)Is there a use month that would be better for us if we will be traveling in November the most?

If you will usually travel in November a September or October Use Year would serve you well. This can be important if you would need to cancel a reservation, giving you opportunity to bank or reuse those points - otherwise it is just the month each year when your points are renewed.

Good luck with your decision and enjoy the tour!

 

[JimMIA]

If you will usually travel in November a September or October Use Year would serve you well. This can be important if you would need to cancel a reservation, giving you opportunity to bank or reuse those points...

Doc is exactly right, but I want to expound on this to be sure you fully understand it.

If you have a September Use Year, your banking deadlines are Feb 28 (100%), May 30 (50%), and June 30 (25%). If you book a November trip, you are early in your UY. To keep it simple, let's say you book a November trip and you have to cancel more than 30 days prior to arrival...say 10/1. No harm, no foul -- the points just go back into your account, and you have until the end of February to bank ALL of them. You also have 11 months left in your UY to use the points if you choose.

In that same scenario, if you had a December UY and canceled a Nov ressie on October 1, you would be past ALL of your banking deadlines, and you would have only two months left in the UY to use the points or lose them.

If you know you are going to be traveling mostly in November, an October (or September) UY would be perfect, and even February would be a TON better than December.

 

[LisaS]

3)Is there any chance of still getting a Dec 2006 use month or even November for that matter

4)Is there a use month that would be better for us if we will be traveling in November the most?

I'll add one more thing to what Doc and Jim have already covered re: Use Year, and that is that your UY has nothing to do with when you can make a reservation. You can make reservations at your home resort 11 months prior to your checkout date regardless of your Use Year. You can make a reservation at the other DVC resorts 7 months prior to your checkout date regardless of your Use Year.

I wanted to mention this because you seemed interested in getting a UY month that is 11 months prior to your normal travel dates and sometimes people new to DVC think that UY dictates when you can make a reservation when in fact that is not the case.

Good luck with your purchase!

 

[MommaX03]

I defer to the experts who posted above about Use Year. The only thing I will add is my experience as a recent SSR purchaser. I spoke with my Disney guide in mid October, and received a December 2006 Use Year.

Good Luck in your decision!

 

[mattnday]

Here is the question then:

If you can get points this December are those 2006 points or 2007 points?

wouldn't it be more beneficial to have 2006 on the books vs waiting until February to actually get points?

 

[RobDoc]

If you can still get a December Use Year with the SSR incentive, you would get 2006 points. If that Use Year is no longer available, you would get February, 2007 Use Year points at that time. The difference is 62 days, but it's all dependent on what is still available. If you will not ever need to cancel a November reservation after you banking deadlines have passed, the use Year wil make little difference.

Enjoy!

 

[kdzgon]

Depending on available inventory, other use years (resale contracts ROFR'd by Disney) may be available through Disney as well (my guide had offered me Feb, Mar, or Aug approx 4-5 wks ago). If a Sept use yr would serve you well, it might be better served by requesting it (from Disney) and waiting until they can fill it or possibly try another purchase through resale instead.

 

[Zane_Anthony]

I took the tour last Friday ( the 17th) and was told it would be a Dec use year.

 

[phorsenuf]

I just got off the phone with my guide and he said they are doing October 2006 use year. After that sells out it will be December 2006.
Hope that helps some.

 

[mattnday]

I am still unsure of what we are going to do. We have been in Orlando 5 days and still are not definative on the purchase. If we decide to purchase than we have to decide on resale or direct with DVC. We did however schedule a tour for Wednesday afternoon. Honestly, we are probably leaning against the purchase but the tour may change our mind.

Anyway it goes my family wanted to say Thank You to everyone who posted responses and offered referrals. It actually turned out that someone offered their name from our small town in California. If we purchase we will be using them as a reference.

Thanks again for all the help.

 

[Dean]

When do you usually travel? If you can get an earlier use year, say June or August (or even earlier) OR even better, get the 2005 points on a Dec use year, that will in effect give you extra points with no extra fees. Since they routinely allow you to bank the points for a new purchase no matter the usual banking deadlines, that can be quite a windfall. The best value will be the use year that gives you the most points overall. However, one should at least look at when you'll travel as you would prefer not to have a use year that is to close after your normal travel time of year.

They are always selling X use year but if you ask, you can usually get about anything you want for retail. The Dec with 2005 points is pushing it given the situation but Feb is very likely doable.

 

[MommaX03]

Just so that you are prepared for what may be offered by the guide at your tour: The guide will probably give you two options:
1. $101 per point at SSR (Saratoga) with an extra years worth of points as a one-time bonus (So if you are offered a December 2006 Use Year for 150 points, then you could conceivably receive 150 2006 Year Points as well as another one-time bonus 150 points for a total of 300 points); or
2. $91 a point at SSR without the extra one-time bonus points.
3. Of course, there is the third option:
The guide probably will not mention the Friends and Family Discount unless you do. As you have a referral name and town, you can be offered $86 a point at SSR without the one-time bonus points.

Good luck with your decision. I know it is a big consideration. Enjoy the tour, and do not be afraid to ask questions of your guide.

 

[LisaS]

When do you usually travel? If you can get an earlier use year, say June or August (or even earlier) OR even better, get the 2005 points on a Dec use year, that will in effect give you extra points with no extra fees. Since they routinely allow you to bank the points for a new purchase no matter the usual banking deadlines, that can be quite a windfall. The best value will be the use year that gives you the most points overall. However, one should at least look at when you'll travel as you would prefer not to have a use year that is to close after your normal travel time of year.

