Disney on facebook...

[leebee]

I was checking my FB page and what article did I come across? A posting by Disney entitled "5 tips for keeping your phone charged while in the parks!" I find it funny… ironic… sad that Disney is now encouraging us to spend our time on our phones instead of with our kids while in their parks! Gotta keep up with FP+, ADRs, MDE, wait times, etc. Grrrrrr...

 

[gericoronado]

I was checking my FB page and what article did I come across? A posting by Disney entitled "5 tips for keeping your phone charged while in the parks!" I find it funny… ironic… sad that Disney is now encouraging us to spend our time on our phones instead of with our kids while in their parks! Gotta keep up with FP+, ADRs, MDE, wait times, etc. Grrrrrr...

Not everyone keeps their phones charged in order to "keep up" with internet access apps. I plan to keep my phone charged while at Disney in order to receive phone calls. My phone is old and does not keep a charge well...so I'm glad that Disney will enable me to charge my old "non-Smart" if necessary!

 

[btk2333]

Not everyone keeps their phones charged in order to "keep up" with internet access apps. I plan to keep my phone charged while at Disney in order to receive phone calls. My phone is old and does not keep a charge well...so I'm glad that Disney will enable me to charge my old "non-Smart" if necessary!

Yeah I don't think this is a bad thing- what if we want to split up and take one kid on one ride and another on a different ride- DW and I need our phones charged to meet up after! I'm happy WDW is embracing technology

 

[Kellykins1218]

I was checking my FB page and what article did I come across? A posting by Disney entitled "5 tips for keeping your phone charged while in the parks!" I find it funny… ironic… sad that Disney is now encouraging us to spend our time on our phones instead of with our kids while in their parks! Gotta keep up with FP+, ADRs, MDE, wait times, etc. Grrrrrr...

I don't know how you came up with that. We don't take a camera & use our phones for all of our picture taking at DW. I think it's great that they are giving helpful hints and I LOVE the charging lockers.

 

[sethschroeder]

1.) Camera Phones are better than a lot of people phones
2.) Upload pictures and check-in on social media to different rides (for after trip reminders of, "Oh remember when we were at TOT last year at this time!")
3.) Keeping track of kids / family members (iPhone has a find friends app where you could see where your kids are at up to the min all day while in parks if you split up)
4.) Phone calls to other family/friends in parks when you split up during the day
5.) Moving around a FP+ time if you want (takes 30 seconds on LTE, where with FP- you would have missed that 12PM time for Space Mountain all together)
6.) Reserving dinner ADR on your phone (takes 30 seconds to 1 min.)
7.) Checking plans for the remainder of day for reservations
8.) Checking your bank account to know you can purchase that $100 limited edition pin set
9.) Checking in on DISboards to verify some information that you forgot where the best fireworks viewing spot is
10.) Checking Kenny the Pirates page as your wife wants to see the dog from UP and you had no idea he was even in AK until you saw him walk down the street!

There is 10 reasons that are 100% acceptable to have your phone charge and not be "taking away" from any time with family/friends while in the park. If nothing else they actually add or help with your park day.

 

[kaybird]

I was checking my FB page and what article did I come across? A posting by Disney entitled "5 tips for keeping your phone charged while in the parks!" I find it funny… ironic… sad that Disney is now encouraging us to spend our time on our phones instead of with our kids while in their parks! Gotta keep up with FP+, ADRs, MDE, wait times, etc. Grrrrrr...

I think maybe an over-reaction as well. People complained about cell battery life long before FP+. Thought it was a helpful article.

 

[bumbershoot]

Gotta keep up with FP+, ADRs, MDE, wait times, etc. Grrrrrr...

Alternatively....

FP+: You either make the family trek over to wherever to get FPs for later on OR you split up. Time away from what the family wants to be doing OR away from the family.

ADRs: You take time away from the family while planning to make your folder or spreadsheet or notebook or scrap of paper, then take time away to keep checking your watch and your whatever to see when it's time to head over. Vs having an alarm set or something.

