Walk me through a booking ...

lmhall2000

May the road rise to meet you....May God hold you
Joined
Aug 11, 2002
We have never planned a year out ever...90% of our trips are planned 3 months prior...even overseas. Our last trip to Europe we planned in under two weeks! We are planning on buying resale in the next 3 months. Here are some questions:

We mostly will travel the 2nd or 3rd week of September- maybe one trip in early May and we mostly will just do 3-5 nights (Sun-Thurs)...so, we book this at our home resort in October the previous year?

Let’s say we need to change our reservation- are any penalties or fees in switching?

We are looking for a UY of August...If we buy two properties with same UY..at 100 points each...we can only use both points to book at the 7 month mark. We most likely will get a 2BR...

I’m thinking for greater flexibility down the road it would be better to have two contracts at 2 resorts than 200 at one? Any other issues I should consider?

Thanks!!
 
Yes, for a September trip, you would book at 11 months out in October at your home resort,

If you have 2 home resorts, then you can only book each of them at 11 months...ie: a split stay. At 7 months, you can book any resort so those points can be combined,

Fall is a busy time so it will be important to book as close to 11 months as you can. Things go fast. Keeping the same UY is important as it gives you one membership.

If you want to change or cancel a trip, as long as you do it at least 31 days or more from check in, there are not penalties.

However, if you ever borrow points to book a trip and then cancel, those points are locked into the UY of the canceled trip and will need to be used by the end of that UY. Borrowing is a final transaction so they can’t be put back to the original UY.
 
However, if you ever borrow points to book a trip and then cancel, those points are locked into the UY of the canceled trip and will need to be used by the end of that UY. Borrowing is a final transaction so they can’t be put back to the original UY.

Did not know this...so, is this how it would work?
Say I get a contract with 100 points for 2019, 2020, 2021..and I need 220 points for a stay in September 2020. Would I need to bank the 2019 points, before they expire and borrow 20 from 2021?
Then, if I cancel...what ‘happens’ to my points? We have never cancelled a trip- I’m just trying to make sure I understand the math.
 
Oh, and say the 7 month window opens and I want to combine the two contracts rather than borrow from a future use year- I need to cancel my existing and then rebook?
 


If you have an August UY, the September 2020 trip takes place in your 2020 UY. So, you would bank 2019, and then use those banked points, the 2020 UY points and borrow points from 2021.

At 7 months, since the contracts will be in the same UY, you can then modify that reservation and it will pull points from both contracts if you want it to. If you have any banked or borrowed points, it will take those first.
 
Did not know this...so, is this how it would work?
Say I get a contract with 100 points for 2019, 2020, 2021..and I need 220 points for a stay in September 2020. Would I need to bank the 2019 points, before they expire and borrow 20 from 2021?
Then, if I cancel...what ‘happens’ to my points? We have never cancelled a trip- I’m just trying to make sure I understand the math.
If you have an August UY and cancel a Sept 2020 trip made with banked Aug 2019 points, current Aug 2020 points and borrowed Aug 2021 points, all of those points will expire July 31, 2021 if they are not used to book another trip during your Aug 2020 UY. Now if you are in late spring or early summer and you want to change this reservation, you will have a hard time booking another fall reservation. You'd need to do that no later than seven months out. And even that might be too late. Fall Frenzy books up all the resorts around seven months out. Some are already booked up before seven months out.

All banking must be done before the last four months of your UY. So with an Aug UY, you would need to bank points no later than Mar 31. Before you can use points as banked, they must be banked. But when you borrow, you don't borrow until the moment you need those points. It will tell you that you are short X points and need to borrow. Then you tell it which contract you want to borrow from.

At seven months out, if you modify, it asks you which points you want to use.
 
We have never cancelled a trip-
Right, but your history has a more narrow gap between [Book] > [Travel]. Good to be exploring this question before your purchase! :)

Lots of things can happen in DVC’s 11 months between booking and traveling. Some might be on your side; some might be on Disney’s side; some might be the weather; etc. Disney‘s own announcements of special events (member events, festival speakers/music, etc) come very late and might trigger a desire to modify your prior plans. Things happen. Change happens.
 


Also, you can't use home points from one contract to "block" a room, then swap in different points at 7 months unless another unit of the same kind is available.
 
Also, you can't use home points from one contract to "block" a room, then swap in different points at 7 months unless another unit of the same kind is available.

