Cell phone roaming charges while at Disney

[JoEllen]

Our Verizon calling plan has limited roaming (just in the Northwest states). I called their customer service today and was advised roaming charges while in Florida next month would be 69 cents/minute.

I'm thinking about changing my calling plan just for May to allow free roaming anywhere. This has a higher base rate but they say I can change it back to my old calling plan if I do so within a 30 day time window.

It would certainly be more convenient for the family members to have their cell phones when we split up and need to communicate. Especially for the teenagers who like to have their freedom. Has anyone had this situation come up?

 

[Lewisc]

Verizon dropped most of those regional plans. BE SURE they agree theyll let you go back, if it matters.

 

[SueOKW]

I agree with the above - sometimes the old plan no longer exists - and then you are stuck... "the computer won't allow me to add an obsolete plan" etc... and sometimes the new plans are better anyway....

To answer your q - - we rely on our phones - it's given us so much freedom.. the other day while in France - exhausted, not wanting to fight the crowds to get to the bus - I called DH who was at OKW... He picked us up at Boardwalk. We could not have done that without the phones.

 

[kathleena]

I had problems with "going back to the old plan" when I did this - big problems. It was AT&T, but I felt I was seriously mislead. I did get everything back by writing some very direct letters to my rep and others, but it was not easy and I will never do it again.

I pay the roaming charges each disney trip and this last time it amounted to $30. And it was only that high because I had to call home so many times to deal with the big snowstorm issues going on up in Maine.

If you just control your time on the phone, you should be OK. We also bring a minimal phone card with us to use while in the room, rather than the cell phone.

 

[JoEllen]

I'm so glad I asked! I had a bad feeling about their suggestion to "temporarily" switch plans. We have a really low cost plan now and I won't take a chance of losing it. Better to pay more one month for roaming.

thank-you!

 

[JimMIA]

I would heartily recommend Cingular Wireless. Their plans will vary depending on your home market, but they have a Family Plan which allows you to add additional phones and share minutes @ $9.95 per month per additional phone. The added phones have whatever service the base phone has.

Because I travel a lot, I have nationwide roaming, which includes nationwide free long distance. We have an 850 minute per month plan, with rollover minutes, and we are not charged for calls between our phones and any other Cingular customer (which usually saves us 100-150 minutes a month). Including all taxes, we pay just under $80 per month total.

As I said, that's a nationwide plan because of my needs, but they have a number of less-expensive plans, as well as more robust plans. They also have great phone deals - you can get a great phone for $1, or you can go crazy for more.

And I have never had any issue at all in switching from one plan to another with Cingular - their customer service has always been excellent, which is why I've been with them from the old Bell South days.

We currently have over 3,000 rollover minutes, so I wish we could "rent points" with Cingular like we can with DVC!

 

[keishashadow]

We started out with AT&T years ago and got gobbled up by Cingular earlier this year.

We switched to the Roll-over, national long distance, roaming, etc. We did have to buy new phones, but with rebates 2 camera phones cost us less than $50. They waived the activitation fees, all in all a pretty good deal.

In February we called home every day to check on my elderly mother and my 2 older sons. I was worried that we'd run through our minutes, but didn't, We now have quite a stock pile in just a few months time. It's nice to not worry about roaming charges. I've actually cancelled the long distance package I had on our land line, a small savings.

 

[nowellsl]

I just switched my verizon plan, I lost 100 anytime minutes (it's now 500) but gained unlimited mobile to mobile minutes (had 1,000 before), free national long distance (was in-state only), and no roaming charges for the same price. We never used over 200 of our anytime minutes because most of our family and friends use verizon. I also added a line for my father for $9.99 a month. All together the bill is $80.00 a month (plus taxes, etc.) for 3 phones.

 

[CharlesTD]

JoEllen be thanksfull it is only 69 cents a minute ours is 95 cents a minute. A 15 minute call home to my mothers place last year cost me 45 dollars.

 

[JimC]

Like JimMIA we also have a national family plan. Ours is with Verizon. We like Cingular better -- can keep the unused minutes -- but Verizon has much better reception in our area. Our daughters have Cingular national plans (one at Wake and the other in North Miami) and like the plans but complain about reception around our area when they are home.

As others have said, plans change frequently and they permit you to stay with whatever plan you are on. But if you change the old plan may not be available beyond a short window of usually 30 days.

 

[cdy16zz]

We have Verizonwireless.
We were unaware of the problem and used our cell phones to talk to our children while in different parks. To make plans on meeting them for several different dinners, shows etc.

Be careful to get these roaming charges straightened out.
We had roaming charges to the tune of $80.00!!!

Good Luck!!

 

[Cobra B.]

Being a Verizon Wireless CM, I can tell you the new plans won't cause the roaming charges at Big D. But I will also warn you, you will not be able to go back if and when you change. If you break down all the In Network minutes and Unlimited Nights and Weekends you really should be better off anyway.