Free Wifi in Disney - does it work for Canadians?

[4orm]

I know that sounds off but I read the disboards "Select the network "Disney-Guest", connect and accept the terms and conditions. You shouldn't have to do this more than once. Covered cellular carriers include AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, and MetroPCS."

I thought wifi was just wifi and would work with anything able to get a connection. Am I wrong? Does it only work for certain cell carriers? I'd much rather us wifi than pay for an expensive data package from Fido.

Have any of you fellow Canadians use the free wifi yet in the parks on a Canadian cell?

 

[Polydweller]

Yes it does, I have used it, wifi and cellular are two different technologies and I have no idea why cellular carriers are even mentioned. I was a manager of IT, and the wifi you get at home is the same as wifi at Disney and you do not need cellular to access wifi there anymore than in your house. Disboards should take that erroneous info down. You can use any wifi device, tablets,iPods, laptops, macs etc just like home.

At any rate, go to Disney, turn off your cellular data, and enjoy the free wifi.

 

[Tiger926]

Yes it does, I have used it, wifi and cellular are two different technologies and I have no idea why cellular carriers are even mentioned. I was a manager of IT, and the wifi you get at home is the same as wifi at Disney and you do not need cellular to access wifi there anymore than in your house. Disboards should take that erroneous info down. You can use any wifi device, tablets,iPods, laptops, macs etc just like home.

At any rate, go to Disney, turn off your cellular data, and enjoy the free wifi.

Exactly! Not sure why the selected carriers are mentioned, but I think that was in the info that I saw on the Disney website, and not just DISboards.

It worked fine for us in August, Tiger

 

[4orm]

Awesome! Thanks all!

I thought it was weird that cell carriers and wifi was mention but I thought perhaps I didn't know how things worked as well as I did. Looking forward to free app use in the parks!

 

[bdoyledimou]

free wifi works in MK and Epcot right now and probaly the other parks sooner than later.

And it's a good solid connection -- DW was able to post videos from her Iphone to facebook within minutes of taking it -- it was like having our family and friends with us

 

[dsneygirl]

And it's a good solid connection -- DW was able to post videos from her Iphone to facebook within minutes of taking it -- it was like having our family and friends with us

I actually thought the opposite this week, the connection was very sporadic and not reliable.

 

[Polydweller]

I actually thought the opposite this week, the connection was very sporadic and not reliable.

I wouldn't be at all surprised that it varies a lot. I put wifi into a hospital campus the same size as MK. It's very hard to make it work. The signal from each router is circular but the areas serviced are usually rectangular or rhomboid. Try drawing a series of same size circles in a square that can only overlap a little bit (otherwise the signals cancel each other). Lots of places where there is no overlap, that's lesser signal in the real world and that's one of the problems, you will have low signal areas regardless of how you arrange your routers.

Then there is the congestion problems. The more people connected the slower it will be. Even though router connection capacities have increased over the years, they still can only handle a maximum number of simultaneous connections. And, at about 50% of rated capacity they really slow down and the congestion gets really noticeable. You may not be able to connect at that point. And wifi has less capacity than cellular, just the narure of the type of radio communications used. I would be very surprised if those limits aren't reached often at Disney.

Too much info probably, but the bottom line is there will be spots of lower Signal strength and the more people the more difficulty with connectivity and speed.

 

[TagsMissy]

I know that sounds off but I read the disboards "Select the network "Disney-Guest", connect and accept the terms and conditions. You shouldn't have to do this more than once. Covered cellular carriers include AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, and MetroPCS."

I thought wifi was just wifi and would work with anything able to get a connection. Am I wrong? Does it only work for certain cell carriers? I'd much rather us wifi than pay for an expensive data package from Fido.

Have any of you fellow Canadians use the free wifi yet in the parks on a Canadian cell?

No idea why DISboards would mention any carriers... it's misleading and well kinda shows lack of knowledge. Wifi, is simply that, WiFi... it's not a data plan or anything.

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

free wifi works in MK and Epcot right now and probaly the other parks sooner than later.

And it's a good solid connection -- DW was able to post videos from her Iphone to facebook within minutes of taking it -- it was like having our family and friends with us

You forgot blizzard beach and DHS which just added wifi last week

 

[Tinkershelly]

I just returned home Wednesday and used the free wi-fi on my ipod touch in park and netbook in the resort (Port Orleans Riverside) and can confirm that it both works and is free. Also I can confirm that in park it is spotty for connectivity, as in sometimes it would show there were no "waves" and I had to move to get connected. Other times there were three full "waves" showing but I still couldn't connect because of over usage, I suppose. Also I had to agree to the terms multiple times so don't be surprised if that happens to you as well. The wi-fi in the resort was very good and I never had problems connecting in the room or in the common areas of other resorts.

That said, occasionally for hours at a time that I was unable to connect in MK and Epcot when the parks were very busy, so my advice would be to not rely on wi-fi alone if you need to connect with your travelling companions during the day. Otherwise it was a welcome addition for us.

