Disney Resort TVs...BYOD

[Beer Me]

Not at Disney specifically we often bring a Switch when we travel. Some of those games are great for family time - Mario kart, party, smash bros etc.

We also have an iPhone to hdmi connector so a phone can be used to show any streaming app on the tv.

 

[Lehuaann]

Has anyone ever brought their own devices to Disney?

I hear you. I'd only do it if there were an available HDMI port.

Yes, many here have been doing it for years. We bring our Roku.

There should be no need to reconnect anything with HDMI, but guests still tend to screw things up. If you need help connecting devices, the resort can patch you over to IT.

 

[DLgal]

Guess what I'm saying is, kills 2 birds with 1 stone. iPad device is used for travel. Or Phone. So they use it to entertain themselves while flying/driving. Then same device is used to entertain while in the room. What am I missing? And yeah, I've traveled with teens. Just did last month. Phone did the job, no extra stuff to bring, no worries about what TV you get, cause you get about as many different types as there are rooms at Disney.

You are missing 2 things.

1. The Switch is a portable gaming device as well as one that can connect to the TV.

2. The Switch provides multi-player options when connected to a TV which is a lot more fun for siblings in a hotel room.

 

[JodyK]

We hooked up a switch no problem at AKL recently.

 

[Chumpieboy]

If you have a room with the newer upgraded TVs you can't plug your device in as easily as you could in the past.

We ran into this issue at AKV this past week. Talked to the front desk folks who claimed it wasn't a policy to disallow guests to use their own devices and sent up a runner to show us how to do this.

NB that the new TV setups do have an option to allow you to chromecast from an existing device to the new TV system. We didn't try it since the runner gave us the workaround.

The new TV system seems to be controlled by the phonejack cable that is also plugged into the back of the TV. The signal over this phone jack seems to provide a different "operating system" to the TV that overrides the normal menus that a Samsung TV has. Presumably that is also the data source that provides the new interactive features on the main screen ("welcome <Family Name>!") and the ability to view the guest folio and check out etc.

So if you unplug the phone jack from the back and remove the HDMI cable, and restart the TV with your own device plugged in, you can use the small button on the bottom back corner to control the volume and switch inputs, just like you could do before the upgrades. You *will* need to adjust the volume down, since it seems to be hardcoded to level 100/max volume when you turn it on. Since they removed the Samsung remotes in favor of the new system remotes, you will have to continually manually adjust the volume with the button on the back of the TV.

This is what the runner showed me, I didn't break any equipment etc. trying to figure this out.

If you're going to do this, please plug the room HDMI and phone jack back into the TVs when you leave so as not to make things difficult for the staff turning over the room to the next guest or to waste time for an AV runner to have to come up and fix etc. If you know what you're doing where these instructions make sense, please be a good guest and reset everything back to how you found it.

 

[LisaL]

Thanks for info!

 

[Stateman]

Thanks for the info - will definitely try the phonejack/HDMI method next time. When we were at CCV/Poly in February, the 100% volume couldn't be turned down with our Roku plugged in. Hoping the phone jack was the issue!