Own Direct Points, Considering Resale BW or BC and Have Questions

[Little E]

Hi Disfriends!

DH and I own two 200 point contracts at GF direct for a total of 400 points. (We did two separate contracts for ease of estate planning with our two children down the road.) While we love GF, we find ourselves drawn to the Boardwalk area and booking both one and two bedroom villas at both Beach Club and Boardwalk whenever we can snag them at the 7 month mark, which is tough to do.

So, we've started considering a resale contract at either BC or BW. We love both resorts, so we'd be open to buy at either. We love the close proximity and walkability to both Epcot and HS and we love the Boardwalk vibe. We have a February UY, and we travel mostly in March and October/November, although we've been sneaking in a late summer trips the last two years. We have never had points leftover to bank; we use all the points and then wind up booking cash for short trips when we've run out of points, hence the thought of buying resale at BC or BW.

We are both struggling with the short contracts at BC and BW...16 years just doesn't seem like a long enough time to make this investment. But, we keep booking SAP points at these resorts, so, we feel sort of silly not owning at either place. It's staggeringly expensive to buy at either resort direct for the 16 years left on the contract, so a resale seems the way to go. UGH.

Here are my questions:

1. I know most DVC folks recommend keeping their UY when purchasing another contract. Knowing that we visit WDW in March, late summer, and October/November, how does having a different UY beyond February play out as either a benefit or detriment? We use all our points, so we've never once borrowed or banked our points.

2. Because we're direct folks, how does buying a resale contract function once the sale is complete? Do we still log in and access our resale contract via the Disney DVC login the same way we do with our direct points? Or is there another way/system that we have to use to book with resale points?

3. Is there a "better" UY for any of the times we travel (list above) that I'm not thinking of? We bought GF direct in 2022 when Disney had all the incentives, and we LOVE GF and are glad we bought what we did. We were given a February UY, and we don't really know anything different? But, we've never encountered a problem booking at any of those times of year; the only problem is that we keep running out of points.

Any advice about buying resale at BC or BW would be great. TIA!

 

[Tatebeck]

Hi Disfriends!

DH and I own two 200 point contracts at GF direct for a total of 400 points. (We did two separate contracts for ease of estate planning with our two children down the road.) While we love GF, we find ourselves drawn to the Boardwalk area and booking both one and two bedroom villas at both Beach Club and Boardwalk whenever we can snag them at the 7 month mark, which is tough to do.

So, we've started considering a resale contract at either BC or BW. We love both resorts, so we'd be open to buy at either. We love the close proximity and walkability to both Epcot and HS and we love the Boardwalk vibe. We have a February UY, and we travel mostly in March and October/November, although we've been sneaking in a late summer trips the last two years. We have never had points leftover to bank; we use all the points and then wind up booking cash for short trips when we've run out of points, hence the thought of buying resale at BC or BW.

We are both struggling with the short contracts at BC and BW...16 years just doesn't seem like a long enough time to make this investment. But, we keep booking SAP points at these resorts, so, we feel sort of silly not owning at either place. It's staggeringly expensive to buy at either resort for such shortUGH.

Here are my questions:

1. I know most DVC folks recommend keeping their UY when purchasing another contract. Knowing that we visit WDW in March, late summer, and October/November, how does having a different UY beyond February play out as either a benefit or detriment? We use all our points, so we've never once borrowed or banked our points.

2. Because we're direct folks, how does buying a resale contract function once the sale is complete? Do we still log in and access our resale contract via the Disney DVC login the same way we do with our direct points? Or is there another way/system that we have to use to book with resale points?

3. Is there a "better" UY for any of the times we travel (list above) that I'm not thinking of? We bought GF direct in 2022 when Disney had all the incentives, and we LOVE GF and are glad we bought what we did. We were given a February UY, and we don't really know anything different? But, we've never encountered a problem booking at any of those times of year; the only problem is that we keep running out of points.

Any advice about buying resale at BC or BW would be great. TIA!

1. February is fine for anything through October September (Or November October if you always cancel at least 31 day ahead to avoid holding) to still be in your banking window. I wouldn't specifically look for a new use year unless you want one for more waitlists or something. I would maybe get a new use year on the new contract if there was a great deal though if you never (or at least rarely) plan to really use the points with your other points.

2. Yes, if the contract is titled the same as your other contracts you still log in the exact same way, there will just be a new contract you can select when booking. And it won't let you use this new resale contract at any of the restricted resorts. I have direct RIV and resale everything else myself.

3. Feb seems fine, unless you want more flexibility to cancel Fall/Winter trips, then maybe a late summer use year could be a decent addition.

