Line updates - cel phone apps

[Brandilovesdisney]

For those of you who use cel phone apps for line ups and wait times at Disney.... Which cel phone company are you with and how much does it cost you to use your app? I was thinking about bringing my cel phone and using for the touring plans line-up and/or undercover tourist app but I am concerned about how much MB they will use (seeing as I will be roaming in the US) and what my phone bill will look like when I get home!

 

[disneyfan2]

I'm curios too... I would love to use it for the apps bur have no idea how to estimate usage either????? I'm with Telus so not sure what to add without costing a fortune

 

[KeroKero]

I'm curios too... I would love to use it for the apps bur have no idea how to estimate usage either????? I'm with Telus so not sure what to add without costing a fortune

I'm with Telus and leave tomorrow. Not 100% sure on which apps are available for my blackberry, but this week I added the US Travel Packs for Data and Voice. Meaning I will pay a lower cost on each per minute per roaming. You should check out which packs are available and which will suit your needs.

 

[tone.def]

I'm with Telus (which jumped to the AT&T carrier in the States). I used a free app - WDW Waits for the first couple days in February/March trip. I actually didn't find myself using it that much in the end, I checked my email once in the evenings, uploaded 3 pics to Facebook and got a $260.00 bill when I got home. We were there 6 days.

 

[MikeyNS]

Get a data monitoring app so you can keep track..
1MB is actually A LOT of text.. graphics and such not so much.. so if it's anything like the mobile site of touringplans you can reload their site hundreds of times before consuming 1MB. The issue is other apps and emailing coming in while you're using it (weather apps getting updates). Same thing goes for BBM, that uses so little data that you'd be typing for weeks to get to 1MB.

 

[Brandilovesdisney]

Get a data monitoring app so you can keep track..
1MB is actually A LOT of text.. graphics and such not so much.. so if it's anything like the mobile site of touringplans you can reload their site hundreds of times before consuming 1MB. The issue is other apps and emailing coming in while you're using it (weather apps getting updates). Same thing goes for BBM, that uses so little data that you'd be typing for weeks to get to 1MB.

DO you know where I can get a data monitoring app? I could monitor my usage from home (while it's free) to see how much I use on a daily basis. It will give me a good idea as to how much it will cost me in on my vacation.

 

[Brandilovesdisney]

I'm with Telus (which jumped to the AT&T carrier in the States). I used a free app - WDW Waits for the first couple days in February/March trip. I actually didn't find myself using it that much in the end, I checked my email once in the evenings, uploaded 3 pics to Facebook and got a $260.00 bill when I got home. We were there 6 days.

$260!!! WOW! Was it the pics that cost so much?

 

[ccudmore]

Depends on what type of phone you have. If you have an iPhone, data usage is built it. You can go to the Usage settings and reset it when you cross the border and enable data roaming. Then just go to that screen to see how much you've used.

Also, keep in mind that most smart phones continually poll for new e-mail. Just because you only check it a couple times a day doesn't mean that the phone didn't check every 10 minutes all day.

I've used the Rogers US Roaming data packs every time I travel to the US which give me a substantial discount on data. Their $50 - 60MB package should be more than enough for a casual user for a week and their $100 - 250MB package should be good for power users.

Also, if you have an iPhone you'll always roam on AT&T for Data since they're the only national 3G carrier in the U.S.

There's other options but they're not as easy to use as just getting a data roaming pack.

 

[MikeyNS]

DO you know where I can get a data monitoring app? I could monitor my usage from home (while it's free) to see how much I use on a daily basis. It will give me a good idea as to how much it will cost me in on my vacation.

I just got it though the app store on my BB.. I think there are plenty on the Apple app store as well. The BB one is called simply "data monitor" and was $2.99.

 

[sahmoffour]

I'm with telus and am planning on adding the US Data Pkg before we go. $10 gives you a discounted rate of $1 per MB. I'll go to my Usage screen and reset it right before we take off, so I can monitor what I'm at. Just make sure you change your settings on your email so that it's not refreshing it throughout the day. I'm sure it would help to do that for all the other apps as well, but I'm not sure how? Such as Facebook? Or weather apps?

 

[disneyfan2]

is there anyway to determine what 1mb would be? i reset my iphone and went to the line checker app, a few times, and a couple of pages on the DIS boards, and it was upto 7mb? So that seems alot, maybe i did not reset it properly, but i would love to be able to use the Lines app and to check email 1x day, and facebook 1x day? would that be excessive

 

[Polydweller]

is there anyway to determine what 1mb would be? i reset my iphone and went to the line checker app, a few times, and a couple of pages on the DIS boards, and it was upto 7mb? So that seems alot, maybe i did not reset it properly, but i would love to be able to use the Lines app and to check email 1x day, and facebook 1x day? would that be excessive

7mb is not necessarily excessive when doing pages like the Dis boards. Pictures use a lot of bytes and there are many on the Dis pages. In general, email is also a big kb user and just look at the pictures on facebook pages. You are considering using major mb sources. With data roaming charges you should really avoid all of those. I have seen 13mb just for checking Facebook once. If people are posting pictures your news feed will use up mb quickly.

 

[MikeyNS]

is there anyway to determine what 1mb would be? i reset my iphone and went to the line checker app, a few times, and a couple of pages on the DIS boards, and it was upto 7mb? So that seems alot, maybe i did not reset it properly, but i would love to be able to use the Lines app and to check email 1x day, and facebook 1x day? would that be excessive

Try going to the mobile site of facebook and not the app if you need a fb fix (m.facebook.com) or the mobile site for touringplans if you use them. I notice a lot of iphone apps are very graphicy and that can suck down your data quicker than the mobile sites, which use practically nothing, but arent as pretty.