Disney with a DSLR and without a laptop

[2Tiggies]

The free wifi is great for your casual internet surfing but if you planned on uploading pictures to a site, you may run into some slow speeds. Now that may not be the case at all the resorts, just the 2 I have stayed at and tried posting pics on my Facebook page. I didnt try downloading anything but pages seemed to load fairly quickly.

If you dont need to be online to back up your pictures then you should be fine.

Thanks. I use Photobucket to store my online photos but that can be a bit temperamental even with my high speed internet at home so I will just skip that. I'm not likely to be doing much basic surfing or browsing the web. It's really just to keep in touch with friends and family by posting some photos on Facebook which is a once off easy way to reach everyone. I will just make do with whatever they system allows me to do. There were always complaints about the cabled access being slow but I honestly found it perfectly adequate for photo uploading so here's hoping I will find my wifi experience to be a similar one

 

[Hockeyman]

Thanks. I use Photobucket to store my online photos but that can be a bit temperamental even with my high speed internet at home so I will just skip that. I'm not likely to be doing much basic surfing or browsing the web. It's really just to keep in touch with friends and family by posting some photos on Facebook which is a once off easy way to reach everyone. I will just make do with whatever they system allows me to do. There were always complaints about the cabled access being slow but I honestly found it perfectly adequate for photo uploading so here's hoping I will find my wifi experience to be a similar one

I always had problems with Photobucket also until I finally had enough and switched to Flickr and its been smooth sailing ever since lol

I was doing the same, posting pics on Facebook so family could see, but just took forever on the open wifi. It also didnt help that they are huge pics (20mb in some cases) im sure if the picture was a lot smaller it would have been fine.

 

[photo_chick]

Photobucket has it's own issues to contend with. I definately would not backup to there because of how it compresses your images. And would only use Flickr with the pro service for the same reason. If you're backing up you want to be able to access your original files.

Last summer at Pop I used my 3G hotspot to get online because it was so much faster than the service at the resort. Was the service free already at that time? I don't remember. I know it was the same situation the year before at AS Music and we did pay for it then. The resort connection was incredibly slow.

 

[Coachymom]

Well at least you know I read your post

I noticed it because I have done WDW without a laptop some years back and was so paranoid about losing a card/all my pics, so I opted to switch them out every day.

Even though I double back up every day now, I still take multiple cards and don't delete anything from them until I get back home. Just in case

 

[klmall]

I agree about resort free internet speed being horrible. It took me over an hour to upload 20 shots to SmugMug at the Poly last December!

I'm planning on taking so many shots that I still bring my laptop as well as quite a few memory cards (and 2 cameras). Since I dropped my dSLR on the hard floor at The Wave early in my trip last winter I was saved by having my G12 along.

Each night I copy the pictures from the cards to the laptop and I also spend time reviewing my shots to see what I may go back and shoot again. The weight of my 17" laptop is a real pain but the editing software etc. is handy!

 

[2Tiggies]

Photobucket has it's own issues to contend with. I definately would not backup to there because of how it compresses your images. And would only use Flickr with the pro service for the same reason. If you're backing up you want to be able to access your original files.

Last summer at Pop I used my 3G hotspot to get online because it was so much faster than the service at the resort. Was the service free already at that time? I don't remember. I know it was the same situation the year before at AS Music and we did pay for it then. The resort connection was incredibly slow.

It was still charged for per 24 hour period until, I think, the end of last year at least. We were there in September and October and it was paid service. I am a bit of a nocturnal creature and did most of my uploads in the small hours of the morning. I wonder if that had anything to do with me not noticing any significant issues with speed

I have a paid Photobucket Pro account. They say that with a paid membership you are supposed to maintain the full res of your pictures so I hope that is the case as they've had a few years payments out of me, albeit that it's very inexpensive.

 

[photo_chick]

Photobucket Pro still caps your file size and still runs it through an optimizer. All they promise in the fine print is original size (pixel resolution) images. Other things in your files are altered.

 

[Hockeyman]

They started rolling out the free wifi earlier this year. I believe the started with the deluxe and moderate and added it to the values fairly recently (maybe last month or 2). I know in early March we have free wifi at Riverside and values had not been added at that point. They also added mini fridges in all the values around the same time, which is super awesome also

 

[2Tiggies]

Photobucket Pro still caps your file size and still runs it through an optimizer. All they promise in the fine print is original size (pixel resolution) images. Other things in your files are altered.

Thanks. I will have to keep that in mind. I will have a look at Flickr meantime and maybe just get myself an account there and run the two in tandem until the Photobucket sub finishes next year.

 

[Luvscrappin]

So I have a related question for those of you who take your laptop to back up your photos...Where do you store your laptop when you are not in your room? I have read on other threads about stuff being stolen or missing from resort rooms. Have you ever had an issues?

 

[2Tiggies]

So I have a related question for those of you who take your laptop to back up your photos...Where do you store your laptop when you are not in your room? I have read on other threads about stuff being stolen or missing from resort rooms. Have you ever had an issues?

Well you'll obviously know there is no way they will fit into the room safe. I am quite happy to bundle it into a suitcase which I lock. I know you get all the arguments about "What if someone takes the whole luggage item ...."

I think you can be relatively sensible without being paranoid about it. I have on one occasion got back to the room and seen that I had left the laptop out on the nightstand all day. Again, some people would get all excited about what might have happened, but it was still there and whatever could have happened, didn't .....

I really don't worry myself unduly about it. I do however put my memory sticks and external hard drive with my backed up images into the room safe. Priorities

 

[Hockeyman]

Thanks. I will have to keep that in mind. I will have a look at Flickr meantime and maybe just get myself an account there and run the two in tandem until the Photobucket sub finishes next year.

I enjoy Flickr and runs pretty smoothly. The Pro account is only like $3 a month or something like that

 

[Hockeyman]

Well you'll obviously know there is no way they will fit into the room safe. I am quite happy to bundle it into a suitcase which I lock. I know you get all the arguments about "What if someone takes the whole luggage item ...."

I think you can be relatively sensible without being paranoid about it. I have on one occasion got back to the room and seen that I had left the laptop out on the nightstand all day. Again, some people would get all excited about what might have happened, but it was still there and whatever could have happened, didn't .....

I really don't worry myself unduly about it. I do however put my memory sticks and external hard drive with my backed up images into the room safe. Priorities

My first trip laptop was last year at POP and I was a little overly paranoid and tried to hide it but not I just leave it out on the night stand or TV stand and have been fine. Now off site hotels I will be a little more cautious.

 

[2Tiggies]

I enjoy Flickr and runs pretty smoothly. The Pro account is only like $3 a month or something like that

I'm sure I can afford that, lol.

 

[photo_chick]

So I have a related question for those of you who take your laptop to back up your photos...Where do you store your laptop when you are not in your room? I have read on other threads about stuff being stolen or missing from resort rooms. Have you ever had an issues?

I use a Kensington lock and secure it to furniture or the rack in the closet (the same for the Xbox 360 we take). Most thieves are looking for something they can carry off easily. Make it so they can't just pick up the item and run. They also make Kensington locks for tablets which are a probably stolen more than laptops these days.