Cell phone use at WDW

[Geodoc]

Originally Posted by Jennifer16

We are traveling in March and just want to check on the wifi status at the parks. I have read in earlier posts that it can be spotty? Is this still the case. Also, just checking if all the parks have wifi now? Thinking that we would use our iPhones and iPods for messaging each other while in park and to use line apps. If this will work then we really don't need to "call" each other so a phone plan does not seem necessary. Also staying at OKW so I figure we will also have wifi at resort. Just trying to make this simple ...

All the parks have wifi now....Downtown Disney should be live soon.....if it isn't already. In August we found the wifi at MK just fine and used our iPhones and iPod touch devices to communicate with iMessage! The Disney apps for wait times etc are great!!! Just be aware like most public wifi, it times out after awhile.....so always good to keep an eye on that. I'm glad that WDW has made wifi available almost everywhere now.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

[ccudmore]

We were at WDW just over a week ago and loved the free WiFi. Put the phones on Airplane Mode all week and then enabled WiFi. iMessage and My Disney Experience worked with no problems. In-park coverage was pretty solid with the exception of the Jungle Cruise plaza. Even worked inside a number of rides. Lots of people using FaceTime to video-call people, especially while waiting for parades.

Art of Animation had WiFi but that was pretty spotty. Good in common areas but hit and miss in the room.

I usually end up with $100 in data fees each trip but this time it was $0.

[eculmone]

Originally Posted by ccudmore

We were at WDW just over a week ago and loved the free WiFi. Put the phones on Airplane Mode all week and then enabled WiFi. iMessage and My Disney Experience worked with no problems. In-park coverage was pretty solid with the exception of the Jungle Cruise plaza. Even worked inside a number of rides. Lots of people using FaceTime to video-call people, especially while waiting for parades.

Art of Animation had WiFi but that was pretty spotty. Good in common areas but hit and miss in the room.

I usually end up with $100 in data fees each trip but this time it was $0.

I have a Blackberry. When I put it on Airplane mode it shuts off my WiFi?? Is there something special I need to do?

[montrealdisneylovers]

Originally Posted by eculmone

I have a Blackberry. When I put it on Airplane mode it shuts off my WiFi?? Is there something special I need to do?

I would like to know this too. Any Blackberry experts out there who can help?

[bankr63]

For my BB I go to the top bar on the home screen, and press the select button. That opens the manage connections window. Select Mobile Network to turn OFF the checkmark. Select Wi-Fi if it is not on so you can join the wi-fi network.

[mamabear0222]

Originally Posted by ccudmore

We were at WDW just over a week ago and loved the free WiFi. Put the phones on Airplane Mode all week and then enabled WiFi. iMessage and My Disney Experience worked with no problems. In-park coverage was pretty solid with the exception of the Jungle Cruise plaza. Even worked inside a number of rides. Lots of people using FaceTime to video-call people, especially while waiting for parades.

Art of Animation had WiFi but that was pretty spotty. Good in common areas but hit and miss in the room.

I usually end up with $100 in data fees each trip but this time it was $0.

Flight mode is an awesome idea!!

Sent from my Samsung S3 using DISBoards

[mamaCta]

Can I have some clarification? When you say there is wi-fi in all the parks, does that mean DL as well of just the WDW parks?

Does anyone know? I'm debating if it is worth $40 each to add international texting to 3 iphones.

[Maddysdaddy]

Unless something has changed in the last few months, there is no wi-fi in DL or DCA. There is wifi in the hotels (worked reasonably well at the GC when we stayed there in September, but barely worked when we stayed at the DH last February).

[rockchica]

Hi Everybody!
There's a fairly new company in town called Roam Mobility that specializes in giving Canadians cheaper rates for roaming. Basically how it works is you order one of there SIM cards and they assign you an American phone number that's yours to keep (you just have to use there service once a year). You get free calling, voicemail, texting to Canada and the States for $2.95 a day and if you want to add data it's only an extra $1 per day for 100MB. This is the route I went as I am traveling solo and wanted the comforts of having a cellphone with me.

