Do You Have Data Plan at Disneyland?

[Frozen2014]

When we travel to the States we don't get a data plan. We do always book a hotel with wifi, but otherwise won't have access to mail and internet. To be honest, this is a good thing to me. My husband is always browsing or texting to others on his phone and so when we are out as family, I prefer him to be with us...not just physically but mentally. We went on a cruise last year and it was so wonderful as we were all disconnected from the world for a whole week. We had great quality time together.

At WDW, they have Wifi. Although we weren't disconnected, I will say that it was a help for being able to check wait times of other rides.

We're going to Disneyland last week in August, where there is no Wifi at the park. On one sense, it might be good to purchase some data for the purpose of checking wait times. But on the other hand, my husband won't be with us. I can't stand being out and he's more interested on his cell screen. And I'm hoping last week won't be too bad with crowds so maybe checking wait times isn't as big of a deal.

What do others do? Do you have data at the parks?

 

[Aladora]

When we travel to the States we don't get a data plan. We do always book a hotel with wifi, but otherwise won't have access to mail and internet. To be honest, this is a good thing to me. My husband is always browsing or texting to others on his phone and so when we are out as family, I prefer him to be with us...not just physically but mentally. We went on a cruise last year and it was so wonderful as we were all disconnected from the world for a whole week. We had great quality time together.

At WDW, they have Wifi. Although we weren't disconnected, I will say that it was a help for being able to check wait times of other rides.

We're going to Disneyland last week in August, where there is no Wifi at the park. On one sense, it might be good to purchase some data for the purpose of checking wait times. But on the other hand, my husband won't be with us. I can't stand being out and he's more interested on his cell screen. And I'm hoping last week won't be too bad with crowds so maybe checking wait times isn't as big of a deal.

What do others do? Do you have data at the parks?

DH and I bought SIM cards from ROAM mobility and we just top up the plan for the days we go down. We've used the sims on 4 trips so far so they have been worth it for sure. We use them to keep and eye on wait and fast pas times, change or book dining reservations but we also use our phones to keep in contact with work. We own and run a fairly decent sized business and we have to be able to keep in contact with staff and clients while we are gone.

 

[xlxo]

I'm another roam mobility user on my unlocked phone. Love it as a high data user.

Roam Mobility is actually a Canadian company operating out of Yaletown. They have negotiated contracts with TMobile for coverage.

Get your Roam Mobility SIM in Canada before you arrive.

https://roammobility.com/

 

[BijouBabe]

Our very first trip we used Roam Mobility and it is a great option. The past couple of trips though I just use my phone provider. I'm through Telus and you can get a $7/day roaming package (it only charges if you actually use data that day), and it uses your data plan you already have. I have a larger monthly data plan though so we had a lot of data to use up. I found I didn't check the wait times on the app as often as I thought I would during our trip. I found the wait times were off at times as well so it's not always reliable.

 

[ABCanada]

Like BijouBabe we used to use Roam Mobility but now use 'Roam like Home' (Rogers) $5 / day to a maximum of $50 / billing month.

There might be a slight extra monthly charge but it is very convenient.
- no changing and storing those tiny SIM cards
- stay with the same phone number so no need to let everyone know your US phone number
- you get your regular calls

(I do not think I would not do this for Europe as it is $10/day and the phone plans there with SIM card are so inexpensive. Two or three days would probably give you a month on a local SIM card.)

 

[Frozen2014]

Thanks. Sounds like a lot of you do purchase some kind of roaming plan.

Will we be at a huge disadvantage if we don't have data ? We're going end of August so hoping for smaller waits.

 

[jar311]

Like BijouBabe we used to use Roam Mobility but now use 'Roam like Home' (Rogers) $5 / day to a maximum of $50 / billing month.

There might be a slight extra monthly charge but it is very convenient.
- no changing and storing those tiny SIM cards
- stay with the same phone number so no need to let everyone know your US phone number
- you get your regular calls

(I do not think I would not do this for Europe as it is $10/day and the phone plans there with SIM card are so inexpensive. Two or three days would probably give you a month on a local SIM card.)

I use the same strategy within roam like home when I'm in the US. In Europe you can pickup a sim for like €20 and get unlimited data or at least a huge chunk of data for an entire month. This is the route I've always taken in Europe and just use FaceTime or Facebook for phone calls to back home.

