What use year would we want?

[LadyTrampScamp&Angel]

After reading a use year thread, I wanted to make sure I've got this right. We will usually travel in either the March/April time frame for my kid's spring break or during the summer when they are out of school. My kids are in 4th grade and K so we will have lots of years with this schedule.

I'm thinking a February use year would be good for us? Sometime just ahead of the months we think we'll travel? Have I got that right?

If we buy a resale though, it'd be whatever use year that resale has, correct?

Thank you

 

[BillM]

February sounds good. I am one of those members who think use year is important based on your travel habits.
Also from your previous trips it lools like you are a prime candidate for DVC

 

[LadyTrampScamp&Angel]

Thank you!

Yes, we're definitely looking at DVC, working on paying cash for the points we buy I want to be a member so badly, it's hard to be patient!

The next hardest thing is to decide where to buy the points . . .

 

[Mtnman44]

Feb sounds great for that travel schedule. As for where to buy, no one can decide that except you but here is my worthless two cents:

UNLESS staying at a specific resort at a specific time is very important to you, then I would buy at SSR or AKV. If you really want boardwalk views for example, you will probably need to own there. Also, if you want to stay at specific resorts during the holidays such as epcot resorts during Oct or VWL during Christmas time, then you will probably need to own there.

If you don't have specific wants like those and you kinda want to mix it up and stay at different resorts, then I think SSR and AKV are preferrable (Or if you are crazy like me, you actually prefer SSR and OKW!).

The reason is simply the contract length. Without a doubt, in the coming years the later DVC contracts will retain a higher value than the ones that will expire sooner. This might come in handy if say, twenty years from now there is a super duper new DVC resort that you must own at. A high resale value for your current contract will help ease the pain of a costly new DVC purchase. What will they cost in 20 years? 150 per point? who knows... If you don't care about resale value, then there is the fact that you will be able to simply user it for a longer time period into your golden years.

 

[Hillbilly]

We go in March, but our use year is April. I love it!! We own BVC and OKW. For us it's easy, we just book in April(a month later) for the next year, after we get back from our home away from home! I would think you would want it either Febuary, March or April.

 

[Mtnman44]

Hillbilly,

I believe this post of yours needs to be clarified as it might be giving the wrong impression. First, UY has no bearing on when you can BOOK the vacation. That is simply determined by the date of the reservation you want to make. 11 months prior for your home resort and 7 months prior for any other DVC resort.

The reason UY can be important is it determines banking deadlines. Thus if you are going to use your points late in your use year, for example a March Vacation and you have an April Use Year, then there is an increased risk to your points if you have to cancel your reservation. If you canceled in Jan or Feb (at least 31 days prior to reservation), you would only have Feb and March to use those points or they would be gone. You are too far into your use year to bank them.

Contrast that with the preferred scenario: A Use Year just before your normal travel time. So if you had a Feb use year and you had to cancel your March vacation you would still have around 11 months to use or bank the points since your use year just started in Feb.

 

[DVCJones]

We are also a slave to the school schedule. Our school vacations are a week in February and a week in April. We have a Feb. UY. If for any reason we had to cancel our annual April trip, It would be our plan to go in July. If we could not go in July, we could bank 100% of out points by the 31st of July.

I think a Feb YU year would be good for you!

 

[LadyTrampScamp&Angel]

Thanks for the use year explanations everyone, I think I understand that now You've been very helpful

As for where to buy, it's tough because we like pretty much everything. In 2005 we went to the Food & Wine Festival, and EPCOT is my favorite park - so it makes me want points at BWV or BCV. We have a flaky school system I guess, they didn't have Fall Break, then did for a few years, next year no fall break again - so that's unpredictable. Is it hard to book BWV preferred view at 7 mos? At times other than the Fall? From what I've read the standard views will go first?

We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge and LOVED it so definitely want some points at VWL. It fits my DH and DS perfectly, they are very into scouting etc, perfect them for them (and I like it too)! I can barely drag DH away from Ft. Wilderness.

Stayed at AKL shortly after it opened and loved it too, so AKV certainly an option. Would want a Savannah view, do you think you'd have to own there to get it?

I got to tour SSR, and I think it's very nice, love the views across the lake to DTD. I think AKV would be my first choice though. Since SSR is so big I'm hoping it wouldn't be too hard to get into at 7 mos when we want to stay there?

Is it crazy to want more than one contract to have the 11 mo window for specific times/events? I'd kinda like one bigger contract at probably AKV and two smaller ones, at an EPCOT property and VWL. I'm also not too knowledgeable about "add-on's". We could add points at the other two resorts when available to an AKV contract? We are within driving distance of WDW and not all that far from HHI so we'd figure out how to use up all our points in a year!

I do understand that the newer resorts would be worth more in the future. I don't plan on selling them but of course you never know what might happen. We'll be in our late 70's I think when the DVC I resort points go away but I'm sure my kids would appreciate more years with AKV or other resort (still hoping they do CRV).

Sorry for so many questions! Thanks again