 

[Sue M]

When we were there we had wifi at our resort and MK. Resort was fine most of the time, and MK. But during heavy usage both were spotty.
Don't know why it mentions specific companies either, but when in the US Telus uses AT&T. I turn off my cellular data.
Also had to agree to terms regularly. Would be nice to only have to do it once.

 

[MaMudduck]

Returned yesterday from WDW- wifi is definitely working in DHS (wasn't at blizzard beach so don't know about that).

The only issue DH & I found is that I had problems with me Mac at the AKL & DH had issue with his iPad, no issues on connecting with DH PC laptop or android phones (with wifi, not 3G), it was just weird with the Apple products......don't know why, maybe just a fluke.

 

[bdoyledimou]

onme thing i found while at the world was on my Apple products, if there was a WEAK 3g signal, the wifi just wouldnt work at all -- so we disabled 3g all together and just used the wifi and it would work.

 

[Alderbrook]

We were there in late sept & the wifi was TERRIBLE! Sometimes a connection, sometimes not. We were at POFQ & I rarely got a signal in our room. My GF was there at the same time & at the Coronado & she said it was terrible for her too. It was unreliable & wouldn't even send a FB message. We ended up having to call each other's room. MK was the best connection, epcot spotty at best. You would be connected & then nothing. I was really disappointed in their wifi.

 

[Sue M]

Oh no!! We will be at FQ in January. Hope the wifi improves by then.

Nothing to do with wifi but aug 2011 at POR I was using a T Mobile stick ( before they put in free wifi) and had tovsitvwith my MacBook outside on the walkway to get a signal. Awful. But when we moved to BC reception was great.

 

[seashoreCM]

Don't some laptops have better antennas than others?
If you turn the computer (facing north instead of east) does it work better?

 

[pigletto]

I found the free wifi at the Deluxes pretty good, and had free wifi at the Fort Wilderness cabins in August with no issues. MK was also good but we didn't use it more than a handful of times. I haven't stayed value or mod since they put it in but will be at a mod in February so here's hoping it's not too bad.

 

[MedicGoofy]

Was there in Sept for a week, stayed at POFQ. Had no issues with the wifi at all. Used it on my iphone only. Do not travel with a computer. Turned off data roaming as being from Canada the charges are crazy stupid.

Used the wifi at both the resort AND MK with no issues anytime I needed it. It can get spotty during high times. But really. your on vacation. Quit complaining about a free service that Disney has put into a park. Go have fun. Really.

 

[Alderbrook]

Was there in Sept for a week, stayed at POFQ. Had no issues with the wifi at all. Used it on my iphone only. Do not travel with a computer. Turned off data roaming as being from Canada the charges are crazy stupid.

Used the wifi at both the resort AND MK with no issues anytime I needed it. It can get spotty during high times. But really. your on vacation. Quit complaining about a free service that Disney has put into a park. Go have fun. Really.

They shouldn't advertise it if it's not very good at times. My GF's husband has to have internet & access to his emails for work while he's away. He bought a data plan for while they were away & said they would have been in trouble if he didn't buy it & only relied on Disney's.

I had to go into the common areas to use my wifi & still wasn't great. It was ok if you were near the main building though. We were in building 7 & only late at night would I have a signal & it wasn't very good. I would find if I was in a hotspot all of a sudden my phone would start going off because it would finally connect. I'm not complaining since I didn't need it except to communicate with my friend who was there at the same time, but it wasn't very good IMO. I was using a BB.

My GF tried to change reservations for her dinner one night with her BB & it took her an hour, finally she ended up just using the phone & calling in the change.

 

[Tiger926]

They shouldn't advertise it if it's not very good at times. My GF's husband has to have internet & access to his emails for work while he's away. He bought a data plan for while they were away & said they would have been in trouble if he didn't buy it & only relied on Disney's.

I had to go into the common areas to use my wifi & still wasn't great. It was ok if you were near the main building though. We were in building 7 & only late at night would I have a signal & it wasn't very good. I would find if I was in a hotspot all of a sudden my phone would start going off because it would finally connect. I'm not complaining since I didn't need it except to communicate with my friend who was there at the same time, but it wasn't very good IMO. I was using a BB.

My GF tried to change reservations for her dinner one night with her BB & it took her an hour, finally she ended up just using the phone & calling in the change.

Not sure what advertising has to do with it? They don't advertise that you are going to get top speeds all day long. When more people are on it doing silly stuff like updating Facebook and Twitter every other second, than the speeds are going to lag behind.

They offer free wi-fi, which is more than they offered a few months ago. If one needs it for work, then it's probably best to pay for it so that way, one knows he/she will have a 100% capable and dedicated connection in which to finish that work. Hubby needs work access at times too, and so we always pay for that data on our phones (we have One Rate CDN/US monthly data on our Blackberries).

Surfing the net or updating Facebook is hardly necessary, but if work requirements are, then I wouldn't rely on Disney's free wi-fi for that.

Incidentally, we've been getting free wi-fi for awhile at the resorts as we are DVC members, and we don't have many issues at all. Old Key West is pretty strong, but we did experience a few glitches @ MK while trying to Facetime my nieces. No big deal as we waited until we got to Old Key West, and it worked a bit better.

Tiger