How easy is it to get a 2 bedrooms at 7months out?

[3pletprincesses]

the reason I'm asking is that we need a 2 bedrooms for our family of 6. we are debating between buying everything at the same resort vs 2 home resorts. we have no intention of travelling around x-mas, march break, or even Easter. We normally go either at the beginning of May, end of August or Sept-beginning of November. I know everyone says to buy where you want to stay but we are debating between 3 places and well you get the idea, we can't decide. We start planning almost a year out but it's only 6-7 months before the actual travel dates that we know if we need to change our plan or not because of work so the 11 months window is not really an advantage to us per say as we could change again and again by a few days. We really like AKV and BWL or even OKW

What's your opining on the matter? all at the same resort at 11 months out or 2 separate resorts at 7 months out for a 2 bedroom.

 

[com_op_2000]

This is basicly your choice but my one suggestion if you go with two home resorts is to have the same UY for both. That way you can transfer the points into one account and have all the points available at 7 months for booking.

 

[SugarLoaf]

If you bought two or three different home resorts, would it be your plan at all to use the 11 month window every other year, at each resort, rotating? If you got enough points at each to do that, then you could bank and borrow and always get the 11 month window at both of your favorites. You just couldn't do any one particular one, two times in a row, at 11 months.

If you never want to use the 11 month booking window, then I guess I would just buy all my points wherever they were the cheapest. I don't think there's any reason to pick your favorites, if you never plan to use the home resort advantage of the 11 month booking window.

I would personally buy all my points at one of my favorites, so I could always take advantage of the 11 month window if I wanted to. So you would at least have some home advantage somewhere. Then just use them at 7 months when you wanted to stay at one of your other favorites, like you would have anyway. But that's just me! That way I could protect all of my options, if I ever did want to go during a busier time, or something changed that made the times I went busier. I'd always know I could at least be guaranteed to get in to one of my favorite resorts.

That way you could also always make the 11 month reservation at your home resort, and try to switch to one of your other favorites at 7. If you can't, you still have one of your favorites booked. I feel it gives you more options. Plus, I like security, haha!

If you really want to rotate, then the first option might be best for you, using the banking and borrowing option. Then you'd get 11 months at two of your favorites. You'd have to get enough at each though, to do that. I just personally wouldn't get so few at each, that I never had the 11 month window anywhere.

 

[Deb & Bill]

For your fall trips, you probably would want to book at eleven months out. BWV, BLT, BCV are hard to get anything at seven months out.

 

[3pletprincesses]

Sugarloaf you are a genius! I never thought to the borrow and bank system for the resorts. We intended to buy 150-200 points X 2 contracts to have enough points as 2 bedrooms are around 325 points a week. Banking and borrowing would totally work to book at 11 months out at our home resort alternating resorts every year. That's brilliant!

since I haven't bought anything yet would everyone still suggest the same UY for both contracts? Anyone see a disadvantage to the bank and borrow system in our situation. If I get it correctly, at one of the resorts, we would always be borrowing and at the other we would always banking right?

 

[SugarLoaf]

Sugarloaf you are a genius! I never thought to the borrow and bank system for the resorts. We intended to buy 150-200 points X 2 contracts to have enough points as 2 bedrooms are around 325 points a week. Banking and borrowing would totally work to book at 11 months out at our home resort alternating resorts every year. That's brilliant!

since I haven't bought anything yet would everyone still suggest the same UY for both contracts? Anyone see a disadvantage to the bank and borrow system in our situation. If I get it correctly, at one of the resorts, we would always be borrowing and at the other we would always banking right?

So yeah! Then you could just get enough at each resort to go every other year.

The thing I like about having the same use year, is that I don't have to have two membership accounts, and can easily combine points from different contracts if I want to, instead of having to have them transferred in from a different membership.

Although, if they're for totally different stays, at totally different resorts, maybe that would work well? I'm sure many people on here have many ideas and more experience that I do with this stuff!

I have seen people do it with what seems like no problem. And I guess in that situation, you could set up a certain use year for X time of year stays, at X resort. And then the same at another resort. And just keep each resort stay separate.

I just like the ease of having everything in one place, and focusing on one set of UY/Banking dates rather than multiples. But either way works.

I think if I were in your place, just talking personally of course, if I went with one UY, I would choose May. That is if you know the absolute earliest you would go in the year is May.

 

[3pletprincesses]

I think if I were in your place, just talking personally of course, if I went with one UY, I would choose May. That is if you know the absolute earliest you would go in the year is May.

I really don't see us going in Jan, Feb as they are cold months and we usually go to the Gulf for a few days prior to our Disney trip and have always done that don't think that will change. march is just too busy with March break and it's just too crowded for my liking and since we will only get older, I can't see it getting in our good side LOL April is also busy due to Easter so May would be the earliest. I could always do March in the worse case UY. It would cover May to end of the year no matter what

Thank you so much for your input. You have thought of stuff that Dh and I didn't think of. We are still new to all of this and as much as we read about it, real experience opinion is always the best. god I love the Dis for that

 

[Deb & Bill]

If you bank, use and borrow every three years, what happens if you can't go? You have to cancel at least 31 days before the start of the trip and try to rebook before the banked points and borrowed points expire (at the end of that UY). There are some times of the year, when it could be difficult to rebook that vacation.

And the best you might be able to do is bank the current year points and sell the banked and borrowed points for someone else to try to use.

 

[3pletprincesses]

If you bank, use and borrow every three years, what happens if you can't go? You have to cancel at least 31 days before the start of the trip and try to rebook before the banked points and borrowed points expire (at the end of that UY). There are some times of the year, when it could be difficult to rebook that vacation.

And the best you might be able to do is bank the current year points and sell the banked and borrowed points for someone else to try to use.

Dh thought of the same thing.

Contract 1: borrow from year 2 and travel year 1
Contract 2: bank year 1 and travel year 2

since contract 1 is borrowed points, I would be ok to travel year 2 correct and not loose any points? Since I banked from contract 2 to travel year 2 I would loose those year 1 points unless we do 2 weeks year 2 or 2 trips or as you say rent them which btw I think it's too complicated at this point for my little brain

Now what to do. we have been going every year for the past 6 years and sometimes twice a year. I think we would still be ok. Worse comes, isn't there someone, I think Dave, that buys points ?

 

[davidl81]

You will get most 2 bedrooms at 7 month out at your travel times. The exception would be BWV and BCV during food and wine fest. But at 7 months out you will be about 100 percent on getting OKW at any time

 

[Deb & Bill]

Dh thought of the same thing.

Contract 1: borrow from year 2 and travel year 1
Contract 2: bank year 1 and travel year 2

since contract 1 is borrowed points, I would be ok to travel year 2 correct and not loose any points? Since I banked from contract 2 to travel year 2 I would loose those year 1 points unless we do 2 weeks year 2 or 2 trips or as you say rent them which btw I think it's too complicated at this point for my little brain

Now what to do. we have been going every year for the past 6 years and sometimes twice a year. I think we would still be ok. Worse comes, isn't there someone, I think Dave, that buys points ?

Borrowed points expire at the end of the year they are borrowed into. So if you can't go on that Contract 1 trip, anytime during that UY, you lose the borrowed points (or you rent them out).

So banked points or borrowed points expire at the end of the UY they are put into, not the year they came from.