Hope to buy in after 1st visit to OKW

[joandegennaro]

Help! I hope to convice my husband to buy into DVC after we visit this comming March. I need some advice as to which use year I should consider. We will want to travel between Sept -May. What use year would allow us this flexablity? I'm not sure how it all works with banking, borrowing, holding ect. I just know that right now we travel when kids are on winter breaks from school but in the next few years oldest won't be traveling with us anymore and we will pull youngest out of school when we want to travel. 5 years from now we will again be restricted by high school schedule. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[goldilocks_63]

I think Oct UY would work well for you because of school schedule. You will need December, and Spring Break (March / April) so October UY would cover both timeframes, and if you need to cancel you could still bank.

Feel free to email me any q's.

Welcome Home in advance, Goldi

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

If Sept travel is very likely then I'd say a September UY. May trips might be the only trouble spot then. The banking deadline would be Apr 30th in which case you might already know if you needed to cancel a May trip or not. If you had to cancel within 30 days of a May trip at least you would have until Aug 31st to use the points in holding.

 

[mikron]

I own OKW with a March and a December UY. December very confussion. My Feburay UY in SSR are 100% easer to keep track. I guess anything at the front end of the calander year is helpfull. Everything with Disney starts first of year, dues, point changes, dinning plan etc.

 

[hcdisney]

Honestly, I didn't know you were able to choose a use year. We bought SS back in 2005 and got an August use year. We also just purchased through resale VBR and got a March use year. With our August use year we've never had any problems with reservations. We go at least 3 times per year and at different times each year. So far no problems.
Heather

 

[Sandisw]

I second that a September UY would work out for your travel during September and May.

You have to cancel at least 31 days prior to vacation in order to have the points not go into holding. Even for your May trips, this would give you until April 30th to cancel a trip and still bank those points. Any cancellations 30 to 1 day prior results in "holding Points" that have to be used by the end of that UY.

The only times that don't work out well for a September UY are summer trips and it sounds like those are not part of your plans, at least for now.

Good luck!!!

 

[5forDiz]

Help! I hope to convice my husband to buy into DVC after we visit this comming March. I need some advice as to which use year I should consider. We will want to travel between Sept -May. What use year would allow us this flexablity? I'm not sure how it all works with banking, borrowing, holding ect. I just know that right now we travel when kids are on winter breaks from school but in the next few years oldest won't be traveling with us anymore and we will pull youngest out of school when we want to travel. 5 years from now we will again be restricted by high school schedule. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

'Rule of thumb' is to travel during first 8 mos of UY so you may possibly bank points from CURRENT UY allotment in event of cancellation as these will be the only points used in your reservation that are bankable if you cancelled at least 31 days prior to check-in AND also so that you may have at least couple of months left in UY to re-use banked &/or borrowed points that may have also been part of the cancelled reservation AND if need be to even re-use the Current UY allotment of points before the UY ends if the cancellation happened to have occurred less than 31 days to trip's check-in date.

For now September sounds like it will work well for you. But you may want to give consideration to June to give you the added flexibility of June - August travel with school schedules being how they are : banking deadline for June is January 31 so if by winter break time you are referring to travel in December/January and February then June could work as well and give you the ability to get summer travel in if needed - - you can book a trip for as late as Feb 29 check-in and cancel as late as Jan 29(at least 31 days before checkin) and you would still be able to bank any Current UY points you have in that reservation.

Just keep in mind that Use Year has nothing to do with how soon you can book your trip because you may always book as early as 11 months before check-in date that you would want at your Home Resort ( and as early as 7 mos before check-in at non-Home Resort ).

If you're considering buying a large amount of points you may even want to split between 2 different UY's; if you're planning on direct purchase through Disney you would have to buy two separate contracts & both would need to have minimum amount of points that Disney currently requires or you can shop the resale market where you'll typically find a healthy amount of resales for all UY's & resorts & point amounts ranging from 25 and up (you can buy into DVC on resale market at less points than what Disney requires on direct purchase)

Best wishes on your planning

 

[lugnut33]

Also, just my opinion, if you're looking at OKW you should consider buying resale. Much much cheaper.

 

[joandegennaro]

I second that a September UY would work out for your travel during September and May.

You have to cancel at least 31 days prior to vacation in order to have the points not go into holding. Even for your May trips, this would give you until April 30th to cancel a trip and still bank those points. Any cancellations 30 to 1 day prior results in "holding Points" that have to be used by the end of that UY.

The only times that don't work out well for a September UY are summer trips and it sounds like those are not part of your plans, at least for now.

Good luck!!![/QUOte


Summer is not ever in our vacation plans. Weather at home in Ontario, Canada is hot enough for this fair skined mother. Kids got the olive skin tones from their dad but I burn in the shade! Was only considering a re-sale. This visit in March in on a friends DVC points. Hope to show hubby the advantages of being a DVC member over rack rates as we seem to vacation here year after year. DH just said the other day he's surprised how even he has become a disney fan! So the time is right to try to convice him to buy in!

 

[dizfan]

Summer is not ever in our vacation plans. Weather at home in Ontario, Canada is hot enough for this fair skined mother. Kids got the olive skin tones from their dad by I burn in the shade!

While Wisconsin's not as cold (or as long a winter) as Ontario, heading to Disney is a great cure for cabin fever. We have similar vacationing habits as you and choose a September UY.