cell phones in the park (from out of state)

[swilphil]

We are traveling from Kansas with two families that have kids of very different ages between 1 and 11. If we bring our cell phones will we be able to communicate?

I am on Cingular, DH is on T-Mobile, and sister-in-law is on Sprint. We all have free long distance, but I'm unsure about roaming. I'm not sure what plan Brother-in-law from Baltimore has, but I know he has free long distance.

I've read there is a message center in the parks. How does this work?

 

[NEW-B]

I know the sprint one will work for sure because thats what I had. The other ones should work, but depending on what plan you have, you may get charged for roaming. Some of the Free Long Distance plans are decieving. Its free from your home area to anywhere but not anywhere to anywhere. Hope this helps.

 

[YellowXterra]

I have Verizon and the America Nation Wide plan and it worked great! Never did go into roam mode! Which means free call!

 

[Jon99]

You should be fine with Cingular as the Orlando area is part of their Preferred Nation...

 

[SuzEm]

Was just there late May/early June and have Cingular Nationwide LD - worked great from all the parks, all in Cingular territory. Since it was just my daughter and me, it was nice to call Dad back home and tell him what a great time we were having as we were having it!

 

[lisajl]

My T mobile did not work in the park. It worked from POR, though.

Lisa

 

[geffric]

Verizon works but since I do not have a nationwide plan it is very expensive.. DH has Nextel with Nationwide Network plan and his phone works in Orlando just fine without the roaming cost.

SwilPhil - what part of KCz? I used to live in Overland Park, KS

 

[clori]

I am on the t mobile family plan which has free long distance no roaming charges. I used it to call from all four parks, downtown Disney and Contemporary, Fort Wilderness and All Star Sports. It worked perfect everywhere. I did have trouble at mco though.

 

[Lovetherodent]

Dh has Verizon, I have Sprint. We found reception "comes and goes". We had a terrible time trying to find each other for Spectro because "connection was lost" and that seemed to be a pretty consistent theme. I found there were many, many places in the parks, especially MK, where I had to go analog roaming because I couldn't get Sprint. For example, couldn't get Sprint near Peco's Bill food place, but could if I walked over to Pirates of the Caribbean. It was just weird. Dh did not have this problem with Verizon.

The cells will probably work for you, just don't expect the calls to go through on the first try every time. Even if you do have to pick up some roaming charges here and there, it's still probably cheaper than buying new walkie talkies.

 

[BethC1952]

My Sprint PCS phone worked better in the Parks than it does at home!

Beth

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by swilphil
We are traveling from Kansas with two families that have kids of very different ages between 1 and 11. If we bring our cell phones will we be able to communicate?

I am on Cingular, DH is on T-Mobile, and sister-in-law is on Sprint. We all have free long distance, but I'm unsure about roaming. I'm not sure what plan Brother-in-law from Baltimore has, but I know he has free long distance.

I've read there is a message center in the parks. How does this work?

I would call the respective phone companies and ask what your plans include. Roaming charges can be outrageous.

 

[Mickeyluver37]

For those of you that don't have the nationwide plans, I would call and upgrade before I left. I know with Cingular, the difference between the two plans when I signed up was only about $5 a month. I would never NOT get a nationwide plan at that price! Even if you are under contract, they will always let you add services, just not take away.

 

[LoveMickey]

We have free long distance with Cingular, and we had calls listed as "follow me roam". These were not "extra $" charges, just minutes.

Sometimes inside of the room, it said Cingular Roam.

 

[MontanaCowgirl]

We have CellularOne out of Montana. They don't even have towers east of the Mississippi! But!!!! We do have free roaming & a National plan. We made sure we changed to that b4 my DD left for the college internship she is doing at WDW. She calls me from all over the park & even called me from Space Mountain.



Getting closer to double digits on my countdown!!! Woo hoo!!

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by Mickeyluver37
For those of you that don't have the nationwide plans, I would call and upgrade before I left. I know with Cingular, the difference between the two plans when I signed up was only about $5 a month. I would never NOT get a nationwide plan at that price! Even if you are under contract, they will always let you add services, just not take away.

Actually, they will let you change your plan anyway you want.
Add or subtract, easy to do.

 

[Linda/MA]

My daughters and I have T Mobile and it worked great in the parks. My husband, who has Verizon (which is supposed to have the best service around here) had many more problems than we experienced.

 

[FLCherylB]

My and my hubby both have Cingular with the free mobile to mobile feature. When we moved down here to Florida from Virginia, we used our phones alot to call each other since we were in different cars (He was driving the moving van and I had the 2 kids in my van with me alone).

So, I was VERY surprised when I recieved my last Cingular bill from VA with a LOT of roaming charges. Even though it doesnt say roam on the cell phone, we were charged since we were out of our area. Long distance didnt even help us because the CR said that we would have to make a LD call from our home town to be part of our free long distance.

We were also charged for the a"free" mobile to mobile to each other since we were out of our calling area also and got charged our roaming rate. Believe me, I had a nice talk with the CR about that and got the charges dropped. Nobody ever told us that about being charged. I think Free is Free mobile to mobile. No matter where you are!

Just something to think about!

Cheryl

 

[epcotfan]

I got really crappy reception in the parks and resorts. I couldn't receive any calls and had a hard time making outgoing ones. I guess it depends on your service.

 

[lovespugs]

Originally posted by geffric
SwilPhil - what part of KCz? I used to live in Overland Park, KS

I'm not SwilPhil, but I live in Overland Park! I've also had my Sprint phone with me on my last two trips and haven't had any problems with it, other than having to stand near the window at the resort for the best reception.

 

[SueM in MN]

I would call the respective phone companies and ask what your plans include. Roaming charges can be outrageous.

Folow Gail's advice. Since each plan is different (even if you have 2 people on the same phone company, they may not be on the same plan), you will find out what you can and can't do. Also, make sure you know how your phone indicates it is in a "free" network. For our phones, it either just says Verizon or "Extended Network" for the calls that are not roaming. Also watch out if you are using the phone while you walk, ten steps away may be roaming. At our hotel, if I stood on one side of the room, I was Ok, but when I crossed the room and sat down on a chair, I was roaming.

My husband, who has Verizon (which is supposed to have the best service around here) had many more problems than we experienced.

I got really crappy reception in the parks and resorts. I couldn't receive any calls and had a hard time making outgoing ones. I guess it depends on your service.

Your reception might depend on whether you have updated the software on your phone recent;ly or not. You do that by calling a special number on your cell phone and the software is automatically updated. Doing that makes sure your cell phone can access all the towers in the area. When we went in March, Dh and I used our Verizon phones. He had updated his software and I hadn't. There were pockets where I had no reception or was on roaming where he wasn't having a problem. We have the same plan, the difference was that he had updated and I hadn't.