what use year do I want to shoot for?

[TigerLaw]

Here's where my fiancee and I are at:

1. we want to do resale and are thinking about either beach club or boardwalk.
2. if we take our trips the same time we have been doing, they will usu. be in the late nov.-early dec. range, then oct., then sept.
3. we can't see at this time actually planning a trip 11 mos. out, but we want to go during new years sometime and know we need the window then.

based on the above, can anyone say what use years we should want and why (I still don't quite get it) and if there is any more info that I didn't put above that would be helpful, let me know that as well.

thanks for the help!

 

[Dreamfinder2]

Here's my stab at this...

I didn't think that use year was all that big of a deal. The one major benefit is if your vacations typically fall the same time of year each year. If that's the case, then the starting month for your use year should come close to the time of your vacation. We have an August use year, and since we've been taking some Thanksgiving trips, that works well. Reason being: if we had to cancel our plans, then our points would go back into our current use year to be used later on that year - our window for use would be wider. Conversely, if we have an August use year, plan to vacation the next July, and have to cancel, we run the risk of losing those points if we're past banking deadlines.

Clear as mud? And, to be sorta frank here, you'll need to get used to planning 11 months out to be assured of the dates/rooms you want. If you've got your eye on late November - early December, understand that while these are light periods at the parks, they're prime DVC time because of the lower points.

Good luck!

 

[LIFERBABE]

if we take our trips the same time we have been doing, they will usu. be in the late nov.-early dec. range, then oct., then sept.

First remember, UY has nothing to do with when you can make ressies. Ressies and UY are totally different.

UY is when your point allotment is deposited into your account.

From your post, the bulk of your vacationing will be done in the last 4 months of the year, Sept. Oct, Nov, Dec.

Although you could choose any UY and make it work, I would choose an Aug or September UY.

Why: If you are allotted your points in Aug or Sept. you can vacation in the fall and still be in your 100% banking window. If you had to cancel you could bank all those points and not be rushed to use them.

This would also work well with banked points as your chosen months to vacation would be covered.

I revised my post to add this example :

Example:

Why I would not prefer a March UY with a fall vacationing preference.

You booked Sept, OCt Nov and Dec 2005 Ressies. (You bought ALOT of points LOL)

March 1, 2005 receive points

Sept 2005. You have to cancel all your ressies! No WDW for you in 2005!

Because your UY is March, you have passed your Aug 31 100% banking deadline.

You have 6 months from the start of your UY to bank 100%, 9 months to bank 50% and 10 months to bank 25% of your annual allotment of points.

You will be able to bank 50% of your total allotment of points but you will have to use or rent/trade the other 1/2 by March 1, 2006.

If you like to vacation in the fall, there is your dilemma.




HTH!

 

[Pa@okw95]

A use year never made any difference to me. I would not worry too much about it. It is just the time you get your points for the year. You can make reservations anytime, you do not need to have your points in hand to do that. I would try to get used to making reservations at the 11 month window especially for the months you are going.

 

[spiceycat]

I agree Sept or Aug - with your vacation schedule - kept in mind with DVC your schedule will probably change.

 

[Dean]

As long as you consistently visit Sept to Dec, I agree that August or Sept will be the best. I don't think I'd pass on a great contract otherwise for a different use year though.

 

[Dreamfinder2]

What Dean said!

One other thought - the key to working this sometimes convoluted points system is to be able to plan way in advance, and, as best as possible, stick to your plans... altho, we just snagged a Thanksgiving ressie less than five months out.

We joke at home about the "death of impulse travel," but, being sorta anal about planning, it suits me fine.

Overriding concern in your potential purchase? Buy where you want to stay. I think you'll be more satisfied in the long run.

 

[pennilessinpa]

I am reading this with interest because I just don't get the importance of use year. Our DVC guy kept trying to emphasize the value of an April use year but I never got the reasoning for it. I know he kept saying something about our preference for September vacations, but it never clicked with me.

 

[Dean]

Originally posted by pennilessinpa
I am reading this with interest because I just don't get the importance of use year. Our DVC guy kept trying to emphasize the value of an April use year but I never got the reasoning for it. I know he kept saying something about our preference for September vacations, but it never clicked with me.

The importance of use year varies a lot by the member. For some it's very important, for others it matters little. IMO, use year is important for one who consistently travels the same portion of the year to DVC, give or take about a 6 month window. It is also important for those that might have to cancel short notice. Unfortunately it's hard to predict where any of us will be in 10, 20 or 30 years. For those that travel all times of the year and don't have issues that are likely to force last minute changes use year is far less important. In general it's best to have a use year that occurs within the 6 months prior to your usual travel, the closer, the better.

