Use Year Question

[sunryzez]

After thinking about it for a long time our family has decided to take the plunge and becme DVC members. However, I have a few important questions about use year.

1) Do I get to chose my use year or if I buy this month will this automatically be my use year? The guy I am working with says my use year would be December? Is that weird since I am buying in April?

2) We are choosing Aulani as our home resort to ensure we can book 11 months out and have the best chance of getting the two deluxe studios we need for the trip we are taking there. We are planning on going in June 2017. We are going to need 266 points.
So the question is, if I am already a member in July but my 2016 points do not start until dec 2016, can I book a 266 point vacation for June 2017 when I only have a 175 contract. ( I am planning on borrowing points from 2017 to make the difference)
I am so new and confused! Any help would be appreciated.
Also, it says for Aulani it has a hotel room option. That is the only resort I see that option. Is this just a standard room or is it a specific set of DVC hotel rooms?

 

[supersnoop]

With a December use year, you'll get all 175 points for "2015" which you can bank into your 2016 use year for a July 2017 trip.

December use years can be confusing since the "years" don't match for 11 months.

Also, you should be able to choose your use year when buying direct. But, it really doesn't make much sense to purchase Aulani direct.

 

[sunryzez]

Why does it not make sense to buy Aulani direct? I know everyone says buy where you want to stay. However, I know the only lace I am 100% set on is Aulani. Otherwise I would be happy to stay at any of the dvc resorts....If one is booked one year I can just stay at another one. I can't do that with Hawaii. I'm stll learning so any advice is awesome.

 

[northshoremama]

I think supersnoop is saying that you should look into purchasing Aulani resale rather than direct, which is several thousands more than resale....

If you do resale, you want to start looking asap...the whole process can take 7-10 weeks or so. If you do direct, you can have a membership number within a couple of days and start making reservations. Resale Aulani averages $105/point....direct is $168/point. If you purchase direct right now, your use year will be December.

 

[Disney Dad ADL]

I think supersnoop is saying that you should look into purchasing Aulani resale rather than direct, which is several thousands more than resale....

If you do resale, you want to start looking asap...the whole process can take 7-10 weeks or so. If you do direct, you can have a membership number within a couple of days and start making reservations. Resale Aulani averages $105/point....direct is $168/point. If you purchase direct right now, your use year will be December.

DVD is offering the developer's credit right now which is worth up to $14 per point, and I believe the closing costs are cheaper direct? Also you get the member perks as well, and the Disney exchanges. But you are right that resale is still significantly cheaper unless you really want the perks, but it's closer than it seems at first glance.

 

[Dean]

After thinking about it for a long time our family has decided to take the plunge and becme DVC members. However, I have a few important questions about use year.

1) Do I get to chose my use year or if I buy this month will this automatically be my use year? The guy I am working with says my use year would be December? Is that weird since I am buying in April?

2) We are choosing Aulani as our home resort to ensure we can book 11 months out and have the best chance of getting the two deluxe studios we need for the trip we are taking there. We are planning on going in June 2017. We are going to need 266 points.
So the question is, if I am already a member in July but my 2016 points do not start until dec 2016, can I book a 266 point vacation for June 2017 when I only have a 175 contract. ( I am planning on borrowing points from 2017 to make the difference)
I am so new and confused! Any help would be appreciated.
Also, it says for Aulani it has a hotel room option. That is the only resort I see that option. Is this just a standard room or is it a specific set of DVC hotel rooms?

You can often specify the UY, you should buy a UY that works for your trips, usually one that starts shortly before you tend to travel. If you normally travel in Sept, Aug or Sept would be best. You do not have to take what they are "selling" now but it might mean you get less points or points later. UY is worth a good years worth of points in many situations, not so much in others. I get the sense you're buying Aulani for one trip. If this is the only trip you plan to take there, I would not buy there just for this one trip or to save the difference for the Poly. If you're trying to go there routinely it might be more reasonable. As for resale vs retail just make sure you look at it so you know what you're getting and what you are not plus for retail, how much extra you're paying for the perks.

 

[CarolMN]

More info on use year:

Understanding Use Year

 

[drusba]

1. You can choose use year but you need to consider whether you want one different from the one Disney is selling. Use year does not determine when you can go, which is any time of year, or when you can call or go online to reserve, which is always up to 11 months out at home resort and 7 at others. General advice is to choose a use year that starts shortly before you usually go annually but the reason for that has to do with the risk of cancellation and being able to bank points into your next use year if you have to cancel and any use year that starts up to about 6 months before you usually go is generally safe, i.e., if you usually go in June, any use year from Dec to June would be OK. For a new resort that is already open, Disney is typically selling a use year that begins 4 to 5 months before the month of purchase. That provides you with a first set of points that can be used promptly or banked and a second set coming in about 7 months.

2. Points you use for a trip are determined by when you will be at the resort not when you call to reserve. If you purchased that Dec use year now and want to go June 2017, you would need to bank, by no later than July 31, 2016 (or before you attempt to reserve whichever is earlier), the Dec 2015 points you get into the Dec 2016 to Nov 2017 use year. At the time you call or go online to reserve in July 2016, you would be able to use for the reservation (a) those banked points, (b) your Dec 2016 points which would be your "current" use year points for that trip, and, if needed, (c) borrow points from your Dec 2017 use year. Based on the number of points you mention, you would not need to borrow any points for your trip when you call to reserve in July 2016 because the banked and current use year points would exceed the number of points you need for that June 2017 trip (and when reserving you would use all the banked points and only some of the Dec 2016 point).

3. The "hotel" room category is a set, fairly small, of actual standard view hotel rooms in the hotel side of the Aulani resort. Those rooms became DVC as a result of a modification of the DVC side of the resort during construction that took out a few DVC rooms, which was made after sales began. No other DVC resort had that problem creating a reason to shift some hotel rooms to DVC. However, Vero Beach has a number of "Inn" rooms which are essentially hotel rooms built to be DVC.

As far as your buying at Aulani be aware that if you want to get June at Aulani annually, it will be necessary that you own there and use the 11 month reservation window. The same is true for most holidays and if you want either the hotel rooms or standard view at any time of year. From your post, it looks like you would be seeking two standard view studios for a week for 266 points total in June. To get that annually, you would definitely need to be an Aulani owner who reserves 11 months out.

 

[disneynutz]

IMO Aulani should be purchased if you vacation at Aulani most of the time. Will you want to vacation there or will you find more to do at WDW or DL?

Aulani is one resort, beach, water, Hawaii.

WDW is 4 parks, 2 water parks, 9 DVC resorts, several hundred places to eat, Disney Springs.

Bill

 

[bwvBound]

More info on use year:

Understanding Use Year

Definitely read CarolMN's post on Understanding UY!!

As for Aulani, June is a fairly competitive booking period and, yes, it helps to have the Home Resort Advantage (11 month reservation window) for this time period. If you plan to use the points for June trips to Aulani frequently, then owning Aulani could be a good decision for you. Please consider that most folks on this board use >80% of their
points on East Coast destinations: WDW, Hilton Head, Vero, in that priority, and are largely unfamiliar with the intent to dedicate point travel to Pacific destinations (HI, DLR). There is a slight uptick in Pacific interest in recent times ... but this is a slow ship to turn ... ;-)

 

[supersnoop]

Why does it not make sense to buy Aulani direct?

You'd save about $9,000 buying resale instead of direct.