My head is spinning , please help

[vinmar4]

So , after talking it over and looking at the numbers, we are pretty close on making the decision to buy a small contract at RIV, out children are older, DD with an almost 2 y/o DGS, DS 23 and DD 17. We all love our DVC and owning at AK, they specially love to have the chance at 11 months to book concierge at Jambo house, when we are able to. We all have been looking at the RIV videos and like what we see, plus except for our first stay as owners, we always split our stay with either the BW or BC because we all love to be close to Epcot and HS and not having to take the buses. Now the question, we have a December UY for AK and were going to just get the same one if we get RIV, but now we are thinking that maybe we want August UY so we can use it more for Food and Wine and Thanksgiving.
We all love to go in March , have done some 4th of July days and also Thanksgiving twice, with we loved!
Does it make sense to get the August one at RIV?
or should we just get another December one?
our AK contract will be the bigger one, maybe 1/3 or 2/3 bigger than RIV, depending on how many we end up with at RIV.
sorry for the long message
thank you all !

 

[jerseyduke]

Do you think you will combine points for a 7 month booking often, thats the biggest question to me.

I have 2 different UY - April for my traditional F&W trip (bought it without knowing jack about UY, but its not that bad)
and an August one for my December trip.
I have yet to combine points, so I have had zero issues, but there is 2 banking deadlines I have to be aware of for all those years I have "extra points" - which doesnt happen much!

If i were in your shoes, I would get a different UY. I don't like December for F&W - you are booking too close to the end of your UY.

 

[Sandisw]

I have 3 UY..Dec, June, and Aug. We did this on purpose so we could book trips through the year and capitalize on traveling early in the UY.

If you think about future travel in the fall, then I would consider the Aug UY and the second membership.

What I do is treat each membership as its own and book trips on each. Sometimes it meant borrowed points, even though I had current UY points in another, but it made it very easy.

Now, each membership had a good amount of points...350, 150, and 200.

While you can transfer to combine for a single night, I choose not too so I I can book online. However, if at 7 months, you want to use both, just book part of trip on one and then the rest on other and have MS link them so you don’t need to check rooms. I have done this before and the only thing I had to do was go to front desk on the end of one, start of the other.

Good luck!

 

[vinmar4]

I have 3 UY..Dec, June, and Aug. We did this on purpose so we could book trips through the year and capitalize on traveling early in the UY.

If you think about future travel in the fall, then I would consider the Aug UY and the second membership.

What I do is treat each membership as its own and book trips on each. Sometimes it meant borrowed points, even though I had current UY points in another, but it made it very easy.

Now, each membership had a good amount of points...350, 150, and 200.

While you can transfer to combine for a single night, I choose not too so I I can book online. However, if at 7 months, you want to use both, just book part of trip on one and then the rest on other and have MS link them so you don’t need to check rooms. I have done this before and the only thing I had to do was go to front desk on the end of one, start of the other.

Good luck!

Yes, we are thinking more trips in the fall and maybe more in March , we have 320 at AK and maybe getting 175 to 200 at RIV. That's a good idea to book using the separate membership. We always do split stays anyway , we feel we "have" to stay at AK , lol, especially if we get Concierge for a night or two , so that would be ok with us. I just want to make sure that I have both sets of points available to use at 7 months if needed.

 

[vinmar4]

Do you think you will combine points for a 7 month booking often, thats the biggest question to me.

I have 2 different UY - April for my traditional F&W trip (bought it without knowing jack about UY, but its not that bad)
and an August one for my December trip.
I have yet to combine points, so I have had zero issues, but there is 2 banking deadlines I have to be aware of for all those years I have "extra points" - which doesnt happen much!

If i were in your shoes, I would get a different UY. I don't like December for F&W - you are booking too close to the end of your UY.

yes, that's our biggest concern also,
so far I Hardly bank as we are always at borrow mode, lol, so not worried about that so much, especially now with the arrival of our first DGS!

 

[EYL]

I have 3 UY..Dec, June, and Aug. We did this on purpose so we could book trips through the year and capitalize on traveling early in the UY.

Logistically, what happens if you have different use years? You have different membership numbers for each use year? And if yes, does this mean that you have different log-ins for each membership number? Or can you log into the DVC website once and be able to access both your memberships?

 

[crvetter]

Logistically, what happens if you have different use years? You have different membership numbers for each use year? And if yes, does this mean that you have different log-ins for each membership number? Or can you log into the DVC website once and be able to access both your memberships?

You will have one log-in to the DVC website, but you will have a dropdown access to list all your memberships when you go to book rooms. At that point you simply select which membership to book from.