 

[HeatherLassell]

When we travel to the States we don't get a data plan. We do always book a hotel with wifi, but otherwise won't have access to mail and internet. To be honest, this is a good thing to me. My husband is always browsing or texting to others on his phone and so when we are out as family, I prefer him to be with us...not just physically but mentally. We went on a cruise last year and it was so wonderful as we were all disconnected from the world for a whole week. We had great quality time together.

At WDW, they have Wifi. Although we weren't disconnected, I will say that it was a help for being able to check wait times of other rides.

We're going to Disneyland last week in August, where there is no Wifi at the park. On one sense, it might be good to purchase some data for the purpose of checking wait times. But on the other hand, my husband won't be with us. I can't stand being out and he's more interested on his cell screen. And I'm hoping last week won't be too bad with crowds so maybe checking wait times isn't as big of a deal.

What do others do? Do you have data at the parks?

I'm with Rogers so I have "Roam Like Home" which only costs me $5 and I can use my data as if I was still in Canada.

 

[westcoastminnie]

Will we be at a huge disadvantage if we don't have data ? We're going end of August so hoping for smaller waits.

We had limited data last year when we went in late August. I thought I'd use it to check the app for wait times but ultimately only used it once or twice. We really could have done without it.

It is possible that DL will have free in-park wifi when they launch MaxPass, but there's no date for that yet, although it's supposed to be this year.

 

[Sprockie]

We used to use Roam, but with the expiring every 6 month sim card and the price increase over the last year, we now do the Telus $7/day roam and use our own plan. Worked like a charm. Very handy not to have to use another phone number.

 

[xlxo]

fyi... since December, Roam Mobility has reverted back to yearly sim's expiries.
https://support.roammobility.com/hc/en-us/articles/215799743-Will-my-Roam-Mobility-SIM-Card-expire-

 

[marcyleecorgan]

Are you kidding me, DL doesn't offer WiFi??? Whoa. Okay another reason we will never be going...

 

[redkop1969]

coming from the UK, we use the 3 feel at home pay as you go sim. It means we can top up a sim with £20 before we leave and then it will give us 3000 minutes of call time, 3000 texts and 12GB data whilst in the states. It is very handy in the parks as we can FaceTime home to the kids, or if the kids are with us, we can stay in touch with them easily.

 

[Sue M]

I'm on Rogers so will use Roam like Home. Will be in DL early September. I'll be with my adult daughter. It's handy to have roaming because she may not want to go on same ride I do (ToT) so she'll go find something else to do, and we occas split up so being able to text each other is handy. Also checking wait times. I find that handy. I like the Lines App from touringplans.com. Making or changing dining ADR on the fly, phoning home. I never leave home without a US plan.
This is my first year on Rogers to have their Roam plan. I like that you only get billed on days you use it. I switched over from Telus in the fall. On Telus I always got their US pass. And phoned customer retention to get lower rate.

 

[elaine amj]

Another option for traveling to the US is Truphone. It costs US$30 (with $15 worth of credit) and what I like about it is it NEVER expires (no need to top up every 3/6/12 months to keep it active). It costs 9 cents a MB or 9cents text/call.

I travel to the US several times a year and I like having occasional access to data/call/text. I don't use much - maybe 50 cents a visit (some trips I may spend a few bucks) so Truphone's setup works very well for me and usually ends up costing me $5-$10/year. This way, if I want to look something up on a few sites, it costs me like 27cents or so instead of paying $5 a day.

If I want heavy internet for a long trip (like when I was in California for 2+ weeks and wanted FB, etc), I look for a US monthly plan and cancel it after a month.

 

[jadephoenixx]

fyi... since December, Roam Mobility has reverted back to yearly sim's expiries.
https://support.roammobility.com/hc/en-us/articles/215799743-Will-my-Roam-Mobility-SIM-Card-expire-

They also have monthly plans now. You schedule the start date & time like the daily plan and will automatically expire at 30/60/90/etc days, which ever you choose. There are 2 plans: $39.95 for 1 GB data and $64.95 for 4GB data so depending how much you need, may work out cheaper than doing a daily plan.

 

[starvenger]

I'm liking that our carriers are adding things like the $5 daily US plans. I mean it's not super cheap but if you're in the US for less than a week it probably prices out better than getting a US SIM card.

 

[Susie63]

Never used data in all our trips.