We bought BWV for the same reason you are talking about, we love the crescent lake area. And we found that BWV has better deals show up than BCV does, so we went with that. If you time it right or get lucky, you may be able to get a BWV contract for around $100 per point, while BCV always seems to never get below 120-130. So we went with the savings since it expires so soon. Good luck!

 

[Brian Noble]

February is fine for anything through October (or November if you always cancel at least 31 day ahead to avoid holding)

I think this should be September (or October). The Feb UY banking deadline is the end of September.

 

[Tatebeck]

I think this should be September (or October). The Feb UY banking deadline is the end of September.

Whoops, yep I was off by a month, good catch. I'll update

That's why I always bank my points early lol

 

[Sandisw]

You will see everything on the same log in, whether you keep the same UY or not.

Different UY is a different membership. You would not be able to use your resale points with your direct VGF points for a single reservation without a transfer.

You are limited to one transfer in or out per UY. Your resale points, regardless of UY will not be good for booking RIV, VDH, CFW, and presumably all future new resorts, even though you own direct points that can.

If the goal is to never combine, two UYs will work okay, depending on size of your resale contract.

If you want to be able to use together at 7 months at either, then stay with one UY.

 

[Genie+]

I think BW/BC prices stay high even with just 16yrs left because people value the higher dependability booking. Even though some rooms/dates can be a challenge, owning is going to get you into those resorts more consistently and with less compromises over the long haul.

Our resale BW points are more expensive to use than our direct VGF points lol. But that is just the cost per point. BW still ends up being cheaper on a per night basis. And we get more control than waiting to trade at 7 months.

My BWV points are for BW only. Our next trip is BWV Spring Break at 15pts/nt. Same points as OKW and SSR, 4 points less than BLT standard(!), and even less than AKV standard. We stayed BW View the weekend before Christmas… 17pts/nt when RIV was 26pts/nt pref.

Trading in is great if you don’t mind leaving to chance which year your luck rolls for what resort. If you want more consistency, home priority is the way to go.

 

[VGCgroupie]

You can get BW cheaper than BC keep that in mind if you decide to buy one of the 2. Recently bought BW and struggled with the 2042 but decided it was worth it to me.

 

[Little E]

Thank you all for making me not feel totally ridiculous for buying at BC or BW.

@Brian Noble and @Tatebeck I apologize for being dumb...can you explain what I need to understand about September/October like I'm 5? I know our current banking window is the end of September; this has never been something I've had to remember because we use our points up every single year. Since we typically always do a fall trip (we love Food & Wine and the RunDisney events in the fall), is there a more advantageous UY for this? Or, is it just better keep everything on the same UY?

 

[toesmom]

We bought resale bwv contract 2 years ago and kept same use year. So much easier. We also have SSR direct contract and 60 point BWV direct contract. A lot of points but we are banking for future use and longer vacations. Ease of booking BWV makes it worthwhile.

 

[Tatebeck]

Thank you all for making me not feel totally ridiculous for buying at BC or BW.

@Brian Noble and @Tatebeck I apologize for being dumb...can you explain what I need to understand about September/October like I'm 5? I know our current banking window is the end of September; this has never been something I've had to remember because we use our points up every single year. Since we typically always do a fall trip (we love Food & Wine and the RunDisney events in the fall), is there a more advantageous UY for this? Or, is it just better keep everything on the same UY?

If you have to cancel a trip, and you are still in your banking window then you can just bank your points forward to next year without any risk of them expiring. So if you cancel a trip at least 31 days ahead to avoid putting points into holding, then any trip that was scheduled for February through October would be able to be cancelled 31 days before the trip and still banked until next year. Or it would still give you 4 months or more to use the points up during this use year. It is just a little safer for trips in that time frame.

If you had a trip booked in December or January, but then had to cancel then you would only have a month or two to use the points, and they wouldn't be bankable anymore so you would have to rent the reservation quickly and possibly cheaply to avoid having your points expire.

Any trip that falls in the first 8ish months after your use year are just a little safer (just in case you have to cancel for some reason) than trips in the last part of the use year for that reason. It doesn't make it easier to get reservations, just gives you more options in case of a cancelled trip.

If you like going after October, then technically a slightly later use year would be better. We love going October through February mostly, so we have September as our use year. But it may not be worth getting a second use year to you.

 

[Little E]

Super helpful, @Tatebeck! Thank you!

We have a lot to think about...

 

[Brian Noble]

...and really, any trip in the first nine months is safe, because (a) you have to cancel more than 31 days in advance to avoid holding and (b) that means even a trip that started as late as October 31st would have to be cancelled no later than September 30th, and that is still within your banking window.