 

[Sandisw]

Logistically, what happens if you have different use years? You have different membership numbers for each use year? And if yes, does this mean that you have different log-ins for each membership number? Or can you log into the DVC website once and be able to access both your memberships?

Yes, different UYs mean different memberships. So, I can’t book a reservation using points from the other ones without having to ask MS to transfer points...which I choose not to do,

In terms of website, no, it’s all under the same log in. I just have a drop down to choose which membership I want to use. When I look at my Dashboard, all my reservations, from all the memberships.

 

[vinmar4]

Logistically, what happens if you have different use years? You have different membership numbers for each use year? And if yes, does this mean that you have different log-ins for each membership number? Or can you log into the DVC website once and be able to access both your memberships?

Good question!
and also, do we get two blue cards?
I would think so if it has 2 different membership numbers

 

[jscottnc]

I am in the single use year, December, camp. The vast majority of our travel occurs between December and May -- well before the banking deadline. We have travelled in September and October but so far have not had to cancel a trip. One day I might get caught holding a reservation between August and December I can't use. I expect to be able to rent it out to someone who doesn't plan ahead. Mind you, I fully support having contracts with different UYs for the purposes described, however SWMBO (who is always worried about my death, natural or otherwise) is doubtful about her ability to manage multiple UYs.

 

[Sandisw]

Good question!
and also, do we get two blue cards?
I would think so if it has 2 different membership numbers

Yes, if each UY has qualified points, then you would get a blue card for each, When going to use it, it doesn’t matter which one you bring. it does not need to match the membership the reservation was booked on,

I have the same one I carry all the time.

 

[vinmar4]

Yes, if each UY has qualified points, then you would get a blue card for each, When going to use it, it doesn’t matter which one you bring. it does not need to match the membership the reservation was booked on,

I have the same one I carry all the time.

ok, great! thank you
I would assume that you can see both memberships in the same DVC website, right ?

 

[vinmar4]

I am in the single use year, December, camp. The vast majority of our travel occurs between December and May -- well before the banking deadline. We have travelled in September and October but so far have not had to cancel a trip. One day I might get caught holding a reservation between August and December I can't use. I expect to be able to rent it out to someone who doesn't plan ahead. Mind you, I fully support having contracts with different UYs for the purposes described, however SWMBO (who is always worried about my death, natural or otherwise) is doubtful about her ability to manage multiple UYs.

That happened to us before, we had a reservation for Sept for food and wine , we had to cancel because of a hurricane so they banked those points for us, the other time, I broke my wrist so again they were very nice and gave us our points back, but we love going to F&W and our anniversary is in September, so I think that it would be nice to have that August UY.

 

[jerseyduke]

yes, that's our biggest concern also,
so far I Hardly bank as we are always at borrow mode, lol, so not worried about that so much, especially now with the arrival of our first DGS!

use google calendar and set up a yearly reminder. I will be getting 2 reminders a year long after I am dead. So 2 banking deadlines is hardly an issue.

Its the combining points.

You will have 2 membership numbers but they are both available with the same log in.

I choose 1 of my 2 contracts and do what I have to do.

 

[vinmar4]

use google calendar and set up a yearly reminder. I will be getting 2 reminders a year long after I am dead. So 2 banking deadlines is hardly an issue.

Its the combining points.

You will have 2 membership numbers but they are both available with the same log in.

I choose 1 of my 2 contracts and do what I have to do.

LOL , that's funny about the reminders but it's great idea!
thank you for it !

 

[vinmar4]

I think that we are going to get the August UY, it makes sense

 

[Sandisw]

ok, great! thank you
I would assume that you can see both memberships in the same DVC website, right ?

Yes. Very easy to use with my 3 memberships.The only thing that you just need to monitor is when you go to book, you need to be sure you hsve the correct UY chosen. It is right under the calendar when you choose dates, It will be a drop down.

A way to confirm is that the home resort will be by itself to search.

 

[vinmar4]

Yes. Very easy to use with my 3 memberships.The only thing that you just need to monitor is when you go to book, you need to be sure you hsve the correct UY chosen. It is right under the calendar when you choose dates, It will be a drop down.

A way to confirm is that the home resort will be by itself to search.

Great tips!
thank you for your help

 

[Wakey]

I book at 7 months, so keep use years across my contracts strictly the same to combine easier.

 

[motherof5]

If buying direct I like different UY versus same. May get more perks in some ways. I don't have different UY on direct only resale and don't see any issues. I have a friend who has 2 different UY direct and books moonlight magic under both memberships. Makes me a little envious wish I did that back when you only needed 25 pts. Not going to buy another direct just for this but it's a nice perk!