questions from a dvc wanna be!

[margitmouse]

I'm new to Disney so any points are for a first timer
I have a few question:
1)resales- How do these small packages come available... I was under the impression that the larger contracts could not be broken up?,
2)When everyone talks about use year it is ex 2009 for this year etc right? Then the start of you use year is on your anniversary or points month???? so, for example, if we bought Ak 50 points-sept- with use year '09 we could have booked last November for a September trip...right? but nothing earlier than Sept...... we could not have planned an April trip for this year ... we would have had to bank the points for use next spring if we wanted a spring trip?????...if this is too long and been asked 50 times can someone direct me to the answer : /

3)Ak is a new resort, it's MF is under 5.00 for now...could one expect to see this jump after construction is finished?
I thought I had read something about that.
Last... probably hard question to answer, but they seem to be adding a lot of room to AKV , will there be too many patrons for the amenities there,dining, mostly pool ...not having been there in person, just read a lot of blogs and looked at lots of pictures, I can't help but wonder if one would be buying into the sardine syndrome!
Thanks!

ok , who can resist a dancing banana?!

 

[Sandisw]

Welcome, I can help with a few of your questions:

There are small contracts available via resale all the time but they go fast and sometimes are at a higher price. Once you are a DVC member, you can add on points at any resort, for as little as 25 points. Many members will purposely ask that there bigger add on contracts be done in smaller ones so they could sell later. Small contracts go fast but they are available. I bought in with a 50 point VWL contract just this past February.

UY is just the time of year you get your points. It has nothing to do with when you can book your vacation. The best UY is one that typically falls right before you usually travel since you can bank points you won't be using in the first 8 months of your UY. If you had to cancel a trip at least 31 days out (different rules apply to what happens to points when cancelling with less than that), you would still be in your banking window to bank the points.

If you buy a contract that says it is getting points in September 09, you can use them from Sept 1, 2009 - August 30th, 2010. However, you have the ability to bank and borrow points, so you could book a reservation for before this time by "borrowing"" the points, or you could bank them and then they would be available to use in your 2010 UY (which means, you would have 2 years worth of points at that time). Matter of fact, with banking and borrowing, someone could have 3 years of points to use at one time (and thus go every 3rd year).

As far as AKL, I don't know how the number of rooms will compare to what is avaialbe and if it will be "overcrowded". I will be staying there in August for 4 nights. I am excited to see what it will be like!

Good luck!

 

[chalee94]

1)resales- How do these small packages come available... I was under the impression that the larger contracts could not be broken up?,

correct - larger contracts cannot be broken up.

but members may add-on as few as 25 pts at a time. and these smaller contracts can be sold by the DVC member on the resale market.

2)When everyone talks about use year it is ex 2009 for this year etc right?

most DVC members are still in their 2008 UY at this point, actually. only feb, mar and april UYs are in their 2009 UY right now.

Then the start of you use year is on your anniversary or points month???? so, for example, if we bought Ak 50 points-sept- with use year '09 we could have booked last November for a September trip...right? but nothing earlier than Sept...... we could not have planned an April trip for this year ... we would have had to bank the points for use next spring if we wanted a spring trip?????...if this is too long and been asked 50 times can someone direct me to the answer : /

here is a good thread for understanding UY.

the short answer to your question is that if you owned a sept UY contract with pts coming in sept 2009, you could have still booked april 2009 by calling as early as may 2008 and borrowing the 2009 pts into your 2008 use year.


3)Ak is a new resort, it's MF is under 5.00 for now...could one expect to see this jump after construction is finished?

i doubt it, but i suppose you never know till we get there.

Last... probably hard question to answer, but they seem to be adding a lot of room to AKV , will there be too many patrons for the amenities there,dining, mostly pool...

again, i doubt it and would expect that disney has some idea of how to manage a resort like this by now, but i suppose mistakes are possible.