In his original post in this thread, he stated that they normally travel in November. So while a Dec UY is the best value, it's the worst UY for his current travel schedule.

 

[skibum]

I agree with Dean, go for the extra points with a December use year.
Regarding DVC direct or resale, the reason we bought SSR direct was the extra 12 years and lowest maintenance fees (with no hassles). We enjoy SSR, and are looking forward to staying at all the resorts.
Good luck with the decision-making process.

 

[kdzgon]

Just so that you are prepared for what may be offered by the guide at your tour: The guide will probably give you two options:
1. $101 per point at SSR (Saratoga) with an extra years worth of points as a one-time bonus (So if you are offered a December 2006 Use Year for 150 points, then you could conceivably receive 150 2006 Year Points as well as another one-time bonus 150 points for a total of 300 points); or
2. $91 a point at SSR without the extra one-time bonus points.
3. Of course, there is the third option:
The guide probably will not mention the Friends and Family Discount unless you do. As you have a referral name and town, you can be offered $86 a point at SSR without the one-time bonus points.

Good luck with your decision. I know it is a big consideration. Enjoy the tour, and do not be afraid to ask questions of your guide.

My guide offered the F&F discount immediately, but told me there were no SSR Dec contracts with extra points - I would receive points as of Dec 06, equal to the contract amt purchased only. I'm not sure from your post if the "extra" points in your example would be 150 or 300 (I think a new SSR contract is for 2007 pts, as the yr is 12/06-12/07, correct?), but if only 150, IMO the $15 discount would still be a better deal.

 

[MommaX03]

My guide offered the F&F discount immediately, but told me there were no SSR Dec contracts with extra points - I would receive points as of Dec 06, equal to the contract amt purchased only. I'm not sure from your post if the "extra" points in your example would be 150 or 300 (I think a new SSR contract is for 2007 pts, as the yr is 12/06-12/07, correct?), but if only 150, IMO the $15 discount would still be a better deal.

In my example, the extra one-time bonus points would be only 150 because that is the minimum number of SSR points a first-timer can purchase through Disney. If you elect to purchase the minimum SSR points of 150 for $101 a point under this non-Friends and Family discount option, then Disney in the past has done a one-time match of 150 points. So, you could have an intital total of 300, which represents the minimum 150 SSR points purchased and the one-time bonus points of 150.

If you have a December Use year, that is from December 1, 2006 to November 30, 2007. The following December Use Year, December 1, 2007 to November 30, 2008, you will only receive 150 points. The total amount of points available to be used for the December 2007 Use Year will depend on your prior use during the December 2006 Use Year, banking and borrowing. You may chose to use your points, bank them or borrow into the next Use Year.

I completely agree with you that the $15 Friends and Family discount is a better deal as compared to the one-time extra points at the $101 per point rate. The $15 discount is the deal I took.

 

[kdzgon]

In my example, the extra one-time bonus points would be only 150 because that is the minimum number of SSR points a first-timer can purchase through Disney. If you elect to purchase the minimum SSR points of 150 for $101 a point under this non-Friends and Family discount option, then Disney in the past has done a one-time match of 150 points. So, you could have an intital total of 300, which represents the minimum 150 SSR points purchased and the one-time bonus points of 150.

If you have a December Use year, that is from December 1, 2006 to November 30, 2007. The following December Use Year, December 1, 2007 to November 30, 2008, you will only receive 150 points. The total amount of points available to be used for the December 2007 Use Year will depend on your prior use during the December 2006 Use Year, banking and borrowing. You may chose to use your points, bank them or borrow into the next Use Year.

I completely agree with you that the $15 Friends and Family discount is a better deal as compared to the one-time extra points at the $101 per point rate. The $15 discount is the deal I took.

I'm curious, were you actually offered the choice of extra points, or is that based on other deals offered earlier on? I am curious because we were told no (new) contracts were avail with extra points, as the contracts are for new buildings AND Disney had a shortage of "extra" points. There were some contracts avail for UYs other than the "new" Dec 06 and Feb 07 that *might* have had points (I didn't pursue this, as we purchased a loaded contract resale).

 

[mattnday]

Well, we found a resale contract that we really liked due to an extra years points. However, after taking the tour we realized that with no maintenace fees for 2006 "OK 1 months worth" for the whole years points that there was only about $800 difference between the price we paid and what we would have ended up paying after renting out the extra years points assuming it passed ROFR. Once that was determined resale was out of the question in my wifes mind.

In our opinion there was no guarantee that $84 would pass ROFR with the extra years points and we just didn't want to deal with another ROFR waiting game that ended up in Disney taking "our" week.

We were also really impressed that our orignal guide from 1999 Doug Rapp was still working for DVC and was one one of the orignal guides from the inception. He was as pleasant and informative today as he was 7 years ago. We only wish we had bought way back then at BoardWalk. I was especially taken aback by the fact that Doug actually listened to our needs and questions and did not force feed us all the other info we already knew. I also appreciated the fact that he went the extra mile with our 5 year old who was in their kids center during our tour. Doug not only helped him make a sundae but got him special trading pins and found a cast member for him to trade with.

I am the biggest proponent of you have to buy resale and believe me, our add on will be resale. However, with the friends and family promotion and the close nature of the pricing between resale and Disney for Saratoga.

My saving grace to buying developer is that we were looking at much larger contracts when we were looking resale. (175-300) Since we bought developer we went with the minimum knowing we wont be going again until 2008 and it will give us a chance to add on at either a lower price or at one of the upcoming properties like contemporary or animal kingdom.

Much thanks go out to all who chimed in and offered referrals. We are so happy to finally be members.

 

[3DisneyKids]

Well then let me be the first to say...




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