MDE: You take time away from family while planning to write out your whole trip, reservation numbers, etc, into the planning option of your choice (for me it's a passporter) and then try to remember to take that with you and then check on it... Or you just wing it, and if you're a newbie to Disney, winging it and having a great time is reliant on the whole family being AMAZINGLY easygoing, the awesome day gods smiling down on you making every decision you make lucky, or...someone has secretly created an itinerary and is checking it on the sly.


All those things take time or enjoyment from the family. It's a kneejerk reaction to see someone with their phone out and think "oh they are ignoring their family!" They could be communicating WITH their family or planning something out FOR their family or all sorts of things that simply require a bit of attention be paid in this direction so lots more enjoyable time can be spent with all the people around them.

 

[BuzzinDownToDisney]

9.) Checking in on DISboards to verify some information that you forgot where the best fireworks viewing spot is

LMAO

You mean opening the app to get the error message for an hour? I love the DIS, but I've given up all hope of accessing it while at the WDW

 

[DizzDoll]

Yeah I got the same notice on FB. When my kids and I go to WDW we leave my 85 year old mother at home because she can't handle the August heat and humidity in FL. We call her several times a day, and she also calls us, so for us it's a matter of keeping the phones charged in case of emergency.

 

[Sandy Fisher]

In 30+ years of going to Disney, with and without young children, with and without friends and family members, never felt the need to "stay connected" or check on things.
In more recent years we took our SIMPLE cell phone so we could be contacted in case of emergency. Never had it ring once.
I understand people wanting to multi-task 24/7, just not sure I believe it's necessary. And NO, I DON'T WANT TO GET INTO A DEBATE................
To each his own, but it seems you can't go anywhere without seeing people constantly staring at or texting on their smart phones. The people who invented them and constantly change them so they are old quickly and need to be replaced, created a whole industry.
How nice it would be to just be where you are and enjoy what you're doing with your kids, in-laws, friends, etc. How nice to just turn the phone off and live in the moment.
Yeh, I know, everyone has important things that can't wait.
Better them than me.

 

[glassslippergirl]

Something my husband noticed last time we visited WDW:

Most of us set up our wifi to have faster download speeds than upload speeds. This is reversed at WDW. It is faster to upload than to download. So the pictures of your family in front of the castle upload to Facebook really quickly. The cynic would say that Disney is making it easier for us to give them free advertising. So of course we need to keep our phones charged.

 

[Alice Royal]

Yeah, because there totally aren't people who ride with friends to WDW and then need their phone to keep in contact for when we meet back up to drive home.

And there totally aren't parents who trust their kids enough to ride single rider but have everyone using a simple or smartphone 'just in case'.

Pretty sure trying to find a lost friend or family member in the chaos and enormity of Disney without any means of direct contact is going to 'take time away' more than dabbling on a phone for a few moments.

 

[Aurora0427]

We couldn't have done our last trip without my iPhone. I used it to move around FP+ last minute, to take quick photos, and to make dining reservations. Sure beats the old days of having to call Disney!

 

[jtowntoflorida]

In 30+ years of going to Disney, with and without young children, with and without friends and family members, never felt the need to "stay connected" or check on things.
In more recent years we took our SIMPLE cell phone so we could be contacted in case of emergency. Never had it ring once.
I understand people wanting to multi-task 24/7, just not sure I believe it's necessary. And NO, I DON'T WANT TO GET INTO A DEBATE................
To each his own, but it seems you can't go anywhere without seeing people constantly staring at or texting on their smart phones. The people who invented them and constantly change them so they are old quickly and need to be replaced, created a whole industry.
How nice it would be to just be where you are and enjoy what you're doing with your kids, in-laws, friends, etc. How nice to just turn the phone off and live in the moment.
Yeh, I know, everyone has important things that can't wait.
Better them than me.

