UY Question

[akl2004]

Dw and I are seriously considering purchasing DVC by resale. My question is this. We love to visit between mid November to early December, so what use year should we look for? We are looking to buy a modest contract, so depending on plans (accomodations, number of guests, etc) we may bank some years to go with a larger room. We appreciate any help the DIS DVCers can give us.

 

[chalee94]

oct is probably ideal. sept is fine. (dec and feb would be the worst.)

ideally, you want to travel early in your UY.

ideally, you never want to travel in the last 3 months of your UY (so with an oct UY, avoid travel in july-aug-sept).

UY is only an issue if you need to cancel.

UY has nothing at all to do with when you can call to book. (that is based on home resort only.)

if you think you might add-on, you might also want to consider which UY months have more availability, as they are not evenly distributed:

http://dvcnews.com/index.php/dvc-program/owning-dvc/1557-distribution-of-dvc-points-by-use-year

 

[akl2004]

Thanks

I think I was over thinking things. We just love Disney that time of year and I just want to be sure anything we do will enable us to visit during this time. We were just there for F&W last week and it just wasn't as magical as Christmas season.

Never really thought about matching add ons. Our plan certainly is to eventually add on. I appreciate that advice. Thanks.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Early Dec is the most popular time of the year. So make sure you buy where you wouldn't mind staying if you couldn't change at seven months out. And you'll probably need to book that early Dec stay eleven months out.

With your sometime guests, you can borrow one year's worth of points, use the current year and use one banked year's worth of points to get three years's worth.

 

[DVC Dude]

Dw and I are seriously considering purchasing DVC by resale. My question is this. We love to visit between mid November to early December, so what use year should we look for? We are looking to buy a modest contract, so depending on plans (accomodations, number of guests, etc) we may bank some years to go with a larger room. We appreciate any help the DIS DVCers can give us.

Some members leverage the use year as a hedge on a cancelled vacation, but that obviously would depend on when you want to travel and your travel plans will most certainly change over the next 30 years or so.

I have been a DVC member for over 10 years and have NEVER had any advantages or disadvantages with a different use year because I simply plan my vacations with advance planning.

I think it is FAR BETTER to buy the best contract (location, points, price, banked, with a random use year, etc) than it is to spend more money on a set use year. In other words, it is NOT something I would pay MORE for.

 

[Dean]

Dw and I are seriously considering purchasing DVC by resale. My question is this. We love to visit between mid November to early December, so what use year should we look for? We are looking to buy a modest contract, so depending on plans (accomodations, number of guests, etc) we may bank some years to go with a larger room. We appreciate any help the DIS DVCers can give us.

IMO UY is very important for many people and not for others. Realize thought that those in a situation where UY doesn't really matter have ALREADY given up some protections/safely and are taking more risk. For your situation I'd make it very important assuming a consistent travel time and planned banking of points. I personally wouldn't buy anything before August if this were my situation and I didn't expect to travel much any other time. I'd equate a good UY in this situation compared to a bad one as worth about 1 yrs worth of points minimum at the going rental rate.

 

[Sandisw]

There is not going to be one UY that is going to cover all travel throughout the year, but, IMO, if you know that you have specific times you like to travel, looking for a UY that fits that travel is a good thing.

We own two--Dec UY and June UY--and it works now having both. When we first bought, we never thought we would start visiting during Memorial Day weekend but knew summer and the fall were a definite so we went with join.

Fast forward a few years, and we know visit at the end of May--the worst possible for a June UY since if I do have to cancel, I will lose the points as they expire June 1st.

When we bought BWV points, and additional BLT points, we ended up getting a Dec UY which has helps to cover these trips without having to worry.

So, a Sept/Oct UY would be ideal for those trips you mentioned, but the June/Aug would work as well.

What I would say is stay away from Dec, Feb and March UY if possible as those would be the ones considered not ideal for fall travel.

Good luck!

