Revisiting Use Year

[glamdring269]

Let's beat this topic to death again. I'm familiar with how UY works but am actually wanting to get some opinions on how you look at UY overall. Generally we discuss it based on setting it up in such a way that you're likely not doing a trip in the 4 months prior to your UY. Great insight and definitely something simple enough to understand. But in our brief ownership period, since late 2013, I have run into a couple of points that have made me wonder if we should have chosen a different UY.

Our UY: October
Typical travel times: October (F&W)
Other potential travel times: Christmas (Went once... once might have been enough). We went once late May/early June before owning DVC. I don't see us going in July/Aug... it's hot enough in TN and I'm not a glutton for that kind of punishment.
Unlikely to travel: Jan-Apr timeframe.

So based simply on this I still think October is likely our best choice.

What do we miss out on in this scenario?
- Resale add-on contracts: It seems like October doesn't have a lot of action which especially limits your chances when looking for small contracts. I don't want to deal with multiple use years.
- Walking reservations into October: I don't know if I would even do this but I have no option to do it today.

I've actually considered doing a June UY. It might actually be the best given all of the above. I thought about September to help with walking but that exposes us to more risk if we decided to do a May or June trip.

What do you guys think? We actually just sold our October UY contract so will be starting with a clean slate. This is our chance for a minor do over and just trying to look at it from a slightly different perspective.

 

[Sandisw]

When I decided to start going at the end of my original UY..June...I added on contract with a Dec UY so I could cover all months of the year,

Each UY has enough points to function on its own which allows me to choose which one works best,

With my recent sale and purchase, I will go down to two UYs...Aug and June...both have SSR points...but Aug has RIV for Food and Wine and Dec UY has BLT for early Dec trips.

 

[macman123]

I go in January every year from the UK. I have 3 different use year contracts all for BLT.

This means I can book 11 months out a week at a time and get the reservations linked, as opposed to booking 1 week and then adding day by day.

UY makes no difference as when I book it wont be cancelled. The flight, rental car cant be changed.

Save for become ill or pushing up the daisies I will be going!

 

[Lorana]

go in January every year from the UK. I have 3 different use year contracts all for BLT.

This means I can book 11 months out a week at a time and get the reservations linked, as opposed to booking 1 week and then adding day by day.

I...had not considered that and given that in the long term I want to be able to spend 6-8 weeks in winter at Disney during retirement, this is making me think about how I might change my long term strategy. As right now, I have everything in a single UY. Hmmmmm....

Thanks for bringing this point up!

 

[JETSDAD]

I go in January every year from the UK. I have 3 different use year contracts all for BLT.

This means I can book 11 months out a week at a time and get the reservations linked, as opposed to booking 1 week and then adding day by day.

UY makes no difference as when I book it wont be cancelled. The flight, rental car cant be changed.

Save for become ill or pushing up the daisies I will be going!

At 11 months you wouldn't have to add day by day. You could just go on once every 6 days and add 6 days each time. There's only a 1 day difference as to how often you would be booking but having the same UY you wouldn't risk not being able to book the 2nd and 3rd reservation at 11 months (for harder to get reservations).

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Let's beat this topic to death again. I'm familiar with how UY works but am actually wanting to get some opinions on how you look at UY overall. Generally we discuss it based on setting it up in such a way that you're likely not doing a trip in the 4 months prior to your UY. Great insight and definitely something simple enough to understand. But in our brief ownership period, since late 2013, I have run into a couple of points that have made me wonder if we should have chosen a different UY.

Our UY: October
Typical travel times: October (F&W)
Other potential travel times: Christmas (Went once... once might have been enough). We went once late May/early June before owning DVC. I don't see us going in July/Aug... it's hot enough in TN and I'm not a glutton for that kind of punishment.
Unlikely to travel: Jan-Apr timeframe.

So based simply on this I still think October is likely our best choice.

What do we miss out on in this scenario?
- Resale add-on contracts: It seems like October doesn't have a lot of action which especially limits your chances when looking for small contracts. I don't want to deal with multiple use years.
- Walking reservations into October: I don't know if I would even do this but I have no option to do it today.

I've actually considered doing a June UY. It might actually be the best given all of the above. I thought about September to help with walking but that exposes us to more risk if we decided to do a May or June trip.

What do you guys think? We actually just sold our October UY contract so will be starting with a clean slate. This is our chance for a minor do over and just trying to look at it from a slightly different perspective.

FWIW every UY has little action on resale contracts when you're actually looking for one. Once you stop they'll pop up all the time.

Here's a question I always ask because sometimes the fear of not walking is greater than the actual need to do it so, do you really need to walk your reservations for October?

 

[AKVHutch]

When we purchased, we got an Aug use year to be able to book more for summer, however, it wasn't long before our original reason for buying DVC changed. We started going more in the fall. However, the whole use year business was never really an issue for us until this year. Because I had banked points holding a May reservation, I now am looking at trying to use my points from what looks to be a July 1 opening (sort of) and August 1 when Member Services tells me these will expire. Hopefully DVC management will do more to try to make this right because this alternative or transferring to RCI is not really acceptable to those of us who are in this position. But hoping this is just a once in a lifetime event.