Life comes at you fast... (UY Related)

[glamdring269]

You know when researching and eventually buying a contract one has to consider use year. After resort choice it is one of the main criteria one has to consider for DVC. If you're like me you absolutely agonize over this decision: When am I primarily going to vacation? When might I vacation? Etc.

October was always the first answer to us. Fall Break. Food & Wine. HHN (Universal). Great weather. Basically all of the good stuff that makes us enjoy a WDW+Universal trip. This optimal preference is followed up at great distance by Christmas, potentially Spring Break, and late May/early June.

This put me firmly in the October is my optimal UY camp with others like Apr/Jun/Sep potentially being good ones as well. I had actually recently decided September is the best target because it allows me to walk an October reservation.

Anyway, how does this have anything to do with life coming at you fast? Well, my wife is a teacher. She just got offered a great position at a school one county over which is fantastic news for her. However, it comes with one downfall for our touring: There is no week long fall break in October. Instead they have a 2 day fall break and a full week off at Thanksgiving. Guess what that just did for our "October is optimal" deal? Just like that. In a matter of a day, a day after I put in an offer on 2 contracts (that I thankfully lost), the whole outlook on optimal UY just changed on us.

I just wanted to share this for those other ultra planners who agonize over this stuff well in advance. It is a true world story of what we always read and hear when researching when to buy, your UY preference can and will likely change over the life of your contract. Do the best you can with what you know today but also know that there is a chance that while you're reading this it could be that your optimal UY just because sub-optimal. It looks like April just became our optimal UY in the span of 24 hours.

 

[DVC Doctor]

In my 20 years of DVC membership, use year has not been a significant factor for me.

 

[glamdring269]

In my 20 years of DVC membership, use year has not been a significant factor for me.

That's interesting. I wonder if that is true for most. Why would you say that UY has not really been a significant factor for you? Are you local?

 

[bobbiwoz]

March UY was perfect when we bought. I taught in college and we had a spring break, mid March.

We are retired now and go most months, including December, January and February. We have been retired for 6 years now, and have not lost any points because of UY.

 

[Matty B13]

This is why I think DVC should offer the ability to change your UY, maybe every 5th year of a contract or do it at anytime.... for a fee of course. DVC has already given themselves the ability to do this when they take a contract by ROFR.

 

[crisi]

In my 20 years of DVC membership, use year has not been a significant factor for me.

Hasn't been for us either. We bought (April use year) with the intention of going in October. As our kids got older, we moved to late Summer before school and sports and other activities started. Now we go to Hilton Head in late February. Not the best trip for use year, but its when we want to get out of Minnesota for warmer weather.

Don't sweat use year unless you think you will be cancelling trips - if you think that is likely - don't own a timeshare. Have enough cushion in your financial calculations so that the few times during ownership you need to cancel (or your trip is cancelled for you), DVC remains a good value for you. If the risk is too much, use cash to book hotels with generous cancellation policies.

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

This is why I think DVC should offer the ability to change your UY, maybe every 5th year of a contract or do it at anytime.... for a fee of course. DVC has already given themselves the ability to do this when they take a contract by ROFR.

I really wish this would happen, too! I would gladly pay to change my HHI June UY. We also have an AKV June UY. We are retired teachers and usually went in summer or fall break. Now that we are retired, we want to go to HHI in the spring, so a March or April UY would be so much better. We love going to WDW between October and December, so our June UY works great for that. We are seriously considering selling our HHI contracts in a couple of years and buying a resale with a March or April UY. Due to health issues, there are times we may have to cancel last minute so UY is a big deal to us. For example, if we had a trip planned for last week, there would have been no way we could have travelled. This week we would be good to go.