So the only real risk is November, December, and January. If it were *me* I'd just keep one UY becuase it is simpler to manage, and just know that October trips are "safer" than those later in the Fall.

 

[Little E]

@Brian Noble That's what I really was trying to understand. So, what you're saying is with a February UY, November, December, and January trips are more risky because if we cancel, those points go into holding and we would be in jeopardy of losing those points. But, the benefits of keeping the same UY might outweigh that risk.

We are also AP holders, with the sorcerer AP, so we never travel to WDW during the blackout dates around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Late November and December trips aren't really a thing for us. But, we do love Food & Wine and the RunDisney races that take place in the fall. We are traveling this fall November 9-16. While I don't foresee cancelling, you just never know. Life happens, people get sick, etc etc.

Hhhhmmm...you've given me much to think about.

 

[Tatebeck]

@Brian Noble That's what I really was trying to understand. So, what you're saying is with a February UY, November, December, and January trips are more risky because if we cancel, those points go into holding and we would be in jeopardy of losing those points. But, the benefits of keeping the same UY might outweigh that risk.

We are also AP holders, with the sorcerer AP, so we never travel to WDW during the blackout dates around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Late November and December trips aren't really a thing for us. But, we do love Food & Wine and the RunDisney races that take place in the fall. We are traveling this fall November 9-16. While I don't foresee cancelling, you just never know. Life happens, people get sick, etc etc.

Hhhhmmm...you've given me much to think about.

Yes that is what we are saying, but whether the points go into holding just depends on when you cancel.

For trips starting Feb 1st-October 30th that you cancel at least 31 days ahead = no holding and points can still be banked by the end of September
For trips Nov-Jan that you cancel at least 31 days ahead = no holding points but too late for banking, so they must be used by Jan 31st
For any trip(s) that you cancel 30 days or less from the trip= become holding points that cannot be banked (even if it is before the end of September cut-off) so you must use them for reservations within the next 60 days and they must be used by the end of January

So the earlier trips in your use year are more likely to be able to be banked, and even IF you cancel late and the points go into holding, you still have more time to use those points so they don't expire

 

[Little E]

@Tatebeck Thank you thank you!!! This helps clarify things that were still confusing to me.

 

[disneylandtour]

You will see everything on the same log in, whether you keep the same UY or not.

Different UY is a different membership. You would not be able to use your resale points with your direct VGF points for a single reservation without a transfer.

You are limited to one transfer in or out per UY. Your resale points, regardless of UY will not be good for booking RIV, VDH, CFW, and presumably all future new resorts, even though you own direct points that can.

If the goal is to never combine, two UYs will work okay, depending on size of your resale contract.

If you want to be able to use together at 7 months at either, then stay with one UY.

Let me just add one small point that favors multiple UY - you get two waitlist position per UY. If you have two UYs, you get a total of four waitlist spots (two per year). I agree with everything you've posted above. But also I've found the extra waitlist spots valuable at times. So if you sometimes book a trip with two or three months notice, I'v found the extra spots worthwhile.

 

[Little E]

@disneylandtour Oooohhh...this is good to know. I didn't realize multiple UYs provide multiple waitlist positions. Thank you for pointing this out.

 

[Brian Noble]

So, what you're saying is with a February UY, November, December, and January trips are more risky because if we cancel, those points go into holding and we would be in jeopardy of losing those points. But, the benefits of keeping the same UY might outweigh that risk.

Not quite.

The latest you can bank any Use Year's points is September 30th of that use year. For reservations between February 1 and October 31, that's not a huge problem, becuase you have to cancel at least 31 days prior to check-in to avoid banking, and that means you are cancelling a reservation on or before September 30th, and any bankable points can be banked. Of course, any points that are not bankable must be used by January 31st.

For November, December, and the following January, the absolute latest you can cancel and bank bankable points is September 30th. But you might not know that you need to cancel a trip in e.g. January until sometime in November or December, and then you have only until January 31st to use those points.

 

[Little E]

@Brian Noble ooof. The January example is a good one. I hadn't thought of that. So, what would you recommend as the best UY for us in a resale BC or BW contract if our normal WDW stays are usually March, August, and October/November. Right now, we have direct GF contracts with a February UY. I'm now becoming more open to a different UY, because I envision buying a big enough contract that we wouldn't have to transfer points between contracts to book stays.

 

[Brian Noble]

If you are March, August, and October/November, I still think I would keep February, which allows you to more easily combine across contracts. Any stay that starts in October is fine, and even if you creep into November a little bit, as long as you make a final decision by September 30th, you are fine.