Happy with your use year?

[lenshanem]

I bet many joined not giving much thought to their use year.
When I joined I knew a littel about it. I had the choice of BCV December sue year or VWL February use year. We wnet with BCV, vaguely thinking at one point a December use year might work better for us.
Now, I wish we had VWL instead of BCV, but that december use year is so much better for us. I don't think we coudl ahev gotten a better use year.

I was curious if anyone has problems with their typical vacation times and how they fall with their use year.

We have school schedules to contend with for awhiel. (My oldest is just now in Kindergarten.)
We will travel during the winter holiday break, spring break and summer, having to be back in school by August. It works so nicely.
I was thinking about a trip I have planned in July. I got my brother a studio and was worried about him backing out on me. But, then I realized even if he does I can still bank half my points by the end of august so I'm covered unless he bails out withh that 31 days. (But that is a differnet story, regardless I woudl still have until the end of November to decide what to do with holding points.)

Oh well, just babbling...

 

[PamOKW]

I'm not unhappy with my Use Year but I have learned how it is hard to predict what will be ideal for 30-50 years. My original Use Year is perfect for the time we always traveled -- early May. It also works well for the fall trips I've learned to enjoy. It even works "okay" for those wonderful Christmas trips we discovered. But, those trips to catch Spring Training and/or the Bay Hill Invitational in March? No, April is not good since this is a trip I have had to cancel more than once. However, as you can see -- DVC has taught me how wonderful WDW is year-round and how "once a year" isn't alway enough, so it's hard to pick the perfect Use Year! My next move would be to get a full contract that would cover my Dec-Mar trips.

 

[spiceycat]

I am very happy with my June use year and I even travel sometimes in May - so it works well for us.

I haven't lost any points yet!

 

[Simba's Mom]

You're right-when we joined, we gave little thought to the convenience of our use year. We were given August, and didn't think much one way or another. Now that we've been members for 1 1/2 years...well, we still give little thought to our use year. It seems perfectly OK with us, aren't wishing for another month, but never say "Boy, are we lucky that we got an August use year!" Really doesn't affect our plans.

 

[Pa@okw95]

I found over the years that the use year has no effect on anything that I do. I think most would find this true.

 

[GraceDVC]

If I could have predicted the future, we would have selected a March use year, instead of our June use year, because we like vacationing in April and May now. When we purchased in 1995, we would vacation during the Summer months with our children. Now we purchase Travel Guard insurance for those trips we plan in May just in case we have to cancel.

 

[tinkgrl]

Shan,

We have a Feb UY & so far its worked for us. I am on a college scedule that gets out in May so it works for us.

Allison an associate

 

[JohnathanS]

Our October use year works out perfectly for us. We always take a trip for the Food and Wine festival, as well as a Thanksgiving or early December trip. If I ever need to cancel late, it will give us quite a bit of time to use points in holding.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Back when we purchased, we didn't even know we could request a specific use year. We just took what they gave us. As it turns out, we usually travel in January, so our use year of March would not be good if (God forbid) we ever had to cancel last minute. Now, we have never needed to do that in 7 years, but I can imagine there might be a time we would need it.

 

[DrTomorrow]

Since we just bought into SSR, it hasn't come up yet. But I did think about it, worrying about it like every other detail that I discovered here on the DIS. But I asked the collected wisdom of the DIS DVC forum, and the near-universal response was, "Don't worry about it." I was advised of the if.you.need.to.cancel issue, but that was counter-balanced by the time.of.year.you.travel.will.change factor. So I just took what Disney gave us - a use year of 2023; we can hardly wait until then so we can finally use our DVC membership.

 

[MinnieGi]

We bought a BWV resale with a Feb. use year and so far it has been just fine. For the past two years we have taken a trip the first week in Feb. so that works well since as soon as we get our new allottment of points - they're half used! Then we also do a fall trip with the other half and no issues there either.

 

[CarolMN]

Had no idea how "use year" might affect us when we bought. Didn't even consider it as part of the decision. (I was so shocked that my DH said to go ahead after the "tour", that I quit asking questions and asked the guide for the paperwork. Good thing for us that DVC is different from most timeshares)!

We have an August use year and since we've never had to cancel a vacation, I can't truthfully say that it has made any difference to us at all. However, since I do all the planning, booking and associated worrying, it's comforting to know that our 100% banking window is January 31. That's well after our usual WDW vacation in early December.

 

[lsutigger2]

Another vote here for "I really don't think about it much" except when it is time to bank points. Don't want to forget that and so far we haven't!! Our June year works for us as we usually travel in Oct.

 

[JimC]

We have December (OKW) and February (BCV) use years. To be honest we did not focus on use year when we made our purchases. For OKW it was a resale with the right points at the right price at the right resort. For BCV use year was just not an issue for us.