Help please re potential DVC purchase - have I figured this right??

[SugarPlumFairyUK]

OK here's my understanding of how I think this works! Some clarification on whether I have this right would be great...

We normally take our vacation in July and would have 2 weeks of it at Disney. Our check out date would also be in July.

Does this mean that the best 'purchase' month would be August? (so that it is 11 months from the check out date?)

I see that Saratoga Springs is currently 120 points per week for the July period, so, for a two week vacation at this time each year I guess this means I would need to make an initial outlay of 240 points?

I can (if I wish) choose to use these points elsewhere, but my understanding is that I can only reserve 7 months in advance at other resorts if my home resort is say, Saratoga?

I am also wondering if it is best to buy more points than I need to stay at our home resort so that I can 'afford' other resorts?

Is there ever difficulty in securing accommodation at non-home resorts? We are restricted to UK school holidays so are concerned that we may not be able to experience other resorts due to this.

I would really appreciate some help on how this all works in practice!

Many thanks!

 

[com_op_2000]

We normally take our vacation in July and would have 2 weeks of it at Disney. Our check out date would also be in July.

Does this mean that the best 'purchase' month would be August? (so that it is 11 months from the check out date?)

I am also wondering if it is best to buy more points than I need to stay at our home resort so that I can 'afford' other resorts?

Is there ever difficulty in securing accommodation at non-home resorts? We are restricted to UK school holidays so are concerned that we may not be able to experience other resorts due to this.

I would really appreciate some help on how this all works in practice!

Many thanks!

Does this mean that the best 'purchase' month would be August? (so that it is 11 months from the check out date?)
No, you should have a UY that is before your "normal" travel period. For July trips, you should have a March, Arpil, or June UY.
That way if you need to cancel the July trip for any reason, you can rescheduled another trip in that UY or bank the point into next UY.

Is there ever difficulty in securing accommodation at non-home resorts? We are restricted to UK school holidays so are concerned that we may not be able to experience other resorts due to this.
Yes, certain room types (IE: AKL-CL and value rooms, BWV-standard) can be very hard to obtain. For myself the past four years, we have stayed at other than our home resort 90% of the stays. Holidays, marathon, F&W, & F&G weeks are getting hard to book except at your home resort.

I am also wondering if it is best to buy more points than I need to stay at our home resort so that I can 'afford' other resorts?
Yes, the points charts have had 3 major and yearly minor points adjustments. IMHO: you should have 5-10% more that you expect to use.

 

[SugarPlumFairyUK]

Does this mean that the best 'purchase' month would be August? (so that it is 11 months from the check out date?)
No, you should have a UY that is before your "normal" travel period. For July trips, you should have a March, Arpil, or June UY.
That way if you need to cancel the July trip for any reason, you can rescheduled another trip in that UY or bank the point into next UY.

Is there ever difficulty in securing accommodation at non-home resorts? We are restricted to UK school holidays so are concerned that we may not be able to experience other resorts due to this.
Yes, certain room types (IE: AKL-CL and value rooms, BWV-standard) can be very hard to obtain. For myself the past four years, we have stayed at other than our home resort 90% of the stays. Holidays, marathon, F&W, & F&G weeks are getting hard to book except at your home resort.

I am also wondering if it is best to buy more points than I need to stay at our home resort so that I can 'afford' other resorts?
Yes, the points charts have had 3 major and yearly minor points adjustments. IMHO: you should have 5-10% more that you expect to use.

Hello - thanks for your advice ... though I am confused as I'm thinking that I would not be able to actually reserve stays until August for a stay in July the following year? so why would I have a year date that starts 3 or 4 months before the date I can book? Sorry ... find this quite a minefield!!

 

[Msmithmd]

Use year has nothing to do with when you can book. It only relates to when you have to bank unused points into the next year or lose them.

You can book your home resort 11 months out from your travel dates, no matter what your use year is- subject to room availability and the points you have to use. Read the "understanding use year" thread if this still isn't clear.

 

[disneynutz]

For a better understanding of all this, take the time to read the threads here on the DIS.

DVC is expensive and understanding the product before you buy can save you thousands of dollars.

Bill

 

[jerseyduke]

UY is not about when you can make reservations, its about your dead line to bank your points.

To bank your points (move them into the next year) you have to do this buy the 8 month mark.

With and August UY, your banking deadline would be March 31.

Using your statements, you book a vacation for the first two weeks of July....

If you need to cancel it April 1, you are past your banking deadline! You must use the points before the expire (July 31).

