Cell phone use at WDW

[Da2154]

Our group bought 2 Verizon LG phones with $10 prepaid, 99 cents per day. They were about $25 each at a Wal-Mart Supercentre (oops, spelled Supercenter down there, of course!) near WDW. So the phone itself was really only $15. Activated them with 407 phone numbers, and they worked great in the parks when we split into 2 groups.

Don't bother taking photos with them though, the only way to get them off was to message them to my normal Canadian cell phone while still in Florida and that used up some of the $10 allocation. USB link didn't allow photo transfer.

 

[holidaygirl]

Since we live in Saskatchewan we have a plan through Sasktel that allows us to phone our cell phones or any other Sasktel mobility customer free, in Canada or the U.S.. We have used our phones with no problems (have also called back to Canada again no problem).

 

[GrtWtNorth]

Hmm, we were going to buy walkie-talkies which is what we had the last time we were at DW, but I keep hearing about people having trouble with them... it sounds like a cheap US phone is the way to go. We won't have a car though. How would we get to Walmart/Target? By cab? How far would that be? (From Wilderness Lodge)

Walkie talkies work OK in the parks, but the range is limited, and there may be interference from other users. We found that we could communicate well within 500 yards, but only through cryptic static from land-to-land within Magic Kingdom. FYI, walkie talkies are not allowed in carry-on luggage.

Before you run off to Walmart or Target, try the HESS gas station or convenience stores in non-Disney resorts. There's some in the vicinity of Downtown Disney. (We've always found car rental deals, so never took a cab off property.)

 

[Belle599]

Was just reading on another thread that for 10/month the rogers data plan can be used in the US. This would be great if it can be removed once we get back.
If this is true I can then save a lot by tethering and not have to purchase Internet at the resort

I investigated this for our Apr/May trip and it turns out there is a 3 month commitment to add on the $10 charge and use your data in the US.

Best value for us was to each pay $10 and get 20 txt mssgs....after that they were $0.50 each. Still a crappy price but better than without the package!

In 2009 we had Virgin cells shipped to our resort and that worked well too.

 

[M_T]

I investigated this for our Apr/May trip and it turns out there is a 3 month commitment to add on the $10 charge and use your data in the US.

Best value for us was to each pay $10 and get 20 txt mssgs....after that they were $0.50 each. Still a crappy price but better than without the package!

In 2009 we had Virgin cells shipped to our resort and that worked well too.

Looked into it ,, you still have to pay $1/MB on top of the $10/month charge.
I'm thinking of forwarding my text msgs to email and using data instead of texting.

 

[LovesHerTaurus]

I was wondering. If there are two phones from the same carrier that usually have free txting between each other, for txting only (CANadian phone!) would I pay roaming charges?

I have a work business Blackberry and if there are crazy charges on there, my director of finance may fly down to Florida and murder me and bury me in a lagoon. My fiance has a cell phone from the same company (kmts) and usually all our texting is free.

Also, I get about 100 emails a day on my Blackberry for work. Do I have to turn it off while I am in WDW?

Anyone have experience with this??

 

[glendalais]

I was wondering. If there are two phones from the same carrier that usually have free txting between each other, for txting only (CANadian phone!) would I pay roaming charges?

I have a work business Blackberry and if there are crazy charges on there, my director of finance may fly down to Florida and murder me and bury me in a lagoon. My fiance has a cell phone from the same company (kmts) and usually all our texting is free.

Also, I get about 100 emails a day on my Blackberry for work. Do I have to turn it off while I am in WDW?

Anyone have experience with this??

Generally yes. Unlimited features don't normally apply once you cross the border. You would probably not only have to pay roaming charges, but also international text charges. You should check with your company and carrier to make sure, though.

As to your email. You don't have necessarily have to turn it off while abroad, just disable the data and push email features (at least that's how it works for iPhones, I'm not so sure about Blackberries).

 

[LovesHerTaurus]

Generally yes. Unlimited features don't normally apply once you cross the border. You would probably not only have to pay roaming charges, but also international text charges. You should check with your company and carrier to make sure, though.

As to your email. You don't have necessarily have to turn it off while abroad, just disable the data and push email features (at least that's how it works for iPhones, I'm not so sure about Blackberries).

I could just turn off my Blackberry and ignore work, enjoy a real holiday for once, and have a big 10 day party with my new husband and my daughters

Texting would be handy, BUT I'm thinking with all the hassle we should just create whistles for each other a la Sound of Music. Mine will be "you're a cute babe" whistle, his can be the Batman theme, and I can do a bird for my 10 year old and a death march for my tomboy....

 

[GrUvGrL]

We were just in Michigan 2 weeks ago - walked into a walmart and phone a 30 dollar phone that comes with 300 minutes! Bought two of them and plan to leave them in the fridge from our fridge swap so that other people can hopefully benefit from them.

Figure I don't have to worry about roaming charges and we'll never use 600 minutes in 2 weeks!