From what I can tell ‘now’ with the data out there- is that a 2 BR unit is pretty easy to book for mid-September. Our issue of trying to decide on two 100 point contracts or one two hundred point contracts is we’ve narrowed it down to BLT and CC..but BLT fits 9 and sometimes we may need that ninth- we figured we could try and bank/borrow on one while we bank on the other to have more options- or, if down the road try and sell one we don’t like as much or just aren’t using it as much??
 
From what I can tell ‘now’ with the data out there- is that a 2 BR unit is pretty easy to book for mid-September. Our issue of trying to decide on two 100 point contracts or one two hundred point contracts is we’ve narrowed it down to BLT and CC..but BLT fits 9 and sometimes we may need that ninth- we figured we could try and bank/borrow on one while we bank on the other to have more options- or, if down the road try and sell one we don’t like as much or just aren’t using it as much??

The bank and borrow method would be a good one. I’d caution about the sale because you could end up losing, given commissions, depending how far down the road you did it,
 
The bank and borrow method would be a good one. I’d caution about the sale because you could end up losing, given commissions, depending how far down the road you did it,

The $500 and 10% commission is much less than the maintenance fees over extended years. Our goal is to keep them both 10-15 years, then see where our growing family is then- we will be nearing retirement and the kids will be thick in the middle of raising their families...if we can’t make it to Disney- the kids and their families can go and just forward a bit of the maintenance fees our way to help offset costs..or, they may be tired of Disney and only go every 3-5 years- in which case, we’d sell both. With one contract- we’d be faced with selling that one (harder to sell bigger points) and buying a smaller one..hmmm
 
The $500 and 10% commission is much less than the maintenance fees over extended years. Our goal is to keep them both 10-15 years, then see where our growing family is then- we will be nearing retirement and the kids will be thick in the middle of raising their families...if we can’t make it to Disney- the kids and their families can go and just forward a bit of the maintenance fees our way to help offset costs..or, they may be tired of Disney and only go every 3-5 years- in which case, we’d sell both. With one contract- we’d be faced with selling that one (harder to sell bigger points) and buying a smaller one..hmmm

Got it! I thought you meant buy it and sell in a few year due to resort , I’ve bought and sold in my 10 years to adjust what I have and my needs. Just wanted to be sure it was something you consider,

I do understand the 2 100 point contracts and it seems like you have a good handle on how the two resorts would work!
 
On that note, if we buy two contracts from the same broker and use the same title company- are there still two full closing costs on each?
 
On that note, if we buy two contracts from the same broker and use the same title company- are there still two full closing costs on each?
I would suspect this to be yes with any title company. As some of the costs are dictated by the state/title insurance company and are based on the real estate transaction. About the only cost I think you could negotiate for them to drop on the second contract would be any admin fee they are charging. It's important to note that many closing costs are title insurance and taxes, which are both based on the dollar amount of the real estate transaction.
 
I would recommend two smaller contracts for the reason you are thinking. Selling a smaller contract is easier than a one with a large number of points. We have two 50 point contracts when we added on 100 points at AKL. I like knowing I could sell a portion just in case I ever needed to.
 
Do be aware that current availability might not be what availability is like ten years from now. If point charts change, two bedrooms could be harder to book at seven months. Disney has continued to stretch F&W - it used to run for four weeks from mid-October to near Thanksgiving - it now starts in September. That has always been a driver for bookings.

When we bought - almost 20 years ago - F&W started in mid-October and our kids had a school break in October - before F&W started. Our home is BW, and it was easy to get a standard view or Boardwalk view two bedroom at eleven months for mid-October. Within a year, F&W had moved back, and within five, the traffic had changed along with it. It now involved being on the ball at eleven months to get those rooms. But you could still have a reasonable expectation of getting a preferred room at BWV at seven months during F&W. And now, its a pain in the back end to get those rooms (but we stopped traveling at that time of year ten years ago). Boardwalk's situation with two bedrooms is different - since they are all lockoffs, when studios are gone, two bedrooms are gone, and only one bedrooms remain.

Over my own ownership getting a room at somewhere other than your home resort has become harder - and the resale restrictions with Riviera and Reflections are not going to help that situation at all - since direct owners can switch to the older resorts, but resale owners can't switch to those resorts. There is a huge difference between switching at seven months and making the call at six and a half because you got busy.
 

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