bringing laptop on trip

[nealsmith]

Any thoughts/advice on bringing a laptop on a WDW trip? My primary reason for bringing it is to be able to get pictures off of my DSLR each night. Also have an HD video camera, will want to pull the video off each night as well.
It's also nice to still have access to the interwebs
Which brings up another point. I'll plan to use my sprint android phone to tether to in order to get internet access on my laptop. Who knows what the cell coverage is like in the area. I had an AT&T mobile card there on a previous trip and the coverage WAS NOT GOOD.


On a side note... I'm beside myself with excitement for our trip!!

 

[twokids0204]

Any thoughts/advice on bringing a laptop on a WDW trip? My primary reason for bringing it is to be able to get pictures off of my DSLR each night. Also have an HD video camera, will want to pull the video off each night as well.
It's also nice to still have access to the interwebs
Which brings up another point. I'll plan to use my sprint android phone to tether to in order to get internet access on my laptop. Who knows what the cell coverage is like in the area. I had an AT&T mobile card there on a previous trip and the coverage WAS NOT GOOD.


On a side note... I'm beside myself with excitement for our trip!!

I never bring my laptop. I prefer to leave work at work when I am at WDW.

As for picture storage, I say get an extra couple SD cards. They are cheap enough nowadays.

 

[theduck619]

Any thoughts/advice on bringing a laptop on a WDW trip? My primary reason for bringing it is to be able to get pictures off of my DSLR each night. Also have an HD video camera, will want to pull the video off each night as well.
It's also nice to still have access to the interwebs
Which brings up another point. I'll plan to use my sprint android phone to tether to in order to get internet access on my laptop. Who knows what the cell coverage is like in the area. I had an AT&T mobile card there on a previous trip and the coverage WAS NOT GOOD.


On a side note... I'm beside myself with excitement for our trip!!

Congrats on your trip. I leave my comp at home. For me it is a choice to engage my family, the pics and video editing/printing can wait until I get home. That is just my opinion. If I was going to be there for like 10 days I may consider bringing it just because i know we would not be in the parks every day.

 

[BigTex71]

I took my laptop on the last trip so I could download my pics to the laptop each night. It came in handy.

We have Verizon and, while we didn't use it to tether to the laptop, we never had any coverage issues other than within some attractions - and I assume you won't be using the laptop there.

 

[nealsmith]

I took my laptop on the last trip so I could download my pics to the laptop each night. It came in handy.

We have Verizon and, while we didn't use it to tether to the laptop, we never had any coverage issues other than within some attractions - and I assume you won't be using the laptop there.

Thanks for the feedback.

Um no, won't be taking it to the park.

I suppose cards are cheap enough, but I do like the idea of uploading them each night so the grandparents can see each night. I should probably have a few extra in any case.

Should I have any concerns about leaving it in the room? I want to think it's safe...

 

[Wadecool]

Thanks for the feedback.

Um no, won't be taking it to the park.

I suppose cards are cheap enough, but I do like the idea of uploading them each night so the grandparents can see each night. I should probably have a few extra in any case.

Should I have any concerns about leaving it in the room? I want to think it's safe...

We always bring our laptop for all the reasons you mention and it was never been touched by housekeeping. I would imagine people leave tons of valuables out and if they were being stolen, you'd hear about it.

 

[AJRitz]

I always bring the laptop when I travel. It's just another tool. If it's going to be useful, why not bring it? Just as you said, I wanted to post daily picture updates for the grandparents. And I'm a night owl, especially compared to my kids, even at Disney. Many nights after we got back to the Poly for the evening and the kids and DW were asleep, I'd sit down with the laptop and upload pictures. It's also useful if your plans need to be adjusted on the fly, so that you can check on various options that might be available to you.

 

[Singledad]

my last trip was super short, we flew in on friday, was at MK on saterday, and flew home on sunday. Although I only used it for an hour all told, I still brought the laptop. I do this because I back up all photos. I do not empty the SD cards when I do this. I would rather have two copies of my photos, than risk damaging and/or losing all those photos!

I can't tell how how many time a spare card got lost, left behind, fell out into a puddle, etc on trips. Just because you have it there, doesn't mean you will use it like you do at home. I have a rule of only using it when DD is sleeping, and only for must do things, such as uploading photos. Ie: I must resist my urge to load World of Warcraft... I am such an addict. Plus I do not have one of those fancy phones, so most of my important information is located via the computer/internet. such as phone numbers for relaitives and friends outside the ones I talk to daily.

 

[Wadecool]

my last trip was super short, we flew in on friday, was at MK on saterday, and flew home on sunday. Although I only used it for an hour all told, I still brought the laptop. I do this because I back up all photos. I do not empty the SD cards when I do this. I would rather have two copies of my photos, than risk damaging and/or losing all those photos!

