SSR Reservation questions

[VickiVM]

I still have to get our papers notarized for SSR, but I was just informed this week that there are 25 weeks (yes, 25 weeks) of vacation "blackout" at work for my position. Of the 27 weeks left, only 5 of them fall during time the kids are out of school - the last week of December and the first 4 full weeks of June. And of those 4 weeks in June, one of them will be blacked out for inventory. (I know, I know...already looking for another job). Anyway, I have to get with my coworkers to pick out which week in June I want.

So, can someone explain to me how I can make a ressie now? I have a date of June 7 when my "building" will be ready. I also have a August use year. (I wasn't aware I could have chosen our use year). What are my reservation options??

Thanks.

 

[tjkraz]

Edit: Duplicate post

 

[tjkraz]

Well, it sounds like you have a problem. With an August Use Year, you shouldn't get your first points until 8/1/04. That would seem to indicate that a June 2004 trip is not possible.

I wonder if you could borrow against your 8/1/04 points for a trip in June. That might be a question worth asking your Guide or MS.

Any idea how you ended up with August? DVC started SSR sales with a December '03 Use Year and then moved on to February '04. Even if they are no longer selling February, you shouldn't have been forced into an August UY unless you requested it.

 

[VickiVM]

I didn't request an August UY. In fact, I kept asking about UY, but our guide kind of glossed over it. I thought it was an important question. But when you have a 9:30am tour appt on your check out date and you have to be out of your room at 11am, you tend to overlook some of the details.

But she kept saying that we could make a ressie now for June, buy maybe she was implying we borrow against next years??

I'm looking at the purchase agreement and it says:

Estimated Date Unit is Available for Occupancy - June 7, 2004
Estimated Closing Date - May 1, 2004
Date of this Agreement - December 26, 2003
Use Year Begins First Day of - August, 2004

Is it too late to request a different Use Year?? I haven't Fed Exed the papers yet.

 

[tjkraz]

Originally posted by VickiVM
Is it too late to request a different Use Year?? I haven't Fed Exed the papers yet.

If you haven't sent the papers in yet, then it is absolutely not too late. Call your guide tomorrow to discuss. Ask which Use Years are available (I know for a fact December is gone for new members), and decide which best fits your travel plans.

You typically want to have a Use Year that immediately preceeds your typical travel month. If you were to often take trips to WDW in August/September/October, then an August Use Year would be ideal. The reason being if you ever have to cancel a trip scheduled for one of those months you can still bank 100% of your points.

However, if June trips will be common for you, and August UY would be very bad. If you ever have to cancel a June trip you may only be able to bank a small percentage of your points depending upon how close you are to August when you cancel.

 

[RobDoc]

You can certainly borrow your August points for a June trip- there is no problem doing that and you have already had over a month that this reservation could have been made.

As soon as you know which June dates you will have available, call MS and make that reservation. They will walk you thru the whole process. There is no need to switch Use Years at all to make this reservation. HOWEVER ... be certain of your dates- if you borrow those points and later have to cancel, you would have to use the points by July 31, 2004 or lose them.

Good luck!

 

[dcfromva]

VickiVM,

If you haven't signed the paperwork, it is not too late. If the DVC guide has to re-do the paperwork, so be it. They should have gone over the UY with you more carefully. If you normally vacation in the summertime, I don't think an August UY would be the best option. Chances are, when next year's vacation rolls around, you will be in a posture of borrowing points again.

I had heard that Dec '03 has been sold out, but you never know if more Dec '03 inventory has been released with the addition of new buildings or maybe other Dec 03 UY contracts that may have fallen through. I don't know if Dec '03 would be a good UY for your vacationing plans.... But, if you thought Dec would work out for you, I would ask the guide about it (it can't hurt to ask --the worst they can do is say no ). This would give you an extra set of points.

Either way you go (borrowing or changing UY), good luck to you!

-DC

 

[VickiVM]

Thanks for all your advice. Now that I go back and look over notes, we explicitly said that June would probably be our typical vacation month because of school year and work schedules. She even gave us an illustrations with June dates and points requirements. Now with the stricter vacation windows I have, it's actually June or nothing for my family, so I think I'll call tomorrow and ask to have our UY moved up. I'm in retail and my husband is in retail/wholesale food sales...flexibility is necessary and we need to be able to work around a summer vacation schedule.

Thanks again. I knew there was a reason our company attorney didn't want to notarize my papers without my husband being present. Otherwise our papers would be on the way.

 

[stacy6552]

Im not sure if it works this way or not but she may have given you an August use year, because thats all that was left in a building that would be ready by June.

Doc does it work this way?

But Yes yes yes call back and ask about it.

 

[dcfromva]

VickiVM,
Let us know how it works out.

-DC

 

[VickiVM]

Well I emailed Jenna and no response. I also left a vm and no response. Is there someone else I should call??

OK - I want to understand what I'm asking DVC before I get blown off about UY.

My family would typically vacation in June. Only other option is NY's week - rest of year is blacked by my work or kids are in school. If I request a Feb UY, then I get a new set of points in Feb to use (as in next month my points become available).

However, I can book my June vacation for my home resort as early as July from previous year, right? And I can book a different resort as early as November.

So if I use this year's points and for some reason have to cancel June, I have until Feb of next year to use or bank my points (within the cancellation policies.)

That gives me the flexibility of not vacationing in June and choosing our other available week in Jan. still using the same year's points.

