buying Cell phone at airport or WDW?

[zazou]

We are Canadian and our prepaid phone won't work in the USA. Any of you know if we can buy cheap prepaid cell phones directly at WDW or at the airport? We will use ME and we don't want to pay much since we won't need it after a week.
Do you remember the price?
thanks!

 

[tzolkin]

i don't know what they sell at the airport or disney, so no help there but...

i would suggest that you get a NET10 phone. it is honestly the cheapest prepaid and there are no fees, etc. some of the other ones charge you like $1 per call and then Xcents a minute. the basic phone costs about $20 and 300 minutes/2 mos of service is $30. (sometimes the phones come with free minutes, so it could be as little as $20 total) my DH has one of the nicer flip-phone ones that he uses when he is on call for work. we are going to buy another one for our disney trip in case we want to split up. they sell these at walmart, target, etc. maybe someone else knows if they have seen them at the airport/resorts/parks.

 

[Kies99]

I don't know if you can get them at the Airport or at WDW, but if you can make it to a Wal-Mart, go with phone and service:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8112810

My wife has it and it works wonderfully. Virgin Mobile's Pay-as-you-Go service is $0.20 a minute all the time ($0.10 a minute to another Virgin phone). This includes calls anywhere in the USA (calls to Canada would be an additional $.15 on top of that). You can pick up the phone cheap and then a $20 phone card and that should cover you.

Virgin Mobile uses the Sprint network which is quite extensive. Never had any problem using Virgin at WDW.

 

[Wit]

There is a gas station near DTD that should have some net10 or similar phones and phone cards.

A cab ride to Walmart would be my guess at the best way though.....take a ride on check in day, as not to take valuable park time up.

 

[waterm]

we have a trac fone-I know you can get cheap phones for about $20 plus a phone card. http://tracfone.com/. You should be able to load minutes by phone or on a computer if one is availabe at a hotel. Like the others said-you can get it at Walmart or Target etc.

 

[zazou]

thanks everyone!
Is there a Walmart near? since I don't want to pay a fortune going by taxi.

 

[kat3668]

Why dont you buy one online and ship it to your resort?

 

[CanadianGuy]

There's a whole thread over on the Canadian board about this very topic with lots of ideas..

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1648835

 

[dancin Disney style]

We are Canadian and our prepaid phone won't work in the USA. Any of you know if we can buy cheap prepaid cell phones directly at WDW or at the airport? We will use ME and we don't want to pay much since we won't need it after a week.
Do you remember the price?
thanks!

I, also, am a pre-paid user and my phone does not work in the USA.

I bought a Tracfone at Wal-mart in Niagara Falls last year about a month before we drove to the world. We wanted to have a phone in case of emergency while on the road.

The phone cost me $14.95 and the cards start at $10 and go up from there. With Tracfone you can get on-line codes that will give you free minutes or extend the expiry date. You have to activate the phone on-line so take that into consideration.

Have you thought about a pair of GMRS walkie talkies? You can get them with a 40KM range and rechargeable battery.

 

[Disneykidz]

we have a trac fone-I know you can get cheap phones for about $20 plus a phone card. http://tracfone.com/. You should be able to load minutes by phone or on a computer if one is availabe at a hotel. Like the others said-you can get it at Walmart or Target etc.

Order a tracfone on line and have them deliver it to your wdw resort. Put "hold for guest arrival" in the extra address line. I think they are still running a valentine's special with a phone and two 60 minute cards for $20.

 

[Disneykidz]

You have to activate the phone on-line so take that into consideration.

You can activate by calling their 800 number. Use a payphone at wdw so the call will be free.

 

[zazou]

thank you so much! I will do this! But are you sure that we can ship to the hotel? I will be at Pop.

thanks,

Isa

 

[Disneykidz]

They are going to ship it within a few days of when you order it, so order it about 8-10 days before you're going to arrive. I've heard lots of people say they ship packages to themselves (snacks, diapers, etc.) and I am confident that Pop will hold it for you. I'm thinking of ordering a case of water from Staples myself.

See if you can somehow work your confirmation # into the address, and the "Hold for Guest" bit, too. You'll have to look up the resort's street address.

One tip about tracfone, you can activate the phone without adding the minutes card. It will give you starter minutes. It's 20 when you do it on the web, but I'm not sure--it might only be 10 when you do it on the phone. Anyway, it also comes with 60 days airtime. If you add your phone card separately later (even if it's 10 minutes later), you'll get an additional 90 days airtime in addition to the added minutes. And FatWallet.com has a great thread with bonus codes for additional minutes when redeeming an airtime card.

I've used my tracfone when over the border in Canada, but I wasn't far over the line. You might still be able to use it when you get home.