I agree with you. Disney is the one and only place where my work email is shut off and I rarely look at my phone. The only thing we use it for at Disney is to occasionally check wait times, and I do that using easywdw.com's wait times page (which I have set up as a shortcut on my phone, so it looks like an app) instead of MDE because MDE is so unstable, clunky, and a battery hog. I guess on upcoming trips we may use MDE to change FP+ times (if necessary) but the kiosks are so much faster that if they're close, I'll chose them over the app every day. I am definitely not Disney's target audience with MDE.

 

[mom2rtk]

I agree with you. Disney is the one and only place where my work email is shut off and I rarely look at my phone. The only thing we use it for at Disney is to occasionally check wait times, and I do that using easywdw.com's wait times page (which I have set up as a shortcut on my phone, so it looks like an app) instead of MDE because MDE is so unstable, clunky, and a battery hog. I guess on upcoming trips we may use MDE to change FP+ times (if necessary) but the kiosks are so much faster that if they're close, I'll chose them over the app every day. I am definitely not Disney's target audience with MDE.

I feel the same way.

That said, if people want to tweet and post their way through the parks, I honestly don't care. As long as they get their heads out of their phones and pay attention when they are walking around, that is.

Still though, I laugh every time I see someone mention that "research" Disney supposedly did leading up to MM+ saying that people want to interact with their electronic devices more in the parks.

I'm afraid that ship has sailed though, as Disney is pulling out all the stops to get people looking down at their phones. No MM+ in DLR yet, but even there they are running a promotion that requires people be checking online for surprise announcements of what they are doing in the parks every Monday. It sort of seems like a training session for future phone reliance in the parks.

And that battery thing? Eh.... get an android and buy a spare battery.

 

[dawnhaze]

Is this where we're lamenting how technology and social media are leading to the downfall of the home and family today?

 

[Grand Admiral]

Kids these days always got their heads in cell phones.

 

[PlutoMars]

It is just not Disney but our society as well. In our connected world where employers give smartphones to employees, there is an expectation even on vacation that employees will check emails and respond should there be an emergency. Studies have even shown that 40-50% of people check work email even on vacation. So i think an article on keeping your phone charged in the park is helpful.

And when you look at the trend of more and more interactive technology wearable technology, people are relying more and more on their smartphones beyond just checking on MDE and FP+ availability.

It is not like people werent already walking through the park with their heads down interacting with smartphones before MM+ was rolled out.

Now Disney has to improve on the reliability of MDE but I would imagine a large portion of guests actually like to be able to access their FP+ selections on a smartphone rather than have to walk to an attraction in the past or find a Kiosk now.

But hey, if this is one more thing that people want to feign outrage at Disney over then have at it

 

[katt789]

I've implimented a new rule on our Disney trips (and keep in mind this is myself, 25, travelling with a group of other 20 somethings, mostly younger):
-You can use your phone for pictures/video, and to upload to instagram or talk to people who are also down in Florida that we're meeting up with, and that's it! During the day, in that wind down time before bed, you can do whatever you want.

Reasoning: a friend was on her phone facebook chatting with a friend back home....about her ex boyfriend...and naturally she got super upset, started crying in the queue for Ariel and then had a rotten night....could've been avoided had we not been on our phones!

I do like the idea that there are places to charge your phones, as we do use it for a lot of things, and MDE is very battery draining, but I don't care if my phone dies as long as we weren't trying to meet up with someone. As for splitting up, we always make a certain time & place to meet and if one of us doesn't make it, we're sure they'll find their way back to the hotel room at the end of the night (this of course is very different than traveling with kids!). We are also from Canada, so all phones are on airplane mode, and we didn't have the luxury of using anything in Disney the first few trips before smart phones & wifi!

 

[Grmnshplvr]

Last time I went to disney I think I was on facebook once or twice, called my mother and facetimed my nephews each once time. My phone still needed to be charged in the park, I was taking videos and pictures all day.