English mobile phones in WDW

[tallulah77]

This is probably the first of many daft questions that I am going to ask as it's the first time travelling with my daughter . We're going with my parents and sisters, previously we have managed without using mobiles and made loose arrangements to meet up and if we didn't make it within a certain time we'd just meet up at the hotel later, however with a little one I think we should have a better communication system to avoid waiting around.
Can you use english mobile phones over there, on the Orange network for example, and are the charges to do so extortionate? Really we'd only want to send the odd text between phones. Any info gratefully received.

Many thanks

 

[skelfbsfb]

Yes you can use your mobile over at WDW however they will charge high prices for the privilage. Why dont you get yourself a couple of PAYG some cards top up before you go and use these

 

[Elise79]

We don't use our phones from home over there.

We bought 2 pay as you go AT&T phones last time from BestBuy for about $20 each and they came with credit on them. Picked the plan where you only pay for what you use and came with at least half the credit.

Would do this again as it was so easy

 

[Marl]

Elise79,
Thank you for the above info, we have been wondering about doing this in Aug as we are going with friends but staying at different hotels. We will meet up most days at parks and visit each others hotel and wondered if this would be a cheaper way of contacting each other in the parks.
Where is Bestbuy?
Thanks in advance.

 

[Elise79]

The Best Buy we go to is near the Florida Mall off Orange Blossom Trail (if coming from I Drive turn right on to Orange Blossom Trail and it is a couple of blocks down on the right). There are others in the area - check the website. We always visit as DH is a tech geek and loves it in there! Bestbuy - no contract phones

You can also get phones at Walmart. Walmart Pre-paid Cell Phones

We bought phones for $18 each and had $15 credit included. When we bought them in Bestbuy they registered them and got them all working for us.

We choose the simple rate plan which is 10c/min for calls and 20c for a text. Beware they charge for receiving as well as sending - I think this is all networks though.

The main advantage for us is we don't carry our expensive smartphones around the parks and we have a local number to give when asked.

 

[Samlovesthemouse]

We used our uk mobiles over there as we werent going to be making enough calls/texts to warrant getting new US phones.

Me and my Dbf had no problems and they just connected fine however my dad when he was out there was on orange and his wouldn't work. He has just gone on a training course in Orlando for 3 weeks...so unfair and his works this time but he had to ring a number from his phone in the UK to allow activation. He found the number on their website I think it may have been 150 but I'm not 100%!

Costs wise my bill for phoning home every 3 days for 5-8 mins and sending a text on the other days was £50... I used it more than I thought I did but still not too bad. If you are only going to send texts I think with 02 it was 90p a text but it should be listed on oranges website. It shouldnt be too bad ....

 

[Marl]

Thank you Elise79 for that extra info and the website links, I appreciate it

 

[starrysky]

On a recent trip to india orange text me to say that if i used T mobile abroad then it would cost the same as at home. My mobile bill was no higher than it would have been when i got home.

My advice is contact orange and find out who they use in the states in the same way. I'm not sure if they use T mobile network in the states. When we were there last year I think my phone auto connected to AT &T but I hardly used my phone as we took our net book so emailed anyone back home.

If you limit your self to texts if won't make a huge difference to your bill and only call when you need to in an emergency.

Remember when you get a call or text from home you get charged as well. DH found that out to his cost.

 

[aaronandterri]

be careful with orange, we had a problem with them one year, when we called sometimes the line would just be silent...signal issue im not sure but it never connected, no problem we just tried again, this happened a lot but when we got home we had a bill for over £300, when we looked at the itemised calls every one of these calls were charged, even though they never connected, we brought it up with orange but they wasnt intrested, weve not used our phones there since.

 

[Helen B]

When we went in June, I only texted back home, and was unsure as to how much each text would cost, but all my texts came out of my monthly allowance, at a rate of 1 msg = 4 msgs from allowance. I'm on o2 with an iPhone, so I get international traveller included in my contract, but until then I only thought it was in Europe where texts were included.

I don't know what it would be for texting another UK phone also outside of the UK though. It might be worth asking Orange what that would be, and if they do something similar to o2 do with the international traveller service.

Also there are many restaurants now which have WiFi connections that you can get on, so when we went out for breakfast and dinner, we could check our emails and browse the internet on our iPhones.

 

[Cyrano]

When we went in June, I only texted back home, and was unsure as to how much each text would cost, but all my texts came out of my monthly allowance, at a rate of 1 msg = 4 msgs from allowance.

I had similar with my O2 contract in June. But I think that O2 no longer offer the 1 for 4. I think the cost is 49p per text while in the USA.