 

[Sandisw]

Some members leverage the use year as a hedge on a cancelled vacation, but that obviously would depend on when you want to travel and your travel plans will most certainly change over the next 30 years or so.

I have been a DVC member for over 10 years and have NEVER had any advantages or disadvantages with a different use year because I simply plan my vacations with advance planning.

I think it is FAR BETTER to buy the best contract (location, points, price, banked, with a random use year, etc) than it is to spend more money on a set use year. In other words, it is NOT something I would pay MORE for.

I'm not sure I understand how advance planning helps you in terms of the UY for the points.

UY has nothing to do with when you book but rather can make a difference in the time factor if you have to change or cancel a trip. IMO, the farther out members plan, the more chance there is a trip needs adjusting.

I agree with you that I would not necessarily pay more for a specific UY, but I would not buy one I knew going in could be dicey if there are other options out there. With fall travel that the OP is considering, I would not go with a Dec UY as that really puts those November trips at a risk on a regular basis.

 

[nabi]

Unless you have more than one UY, are planning a trip using several contracts, the trip spans across UYs, and you want to link days together......LOTS of planning!

 

[akl2004]

Early Dec is the most popular time of the year. So make sure you buy where you wouldn't mind staying if you couldn't change at seven months out. And you'll probably need to book that early Dec stay eleven months out.

With your sometime guests, you can borrow one year's worth of points, use the current year and use one banked year's worth of points to get three years's worth.

SSR and OKW would be fine with us, and apparently are the best chances at less than 11 mos out. So I am more thinking about maybe BC or BW since these are more likely available only at 11 mos. To be short, all of the DVC resorts are a step up from the moderates and all stars, so it would not be a hardship to be "stuck" at any.

 

[akl2004]

IMO UY is very important for many people and not for others. Realize thought that those in a situation where UY doesn't really matter have ALREADY given up some protections/safely and are taking more risk. For your situation I'd make it very important assuming a consistent travel time and planned banking of points. I personally wouldn't buy anything before August if this were my situation and I didn't expect to travel much any other time. I'd equate a good UY in this situation compared to a bad one as worth about 1 yrs worth of points minimum at the going rental rate.

I agree, since our plans, at least for now, revolve around a specific travel time. I feel much more comfortable knowing that if our travel plans change we will still have the ability to bank the points rather than lose them. Just wasn't sure what uy would give me this option. Thanks for the information.

 

[akl2004]

There is not going to be one UY that is going to cover all travel throughout the year, but, IMO, if you know that you have specific times you like to travel, looking for a UY that fits that travel is a good thing.

We own two--Dec UY and June UY--and it works now having both. When we first bought, we never thought we would start visiting during Memorial Day weekend but knew summer and the fall were a definite so we went with join.

Fast forward a few years, and we know visit at the end of May--the worst possible for a June UY since if I do have to cancel, I will lose the points as they expire June 1st.

When we bought BWV points, and additional BLT points, we ended up getting a Dec UY which has helps to cover these trips without having to worry.

So, a Sept/Oct UY would be ideal for those trips you mentioned, but the June/Aug would work as well.

What I would say is stay away from Dec, Feb and March UY if possible as tho
se would be the ones considered not ideal for fall travel.

Good luck!

Your story is exactly why adding on in the future is the plan. For now, I just want to be sure that what I purchase will work for our current plans. It sounds like you are using the June points for travel around the time we hope to visit. I am going to look for the UY you suggest. Thanks so much for the help.

 

[Nabas]

For us, having 2 UY 4 months apart works very well. We always have points that we can use throughout the year without worrying about banking deadlines.

We have an upcoming stay that splits across UY. For that, we booked the first few days using one UY, the last few days using the second UY, and then simply called to have those stays linked together.

In the case of the first UY, we have 4 months to do something with our points if we cancel, and for the second UY, we still have 8 months. With a single UY and a stay that splits UY, we would have lost some points if we had to cancel.

