BWV's best use year for Epcot Food and Wine?

[srober]

We want to book BW standard view rooms for the Saturday before the Veteran's day holiday next November for the Food & Wine festival at Epcot. But our home resorts are SSR & VWL, and the BW standard view rooms are always sold out for that week when we try to book them with our 7 month window. So we're thinking of buying some BW points.

If we cant get a December use year would a February use year work (9+ months before Veterans week)? Or do those standard view rooms sell so quickly that we would be wasting our $ buying anything other than December use year BW points?

Thanks everyone.

 

[DebbieB]

We want to book BW standard view rooms for the Saturday before the Veteran's day holiday next November for the Food & Wine festival at Epcot. But our home resorts are SSR & VWL, and the BW standard view rooms are always sold out for that week when we try to book them with our 7 month window. So we're thinking of buying some BW points.

If we cant get a December use year would a February use year work (9+ months before Veterans week)? Or do those standard view rooms sell so quickly that we would be wasting our $ buying anything other than December use year BW points?

Thanks everyone.

Use year has nothing to do with when you can book. Any use year can book 11 months in advance at your home resort. All points use is based on date of stay, not when you make the reservation. Points are loaded into your account years in advance, they don't "deposit" when your use year starts.

If that is the only time of year you will be going, December would be the least desirable. If you cancel an October or November reservation after your banking deadline (July 31), you would have to use them by November 30. The most desirable would be June, August, September, October. If you had to cancel, you would have plenty of time to bank.

 

[drusba]

Your use year is not relevant to when you can call to reserve, which is always 11 months out at home resort, so whether you have a Dec or Feb use year, you can still call to reserve in Dec at your home resort to reserve the next Nov. Downside to a Dec use year is possibility of having to cancel. if you cancel the Nov trip in, for example, Sep, you won't be able to bank points into the next use year because you will be beyond your banking window,, whereas with a Feb use year you could since you would have until end of Sep to bank points.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Since you're already an owner it most likely will be best to get BWV points in the UY you already own. If you plan on buying direct and just a small contract then that is what DVC will want to give you anyway.

As was mentioned when you book has nothing to do with your UY so any UY will work to get the Nov reservation.

 

[snoopy5386]

How often have you tried to get a room there during that time? Have you done the wait list? We are going the last week in October and when I went to book at 7 months every single day was available except our last night (Halloween). I wait listed the entire stay and it came through the next day. It's my first try wait listing during F&W, but we got a standard 1 bedroom no problems.

 

[a742246]

We want to book BW standard view rooms for the Saturday before the Veteran's day holiday next November for the Food & Wine festival at Epcot. But our home resorts are SSR & VWL, and the BW standard view rooms are always sold out for that week when we try to book them with our 7 month window. So we're thinking of buying some BW points.

If we cant get a December use year would a February use year work (9+ months before Veterans week)? Or do those standard view rooms sell so quickly that we would be wasting our $ buying anything other than December use year BW points?

Thanks everyone.

The best use years for a November stay would be the 4 months before your stay. In your case (Nov, Oct, Sept, Aug). The worst UY for a November stay would be the 4 months after your stay (EG Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar).

PS You can always rent someone's BWV points and then rent your VWL or SSR points out, if you don't want to buy additional points.

 

[WebmasterDoc]

The best use years for a November stay would be the 4 months before your stay. In your case (Nov, Oct, Sept, Aug). The worst UY for a November stay would be the 4 months after your stay (EG Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar).

...

There are no January, May, July or November Use Years.

 

[srober]

Thank you all for straightening me out on the UY issue. Sadly it now leads me to ask a 2nd question.

If I do buy a BW contract, and it has a different UY form my existing ones, what's the disadvantage of having contracts with multiple UY's?

And to muddy the waters further: if I buy 2 BW contracts each with a different UY can I combine them or 1 long stay at BW resort?

Thanks again.

 

[WebmasterDoc]

Thank you all for straightening me out on the UY issue. Sadly it now leads me to ask a 2nd question.

If I do buy a BW contract, and it has a different UY form my existing ones, what's the disadvantage of having contracts with multiple UY's?

And to muddy the waters further: if I buy 2 BW contracts each with a different UY can I combine them or 1 long stay at BW resort?

Thanks again.

If you purchase contracts with different Use Years, you will have multiple membership numbers and multiple banking deadlines. Some often express concern over the additional effort to track the points.

Personally, we have 3 different Use Years, 3 different membership numbers at two different resorts and have no problem keeping everything straight and have never lost any points in 21 years of DVC ownership. The multiple Use Years actually give us a little more flexibility since we travel to WDW at different times of the year and never have to worry in the rare event that we would cancel a reservation since we will always have plenty of time remaining to reuse or bank the canceled points. At one time we have 4 different Use Years without any issue. The DVC Member site makes it very easy to track points from multiple memberships. We have never found a disadvantage to having multiple Use Years.

If you have multiple memberships, you can easily reserve as many nights as possible from one contract and the rest from the 2nd and MS will link them together - OR - you can also transfer the points from one to the other and make the entire reservation from that one contract. Either method can work well and MS is often creative in assisting.

Transferred points will retain their original Use Year and can also be banked into the next Use Year - but they cannot be borrowed.

Enjoy!

 

[srober]

Thanks Doc, that's just the answer I was hoping for!