cell phones were a bust!

[PatriciaH]

As I understand it, Disney does not allow cell phone towers on property so at some points you are pretty far away from a tower.

There is an awful one right next to the Grand Floridian. They tried to make it look like a tree but it still sticks out like a sore thumb. There is also one right next to AK (same silly green leaves on it to make it look tree like.) My least favorite is right in back of the castle though. It is SO ugly. You really notice it from the Contemporary and they did not even try to hide that one. They are popping up all around property and I for one hate the way they look.

 

[chyam]

Well don't get us started on Cingular. We took our Cell phones on our first trip in April of 2004 and was promised that we could talk and all this. Yes we could talk, but we were roaming. Even though no sign of roaming. So we ditched Cingular and the bill that came with it. (we paid it). We have Sprint now and took our phones with Sprint in Dec of 04. They worked great. No problemos with the cell phone. We also tried the radio thing in April of 04. Too many people on the channels. Cell phones work awsome...

I'll get started with you it cost me over $200.00 to ditch Cingular and go back with Sprint..........Their bars were never in my places! Never again. I couldn't make a call if my life depended on it, either in Disney or home here in Tampa! They tried to tell me it was the phone, had it replaced and still nothing!

 

[Keebles]

Hmmm..this has been an interesting thread...we have Cingular and Nationwide and never had problems with either reception or roaming. Cingular gives the best coverage of all the other companies around our area and we've always been happy with them. Last time we went we had Nokia phones and this time 'round we've got LG's...I am curious to see if this makes a difference.

Thanks for the heads up guys!

 

[tomerin]

we have 4 phones on the family plan with verizon and this past trip from july3rd to july 13th we never ever had any issues anywhere on disney property. in fact i even recieved a call just as i was getting close to riding in SM

 

[drakethib]

When we were there on our 10 day july 4 trip, we really had trouble with our cells. We have cingular service.
The boys went off by themselves, and at least half the time, they couldn't reach us or we them. It was so frustrating! My sister also had cingular, and we couldn't get her most of the time.

Luckily, we had prearranged meeting times, and everyone had copies of the daily plan, so we always met up. I couldn't believe how bad our phones were.

I hadn't noticed anyone else having trouble, but if you plan on staying in touch with cells, you may want to have back up meeting places.

It may have been the high volume being a holiday week.

We have used Sprint for the last 5 years @ Disneyworld & DisneyLand and they worked great at both places.

 

[D L and K's Mom]

We were there July1-14 and we have Verizon and the phones didnt work. We would try to call and a day and a half later it would send a message stating that we had missed a call........text would not go through either....it was a bummer as we thought we could use the phones in the parks.

 

[dreamalittledream]

I have had Verizon for years and love the service. We used them on our 2 recent trips with no problems. I also have a nationwide plan
Could it be the phone equipment itself? tri mode or whatever they call it.
I had a new phone this year, complete with my Disney ringtones! and it was great. DH had a 6 month old phone and his was fine also.
How about battery strength/charge? Might that also be a factor?

 

[pwcarlson]

It maybe your phone if you are getting coverage on and off. Both DD and I have T-Mobile. She has a sidekick and I have a plain phone, nothing special. She has much better coverage than I do. We just returned from a trip out west to visit family that lives by the Grand Tetons. She had better coverage in the mountains than I did. She enjoyed checking my phone and chuckling when I did not have anything and she was at full power. My parents have Sprint and a very old phone and they did not have anything from South Dakota West. So don't always blame it automatically on the coverage, you may need to update the phone.

Oh by the way, I have great coverage in Florida and WDW with T-Mobile.

 

[DebbieB]

Can there be a difference with types of phones? I remember when I talked to Cingular (former AT&T customer), they said the phone I had didn't have as much coverage because it was digital instead of GSM. I upgraded to a new phone and used it this past week in Minneapolis/St Paul with no problem. It did take about 30 seconds to find a signal at the Pittsburgh airport.

 

[gr8ful4Him]

We have Cingular and didn't have any problems in the parks, with the exception of the entrance to Soarin'...something about being underground, etc. We have nationwide, no roaming, etc, so so problem there. We were in MK, Epcot and MGM and they really came in handy. I even recieved a very important call right before entering the TOT...I am soooo very thankful we didn't have phone issues while we were there!

 

[disney1990]

Wow! We've never had a problem using our phones, though we have Verizon. I wonder if it might be a carrier problem?

We too have Verizon wireless and they work great at Disney World!

 

[disgal1]

to update...we all upgraded to the motrola flip phones...like i said, sometimes they worked,most times they didn;t, you just could not depend on it.

 

[Memph1s]

Can you hear me now? Good!

Verizon works for us

 

[Okiemom]

The plan you have signed up for is the reason for roaming charges. We have Cingular and just swith plans to the no roaming, no long distance, etc.... It is a great plan. We have up graded all phones to GSM, but even with Cingular we would travel, and my daughters phone would get service when sometimes mine would not in an area, so I am guessing it was my phone. She had a newer phone, so it might have just been your phones.

 

[lexpoo]

I have a new Motorola flip phone with GSM and my plan has no roaming, no long distance, etc. My Cingular service was practically useless when I was at WDW in June. Fortunately, my travel companion had Verizon, so I used her phone most of the time.

 

[mavanilly]

Has anyone had success using Qwest service at WDW?

 

[mom23boys]

We too have Verizon wireless and they work great at Disney World!

Ditto here, we have Verizon and have never had a problem.

 

[taximomfor4]

Cingular isn't as big a cell phone company as Verizon and Sprit so they have less coverage. next time go to a Cingular store near you and ask them for a map of the country and it will show you where you should and shouldn't get service. if it says you could get service in Orlando then i'd say something to them about it. being busy in the parks wouldn't have anything to do with no reception. if anything you would just keep getting busy signals if all of the networks were busy at the time with phone calls.

In my neighborhood, oen of the few companies that DOES get reception is Cingular/AT&T (merged). In fact most other companies lease their towers around here. I have the cheapest Cingular package, but it comes with National Coverage which includes WDW. Ddn't know they had packages out there without that!

Beth

 

[swilphil]

We had no problems with Cingular right before Easter this year and the parks were very crowded. We also had no problem in July 2004. How old are your phones?