USE YEARS MATTER

[pinnocchiosdad]

There have been many debates as to the importance of use year. Many argue that use year doesn’t matter, it’s just an accounting tool used by Disney.

My opinion has always been that your ideal use year will change over time. I’m in that boat right now.

My former contracts when my family was young had an August use year. It wasn’t ideal. It means we had to (had to by our personal standards) take our summer vacations in August. If we booked travel in July and had to cancel (things always seem to happen with kids) it would be to late to bank our points and we would have to use them or lose them by the end of the month. An August use year added risk of the same nature to our Easter and spring break DVC bookings.

Fast forward to today and we have a new contract with. February use year. After giving it a second thought February is also not the ideal use year for us. My kids are grown and it’s mostly my wife and I kn our Disney journeys. We live in New England and look to escape the cold each year. A February use year puts vacation points at risk for fall and winter vacations. We would love to see WDW for Christmas but a December trip would pose issues if we had to cancel a trip.

Above is just my opinion. I only write this to encourage others to take some time and consider use year before you purchase. Because to me, use year matters.

 

[princesscinderella]

There have been many debates as to the importance of use year. Many argue that use year doesn’t matter, it’s just an accounting tool used by Disney.

My opinion has always been that your ideal use year will change over time. I’m in that boat right now.

My former contracts when my family was young had an August use year. It wasn’t ideal. It means we had to (had to by our personal standards) take our summer vacations in August. If we booked travel in July and had to cancel (things always seem to happen with kids) it would be to late to bank our points and we would have to use them or lose them by the end of the month. An August use year added risk of the same nature to our Easter and spring break DVC bookings.

Fast forward to today and we have a new contract with. February use year. After giving it a second thought February is also not the ideal use year for us. My kids are grown and it’s mostly my wife and I kn our Disney journeys. We live in New England and look to escape the cold each year. A February use year puts vacation points at risk for fall and winter vacations. We would love to see WDW for Christmas but a December trip would pose issues if we had to cancel a trip.

Above is just my opinion. I only write this to encourage others to take some time and consider use year before you purchase. Because to me, use year matters.

I have a February UY and didn’t put a lot of thought when I first bought resale as to UY. That said I love my Feb UY and we still travel in the Fall and Dec. The end of January has always been a bit slower so if we’ve had to use up points at the end of the use year we’ve always been able to find a place to stay. I don’t think that can be said for a December UY with fall frenzy.

 

[EM Lawrence]

I have an August UY, and I wish I had gotten an October UY, because we like to travel in November, February and May. But, I also figured we have more flexibility during the summer months (at this stage of our lives anyway) and if we have to cancel our May trip, we can probably find something in June or July. But still, October would have been a bit better.

 

[CarolynFH]

I think we really lucked out. I vaguely remember our guide saying, when we were signing papers, "Your UY is September, by the way." And September is probably the best UY we could have, because we learned very quickly that we don't want to visit Orlando in June through August, and not much in later May or early September either! We came most often in March (Spring Break for our kids when they were in school), then October through February now that it's just the two of us.

 

[RoseGold]

I mean it's a hassle, whatever. I'd still rather get a good value than fret about UY.

 

[Sandisw]

Why I own 2 UYs and use them as though they were my only contract for different trips, Aug UY is used to cover trips Aug to March. And Dec UY is to cover trips Dec to Jyly,

Each has SSR points for sleep around, and Aug has RIV and Dec has BLT. I have all trips covered as best I can! It’s worked out nicely.

 

[AdamsMum]

I had no idea about UY when I bought my first contract. We always travelled in May with young kids and by chance the contract was April UY. Great. Now I prefer to travel in the fall (still okay) or January-February (not so okay). I'm fortunate that aside from the past year I've never had to cancel. I only have small contracts and would like to pick up a few more points, but small contracts seem more scarce for April UY. I guess that keeps me from getting in too deep.

 

[cruisehopeful]

Hmm, I haven't thought about that at all. If I want to travel Oct- early Dec, I guess a December use year isn't good for me? How often does it happen that you can't get the dates you want when booking 11 months out? I've been assuming it would be easy.

 

[ElizabethG]

Hmm, I haven't thought about that at all. If I want to travel Oct- early Dec, I guess a December use year isn't good for me? How often does it happen that you can't get the dates you want when booking 11 months out? I've been assuming it would be easy.

Booking 11 months out is not impacted by use year. You can always book 11 months out at your home resort. Whether or not you get your desired room category has to do with how popular that time of year is.

Use year impacts you if you have to cancel a vacation. It is a bigger issue if your vacation is in the three months prior to your use year.

For example: Lets say your have a February use year. You have a booking over Christmas. Then, in October you realize you have to cancel. For a February use year, the deadline to bank your points is September 30. So, now you can't bank those points into the next year and you will have to use them by February 1st. You only have a few months to use them.

I have never really worried about it. My UY is March. We started off going in October every year. That was fine. If I had to cancel, I could still bank. Now we have shifted to going in spring or early summer. That still works. It is just Dec-Feb that could be problematic (if I would have to cancel after October 31). I have only been on one trip during that timeframe and I didn't like it. So, I guess I lucked out!

 

[dez1978]

Booking 11 months out is not impacted by use year. You can always book 11 months out at your home resort. Whether or not you get your desired room category has to do with how popular that time of year is.

Use year impacts you if you have to cancel a vacation. It is a bigger issue if your vacation is in the three months prior to your use year.

For example: Lets say your have a February use year. You have a booking over Christmas. Then, in October you realize you have to cancel. For a February use year, the deadline to bank your points is September 30. So, now you can't bank those points into the next year and you will have to use them by February 1st. You only have a few months to use them.

I have never really worried about it. My UY is March. We started off going in October every year. That was fine. If I had to cancel, I could still bank. Now we have shifted to going in spring or early summer. That still works. It is just Dec-Feb that could be problematic (if I would have to cancel after October 31). I have only been on one trip during that timeframe and I didn't like it. So, I guess I lucked out!

So we have a Dec uy. Since we generally travel in Jan-may I’m ok right? But if I wanted to go over thanksgiving or Christmas would that be a problem? I assume Christmas would be ok because I’d either be using banked points or points that we just got? I’m still trying to learn the ropes which admittedly I should have done prior to purchase

 

[princesscinderella]

So we have a Dec uy. Since we generally travel in Jan-may I’m ok right? But if I wanted to go over thanksgiving or Christmas would that be a problem? I assume Christmas would be ok because I’d either be using banked points or points that we just got? I’m still trying to learn the ropes which admittedly I should have done prior to purchase

You are correct your Christmas would be safe it’s the thanksgiving trip that could be a problem if you needed to cancel it last minute.

 

[sndral]

So we have a Dec uy. Since we generally travel in Jan-may I’m ok right? But if I wanted to go over thanksgiving or Christmas would that be a problem? I assume Christmas would be ok because I’d either be using banked points or points that we just got? I’m still trying to learn the ropes which admittedly I should have done prior to purchase

I have a December use year & we always go in December, occasionally late Dec.+ early Jan.. If we had to cancel I’d have almost a full year to work w/ for rescheduling & of course ample time to bank current years points if needed. One year we had a trip starting in late November and going into early December - that was a hassle because it was 2 different use years & I had to call to schedule it, and availability is always a concern for that time of year because the phone lines open later than online booking (or at least they did then.)
When I bought my first contract I knew I would add on, so I looked at which months had been more heavily sold by DVC, because the months are not evenly distributed, figuring that if I chose a popular month I’d have more options when it came time to add on via resale.