MK now has park wide Wi-Fi

[Buffalo2Disney]

I posted early this week about the new "Next-Gen" mobile app Disney was going to be releasing in August. Well now MK now has park wide wi-fi access free to all guest. This pretty much proves that the new mobile app will have some next-gen features to it. What these new features will do is not known yet but this is exciting news none the less.

Here's the source

 

[Reddog1134]

Very interesting. Thanks for the info.

Now I have to decide if I want to lug my ipad around the park.

 

[KeroKero]

This is VERY exciting to hear!! Thanks for sharing!

 

[NYDisneyKid]

so a laptop will work there now?

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

Although I use my phone in the park for wait times apps I'm going to be a total hypocrite and say I am not a fan of this move. I dont know if more people having some type of device in thier hand walking around aimlessly looking down in a crowd is a good thing. But I guess that's what we call progress 'round here (said in my best Uncle Orville voice).

 

[Reddog1134]

so a laptop will work there now?

Laptops have always worked at WDW.

However, if your laptap is wifi capable then it can now use the internet.

 

[nobodies36]

This is great news. Thanks for sharing the info.

 

[disneysteve]

While exciting news, my immediate thought was of unintended consequences.

Instead of enjoying their surroundings, people will have their eyes glued to their smart phones as they stumble through the park, bumping into people.

People will be playing games on their electronic devices on dark rides and shows like Hall of Presidents or Haunted Mansion.

People will be busy Skyping the folks back home.

I think this has a high potential to get abused and intrusive, impacting the guest experience for the rest of us, just as cell phones, camera flashes and digital cameras in general already do.

 

[glenpreece]

I think it's great!! It'll make wait times fly by if you can upload your pics in line or update your status.

 

[Reddog1134]

While exciting news, my immediate thought was of unintended consequences.

Instead of enjoying their surroundings, people will have their eyes glued to their smart phones as they stumble through the park, bumping into people.

People will be playing games on their electronic devices on dark rides and shows like Hall of Presidents or Haunted Mansion.

People will be busy Skyping the folks back home.

I think this has a high potential to get abused and intrusive, impacting the guest experience for the rest of us, just as cell phones, camera flashes and digital cameras in general already do.

I have to believe that:

A. If this was true, we would already see a lot more people doing it already. Many people already possess smartphones and similar items with internet capabilities and

B. The internet connection is most likely going to be slow enough that things like Skype wouldn't be practical.

 

[BuzzLiteyear]

Even though my iPad has 4G, it seems like Disney is begging me to bring my iPad into the parks. At least this is what I'm going to tell my wife

 

[bigjrfan88]

I think it's great!! It'll make wait times fly by if you can upload your pics in line or update your status.

But the queue is part of the experience. Especially since they have started rolling out all of the interactive queues. If you are doing facebook in line you will miss everything around you. We have a rule...no phones at the table and no phones at Disney. Dont make me start quoting Ferris Bueller.

 

[Jay2009]

This won't change anything. People could still use data services in MK so long as they had a phone signal. It's just a nice service offered from a company who people on the DIS say "only take services away and never add anything"

 

[atp]

That is great news! I'm excited! I'm not from the US so I was researching about pre paid sim cards so I could use the lines apps in the parks. If they do that in all the parks I won't need that anymore!

While exciting news, my immediate thought was of unintended consequences.

Instead of enjoying their surroundings, people will have their eyes glued to their smart phones as they stumble through the park, bumping into people.

People will be playing games on their electronic devices on dark rides and shows like Hall of Presidents or Haunted Mansion.

People will be busy Skyping the folks back home.

I think this has a high potential to get abused and intrusive, impacting the guest experience for the rest of us, just as cell phones, camera flashes and digital cameras in general already do.

I don't think this will happen. Most people already have 3g on their phones, plus you don't need internet to play games on your phone, iPad or whatever. If people really wanted to use their phones like that at WDW they would be doing it already.

Also, I think most people aren't going to want to waste time on their phones at WDW. I certainly won't. I'll use it to check wait times and maybe, very rarely, send an e-mail or something. But I'll do it sitting down or standing out of the way because I don't enjoy falling or getting run over by others.

 

[mesaboy2]

What I'm most interested to hear is the quality of the WiFi service. That's an awful lot of people in a relatively small space to use WiFi.... I'm so far unimpressed with the resort WiFi.

 

[mjallemand]

Awesome if it works well, I'll be able to switch on Photo Stream in iOS5 and give out a link to folks that want to check out the pictures I take, as they get uploaded automatically.

 

[disneysteve]

I have to believe that:

A. If this was true, we would already see a lot more people doing it already. Many people already possess smartphones and similar items with internet capabilities and

B. The internet connection is most likely going to be slow enough that things like Skype wouldn't be practical.

Lots of people have limited data plans so they can't spend the whole day on their phones. WiFi is unlimited.

Lots of kids and teens especially have devices like iPod Touch that can only be used with WiFi so this expands the pool of people who can be going online in the park. I may "forget" to mention this to my daughter so that she doesn't bring along her iPod.

Someone mentioned using it while waiting in line. Call me old-fashioned, but while we're in line, we talk to each other. Sometimes we strike up a conversation with people in line with us or with cast members.

You're probably right about it being slow, though. It just seems like the outside world is gradually infiltrating the magic and that bothers me.

 

[AppleMagic]

Great news - sometimes the cell connection at MK is shotty and causes your smartphone to overwork to keep a connection. Next time I am there I will pop my iPhone on airplane mode and simply use the wifi connection. This will provide better service and battery life.

Thank you Disney for this added value!

 

[Buffalo2Disney]

What I'm most interested to hear is the quality of the WiFi service. That's an awful lot of people in a relatively small space to use WiFi.... I'm so far unimpressed with the resort WiFi.

I am wondering about this too. That many people all using the same wifi service will cause it to be slow to the point of unusable. Hopefully Disney installed really great servers for this.

 

[NYDisneyKid]

Laptops have always worked at WDW.

However, if your laptap is wifi capable then it can now use the internet.

works just at MK or all the parks??? i know the resorts all have it now but more concerned with parks