Now here is another important question: Can I book in November for the following June using points that

will be in my account at that time?? Or do the points have to be available at the time of booking??

I know I've read these questions many times on the board when it didn't matter, but now the sticky details are so important.

Thanks,
Vicki

 

[Nick@ VB+OKW]

Originally posted by VickiVM
Now here is another important question: Can I book in November for the following June using points that

will be in my account at that time?? Or do the points have to be available at the time of booking??

Yes you can book it Vicki. The pts will be there by the time you use them. The pts don't have to be in your account at the time of the booking.

P.S. "Go Spurs"!!

 

[dcfromva]

Vicki,
Our first DVC purchase was BCV with a Feb UY. I didn't know about this board and I didn't really understand the UY thing.
As it turns out, we LOVE taking BCV vacations over NYE, but I always worry about having to cancel and then subsequently not be able to book another ressie (end of UY is Jan 31) or not be able to bank the points (Nov 30 is 25% banking deadling). NYE is one of the most expensive times to use points, so lots of points are tied up in the ressie.
This year, I would have liked to have added another day on to our NYE ressie, but it would have involved borrowing points to add the additional day and I had no idea as to whether I would be able to get the time off from work until about 6 weeks prior (by then, it would be too late to expect to book it, so I came up with an alternate plan).

If I had booked that extra day and then I couldn't get the time off and had to cancel the additional day, I would only have until Jan31st to use those points. So, I didn't book it (and as it turned out, the leave was approved--oh well).

Because of this, when we bought our add on points at BWV, we bought an OCT UY (we like to visit in November, too) and for SSR, we bought a Dec UY (Partly because we like to vacation in Dec and partly because of the extra set of points for '03). For December UY , your banking deadlines are as follows:
100% May 31st, 50% August 31, 25% Sept 30th (and any exchanges would have to be booked prior to October 1st).

Consider this scenario with a Dec UY, if you vacationed in June if you cancelled more than 30 days in advance of your ressie, you could still bank 100% of the current UY points. If you had to cancel less than 30 days prior to your ressie, your points would go into holding status, you would have 'til November 30th to use the points (ressies can made no more than 60 days prior to the holding status points). (If you couldn't use the points, it would also give you more time to find a renter...)

Of course a Dec visit with a Dec UY would be even less to worry about. If you scheduled a trip for NYE and for some reason had to cancel, you might be able just to reschedule for your normal June trip, instead. You would have several months to use your points with plenty of options.

-DC

 

[VickiVM]

Thanks, dvcfromva!! Your information explains so much to me. This whole banking deadline thing is so confusing. I'm kind of ticked that our guide didn't take the time to explain this to us in more detail when I asked about our UY. I guess I didn't push it too much, either, since I knew I could come back and post my questions here and get pretty reliable information.

A December UY...does that mean I won't get any points until next December??

P.S. "Go Spurs"!!

Hey Nick...I knew you were a Spurs fan!!! Check out the Sports Ill. "Sportsmen of the Year Award" issue if you can...wonderful coverage of the Admiral and Tim Duncan. And it's...

GO SPURS GO!!!

 

[tjkraz]

Originally posted by VickiVM
A December UY...does that mean I won't get any points until next December??

December is the one UY you probably won't be able to get. When SSR first went on sale, they began by offering a December '03 Use Year. In addition to the promotional pricing, this UY enabled early purchasers to get their first set of points a full 6 months before the resort opens.

After a couple of months they had sold the initial allotment of December points, and moved on to a February '04 Use Year.

If they are still selling February, that might be a good fit for you. In the event that you need to cancel a June trip you will still be well within your 100% banking window. Wouldn't work so well for a December cancellation, though.

 

[dcfromva]

A December UY...does that mean I won't get any points until next December??

VickiVM,

As tjkraz pointed out, the Dec UY may be sold out. Several people have specifically asked for it and were told it wasn't available. But, things change, too. We purchased our DEC '03 UY points at the last minute--(in October just before the first incentive expired ). Our guide didn't even hesitate when I specifically asked for the Dec '03 UY (and the points were in the first bldg). My thought is that sometimes those points are tied up and folks for whatever reason do not complete the sale and the points become available again. Like in your case, if you don't complete the contract for those August UY points, they will go back into being available for sale for someone else. Disney may also be adding additional buildings into the sales.
The sweet thing about getting a Dec '03 UY is that you will have an immediate set of points to be used by Nov 30 04 and then when Dec 1, 04 rolls around, you get another set of points. One of the reasons it is such a popular UY is that it is the only one that will receive 51 sets of points. With all these advantages, I figure it can't hurt to ask.
If they should say it is available, make sure it is Dec '03 or you would be in the posture of borrowing for your vacation in June.

If the majority of your vacations would be taken in June and only an occasional vacation on NYE, then Feb may work out pretty well for you for majority of the time.

Also, another thing to consider is that life situations change over time and what might not have been a good UY to start off might actually turn out to work well later on. I know I focus on the fact that my DS is in school--but, in our case he will graduate in a couple of years. (But, I figure even if it is just DH and I--we will probably want to go to WDW in the wintertime, especially Dec and Jan and a Feb UY wouldn't necessarily be good for that scenario, either ). So, this is one of those things that is difficult to think of every contingency--especially when you think this is going to be for 50 years!

Keep us posted.

-DC