2 way radios/walkie talkies...?

[Esmerelda]

Can these still be rented down at Disney? I can't seem to find any info on them...

thanks for all help!
Esmerelda

 

[pigby]

I don't know about renting, but when we were there in July last year, they had Mickey Mouse radios for about $50.

We just bought some from our local store yesterday to use on our October trip - anyone know how effective these are in WDW - I wonder if, in the parks, there will be too many people on the same frequencies and they will not be of much use?

 

[rapriebe]

Hey pigby,

We just purchased 2-way radios last week also. We will be there in October and I hope I haven't wasted my money on these. Has anyone used these with success and if so, what was the mileage range rating. They sell them for 1 mile up to 8 mile and wasn't sure which one to get. Any ideas/experiences??

 

[Tinkerbell04]

We have used them in the past and on occassion have encountered other people's conversations. We only used them when we were all in the same park, so I am not sure about the really long range ones. The past few trip though, we have just used our Nextel's. Most people in our travel party had them, and they worked out great!

 

[DISNEYDADINOREGON]

We have used them the last couple trips and have enough for each person. They are good for kids if they stray away or get lost. Never had a issue with frequences. They are good for 1 park only. We had Motorola 2 mile range. Newer ones are 8 miles now. This time we have Sprint phones with free PSC to PSC calling so I think we will go this way. These radios really suck down batteries. Our are not rechargable. It's is nice to know you have this as a back up if someone gets lost though. Especially in situations with large crowds like Epcot stores, parts of MK...

 

[rinkwide]

I switched us to cell phones with free mobile to mobile calling.

We tried GMRS 2 watt radios but had many problems including: shorter than advertised range limits, building interferance, crowded channels, dead batteries, poor sound quality, bulky units and akward PTT conversations.

With all these problems we ended up needing our phones half the time anyway so I sold the radios on eBay.

 

[dave21]

we have cobras with about a 2 mile range. the key to it is to get the ones with sub-channels. this gives you a lot more versitality with less chance of getting "walked on" by other people. they are really only good for within one park, and they do suck down batteries. we also have the disney walkie-talkies, but didn't use them our last trip.
our last trip we had cingular cell phones. we read that they were one of the only ones that really worked well in the parks (at least at that time). they did work, but a lot of the time we found we were in "extended" range, which meant long-distance charges.

 

[dpuck1998]

I've used these once and then threw them away. There are people messing around, swearing etc on every channel. I think they are worthless since cell phones seem to work well in the park. I suppose for emergency they might come in handy but otherwise when I tried using them the channels were packed with annoying teenagers.

 

[DB Washington]

We've used walkie talkies in the past. Our two biggest problems was finding a station no one else was using (trying to coordinate that across a park is difficult) and interference with buildings. The interference problem is pretty much what killed it for us. We had some pretty nice walkie talkies, too.

We go for the cell phone option. We use Sprint, free long distance so it's no big deal, just have to watch those daytime minutes.

 

[7thdwarf/dopey]

I agree with Dave....the sub-channels are the most efficient. You can go one step further and scramble the signal.

Or study for your no-code ham radio license and become an Amateur Radio Operator (a ham) and use the WDW repeater (its located in the MK castle) for your communication needs. Wont matter where you are then, you'll be heard. You can by a good , but inexpensive hand held radio for about $80 a piece.