I am a bit confused about having a Decmeber UY can some one help me out?

[digman6]

I was looking at December for our use year or else like April or around there.
A post further down talked of UY of Sept. and asked a UY question too.

Is it bad to have December as a UY if for some reason I need to cancel and if so why ? I read another post and it talked of its to late to bank points or something along those lines.
I may want to take a late summer trip or go in Oct./Nov.

How will that effect me if I cancel a decmeber tripw it my points etc??

 

[DebbieB]

Your banking deadline would be July 31. So if you cancel a late summer or fall trip after that date, the points would have to be used by Nov 30. If you cancel a December trip, you would have almost a year to reuse.

 

[fn2bfree]

I was looking at December for our use year or else like April or around there.
A post further down talked of UY of Sept. and asked a UY question too.

Is it bad to have December as a UY if for some reason I need to cancel and if so why ? I read another post and it talked of its to late to bank points or something along those lines.
I may want to take a late summer trip or go in Oct./Nov.

How will that effect me if I cancel a decmeber tripw it my points etc??

You can only bank points druing the first 8 months of your UY. Let's say you have a UY of December. You have a trip planned for October and you discover in September that you need to cancel. You would not be able to bank these points into the next UY. If you were unable to use the points before December 1st you would lose them.

UY is a big deal to me because I own my own business and I have to cancel vacations from time to time because I can't get away from work. I feel much more comfortable with my trips planned in the beginning of my UY because if I have to cancel I can bank points that are not borrowed or banked from previous years. If I am using banked or borrowed points I still have the rest of the UY to reschedule.

 

[4Pluto]

Use Year affects the timing for banking and using points and affects your ability to use points from cancelled vacations. It sounds way more complicated than it really is and its not something that you should agonize over.

Your points will "recharge" on the first day of your use year month. So if you have 160 point contract with a December Use Year, each December 1 you will have access to an additional 160 points.

If you are going to bank points, you need to do that by the end of the 8th month after your use year month. For a December Use Year, you must bank points by July 31.

If you have not used your points by November 30 (and have not banked your points by July 31) you would lose the remaining points for that year.

If you cancel a vacation 30 days or less before a scheduled vacation, the points go into a holding account and need to be used before the end of the use year (in this example, before November 30).

With these deadlines in mind, some members request a use year that is just before their prime traveling time. For example, if they travel each year at Xmas and NYE, then a December Use Year is convenient. Their points refresh on December 1. If they cancel their reservation more than 30 days out, they have 7 more months to bank the points and 11 more months to use them before they would expire. If they cancel less than 31 days out, they have the rest of the year to make reservations from the points in the holding account.

So one strategy would be to find a use year that is shortly before your expected travel dates.

BUT

Bear in mind that you are making a 30, 40 or 50 year investment. Your travel habits may change dramatically. A family with junior high students may travel Spring breaks and summers for the first 5 years, and then switch to thanksgiving and christmas holidays for family gatherings and then graduate to October and May "off season" travel. There is a pretty good line of thinking that trying to plan which Use Year is best is a fools' errand.

AND

If you travel at different times of the year from year to year, none of this matters. Once you get your Use Year, you figure out when you need to make and cancel reservations and you make it work. It's rare to see on these boards anyone expressing real regret at the use year they have.

Relax and have fun investigating DVC.

 

[JodyTG]

We have a December use year because we travel in either December or June. This keeps us within our banking window if we have to cancel a vacation.

My suggestion is to decide when you USUALLY want to travel and choose your use year based on that.

 

[ZekeKelso]

I honestly think use year won't be that big a deal to most people. All things being equal, sure, pick a use-year before your typical travel month. But given a choice between a good contract with a bad use year, and a bad contract with a good use year, take the good contract every time.

One thing to pay attention to is what points you get when you buy in. Often, if you buy in with a use year later in the year than your purchase month, you will get current-year points when you buy, then another set of points when your use year comes around. It doesn't always work that way, but check the details when you buy.

