Thinking of buying - Split points?

[donaldbuzz&minnie]

We are just beginning to think about buying into DVC. Our ideal vacation would be for one week at the VWL in early December, and one week at the BCV in May. So here are my questions:

1. Does it make any sense to buy resale points at each resort so that we can take advantage of the 11 month reservation window at each resort? Is it easy to transfer your points from one resort to the other if necessary? For example, let's say that you had all but 30 points in your VWL "bank". How hard would it be to transfer those points from the BCV?

2. Should we try to buy, for example, Nov points at VWL and April points at the BCV to take best advantage of the use year? Or should be try to buy all of our points for the same month?

3. I just read something on the board that made me wonder if the 11 month window refers to the time since you last vacationed. I thought it referred to 11 months prior to the date you want to travel. Which is correct?

I'd really appreciate any help any of you could give me. Thanks - I envy you all!

 

[OneMoreTry]

11 month window refers to your reservation date. You can reserve the condo 11 months before your stay (7 months if using points from another resort) regardless of use year, previous stay or religious affiliation.

If you plan on using VWL points for a stay at BCV, you will not be able to reserve that portion of the stay until the 7 month window. You could reserve the portion using the BCV points at 11 months and then wait till the 7 months to reserve the other nights.

I think points at two resorts would be difficult if you're laid back, but a lot of fun if you're compulsive.

 

[Cap]

If you get two contracts at different DVC resorts, I recommend getting the same use year. It makes it a lot easier in terms of point availability, understanding banking deadlines, etc.

The use year does not impact the ability to make a reservation at the 11 month window at the resort where your own the points, unless you have used all your current year points and your next year's points. As an example, if you want to stay at BWV in September, you can make reservations 11 months before your departure date regardless of use year, as long as you have points available from that resort at the time you would check-in.

Use year is important if you will potentially have to have flexibility on vacation in terms of banking / borrowing. If, for example, you normally plan to vacation in October, then an October use year would be good, as you would be getting a new allocation on Oct 1 and would be able to bank 100% of your points if one year you were not able to take the October vacation.

I'm sure there are others who do a lot of banking / borrowing who can better explain the use year advantage.

 

[donaldbuzz&minnie]

Thank you both for taking the time to reply. Your responses were really helpful. Hope to become neighbors one day!

 

[Disney Doll]

1. Yes, it probably does make sense to buy points at each resort so that you have the 11 month window advantage at each. VWL and BCV are not huge in terms of numbers of rooms, so the 11 month window is definitely an advantage. Plus, there is some creedence to the thought that if you have 2 smaller contracts, if you had to seel one off it would be easier.
2. Yes
3. The 11 month window is 11 months out from your departure day of the trip you're booking. For example, if you were going from December 1-8, 2005 you could book your trip on January 8, 2005. January 8, 2005 is 11 months prior to December 8,2005. It doesn't have anything to do with your last vacation.

Happy planning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[donaldbuzz&minnie]

Thanks Disney Doll! You people are all really helpful.

 

[Dean]

It depends on how many points you need and want. If two contracts of 150 pts each is what you want, yes, I'd buy each and I would buy different use years. The aggravation of different use years is minimized with different home resorts as you must still track the points independently. If a single contract of 150-200 will do, I'd buy VWL as it will be harder to get the Dec ressies and May will be pretty easy at the 7 month window.

 

[donaldbuzz&minnie]

Is BCV fairly easy to get into in early May? In other words, is it usually possible to book BCV at the 7 month point? And while I'm on the subject, which resorts would be the most difficult to get into in December and in early May?? Thanks again everyone!

 

[Granny]

VWL is probably the hardest resort in general to book in December at the 7 month mark. I'm not including things like OKW Grand Villas. I would think Boardwalk Standard Views are also difficult during that period at the 7 month mark. BCV is only a little larger (# of rooms) than VWL, so it could be difficult too during early December.

Unless I'm mistaken, none of the resorts are particularly difficult to book in early May at the 7 month mark.

By the way, we own at VWL and BWV, two different use years. It's not that big of a deal to keep them straight, and we definitely enjoy the 11 month booking advantage at two resorts. To me, the bigger thing than the same use years is to keep the contracts very close in number of points, so you can alternate using them from year to year. In other words, bank one and borrow for the other so you can use two years worth of points from a given contract at the 11 month mark.

 

[jaysue]

We hold five contracts at three resorts but all in the same December use year. We picked Dec use year intentionally since DW is a teacher and with the exception of rare years like this one (DW off for the year on maternity leave) we would vacation almost always in December or March - ocassionally late August but we would know about August before the May 31 100% bank deadline.

Although feasible to hold more than one Use Year, our vacation timing is so structured that it did not make sense for us to do so.

Now if we had let's say a block of vacation time desired let's say in Jan/Feb and Oct/Nov then I would have 2 use year's to ensure I was always able to hit banking deadlines if my plans changed radically.

thanks
jaysue

 

[Dean]

Originally posted by donaldbuzz&minnie
Is BCV fairly easy to get into in early May? In other words, is it usually possible to book BCV at the 7 month point? And while I'm on the subject, which resorts would be the most difficult to get into in December and in early May?? Thanks again everyone!

If you look at overall, I'd think VWL will be the hardes due to it's small size. For December, many like to go for the decorations. If you look at subsets of time or units, VWL is not the most difficult. It's summer HH followed by December (2 BR easiest), Easter and mid summer at the WDW resorts. I'm sure VB is difficult Xmas to Easter as well. GV at BWV, BW view, standard view at BWV then OKW GV will likey be the most difficult. SSR will be very easy to get into once it's completed other than maybe the GV.

 

[donaldbuzz&minnie]

Thanks again everyone! I'm going to try to print all this info out and put it in a file for, hopefully, not too distant a future!