Cell phone use at WDW

[debbiet1]

I'll have to get the name of it from friends of ours. they were the ones telling us about it.

 

[drag n' fly]

I just checked Bell online again- the info I saw before (couple of months ago at most) is gone- there was a plan for all the states or Florida only for snowbirds.

I have a calling card to call anywhere in North America- my problem won't be calling home

I wanted to be able to call others in my family and my friends who are going with us while at Disney- right in the parks while were are separated- to meet up kind of thing-

So you can buy a pay as you go for $15 - that includes the phone? We would have to buy two per family probably but not bad- how many minutes do you get? Are there trusted sites to view?

Thanks, Jen

It is still available I used it in Disneyland last week. You just have to call them if your still interested.

 

[encinc]

My cell phone is with Telus. I remember that in the past roaming fees were exhorbitant. I checked the website today, and it looks like we'd be paying 95 cents a minute in roaming charges and 50 cents per minute long distance charges. For a few quick calls while we're away, that's not bad. I wouldn't want to use it much, but at least I know it's a possibility without breaking the bank.

 

[Jedi_Galvatron]

Picking up a US version of a Virgin Mobile phone was our solution. The phone itself cost us 15.99 at a wal-mart and came with 5 dollars of calling time. I add cards to it whenever I travel to the us, and can use paypal to add time if I want. Calling back to Canada is cheap (forget how much but much cheaper then using my Canadian phone there) and gave me the opportunity to text friends that traveled with us if we got split up.

 

[dhluvsDisney]

Tracfone fan over here! We have 2 and it's a great way to communicate!

 

[PrincessNED]

just ordered 2 virgin mobile phones off their website - $40 plus taxes got us 2 free phones & $ 20 of talk/text time per phone . $0.10 per min between the phones or $0.10 per text . Should do us for the week we are there.

and free delivery to the resort. They'll be waiting for us when we arrive next weekend !

Seemed better than the paying our two cel providers ( dw's phone is work on another carrier) either roaming or the packaged programs.

 

[phillipsphamily]

I just added the 100 US minutes to our Bell cell phone for our upcoming
trip. It is $40.00 which includes your long distance and roaming. Much
cheaper than not adding the plan at all. The customer service person that
I spoke with said that you can also text while you're there which is a lot
cheaper than talking, she said that the regular texting fees apply.
We have used our cell phone in the states in the past without adding the
US plan and the roaming fees are absolutely ridiculous!
You can add it for 1 month and they will automatically remove it from your
plan the following month so you won't have to worry about forgetting to call
and being charged for it when your trip is over.

 

[wyesguy]

Texting worked for me. My wife and I are on Bell. We have unlimited texts and that is what we use.

 

[jtdl]

I would call Bell again and inquire.....I have a Solo phone and use prepaid cards....I have the roaming feature on my phone and didn't have to register a credit card.....I know I can't be billed $2.99 a minute because I check my balance after each call and it doesn't seem to go down very quickly...now I don't use my phone all the time...only when it is necessary.

Nope, as soon as I get on the bridge going into Michigan my service gets picked up by a US network and it says I am not a registered customer. My Solo service does not carry over to the US. When I was with Bell Mobility my phone worked over there, but not Solo.

I just put in an email to them asking if I can buy prepaid cards from the US carrier in order to get my phone to work. Hopefully that'll work.

 

[jtdl]

I would call Bell again and inquire.....I have a Solo phone and use prepaid cards....I have the roaming feature on my phone and didn't have to register a credit card.....I know I can't be billed $2.99 a minute because I check my balance after each call and it doesn't seem to go down very quickly...now I don't use my phone all the time...only when it is necessary.

This is the email I received back from Solo customer service:

"In response to your question, in order to use your prepaid phone in the
USA, you absolutely need your credit card and a top up method in the
account since no prepaid card compatible with Solo are sold down there.
You will also need to leave the credit card in your account for at least
90 days after you came back from your trip.

When you use your phone in the USA, you can be charged up to $3/min for
your calls and web browser, your text messages remains free as long as
you send anywhere in North America."

 

[who's ur daddy?]

just ordered 2 virgin mobile phones off their website - $40 plus taxes got us 2 free phones & $ 20 of talk/text time per phone . $0.10 per min between the phones or $0.10 per text . Should do us for the week we are there.

and free delivery to the resort. They'll be waiting for us when we arrive next weekend !

Seemed better than the paying our two cel providers ( dw's phone is work on another carrier) either roaming or the packaged programs.

Great deal!

We did not know about this and bought a WalMart AT&T prepaid phone (trusted the name for some reason) for $18 plus taxes with a $10 credit. So net cost would have be 8 bucks. Local calls were $0.10 per minute and I think it was $0.50 to Canada. The phone is garbage, but what can you expect for 8 bucks? LOL.