 

[pat-rick]

Our first purchase was an April use year. Since we usually travel from October to February this was not a good idea. There is always the chance that if our trip needs to be canceled then we are past our banking windows.
We have added an additional contract for October that feels a lot better. If the need to cancel we are still within our 100% banking windows. When planning for three families ( ourselves and 2 daughters/families) things happen so for us having a use year at the beginning of our travel time works.

Example: We have a 2 bd and a studio reserved for Thanksgiving, if one of the families cancel we are in the beginning of our use year and have plenty of time to use or bank those points with no worries. If we just had the April use year we would be past our 100% window and 1 month from our 50% banking option.

Since a summer trip is not in our plans I wish there was an option to change our April use year so to us it does matter.

 

[dcfromva]

Use Year is a big deal to me, too.

Our first DVC contract was for a Feb UY. We love staying at WDW over New Years (when the points are at their highest and family mmebers most likely to join us)... This always causes some anxiety for me because if we banked/borrowed in order to get our reservaton and had to cancel (depending on when we cancelled, of course), we would have very little time to use a LOT of points...

We also like to stay at WDW at other times, too, when the Feb UY works out well. So, the way we solved our dilema was to buy 2 more contracts with different UY's (in October and December).

We are planning a family get-together in January 2006 and I will be banking/borrowing on the Oct and Dec UY contracts in order to secure reservations. I know I would worry until the time everyone checked in if we were to use the Feb UY points! I was thinking if someone broke their arm the day before they were going to leave and ended up in the hospital--it would leave just the last few days of Jan to reschedule a ton of points and that might not even be possible (either due to no last minute availability, person not recovered enough, no airline ressie...et'c.)!

With using Oct or Dec UY points for the Jan ressies, if someone should cancel out more that 30 days prior, I could bank current UY points and have up until Sept 30 for Oct UY and Nov 30 for Dec UY to use the points which I had banked/borrowed in order to make the ressie.
Less than 30 days up to 1 day prior, I would have up until Sept 30 for Oct UY and Nov 30 for Dec UY to use all points up. Even if we couldn't go ourselves, worse case scenario, we would have more time to rent the points out.....


-DC

 

[wtpclc]

Oops! SOme of this is repeat, because I took too long to write!


Penniless - No wonder you're confused. He taol you to take an April UY, when you vacation in Sept? That would still put you in th 6 month banking window, but it's still closer than I'd like.

To reiterate what soem have said:

1. If you do not ever think you will have to cancel a trip, UY has little difference.

2. If you will not consistantly have vacation at one time of the year, UY will make little difference.

2. If you have an August UY and had to cancel a Sept 04 vacation, you would still have until Jan 31, 05 to decide whether ot not you would take another trip by July 31, 05. Up to Jan 31, 05 you cold bank all of your points.

If you have a January UY and have to cancel a September vacation, you could only bank 50% of your points. The rest would need to be used or rented by July 31, 05 or would be lost.

Tigerlaw - The only additional thing to re-state for you is that the 11 month booking windlw has nothing to do with UYs.

You can book at your home restort 11 months from the last day of your planned vacation. (this is highly recommended for busy times of the year).

For non-home resorts, you can only book 7 months out. The booking windows depend only on your vacation dates, not on your UYs.

Happy planning/buying all!

 

[wtpclc]

Oops again! Double post.

 

[puffkin]

Use year was very important to us too (although we purchased SSR from Disney so it wasn't hard to get the one we wanted). We plan on mainly vacationing in the summer because I am going back to school to be a teacher (so summers or school breaks will be our main time to vacation). We picked a June use year so that if we have to cancel a summer trip one year, we are still within our 100% window for banking.

 

[smjj]

Having just gone thru this and asking the same questions we came to the conclusion that for us UY did not matter. We just booked our first vacation at our home resort of OKW with a use year of June. We are not in a fix where we have to take our vacations at the same time every year. When looking into this we looked at so many different combonations of vacation we starting having a brain drain. This site answered just about all our questions. Now we are just sitting back waiting for our first Welcome Home at OKW and glad we took the plunge...smjj

 

[tamu91]

Can't go wrong with all the expert advise you find on this board. Banking is the most important consideration in picking your UY IMO so you should consider how your vacation patten might change over the years. Late Nov and early Dec might be great time for you now but what if you plan on having kids in few years.
Just a thought