Calling Card or Cell Phone

[Honeystar120608]

We are wondering which is best, a(i believe the best is the Superstore card) calling card or a US cell phone? Only need it to call home really.
TIA

[Canadamom]

We haven't used our cell phone, but have always had good success with the President's Choice calling card. 4 cents/ minute and good for 6 months from activation (purchase).

[squirrel]

I bought the Superstore $5 one for my two week trip. I think we called about 3 times. My niece did talk for a while each time. I believe there is still $3+ left on the card.

[Charleyann]

I have a tracfone. US prepaid cell phone. It has double minutes for life. They sent me bonuses for birthdays Christmas, Halloween and other holidays...

It is 1 cent a minute.....

These are so much cheaper in the long run then calling card and convient when wanting to call locally or spouse/ children. They are cheap enough to get two! I got mine at Walmart for $12 it had a few minutes on it!

Charleyann:santa:

[You'vegotafriendinme]

Just wanted to add our vote for the President's Choice phone card. We used it during our last trip to call home to Ontario, it was fantastic, no trouble at all and even though we logged quite a few minutes of use; there was still time available on the card at the end of the trip. All for less than $10, to us, a real bargain. Hope you have a great trip!:cool1:

[LittleFlounder]

Another vote here for the PC phone card. I bought a $10 card for my last trip, I called home every days and talked for several minutes and still had couple mins left on it when I went home. I think its an excellent deal! I even called family at home from the red phone booths in the UK at Epcot!:)

[Tiger926]

President's Choice is the cheapest calling card in Canada as there are no surcharges or fees of any kind - use it with regular phone, cell phones or pay phones.

It is run by Bell for President's Choice, FYI. Happy phoning, Tiger :)

[weewuvvdisney]

Hello everyone,

I just want to verify something (it's been a few years since we were at Disneyworld :upsidedow ). When you are using the calling cards, it's from a park or the lobby of the hotel and not from resort rooms. If I remember correctly, there are many fees attached to using the resort room telephone system. Just checking.

Thanks,



Jan

[Tiger926]

Hello everyone,

I just want to verify something (it's been a few years since we were at Disneyworld :upsidedow ). When you are using the calling cards, it's from a park or the lobby of the hotel and not from resort rooms. If I remember correctly, there are many fees attached to using the resort room telephone system. Just checking.

Thanks,
Jan


You are speaking about different things here:

1. Resort phone charges - Disney resorts charge .75 each time you use your room phone to dial out for all guests, except DVC members. This will appear on your hotel folio - this cost pays for the phone system and goes directly to Disney.

2. Long Distance charge from room without calling card - If you use the hotel phone to make a long distance call without using a calling card, you will be subject to the .75 charge, plus, whatever long distance carrier charges will apply.

3. Additional fees for pay phones - Some calling cards also charge fees for using pay phones. Each calling card will have the fee either listed on the card, or on the website. President's Choice as mentioned above, is one of the very few that does not charge any fees of any type. You pay .04/min regardless of what phone you use, and for U.S. to Canada, and for Canada to U.S. It's the best card out there!

HTH, Tiger

[You'vegotafriendinme]

Just wanted to chime in and explain why we were so happy to use the President's Choice phone card on our last trip. We found out the hard way about the exhorbitant long distance rates charged when calling to Canada from WDW on an earlier trip. In the past we had used our Bell calling card and charged the calls to our home phone with a reduced rate and thought we were getting a good deal. On one particular trip we forgot our card and so we just dialed direct to home and charged the calls to our room. When we checked out, we were billed nearly $300 USD:eek: for about 30 minutes of talk time. Of course, it WAS OUR fault in that we didn't read the information posted near the phone in our room. Once we returned home we corresponded with Disney and they were kind enough to waive their portion of the charges; however, we still were on the hook for about $200 US. Again, I admit, it was our fault and we should have realized. We've learned the hard way and won't travel without a President's Choice calling card again - it's the ultimate bargain and hassle-free to use.:wizard: It is far cheaper than charging to your home phone and, needless to say, the ULTIMATE BARGAIN when compared to rates charged without a plan of some sort. Hope this helps.

[BELLEDOZER]

I put in another vote for the President's Choice phone card. In Feb, we drove down to DL, and were stateside for 15 days. We bought a $20.00 phone card, and after using it on a daily basis to phone home, and check on our 2 hounds and their babysitter, we still had money left on the card at the end of our trip. It beats paying $1.00 per min to call stateside on our cell phone by a mile.