 

[jar]

I second these comments. First, it is ideally preferable to select a use year that is shortly before, rather than just after, the time period you are most likely to travel. That's why -- after great consideration -- I focused exclusively on December UY when I made my purchase since I thought that we'd likely travel with our children during the winter or spring.

However, as noted above, travel habits change. Even more, they can be very hard to predict at the outset. We purchased two years ago. We are going to WDW this year during our third November in a row. Never anticipated that, but it turns out we selected the worst UY for November travel.

When we buy at Contemporary, we'll probably go with October UY. And then our travel habits will change again, no doubt!

 

[digman6]

Well here was my thinking see if you can help me figure out best use year

I know we will not really go in the summer much if ever.
The summer is my busiest season ( I do home daycare) so we would travel Oct- May. Kids are into sports during the summer etc so that would not be ideal right now for us.

We also like to get away from the cold weather here in WI

I was thinking either a Oct. UY or Dec. use year.

So we could be there at Xmas,Thanksgiving, easter or even late spring time if we wanted.

There are 6 of us going when we go so I know I need a 2 bed villa room.

The other thing is I wanted our home resort to suit the kids when they are older with "BIG kid" things to do slides etc etc.
I am wondering anyone have thought if there is one over the other ?

What is Sarasota Springs pool etc like? I heard the food at that resort is not good at all so that is steering me away a bit wondering about the rest of it.

I really like BWV/ BCV resort as first choice

 

[Mtnman44]

If you are reasonably sure that this will be your preferred travel time for the forseeable future, then an Oct UY would be best for you. Don't stress about it too much however.

As stated earlier, the reason this is a better UY year for your situation is due to the fact that if you need to change or cancel any of your Oct thru May trips, those points will be returned to your UY and will still be within the banking window to bank them to the next year and/or you will still have many months to plan and book a new trip in the current UY.

Well here was my thinking see if you can help me figure out best use year

I know we will not really go in the summer much if ever.
The summer is my busiest season ( I do home daycare) so we would travel Oct- May. Kids are into sports during the summer etc so that would not be ideal right now for us.

We also like to get away from the cold weather here in WI

I was thinking either a Oct. UY or Dec. use year.

So we could be there at Xmas,Thanksgiving, easter or even late spring time if we wanted.

There are 6 of us going when we go so I know I need a 2 bed villa room.

The other thing is I wanted our home resort to suit the kids when they are older with "BIG kid" things to do slides etc etc.
I am wondering anyone have thought if there is one over the other ?

What is Sarasota Springs pool etc like? I heard the food at that resort is not good at all so that is steering me away a bit wondering about the rest of it.

I really like BWV/ BCV resort as first choice

 

[Dean]

I honestly think use year won't be that big a deal to most people. All things being equal, sure, pick a use-year before your typical travel month. But given a choice between a good contract with a bad use year, and a bad contract with a good use year, take the good contract every time.

One thing to pay attention to is what points you get when you buy in. Often, if you buy in with a use year later in the year than your purchase month, you will get current-year points when you buy, then another set of points when your use year comes around. It doesn't always work that way, but check the details when you buy.

Ive always thought it a big deal and now I think it's even more important with the banking changes. But it does depend on one's personal situation and chance of cancellation to a degree. I'd put at least a $10 per point difference from the best UY to the worst UY for most people that travel a specified time of the year.

 

[Sheribo]

We have a December UY and have not had any trouble. We vacation every March and sometimes in November too. It's true that if our plans change and we have to cancel November we will lose our points and in retrospect, would have been better off with an October UY. It would take something major to make us cancel a trip and, while it could happen, it won't change our future scheduling plans.

 

[DaveH]

We have Dec UY. We like to go after Thanksgiving. We just either start our vacation either on the last couple days of Nov or just in Dec. Then we either loose a few or no points. We did have someone bail on us the first year in. We went from 2 studios to a one bedroom. If you do have to cancel after banking deadline (July 31 for Dec UY) you could always give the ressie to family or friends. Some folks even rent out the ressie.