Cell phone service

[katerkat]

My sisters both called me from inside the Haunted Mansion: Sprint and Verizon.

 

[helenabear]

I have Sprint and did fairly well with my 2 year old phone that had a missing antenna. I have a newer phone and do much better now here so I bet I will do even better at WDW at the end of the month. I know I had a weaker signal in my room and when I was having dinner at Marrakesh I had no signal, but then again the people I was with didn't either (and we all had different providers). Sometimes a different phone can make a big difference in whether or not you will receive a signal.

 

[jgates]

US Cellular was fine 95% of the places in Disney & Universal.

I will pass on the following info directly from USCellular though that should apply to any plan. IF you want to be able to leave someone a message on their voicemail, you will probably want to turn your phone off and on every couple of hours. The problem is that there are SO many cell phones being used in this heavy tourist area and only so many 'lines' or 'connections'. If your phone is not active for a period of time, such as a couple of hours, it will actually drop your connectivity in its system until you power off and on (when it looks for a tower again) or until you initiate a call (again your phone is signalling to their towers). If my DS forgot to power off & on his phone while on the course, I couldn't leave him a voice mail because it just 'couldn't find' him. If he powered off & on there at some point so it had him active I was able to reach him.

 

[soccer mom]

Cingular worked well. My teenage son was on it everynight talking to his girlfriend back here in Michigan. Yikes!

 

[TiggerInNY]

Has anyone used Nextel in WDW? I've read every other phone service except Nextel. My DH has one from work and I have my own. We were going to bring them instead of 2-way radios.

Anyone out there with Nextel's???

TTFN,
Maria

 

[pintrader]

I have a Sprint PCS. Sprint has blamed my phone instrument 4 times now. After changing phones all four times, reception is no better. I live directly behind the castle at Magic Kingdom and I cannot receive or make a call. All I get is the notification that I missed a call! (Go figure!) On property it works 50-65% of the time, NEVER in resorts or attractions. Just walking and NEVER in Animal Kingdom.

DH has Nextel and he gets 95% of his calls, only occassionally does he get notification that he has recceived voice mail without having gotten the call to ring first.

 

[DVC-Don]

We have two phones with Cingular service. Sometimes we have to step outside a building, but otherwise the service was fine. Maybe it was their phones, not the service. I always read the reviews on different phones before chosing one.

 

[marty3d]

Maybe it was their phones, not the service

That's an important point. Sometimes you'll get lousy reception with one phone and perfect reception with another. It's not always the service that's to blame.

 

[jenelope]

I got great reception with my T-Mobile phone. The most inconsistent service seemed to be at Fort Wilderness. I had no service at the front bus stop or front desk (although some service on its porch), minimum service in various spots of our lot, good service in the motorhome, and great service at the Campfire Program. That last one got me "in trouble" with the song leader, but got my SIL a huge "Howdy, Suzanne!" from the entire crowd.

 

[mitros]

Our son and his girlfriend were down here in april, and when we were on the malestrom ride in norway, he called my brother back in n.j.on his cell phone so he could here the trolls telling us to go back over the falls! He loves that ride. Our sons service was called t. mobile, until it was recentley changed to voicestream. My brother said he heard the trolls clear as a bell.

 

[SoonerKate]

I never had any problems with Cingular, except ones that were caused by my phone. I got great reception all over Florida -- no problems in Gainesville, Tampa or Miami.