Members talk about transferring points between UY when they have more than one UY but it seems to me linking stays is less restrictive than transferring points. Still, I can imagine linking being riskier if booking a popular stay. You might end up with the first few nights but then unable to get the last first nights. One approach seems more flexible, one more secure.

 

[Dean]

SSR and OKW would be fine with us, and apparently are the best chances at less than 11 mos out. So I am more thinking about maybe BC or BW since these are more likely available only at 11 mos. To be short, all of the DVC resorts are a step up from the moderates and all stars, so it would not be a hardship to be "stuck" at any.

SSR and OKW along with AKV will give you more choices and more chances to get a better UY.

Your story is exactly why adding on in the future is the plan. For now, I just want to be sure that what I purchase will work for our current plans. It sounds like you are using the June points for travel around the time we hope to visit. I am going to look for the UY you suggest. Thanks so much for the help.

Certainly UY doesn't matter for some but again, they are in a more negative situation than the one that has a good UY. Even if your situation changes later, worst case scenario is you end up with UY that's not good and you've had advantages for a few years. Thus I feel it does matter for those that travel a specific time now even if they think this may change later on.

 

[disneynutz]

Dw and I are seriously considering purchasing DVC by resale. My question is this. We love to visit between mid November to early December, so what use year should we look for? We are looking to buy a modest contract, so depending on plans (accomodations, number of guests, etc) we may bank some years to go with a larger room. We appreciate any help the DIS DVCers can give us.

We hate the heat and for some reason WDW feels hot in the summer, maybe because of all of the concrete. We love it there during the cooler months and our favorite time of year is the Christmas holidays.

Our UY is October and it works great for us and we have had to cancel twice and bank so in our case UY did matter.

We have also learned to buy where you love to stay once you figure out where that is after staying there. We have purchased several resorts and after staying there several times the novelty wore off and we have now settled on our true favorites.

Bill

 

[akl2004]

Thanks for the response. It seems like June through October UY is best for us. Now just need to make up our minds to take the final step and start looking for the ideal contract.

 

[DVC Dude]

Thanks for the response. It seems like June through October UY is best for us. Now just need to make up our minds to take the final step and start looking for the ideal contract.

Good luck with your search and I would use on of the major brokers on this site.

I personally think it is way more important to find a great priced contract at the resort you want and with the points you need, rather than focus on use years, but if all things are equal with several contracts, then I might look at the best use year that fits my travel patterns.

 

[Dean]

Good luck with your search and I would use on of the major brokers on this site.

I personally think it is way more important to find a great priced contract at the resort you want and with the points you need, rather than focus on use years, but if all things are equal with several contracts, then I might look at the best use year that fits my travel patterns.

IF you have to make a choice between the 2, I think it depends on one's situation. Since I feel that UY can easily be worth a years worth of points (even more for some), that's a difference of $10 a point at least. Thus for those where UY could be a potential major issue, I feel that UY can be far more important than price or points availability (within reason). For those who are already giving up the benefits of the protection that UY can provide because of their timing or those that are extremely flexible even on short notice, the value may be far less. Sometimes finding the right home resort and points size is the most important, in that situation one could have to weigh the benefits, costs and risks accordingly. Thus I'd disagree with the blanket statement that a great price or loaded contract is the most important factor and feel that UY is the most important for some. I realize that most new buyers won't realize this up front enough to be willing to pay more for a given contract but feel they often would be better off if they did so..

One of the benefits of looking at less in demand and/or larger resorts is that you can generally find a contract that meets both criteria fairly easily. Of course new buyers or those that don't care if they have separate master contracts have the advantage here because they don't have the added issue of matching a UY. On that note, while there are advantages of matching up UY when adding on (less than before they changed the banking rules), IF one has a less than ideal UY, the benefits of a better UY often outweigh the benefits of having them all under one master. Again, it depends on one's personal situation including the number of points on each side of the equation.