I can't tell how how many time a spare card got lost, left behind, fell out into a puddle, etc on trips. Just because you have it there, doesn't mean you will use it like you do at home. I have a rule of only using it when DD is sleeping, and only for must do things, such as uploading photos. Ie: I must resist my urge to load World of Warcraft... I am such an addict. Plus I do not have one of those fancy phones, so most of my important information is located via the computer/internet. such as phone numbers for relaitives and friends outside the ones I talk to daily.

Must. Resist. Facebook.

 

[Singledad]

Must. Resist. Facebook.

facebook is only a secondary addiction. I got rid of all my games on FB shortly after I took up WoW. But yes, even then... must resist just about anything internet related.

 

[WIDisneyFan]

Ever since my sister had a minor picture disaster (lost most of a vacation due to a failed memory card) I have been in the habit of copying pictures off the camera every day or two. What we did to address the topic was to pick up a small netbook - provides the basic functions we need without being a hassle to transport and store at the resort

 

[DEA]

I always bring a laptop, because I always have to do work. Usually while the kids are unconscious. I had a cell modem from work on this last trip, but in the past have used the in-room Ethernet once. Work reimbursed this expense, but as it turned out, I left the laptop on and plugged in the whole time, and was only charged for one day of service.

I have never had a problem leaving the laptops out in the room. I have a high level of trust in the Disney staff.

 

[Reddy]

I took mine just for uploading pictures each night - didn't even mess with internet - was usually too tired to anyways

I did enjoy cropping them on the way home - driving to & from TX

 

[MichMickey]

Thanks for the feedback.

Um no, won't be taking it to the park.

I suppose cards are cheap enough, but I do like the idea of uploading them each night so the grandparents can see each night. I should probably have a few extra in any case.

Should I have any concerns about leaving it in the room? I want to think it's safe...

Hi Neal I was crazy enough to bring my wife laptop and my own down as well as 3 different digital camera's (way to many electronics but we were in the middle of changing camera's and Laptops and wanted to make sure we captured everything). The maid service at the Pop Century never touched any of it and I left both laptops and 1 of the camera's at the resort charging many of the 10 days we were there last August. As far as the coverage goes I had pretty good coverage with my iPhone but the in room Broadband connection didn't work the whole time I was there.

 

[S'sMom]

I teach part-time online so I will still have some work to do. Luckily, alot of it, I wont have to do because I am on vacation. But I will have work to do nonetheless

At least it will serve several purposes for me. Videos on the plane, listen to music, photo storage, etc.

It really is not too bad, I have done it on every vacation thus far. So I should be used to it.

 

[5stljayhawks]

Sprint does alright in the area. I used a sprint wireless PCMIA card in 2008 and it worked. You can get a one month scrib for around $15 or $20... they prorate it in not full month Make sure your network is set-up head of time. Also why not get an online storage site, this way if something happens to laptop you still have access?

 

[jason4024]

My laptop served many purposes each time I brought it along.

We used it as a charging hub for the phones, mp3 players and my hd flip.

It also saved us 4 days of possibly lost pictures on our 09 trip. We arrived at MK one morning and my SD card was dead. It was no problem popping another into the camera for that day, but my wife was a wreck thinking we lost our first four days of pics from ous DS's first visit.

In 2010, we had free wi-fi on our flight home, I went thru, cropped, edited qall our pictures and I picked them up at Wal-mart on our way hom from the airport. My DD was able to take pictures into school with her the next morning.

So, yes take the laptop, but leave the internet desire at home...

 

[nealsmith]

Hi Neal I was crazy enough to bring my wife laptop and my own down as well as 3 different digital camera's (way to many electronics but we were in the middle of changing camera's and Laptops and wanted to make sure we captured everything). The maid service at the Pop Century never touched any of it and I left both laptops and 1 of the camera's at the resort charging many of the 10 days we were there last August. As far as the coverage goes I had pretty good coverage with my iPhone but the in room Broadband connection didn't work the whole time I was there.

I thought I had too much tech on the trip...

I'm as ok as I can be with leaving the laptop in the room. Maybe I should generate some fake security sticker to place on the bottom of the laptop. Something like lo-jack for the laptop. We used to use something at work called Stealth Signal that would always log it's public IP back to their site. If it was stolen this company would work with local law enforcement to recover it.

 

[dvczerfs]

this past december,there were three of us and we had three lap tops. we were hooked up (wired), all on at the same time. we would come back from the parks at night, dw had her family and friends updates , dd was skyping with grandparents and friends and i basicly just went on disdads to keep up with eveyone that was there. niether one of us did any type of work on vacation.

 

[CaptainAlex]

I'm leaving my computer behind for our Disney trip this summer. It's too tempting to check in on the office while on vacation. I owe it to my family and to myself to just enjoy WDW.

I am going to bring extra SD cards for the camera and will swap out a card almost every day just in case something should happen to the camera or the card that I don't lose everything.