Getting a mobile phone

[maleficent_man]

Folks

I've never done this before but I'd be interested in getting a pay as you go phone when we arrive - can someone give me any tips on what to do (and just as importantly), what not to do! Not looking for a huge amount of time but enough to be able to phone home a few times during our stay.

 

[gyontour]

Also interested in this as we are a party of 8 with teenagers and would be useful to text and stay in contact around the parks

 

[wickesy]

Your best bet is to head to the nearest Wal-Mart and pick up a couple of phones from there. They normally have a fair range in stock, most of which come with airtime included. I know that they will even activate them for you so you wouldn't even have to worry about doing that.

 

[gyontour]

Unfortunately going to the nearest Walmart is not an option as we will not be having a car, can we buy a tracfone over here, say fro a website?

 

[wickesy]

There's a few available on Ebay if you were willing to do that. I'm not sure you would be able to order them from anywhere else and have them delivered here.

 

[going/again]

Unfortunately going to the nearest Walmart is not an option as we will not be having a car, can we buy a tracfone over here, say fro a website?

if you are staying on site you can have one sent to your hotel, i emailed target and they replied i could order one on the net and have it sent to my hotel, hope this helps

 

[DjdBrit]

I would price it out on walmart.com or target.com and have them shipped to your hotel. Tracphones are as little as $10, you can add time on your CC if you need to.

I have heard the WDW hotel are now charging for packages delivered to guests so I would call your resort first to check

Good luck!

 

[TinkabellSoph]

Subscribing...

We were wondering about getting pay as you go phones when we get there, we were going to head to Wallmart, does anyone know what kind of selection they have there?

Sophie xx

 

[MorningGlory]

Subscribing...

We were wondering about getting pay as you go phones when we get there, we were going to head to Wallmart, does anyone know what kind of selection they have there?

Sophie xx

Likewise Sophie, i'd like to know this. I need to contact some people while i'm over there about tickets for the Tampa Bay Rays games, so if I can get my hands on a cheap PAYG phone i'd be happy

 

[nemmie]

Just an FYI in America on nearly all plans, you will get charged for both sending AND recieving call's and texts. We have PAYG on both AT and T and also T mobile and $10 does not go very far. Also to be aware that $10 and $25 cards usually run out in around 3 months. Been caught out on that too. HTH.

 

[nemmie]

Also interested in this as we are a party of 8 with teenagers and would be useful to text and stay in contact around the parks

Another great option for you would be walkie talkies. We picked up 2 at walmart with 16 mile radius on special for $19.99. I noticed they had packs of 6 for around $49.99. Considering you can use them time and time again at no additional cost this may be the better option for you. Our can be paged and that kind of thing so a pretty good alternative.

 

[TinkabellSoph]

Another great option for you would be walkie talkies. We picked up 2 at walmart with 16 mile radius on special for $19.99. I noticed they had packs of 6 for around $49.99. Considering you can use them time and time again at no additional cost this may be the better option for you. Our can be paged and that kind of thing so a pretty good alternative.

I don't think this would be an option for us, as DBF and I are going with his parents and DBF has a medical problem and if i need to get in touch with his mum (who is a nurse) i want to be able to contact her not worrying if she is in 'radius'. So i think that having a phone is a better option for us.

Sophie xx

 

[redrosesix]

We live in Canada and DH's phone would not work in US so we picked up one for him (and an extra for DD -- why not $9.99 with $9.99 free airtime) from Virgin Mobile US sort of like the one in the link below:

http://www.virginmobileusa.com/phones/phoneDetail.do?skuId=VM1400

Free shipping to US, so we had them sent to our resort ahead of us. You can pick up airtime cards for Virgin in lots of places or make a payment by PayPal.

BTW, we tried walky talkies our first trip. We have great ones which we use when camping but they were really not helpful in the parks (too loud to hear properly, too many people using them, etc) And with cell phones, we didn't have to have them on all of the time.

The phones aren't really disposable -- if you don't top them up they deactivate after a few months but you can reactivate them when you're back in the US again by buying more airtime (but you'll get a new phone number too).

 

[MorningGlory]

We live in Canada and DH's phone would not work in US so we picked up one for him (and an extra for DD -- why not $9.99 with $9.99 free airtime) from Virgin Mobile US sort of like the one in the link below:

http://www.virginmobileusa.com/phones/phoneDetail.do?skuId=VM1400

Free shipping to US, so we had them sent to our resort ahead of us. You can pick up airtime cards for Virgin in lots of places or make a payment by PayPal.

BTW, we tried walky talkies our first trip. We have great ones which we use when camping but they were really not helpful in the parks (too loud to hear properly, too many people using them, etc) And with cell phones, we didn't have to have them on all of the time.

The phones aren't really disposable -- if you don't top them up they deactivate after a few months but you can reactivate them when you're back in the US again by buying more airtime (but you'll get a new phone number too).

Thanks for the info and that link! That will suit me perfectly

 

[Head_in_the_clouds]

My Dad and I got Net 10 phones from Walmart last year. Basic cheap Nokias, you have to call and activate when you get them and you can reactivate them whenever you want, even from here. Only 15 cents for international calls, and 10 cents for local calls, 5 cents for texts - saved us a fortune, if anyone from home needed us they called/text us on our normal mobiles we had brought from home then we hung up and called them back off the net 10 phones, also we used them to keep in touch with each other at malls etc when we had went off and did our own thing then our two parties wanted to meet up. Think you can have a phone delivered from their website (google net 10). Anyway, highly recommended !