[LittleFlounder]

1. Resort phone charges - Disney resorts charge .75 each time you use your room phone to dial out for all guests, except DVC members. This will appear on your hotel folio - this cost pays for the phone system and goes directly to Disney.

When I used my PC calling card in my resort room last fall, there was no fee charged to the room because number was 1-800 or 1-866 (I can't remember). :)

[Tiger926]

When I used my PC calling card in my resort room last fall, there was no fee charged to the room because number (I can't remember). :)

Hmmm...maybe you got lucky, or we were unlucky as a few years ago when we stayed in a cash room (no DVC points left for us to use), we got charged the .75 charge while using our PC Card.

Not sure what happened, Tiger

[SaskDisNut]

There is no charge for calling toll free numbers from the resort rooms. There is a card by the phone that explains the different phone charges and toll free numbers are free.

[jmann]

2 weeks ago I drove to Detroit and flew with myself and my 6 yr old daughter.
I wanted a cell phone so when I crossed the border in Port Huron I went to Best Buy and picked up a Virgin phone for $9.99 + a $20 card. The best part was the girl in the phone section set up my account and activated the phone for me while I took my kid to the washroom. When I left 20 minutes later I had a working phone.

[Tiger926]

There is no charge for calling toll free numbers from the resort rooms. There is a card by the phone that explains the different phone charges and toll free numbers are free.

I knew that, and remember calling to get it credited, but they said the charge applied? It was only 1 night at beginning of our trip as we had run short of points, so no big deal as we have never had this problem again. Sorry for the confusion with the info I gave above - I did not mention this info as I wasn't sure if guests would be charged, as this happened to us that one time.

Good to know for others - thanks, Tiger :)

[disneyfan2]

There is no charge for calling toll free numbers from the resort rooms. There is a card by the phone that explains the different phone charges and toll free numbers are free.

intersting, i did not know that. I was scared to do this? I wanted to call family while at work to let them know we arrived ok, but was afraid. the work # was a toll free #..

Would it make a difference if the toll is in Canada?

[LittleFlounder]

When I used my PC calling card in my resort room last fall, there was no fee charged to the room because number (I can't remember). :)

Oops.. typo. I meant to say there was no fee charged to the room because the calling card uses a 1-800 or 1-866 number.. which someone else already explained.

I need sleep, and to proofread before I hit "submit reply". :surfweb:

[MouseGirl]

I just wanted to add another vote for the PC phone card. We always use it, and recently were getting ready for a trip to Phoenix when I realized that my existing card had expired (I had forgotten to get a new one). It was too late to get to the grocery store, but we were close to a Walmart, so I picked one up there. It wasn't nearly as good - additional charges ate up the minutes much more quickly. I would definitely stick with PC all the time in the future.

[Tiger926]

The other thing about the PC card is that you can load more minutes online or by phone, so as long as card number isn't expired, you can safely add more minutes wherever you are! You can also set up automatic top-up if you use your card on a regular basis. The smallest amount is $5.00.

I have called customer service several times, and they are great! HTH, Tiger :)

[SaskDisNut]

intersting, i did not know that. I was scared to do this? I wanted to call family while at work to let them know we arrived ok, but was afraid. the work # was a toll free #..

Would it make a difference if the toll is in Canada?

No, it doesn't make a difference where the toll free number is located. I've done it several times using the PC phone card.

[Jackie Psarianos]

We were at Disney World this past summer and used the cell phone and it cost us a bundle. I wish I could have purchased a pre-paid calling card it would have been much cheaper.

[Tiggs14]

We used our home cell phones when were in Disney and won't do that again!

I was just looking into cell phones and came across a thread on the dis about Net10. For $22 you can get a reconditioned LG300 phone, 300 calling minutes (each minute of an international call costs 1.5 minutes) that are valid for 60 days and an additional card for another 300 minutes that is valid for 60 days. The phone can be activated at anytime so you can buy now and activate the phone when needed and then activate the 2nd card when you need it.

I think we're going to go this route as it's always nice to have access to a cell phone.

[ccudmore]

I use my cell phone whenever I go. I just make sure I get a U.S. calling (and data) plan added to my account for the month. It's ***A LOT*** less expensive than straight-up roaming minutes.