What exactly is a use year?

[korlows]

I am considering purchasing a DVC timeshare and wonder what the use year is.
Looks like it just means that your points renew each year on that month/date?

can anyone help me?

We go at least once a year for a minimum of 8 days. We bought the AP for Me, my DH and DD (4yr old) but I think we would be perfect for this.
We tend to stay moderate to delux (WL,) after me searching for codes to bring down our cost.

We also LOVE to stay 2 weeks and WL seems to be my DH fav. spot.

Would it pay to purchase at any resort/DVCresort and stay at one that we don not own?
Like, buy Disneys Boardwalk and stay elsewhere...just to buy in?

Lots of ???? sorry.

 

[PamOKW]

You've got the definition of a Use Year correct. DVC calls it's a "birthday". It's just the start point each year for your points. It's how they also set when you have to make decisions about banking your points (there are limits throughout the year). The only time a Use Year comes into play is if you have a reservation near the end of your Use Year and you have to cancel it close to the time of your trip -- your options become somewhat limited at that point.

I'm sure others will help walk you through the purchase decision -- and I'll be back later to tackle that as well.

 

[Happy Birthday Cat]

DVC is sometimes at the other end of the planning universe from the use of codes. With DVC it is best to make reservations 11 months in advance and stick with them. With codes, I know from experience that it is more of a last few month thing. If cost is the only factor and you have been successful at getting codes for the WL, you probably won't save much money by buying DVC.

But we love not having to deal with codes anymore and not having to call every morning at 7 A.M. to see if anything is avialable is wonderful. Now we just call at 11 months and have our reservation done. Gives us more time to plan for the fun things.

Good luck with your decision.

HBC

 

[DebbieB]

Which resort you buy at is significant because you can make reservations at 11 months at your home resort and at 7 months for the other DVC resorts. So if you buy at BWV and want to stay at VWL, you would have to wait until 7 months before checkout date.