If your UY were say April (or june) and you cancel your July trip, you can still bank your points, or use them before they expire( almost a year in the future)

 

[LorieDisneyLover]

Hello - thanks for your advice ... though I am confused as I'm thinking that I would not be able to actually reserve stays until August for a stay in July the following year? so why would I have a year date that starts 3 or 4 months before the date I can book? Sorry ... find this quite a minefield!!

Any DVC owner can currently (today) book a stay for next July at the home resort -- because July is nine months away. Come December 1 DVC owners will be able to book at ANY resort they want b/c July will be 7 months away.

Booking time is totally dependent on the calendar year and has nothing to do with your UseYear.

We vacation in July also. We chose a February UY b/c let's say we book a vacation for July 1st and then come May or June something comes up with work schedules and we need to cancel. We will be able to do so without any penalty (provided it is more than 31 days away from start of vacation) and bank those points to use the next year. February UY can bank points through 9/30 every year.

 

[chalee94]

Hello - thanks for your advice ... though I am confused as I'm thinking that I would not be able to actually reserve stays until August for a stay in July the following year? so why would I have a year date that starts 3 or 4 months before the date I can book? Sorry ... find this quite a minefield!!

read and bookmark this thread:

Understanding Use Year

"use year" refers to when you actually "use" the pts for stays. so if you stay in july 2014 with an aug UY, you would actually be staying in your aug 2013 UY (which covers aug 1, 2013 to july 31, 2014). if you needed to cancel that reservation in june 2014, your pts would all still expire and become completely useless at the end of july (since your banking window closed on march 31, 2014 for 2013 UY pts). that is why traveling late in your UY can put you in a bad spot.

use year has nothing to do with booking. every SSR owner can book SSR for july 2014 at 11 months out, which is always going to be august 2013 regardless of UY month.

(also, UY month of the contract is also totally unrelated to when you purchase the contract. so if you buy in august, it does NOT mean that you'd get an aug UY.)

 

[Annielkd22222]

Other than getting the use year before you typically vacation you want to see if you want to book at a hard to get resort. SS almost always has rooms....but is this where you want to stay? If you LOVE another resort, you might want to consider a contract at that resort. I could NOT get a vacation this year because where I wanted to go was sold out exactly on the seventh month out date at exactly 8:00. Think about we're you want to be....the pick a use year with enough time to bank your points or cancel a vacation. 3-6 months before works for me.

 

[JustTinking]

OK here's my understanding of how I think this works!
I see that Saratoga Springs is currently 120 points per week for the July period, so, for a two week vacation at this time each year I guess this means I would need to make an initial outlay of 240 points?

This would depend on whether you go to WDW every year. If you do, then yes, you would want enough points to cover. If you plan to go every other year you could buy half the amount of points you need, and borrow ahead or bank forward a years worth of points every 2nd year.

 

[SugarPlumFairyUK]

Would like to thank everyone for making this all clearer and for the advice on useful threads to check out. For some reason I figured that the use year somehow impacted on when you can book - but of course, when you book is dependant on when you are wanting to travel... D'oh!

We stayed at SSR this year and really liked it so would not mind being there at all, but the chance to have a change and stay at other resorts would be great.

Thanks again folks!

 

[disneynutz]

Would like to thank everyone for making this all clearer and for the advice on useful threads to check out. For some reason I figured that the use year somehow impacted on when you can book - but of course, when you book is dependant on when you are wanting to travel... D'oh!

We stayed at SSR this year and really liked it so would not mind being there at all, but the chance to have a change and stay at other resorts would be great.

Thanks again folks!

You stayed at SSR and you liked it, you may like other resorts better. We bought several different resorts because we didn't take the time to check them all out before we bought and we thought that the next one was the best one. We now own 6 different resorts and consider only 3 to be our favorite.

Expensive lesson.

Bill

 

[DisneyDenis]

Would like to thank everyone for making this all clearer and for the advice on useful threads to check out. For some reason I figured that the use year somehow impacted on when you can book - but of course, when you book is dependant on when you are wanting to travel... D'oh!

We stayed at SSR this year and really liked it so would not mind being there at all, but the chance to have a change and stay at other resorts would be great.

Thanks again folks!

Since you are staying at DVC for 2 weeks, consider a "split-stay". That way you can experience many different resorts. You would lock in your 14 days at SSR at 11 months (or where ever you purchase). See what is available at the 7 month window, then cancel the last xx days and rebook at the second resort). Disney can move your baggage between resorts.