Help me pick the best UY & resort for our family of 5!

[Brian Noble]

I think the use year talk is all overblown.

I think so as well. Looking back at our travel history, with kids that are now adults and out of the house, it very rarely unfolded the way I expected it to for more than a few years a time. School calendars change, job responsibilities come and go, couples separate and reconcile, and so on. A lot happens when life happens.

I instead would recommend just picking a use year for a month that you definitely will never travel in

I was thinking this as well. For example, I know that I do not want to be in Central Florida in the summer months, from early-mid June through mid-September. There is no reason to subject myself to that heat and humidity when there are much (much!) nicer places to be all over the US during those months. So, for me, a UY that starts at or near the end of that period is great.

 

[sndral]

Good points. I keep reading 'walk' a reservation. Does that mean that you just piece it together if nothing is available? I think I don't exactly understand how that works either.
If our primary vacation month, for now, will be June, with a short stay during the holidays(Nov/Dec), which use year would you pick? I had thought October, but then switched to June, but I see what you're saying too.

Walking is when you book your villa for a stay starting long before your planned visit blocking anyone else from booking ‘your’ villa, then every couple of days you go online and move your booked stay forward. I doubt you’d feel a need to walk a June stay, but there are certain categories of villas that tend to be walked for high demand times of year & the AKV value & club villas mentioned by another poster tend to be walked year round.

 

[SpicyMcHaggis]

I was thinking this as well. For example, I know that I do not want to be in Central Florida in the summer months, from early-mid June through mid-September. There is no reason to subject myself to that heat and humidity when there are much (much!) nicer places to be all over the US during those months. So, for me, a UY that starts at or near the end of that period is great.

This is where we are at too - No interest in going to Orlando in the summer - we're in a northern state, and the summers are generally amazing, so I prefer to enjoy them while I can.

The points others made around walking into fall reservations are good ones, as well as the concern about possibly crossing use years with a reservation, so June or August use years are looking much more attractive.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Maybe a hot take but I think the use year talk is all overblown. At least in my experience:

1. Travel plans change. We originally thought we’d always travel in November. Now we tend to do the summer to save on summer camp
2. Mid-year use years always confuse people. I see so many posts on FB about people not understanding how many points they have because they have a mid-year UY and don’t know which year’s points they’re using.
3. Cancellations should be rare for something you really need to book 11-7 months in advance regardless. And if you have a last minute cancellation, which I think is the most likely scenario, you get screwed anyways by holding.

I instead would recommend just picking a use year for a month that you definitely will never travel in. Because the real pain are trips that carry over into your use year month. Otherwise, just pick the cheapest contract (disregarding UY).

It's overblown until you actually are affected. 2 immediate family members deaths just before trips meant having to change reservations. I cannot explain how helpful it was to not have to have another thing to think about as my UY's allowed lots of time to reschedule. If one can get the "free" insurance against last minute cancellations then why not do that. True that travel may change and it won't be the same but that doesn't automatically mean one should write off getting that benefit at the start.

Plus OP has travel times that are easily accommodate by a few UY's coupled with the part that UY doesn't tend to affect point pricing much if at all.

 

[🍀TwinsMom]

I think the use year is not necessarily a huge deal. We have September because we figured we'd always go early December for birthdays/holidays/low point chart. We got to go twice -- and LOVED it -- but now, kids can't miss swimming, basketball, and classwork, for sure. Now our goal is to, A) never go in summer again (did July, August, September,) and hit every month to see what we like best and say that we have tried it all.

Have you checked out DVCRM/any others to compare prices for SS v. CC? If you find a contract that's really amazing, you seem to have enough options that could work. There's also DVC trip insurance. MagicInTheMusic had a great YouTube video on getting the trip insurance, which I never paid attention to or noticed on the DVC home page. I'm going to look into it for our big extended family trip over Thanksgiving in 2024. Seven flights, tons of borrowed points, flying on the busiest holiday of the year. Yeah, I think we should get it.

