Using Canadian Cellphone in the parks?

[KNovacovschi]

I’m with Bell and have a premium plan that is between US and Canada. I prefer that to using Disney’s wifi. Yes it can be good but sometimes not so much and now with Rise of the Resistance it’s best not to use Disney’s wifi.

 

[CanadianEmily]

Last trip to Orlando I bought a roaming sim off of Amazon. It cost $24 and had unlimited data for the entire trip (plus unlimited calls and text, but you have a new/different phone number as it's a different SIM card). It worked great.

My husband was smart enough to do this for us too. Not sure if he got them from Amazon or where, but it worked perfectly. I keep wondering if it's why I was able to get the very first boarding group for RotR on both of our HS days. It was definitely worth the money and way cheaper than adding a temporary US data plan.

 

[pangyal]

We are with Telus and always just change our plan to the US-Canada unlimited plan before each trip- it’s a difference of only $20 and covers the entire trip without having to change phone numbers. We did the SIM card thing too for a while before this option became available, but this is far more economical and convenient. I think that all of the major carriers offer this option for about the same price. One caveat: I don’t think you can change plans back and forth if you are on any kind of contract with your carrier.

 

[Marek Zyskowski]

You can get a plan. They are worth it.

 

[HappyDisneyMama]

Hey guys,

with so many things at Disney going digital with the My Disney Experience App seemingly used for everything, do you just use the in park wifi (are there roaming charges for that?) or do you add a US data plan to your phone for the trip?

I know this is an old post, but we just returned from 7 days (!) at the Disneyland parks. Between using our phones to text and call each other, browse the web and use the Disneyland and Play Disney apps (extensively on Galaxy’s Edge), the most data any of us used was 2 GB.

For us, it was a choice of $12 per day to use our regular home data allotment, $60 to get 1 GB of data, or $100 to get 3 GB. We chose the daily rate, which was a good choice in retrospect.

 

[DisneyMama811]

I know this is an old post, but we just returned from 7 days (!) at the Disneyland parks. Between using our phones to text and call each other, browse the web and use the Disneyland and Play Disney apps (extensively on Galaxy’s Edge), the most data any of us used was 2 GB.

For us, it was a choice of $12 per day to use our regular home data allotment, $60 to get 1 GB of data, or $100 to get 3 GB. We chose the daily rate, which was a good choice in retrospect.

thank you! we didn't end up going when I posted originally, too many uncertainties with the pandemic, we have our trip scheduled for Jan 2023 and we're so excited, appreciate your feedback!

 

[Frozen2014]

We purchased sim cards that worked for long distance (if that makes sense). DH's worked for a month. Mine only gave 7 days, so I didn't start it until our first park day. It worked well and didn't have to worry about weak wifi (as our kids were on wifi and didn't always have a signal).

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

A little off topic, but will it cost us to text each other? I know sending an international text is like $0.75, but since it's Cdn to Cdn carrier, will we get charged? Some of us have iPhone and some Android, so iMessage is out.

 

[HappyDisneyMama]

We purchased sim cards that worked for long distance (if that makes sense). DH's worked for a month. Mine only gave 7 days, so I didn't start it until our first park day. It worked well and didn't have to worry about weak wifi (as our kids were on wifi and didn't always have a signal).

If you are talking about using an American sim card, we decided not to go that way as we did not want to worry about changing phone numbers while we were away.

A little off topic, but will it cost us to text each other? I know sending an international text is like $0.75, but since it's Cdn to Cdn carrier, will we get charged? Some of us have iPhone and some Android, so iMessage is out.

I think you will have to check your carrier's specific plans. For us, our "roam as you go" plan included texting between our phones, as well as to/from US numbers.

 

[Frozen2014]

If you are talking about using an American sim card, we decided not to go that way as we did not want to worry about changing phone numbers while we were away.



I think you will have to check your carrier's specific plans. For us, our "roam as you go" plan included texting between our phones, as well as to/from US numbers.

I don't believe it affected our number. If I'm not mistaken, DH has 2 slots in his phone and for mine, he swapped? I could be out to lunch though as he deals with that as I don't know much about how that all works. I can ask him though if you want more details.

 

[U2FanHfx]

Hey guys,

with so many things at Disney going digital with the My Disney Experience App seemingly used for everything, do you just use the in park wifi (are there roaming charges for that?) or do you add a US data plan to your phone for the trip?

I add a plan. Used to love Roam Mobile but they were hit hard by COVID and closed. I use know roaming now. Data only but we both have iPhones so it works.

 

[isabellea]

Airalo e-SIM for data really worked great on our phones (iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro. We went to Boston and mostly had T-mobile 5G (AT&T was LTE) except in remote areas of VT an NH. We are both with Telus and for what they charge for 1 day of roaming you can have 30 days/3G of data with Airalo.

 

[deedubb]

For those of you who have used Airalo, I assume you cannot text? I use texting a fair bit at the parks, both to communicate with others in my party (I suppose I could use something like whatsapp instead), as well as for Disney notifications (room ready update, table ready for dining, etc).

 

[TweedleDum]

We used Mint Mobile this year. Its a different phone number than our Canadian one but it worked everywhere for call, text and data. We were even able to hotspot our phones to the plan (some don't allow this). We are close to the border so we were able to pickup the physical SIM.... I dont think they mail them though. Had to do physical as we used an older phone and it doesnt support eSIM

I just noticed they are having a Black Friday sale too
https://www.mintmobile.com/plans/

 

[nutsosmom]

Does anyone know if it's possible to change the phone number on our DL Dining reservations? DH has a company phone so I booked everything with my phone # assuming I would buy a plan for our trip. Turns out, his company has a US package so now we can use his phone for free. Hoping to change everything to his phone #.