 

[sk8jdgca]

i have an old tracfone but was looking to chang eit up- for anyone wit a net 10. on trac phone i just called up and reactivated my phone and there was no charge- i just bought new minutes also i called a 1800 number than a canadian number and it was a local call
Net 10 says canadian calls are 15 cents per minute. Can i let by net 1phone go dead and reactivate at anytime for no fee- does anyone know-taget had a deal 200 minutes with phone for 29.99

 

[pampam]

We were just in Michigan 2 weeks ago - walked into a walmart and phone a 30 dollar phone that comes with 300 minutes! Bought two of them and plan to leave them in the fridge from our fridge swap so that other people can hopefully benefit from them.

Figure I don't have to worry about roaming charges and we'll never use 600 minutes in 2 weeks!

That is very thoughtful of you. I'm sure whoever swaps that fridge with you will be tickled too.

 

[disneybound08]

My husband and I both have iphones, but the rates for US data are crazy!!! $30 for 10 MB - We will probably only use facebook to keep in touch with family and maybe check email, but I dont think 10mb will be much. We recently go a new wireless router, I was thinking about taking the old router down with us and purchasing internet though our Disney resort a few times during our stay, perhaps the 2nd night/3rd morning, 5th night/sixth morning. Can I set up the internet access without my computer, Im assuming my router is still set up using our WEP so we'd be protected?? Any help or suggestions appreciated, or should I just bite the bullet and pay for the rogers add on

 

[M_T]

Please don't close your router off
.
As for your data ... clear your statistics on your iPhone and use it for a couple days like you would in the US then check your usage. Turn off your WiFi to force cell.
.
Can anyone recommend a good small travel wireless router?

 

[GrtWtNorth]

Can i let by net 1phone go dead and reactivate at anytime for no fee- does anyone know-taget had a deal 200 minutes with phone for 29.99

You don't pay a fee to reactivate, but you will need to purchase more minutes.

 

[BonnieMB]

Since we live in Saskatchewan we have a plan through Sasktel that allows us to phone our cell phones or any other Sasktel mobility customer free, in Canada or the U.S.. We have used our phones with no problems (have also called back to Canada again no problem).

Wow of MTS in Manitoba has the same thing that would be enough to make me switch!
Sadly my BB is with Telus and the DH is a luddite and remains cellphone-less
But having the BBMessenger with my sister (Also Canadian but with Rogers) would make things SO much easier when we are scattered across parks during some days. Anyone know if Telus has such a great deal as Sasktel?

 

[Sugar Jones]

Okay this cellphone in the U.S. business is all so confusing!!!! I have all our reservation info and intineraries saved into my phone. We were planning on using the Google Maps on our drive down if we needed to (we will print off our route, but use the phone as a just in case) I was also counting on using the phone to call ahead to a hotel when we were ready to stop for the night.
I could live without social networking for the week we are gone I guess, but I was looking forward to posting a couple of pictures on Facebook for family before we came home.

I am with Bell and was going to ad the $10.00 U.S data package to my plan before we leave. It will still cost me $1.00/MB. I don't understand the whole MB stuff, but I don't imagine I'd use that much MB just by checking out a few webistes right?????

I'm so confused

 

[M_T]

You will not use that much "MB" just checking a couple website but you will use a lot with google maps.

If you want to do a test ,, reset your devices statistics (ie Data usage) and try using it for a couple days with maps .. then check the amount of MBs used.

When I drove down last month I borrowed a GPS from a friend and it worked out great.

mt

 

[abear_hugs]

Ok so my Mom and myself have Blackberry cells with no SIM card with Telus. My mom and myself have planned to take them down to Disney World in September. We plan to use BBmessanger between the two of us when our group get separated. However I also have the Lines application from touring plans book marked on my phone. I went to the telus site. One thing says $3/MB roaming for blackberry but then another part says .10cents per page view on the web plus the $3/MB.

So my question is when I go to use the web am I going to be charged .10cents per page or just the $3/MB because I'm on a black berry.

You'd think they would figure out a way to explain it clearly like give examples. But of course they don't because then they earn more. And phoning Telus gives me a big huge headache, but I know I am not alone.

Anyways, any help would be much appreciated.

UPDATE: Used only BBM & Web on my vacation and was only charged $4 for using just over 1MB of data on my blackberry. Had no other charges. So I didn't find it to be a bad price.

 

[Fabooliss]

We were just in Michigan 2 weeks ago - walked into a walmart and phone a 30 dollar phone that comes with 300 minutes! Bought two of them and plan to leave them in the fridge from our fridge swap so that other people can hopefully benefit from them.

Figure I don't have to worry about roaming charges and we'll never use 600 minutes in 2 weeks!

Hmmm... great idea. Maybe a Cell phone swap is in order?

 

[roberthodgson]

last time we went down and used the Iphone for checking a few sites and Twitter we used around 60MB worth of data in a short time
I bought an Ipad 3G for our last trip $25.00 for a 2GB data Package from ATT