[Maddysdaddy]

Originally Posted by rockchica

Hi Everybody!
There's a fairly new company in town called Roam Mobility that specializes in giving Canadians cheaper rates for roaming. Basically how it works is you order one of there SIM cards and they assign you an American phone number that's yours to keep (you just have to use there service once a year). You get free calling, voicemail, texting to Canada and the States for $2.95 a day and if you want to add data it's only an extra $1 per day for 100MB. This is the route I went as I am traveling solo and wanted the comforts of having a cellphone with me.

Roam's service is good as long as you don't plan on using much data. To be clear though, unless they've changed their pricing scheme recently, $2.95 a day is if you sign up for a month - the cost is more than that if you sign up daily or weekly.

[rockchica]

Originally Posted by Maddysdaddy

Roam's service is good as long as you don't plan on using much data. To be clear though, unless they've changed their pricing scheme recently, $2.95 a day is if you sign up for a month - the cost is more than that if you sign up daily or weekly.

They must have changed their pricing scheme recently because when I bought it you could buy plans for 1 day, 3 days, 7 days, 14 days, or 30 days. In total I paid $11.95 for 3 days which works out to just over $3.95 a day. I only need service for 4 days as am going on a cruise and planning on shutting down my phone while on the ship. I don't think I will need all that much data because WDW offers free wifi and so does all the hotels I am staying at.

[rocknroll]

Hi, for the BB experts out there, is the following scenario (that my boys say can be done) possible?

My family wants to celebrate my 50th birthday with me while I am solo at WDW. (To keep it short, through several circumstances a trip for 10 is down to one). My tech savvy boys think I can use the bridge function on my BB phone and synch my Playbook video cam function to stream a "current" event using the free WiFi at the parks.

Specifically, they want me to do a live video of my Illuminations Cruise that is booked on my birthday, and the family will sing Happy Birthday back right after.

Back up plan is to just save the video to YouTube for them to view, then when back at hotel celebrate with them through internet then.

Any advice or comments, including the answer "not possible" are more than welcome.

Additional info: I will have a US travel pass on my Telus Plan for roaming, calls, text and some data. Assumption is that roaming will allow the phone to pick up a WDW carrier for data as well as phone and the cynical side of me that doesn't trust wireless providers is saying that this would be too good to be true.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers!

Roehl

[Maddysdaddy]

Originally Posted by rocknroll

Hi, for the BB experts out there, is the following scenario (that my boys say can be done) possible?

My family wants to celebrate my 50th birthday with me while I am solo at WDW. (To keep it short, through several circumstances a trip for 10 is down to one). My tech savvy boys think I can use the bridge function on my BB phone and synch my Playbook video cam function to stream a "current" event using the free WiFi at the parks.

Specifically, they want me to do a live video of my Illuminations Cruise that is booked on my birthday, and the family will sing Happy Birthday back right after.

Back up plan is to just save the video to YouTube for them to view, then when back at hotel celebrate with them through internet then.

Any advice or comments, including the answer "not possible" are more than welcome.

Additional info: I will have a US travel pass on my Telus Plan for roaming, calls, text and some data. Assumption is that roaming will allow the phone to pick up a WDW carrier for data as well as phone and the cynical side of me that doesn't trust wireless providers is saying that this would be too good to be true.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers!

Roehl

My concern would be with the spottiness of wifi coverage at the parks. When I was there last month, my phone would keep switching between wifi and 3g as a roamed around.

I would be surprised if you could find/maintain a consistent wifi signal in the parks, let alone on the water, and if you lose that signal and start streaming using your data, it will get very expensive very quickly (even with a roaming package).

[rocknroll]

Originally Posted by Maddysdaddy

My concern would be with the spottiness of wifi coverage at the parks. When I was there last month, my phone would keep switching between wifi and 3g as a roamed around.

I would be surprised if you could find/maintain a consistent wifi signal in the parks, let alone on the water, and if you lose that signal and start streaming using your data, it will get very expensive very quickly (even with a roaming package).

I "knew" there was something wrong with our plan. NOT! LOL. Thank you very much for keeping me from being another news story about an unexpected >$1,000 phone bill. Deifinitely nixing that live feed idea.

And when you brought up that the part about being on the water, I also remembered that if the wind/breeze is going the wrong way, the boat is going to be at least partially under a bridge.

Thanks again fellow Calgarian.

Cheers!

Roehl