Cell phone horror

[manning]

A relative just got back from OKW. Other relatives stayed at River Bend. They ended up using the room phones to call each other. The cell calls always got dropped. My call from home to this relative on her cell was lost also.

Is the cell phone service that bad there? We are staying at BCV in May and my wife's mother has serious health problems. We depend on the cell phone in case something serious happens and we need to be contacted.

 

[rodfam]

Cell phone service can be spotty all over Disney. Don't have experience with OKW yet but often hard to make calls in the parks. My advice would be to keep checking for signal and look for voicemails.

Good Luck!!

 

[Chuck S]

I have an old OnStar phone base car system...it is analog, and had no problems with signal at OKW - I was shocked. Some of my friends had a digital phone with ATT and had problems in the room, but it worked outside on the balcony.

 

[dianeschlicht]

DH has a Nextel and it works great all over Disney. I have an ATT, and it also had great service. The only time you will see some problems is inside some of the buildings, and that is a direct result of all the metal around. That is why the phone works better outside.

 

[PamOKW]

Originally posted by Chuck S
Ifriends had a digital phone with ATT and had problems in the room, but it worked outside on the balcony.

A friend called me earlier this week from OKW (indoors) on her AT&T cell and also had a terrible time getting a clear connection.

For emergency calls, you might want to give anyone who might have to reach you the resort's phone number as a back-up. There are even instructions on how you can check your voice mail from outside the room. This would give you a reliable central message center.

 

[fixintodie]

We stayed at the BCV for a week in late January and our Alltel service was just fine. We changed over from AT&T a couple of years ago because it was almost useless at home and did not work well at WDW. A couple of messages here indicate AT&T works pretty well at WDW so that's encouraging. Good luck.

 

[jel0511]

I've always used Cingular at WDW and never had a problem. Now, that was before I got switched over to the new GSM phones so we'll see this summer how it works. I had a analog/old digital network phone before that.

 

[rocketriter]

Verizon almost never works indoors for us at WL.

 

[snowiit]

We have T Mobile and it's spotty at WDW... Esp when we were staying at the Polynesian. Very frustrating!
Anyone else with T Mobile experience? We're staying at BCV in May and wondering if I will have the same problem.

Nancy

 

[jx3smom]

Our Sprint service has been fine everytime we've been there.

 

[DennisP]

T-Mobile works in only some areas of WDW. The same holds true for OKW. In some buildings, the reception is fine. In others, there is no service unless you go out on the balcony. I had the same experience with Cingular a few years ago.

 

[John VN]

We have Alltel and have some places that are spotty but our son was still able to get to us from Afghanistan.

 

[HookdonWDW]

We've also had good luck with our Sprint phones, although I have read about others having problems. We had 3 phones with us on our last trip, and we never had any issues reaching each other.

 

[Terry S]

jel0511... I also have had Cingular for years and have never had a problem with signals there, but have now been switched to the new GSM technology and am real curious how well it is going to work. I guess I will find out in May.

 

[golfnut1264]

i have verizon and never had a problem....

 

[dianeschlicht]

DD has T-Mobile and had trouble, but, as I said, we did not have many issues with the ATT or nextel. I do know that Disney blocks cell phones in some attractions.

 

[Straughn]

DH has Nextel Worldwide and I have Verizon nationwide. We have never had a any problems outdoors in WDW. Reception inside the buildings can be spotty, but that is a problem in many locations. In both the WL and BWI, we found the best thing to do was either go out on the balcony or open the sliding door and stand just inside.

 

[Shadeaux]

We have Cingular and didn't have a problem getting a good signal at OKW out on the balcony. I never tried using my phone inside our unit. I live in an area where I have to go outside to use any cell phone, so it's just a habit to use it outside.

 

[jel0511]

TerryS, I'll be looking forward to your report on Cingular's GSM service at WDW. I have noticed around where I live, where I used to pick up an analog signal, I get VERY spotty service. It will be interesting to see how my new phone works in WDW.

 

[jmminarik]

Our trips last May and October we used Nextel's with the PTT feature. I don't recall any real issues, but that might just be because they worked so much better than the cheap walkie-talkie's my in-laws brought in dec. of '02.

Oddly enough, I have some really nasty issues with Nextel at work in center city Philadelphia. I can understand being at the bottom of a concrete canyon, but I'm on the 11th floor and can't get a reliable signal unless I'm outside near the fire escape tower.

-Joe