 

[jolynne28]

Yes I've definitely been looking at prices and the ROFR threads. I've been using DVCforless, i think it's an aggregate of all listings across multiple brokers. Right now I'm trying to decide if we should do a 60/40 or 70/30 split between two contracts. I also watching the availability that's about to roll around for early Dec at CCV. If we only want to do a long weekend and enjoy the decor, early December is a much better time to do that than Thanksgiving or Christmas. I don't think we'll ever go at Christmas, I follow Tom Bricker @disneytouristblog and the crowd levels are wild this week.
For me it's all about what I see 7 months out. June looks pretty open, so SSR points would go a lot further. Early December won't truly be known until spring, but I plan on watching it to see what it looks like. One thing I'm noticing with CCV is that the 1 bedrooms get picked up last. Obviously everyone wants the studio b/c it's half the points and sleeps the same amount of people. Then the two bedrooms go. We're in a weird spot as a family where we can easily fit right now in a 5 person studio, but then in a few years when we want a 1 bedroom, those resorts get much more pricey points wise.

 

[jolynne28]

Here's another reason SSR looks good to me. Just looked at availability for the next couple of nights, if I had points I could have picked up BRV for New Year's Eve today, and we could do a quick trip over to enjoy that, no planning necessary. There was also a lot of random availability for the days leading up to Christmas at the last minute. We literally woke up on Saturday, I said let's go to Disney for one night, and we threw a suitcase together and left. (I have learned that DVC has to be booked the day before, not day of) I think that's what's making me want points at the lowest price point, I can get more and be flexible with them.

 

[tom1944]

I think every aspect of owning DVC is unique to the purchaser and their family. Buy what you believe works best for the vision you have on what your vacations will be for the immediate future.

If sometime down the road you are not fully satisfied you can adapt.

 

[jolynne28]

I think every aspect of owning DVC is unique to the purchaser and their family. Buy what you believe works best for the vision you have on what your vacations will be for the immediate future.

If sometime down the road you are not fully satisfied you can adapt.

I think i was reading a thread earlier that you participated in. It was the broker 'ghosting' thread. Weren't you talking about your potential offer strategy of reaching out to a broker(s) and telling them what you were looking for as opposed to putting in a bunch of offers? Have you gotten a contract yet, or just waiting for now? We're not trying to book a trip this year, so I'm fine to wait/watch for a few months, but I don't want to miss out on good deals either. It's hard to know when the right time is to jump in.

 

[MsChristy12]

I’m at BLT right now and despite all the garbage the resort gets for lack of theming, I’ve gotta say this “lake view” room may have turned me into a fan. Definitely don’t mind spending my resale points here. Probably will be back in the not so distant future once I can actually go into the parks and take advantage of the proximity to MK.

View attachment 820009

Ditto! Initially, we weren't fans of BLT either. But when you're sitting on the boat at 130am going back to TTC then still have to drive back to your resort, looking up BLT thinking "I would be in my room by now!", then it instantly became an interest! And now we own there I also made sure we would have enough points to get the TP view!

 

[tom1944]

I think i was reading a thread earlier that you participated in. It was the broker 'ghosting' thread. Weren't you talking about your potential offer strategy of reaching out to a broker(s) and telling them what you were looking for as opposed to putting in a bunch of offers? Have you gotten a contract yet, or just waiting for now? We're not trying to book a trip this year, so I'm fine to wait/watch for a few months, but I don't want to miss out on good deals either. It's hard to know when the right time is to jump in.

That was me.

We purchased a contract at SSR last March. We used it to stay at BLT in August and had a great trip. We are going to book another August vacation in January. This trip we will stay longer, going from a 7 day stay to a 9 day stay. We will also do a split stay with the first 5 days being in a 1 bedroom and the last 4 in a 2 bedroom.

We want to see if we like the split stay. If not, we will most likely still go for 9 days but select a resort for the full 9 days.

We are using 2024 and 2025 points for this trip, so we have to make another purchase prior to August 2025. I have an account that the funds are used exclusively for DVC costs. I will start making offers around February but be selective at first.

I have BLT and SSR on my watch list. I would be happy with either.

 

[MsChristy12]

We're not trying to book a trip this year, so I'm fine to wait/watch for a few months, but I don't want to miss out on good deals either. It's hard to know when the right time is to jump in.

