Staying at the BWV and Use Years

[PT92]

My bride and I are new to the DVC (150 @ the BWV with Sept UY). Our first trip is coming up in May. We have developed a couple questions:

1) We have discussed the special occations that Disney has such as the Flower Fest. and the Food and Wine Fest. and believe these will be consistant times of the year we travel. I would like some input on the likelyhood of making reservations at the 11 month window for these times of the year (May and October) at our home resort the BWV.

2) We can already see that 150 pts are most likely going to be too few. IF we were to add pts at a resort, assuming our travel is still in May and October, would the BEST UY be the month of travel or the month prior. Our contract now is Sept UY...we travel in October. If I added another contract, would a April or May UY be the most ideal.

Any input would be great.
Tom

 

[4407mark]

We have a June UY and have travelled in May, June, July, August, October, November, and December. I don't think the use year matters that much relative to when you travel as much as booking at the 11 month window. Even when we have booked at 7 months (for somewhere other than our home resort - BWV also) we really haven't had a problem. May and October are the absolute best times of year to travel and at the 11 month window, I wouldn't think you would have a problem.

Mark

 

[drusba]

Those two times of year are fairly popular for DVC. As long as you book 11 months out you are not likely to have any problem except possibly for standard view or Grand Villas which many reserve on a day by day basis starting 11 months out to assure getting them. Use year is irelevant to when you can reserve, which is always 11 months out at your home resort.

 

[DVC Grammy]

BWV is also one of our home resorts and F & W is an annual tradition (either Oct. or Nov.) along with our January "winter escape". Our UY is October, and we haven't had any problem making reservations at the 11-month mark.
Even though we don't have a "traditional" Flower & Garden trip, somehow or other, we have mysteriously found ourselves going to WDW in May (terrible "withdrawal" pains requiring us to have a Disney-fix between Feb. and F & W ). Those reservations are within the 7-month mark, but we make them knowing we'll be fine with whichever DVC resort is available. In fact, we look forward to having an entirely different type of vacation than at the BW. Most years, we go to either OKW or SSR at that time, and with the warmer weather, that boatride over to DTD is just lovely!
As someone else has written, the more important number is that 11-month one, not necessarily the UY-month one.

 

[DebbieB]

If you want to add-on through Disney, you must buy the same use year unless the add-on is 150 points or more. Resale can be any use year. April would be good, there is no May (also no Jan, July or Nov).

 

[PT92]

I was unaware of the add-on regulations. Being new in the DVC I simply thought that a spring use year would be best if we traveled in the spring. I am seeing that the use year is a bit irrelevant but more of an accounting issue with Disney. Is there a time when different use years are important to consider?

 

[SuzanneSLO]

We also own at BWV and travel in APril and Oct. Out UY is Aug.

The potential issue is with a cancelling your Spring reservation too late to bank all your points for that reservation into the next UY. With a Sept UY, you can bank all you points thru Feb 28 and up to 50% thru May 31. If your Spring resrvation woudl use more than 50% of your points and you cancel after 2/28, you may have some points you will need to use or rent before the end of August.

Best of luck -- Suzanne

 

[PT92]

So much to consider. Thank you all so much for the information.