 

[myasmum]

I bought a Tracfone for $14.99 once we got to the US. Bought prepaid cards and used it as needed. After the first week, I set up automatic payments via my Paypal account. The phone doesn't work here in Canada, but it was still a lot cheaper than using my Canadian phone in the US.

We bought the same phone from Wal*Mart when we got into the US even though it doesnt work here in Canada its good as hope whenever we go back to the US we can just buy another card or something but yeah alot cheaper and I got to call Canada as wel when I needed it

 

[dans0202]

PrincessNED
I spent some time on the Virgin Mobile site and I see the 10/20 plan which is the plan I think you are referring to.
Which phones did you purchase? or was there a different deal you purchased under?
I assume after the 90 days the phone goes dead and you just pay to reactivate it the next time you are in the US?
Thanks
Dan

 

[PrincessNED]

PrincessNED
I spent some time on the Virgin Mobile site and I see the 10/20 plan which is the plan I think you are referring to.
Which phones did you purchase? or was there a different deal you purchased under?
I assume after the 90 days the phone goes dead and you just pay to reactivate it the next time you are in the US?
Thanks
Dan

yes Dan the 10/20 plan is the one we are using. got two of the phones that were offered "free" with $20 of time each. Sorry, can't remember which model - speaker phone model I think .

All our calls will be between the two phones while we are in the parks so that should be 200 mins on each phone. PLenty for our use and much better than the $ 2.50 a min per phone our Cdn phone companies would each charge . I also saw the 90 day aspect but I'm just presuming you could reactivate with a fee/ more minutes etc. Not a big concern for us as we are not in the States too much. Shipping was free - And according to Fedex they were delivered yesterday to the resort and awaiting our arrival.

regards,

 

[beachwarmer]

just ordered 2 virgin mobile phones off their website - $40 plus taxes got us 2 free phones & $ 20 of talk/text time per phone . $0.10 per min between the phones or $0.10 per text . Should do us for the week we are there.

and free delivery to the resort. They'll be waiting for us when we arrive next weekend !

Seemed better than the paying our two cel providers ( dw's phone is work on another carrier) either roaming or the packaged programs.

I thought this was a great idea. I just tried to order two phones to have shipped to my resort but I could not do it with a credit card with a non US billing address. I called Virgin Mobile and they said I needed to do it with a retail store location. Can you tell me how you did it?

My back up plan is to go to the Virgin Mega Store at Downtown Disney to get one without a US billing address credit card.

Thanks for the great idea! Have a great trip.

 

[PrincessNED]

I thought this was a great idea. I just tried to order two phones to have shipped to my resort but I could not do it with a credit card with a non US billing address. I called Virgin Mobile and they said I needed to do it with a retail store location. Can you tell me how you did it?

My back up plan is to go to the Virgin Mega Store at Downtown Disney to get one without a US billing address credit card.

Thanks for the great idea! Have a great trip.

Sorry I forgot to mention- I used my Paypal account to make the payment and used the resort we are staying at for the address - seemed to work fine that way cause they took my $ and the phones are at the resort.

 

[beachwarmer]

Sorry I forgot to mention- I used my Paypal account to make the payment and used the resort we are staying at for the address - seemed to work fine that way cause they took my $ and the phones are at the resort.

Thanks. I don't have paypal and since we leave on Monday I will have to stick with getting the phones when I get there.

 

[Northstar]

Just a slightly off-topic warning for those of you who are planning to roam with your Canadian phone... I found that my phone needed charging every other day! Someone told me this was because my phone kept looking for a signal instead of quietly humming along minding its own business like usual. I don't know if that's true, but I know the phone was eating battery charge.

Anybody else find this?

 

[goldwest]

We just received 2 phones from Virginmobileusa.com for 9.99 each which includes $10.00 phone credit and they charge 10 cents a minute no long distance no roaming. You need pay pal. We shipped to an american address - not sure if that is necessary. Thought some of you might be interested.

 

[mjf]

Great deal!

We did not know about this and bought a WalMart AT&T prepaid phone (trusted the name for some reason) for $18 plus taxes with a $10 credit. So net cost would have be 8 bucks. Local calls were $0.10 per minute and I think it was $0.50 to Canada. The phone is garbage, but what can you expect for 8 bucks? LOL.

We just got back from 10 days at WDW. Thanks to the info in this thread, we also bought a pair of the AT&T phones for $20 each which included $10 of airtime.

The phones worked out great. They cost $1 per day of use and all local calls made between the phones (or all AT&T customers I think) are free! So the $10 of airtime was all we needed for our entire trip.

We had been planning to use 2-way radios but this was much better.

MJF