It is hard to know the "right time", personally I trusted my gut and I am very happy with both contracts!
I did a lot of stalking here on the ROFR thread, and that gave me an idea what I'm willing to pay. I also stalked the broker sites daily! Now here is the catch - Are you adamant about UY and the amount of points? If you're looking for very specific contract (aka your own unicorn contract), you might have to give in even if it's a little higher than you want to pay. Vice versa, if you're more flexible, that gives you more time to look for a good deal.
Also remember this, don't get too hung up on those unicorn deals that people posted, they got lucky but that shouldn't be used as your "guide/standard" for a good deal. Hope this helps!

 

[tom1944]

It is hard to know the "right time", personally I trusted my gut and I am very happy with both contracts!
I did a lot of stalking here on the ROFR thread, and that gave me an idea what I'm willing to pay. I also stalked the broker sites daily! Now here is the catch - Are you adamant about UY and the amount of points? If you're looking for very specific contract (aka your own unicorn contract), you might have to give in even if it's a little higher than you want to pay. Vice versa, if you're more flexible, that gives you more time to look for a good deal.
Also remember this, don't get too hung up on those unicorn deals that people posted, they got lucky but that shouldn't be used as your "guide/standard" for a good deal. Hope this helps!

I will never get those deals because my bid will never be that low.

 

[Chili327]

I will never get those deals because my bid will never be that low.

What deals, & how low??

 

[tom1944]

What deals, & how low??

Like the $80 to 85 bids on SSR contracts or the $120 bids on BLT contracts.

I might have to rethink that on BLT. 3 deeds posted today, and the point price was $125 on 2 of them and $120 on the third.

 

[Chili327]

Like the $80 to 85 bids on SSR contracts or the $120 bids on BLT contracts.

I might have to rethink that on BLT. 3 deeds posted today, and the point price was $125 on 2 of them and $120 on the third.

Gotcha, i was wondering why your bids would "never be that low."

 

[jolynne28]

I actually think $80 ppt is an acceptable, albeit low, offer for SSR at this point. I'm sure everyone saw one that went through last month for 200 pts. I'm just not sure i want that many points in one contract at that resort. However, it's hard to think about paying the same total amount for 50 or more less points, which I also saw on ROFR.

 

[tom1944]

I actually think $80 ppt is an acceptable, albeit low, offer for SSR at this point. I'm sure everyone saw one that went through last month for 200 pts. I'm just not sure i want that many points in one contract at that resort. However, it's hard to think about paying the same total amount for 50 or more less points, which I also saw on ROFR.

I believe it took 8 months before that bid was accepted. I have to be honest the majority of deeds that are being recorded are not near that price point.

While I would like a low price, I do not want to bid for over 6 months. I will set my price at what I see as the lower end of average.

 

[jolynne28]

I believe it took 8 months before that bid was accepted. I have to be honest the majority of deeds that are being recorded are not near that price point.

While I would like a low price, I do not want to bid for over 6 months. I will set my price at what I see as the lower end of average.

I knew about the 8 months, we are ok to wait it out for the right contract for us. What do you consider to be the lower end of average for SSR?

 

[Genie+]

We were looking for September primarily to be able to hit Food and Wine and the lower points costs for that month, with the option for October or December once every few years for the holiday festivities. Then, a second trip in early February to get away from the cold and coincide with our anniversary (we're in a northern state.)

For that scenario, June seems like it would be an OK alternative since any canceled February trip would be within the banking deadline, with the down side being that any reserve points would probably be pretty difficult to use with the spring break/president's day craziness.

We like visiting across different seasons. Our UY was chosen by thinking about the set of months we’d least likely visit. That’s the sweltering months of June, July and August. Visits are highly likely to fall between late Oct and early May.

We were open to Aug, Sept or Oct UY if the price was right, and went with a Sept UY for our first contract - resale.

Later we added direct and they make it super simple by matching existing UY. Not a bad strategy I learned here on DIS. It got us an extra $1,000 off incentive once we were ready to add direct.