have you done the parks with out smartphone?

[Jennygt]

my friend does not have a smart phone but she does have a kindle , i touch etc. she could just use the wifi on those devices for MDE while in the parks right? has anyone went this route?
thanks!

 

[OhMari]

I used my IPad, withDisneys free wifi. It was spotty at times, but I was fine.

 

[ITALIANNYC]

I have made a decision. For this upcoming trip I will NOT look at my cellphone.....


I'll just look at my apple watch..

 

[minnie mum]

While we have a smart phone, we don't have a good data plan in the States ( we're Canadian). So when we're in the parks we just use wifi. Worked fine on my Android tablet, too. But it's spotty and can be slow. Some days it kept dropping, so that was annoying. Better than nothing, though. I still hate that you almost have to have one when you're on vacation.

 

[ZoZo]

I went to WDW about 6 months after the start of FP+. My friend had a smart phone, but I did not. It would have been a pain not to have at least one device! I had made our FP+ reservations prior to our trip, but I made pretty frequent changes. Without a smart phone, I would have had to go to a kiosk (or, at the time, a CM with an iPad!). I had written down our FPs on a 3"x5" card, so I'd know our basic plan without having my friend have to keep pulling out her phone, but it was a pain because once we changed them, I didn't want to keep updating my "card."

I think as long as you have a device where you can easily access MDE, you'd be fine. We often jumped on my friend's phone to check availability for TS restaurants, and it was so helpful to be able to pull up a list on her phone. We had a last-minute change of plans and were at DHS around 4:30 pm. We were able to check availability at the TS restaurants there, and found out we could have get an immediate ADR at either HBD or Sci Fi, without having to walk back and forth and check at the podium to see if they could take us. In fact, we went up to Sci Fi to see if they could accommodate us as a walk-up, and they said they couldn't -- but lo and behold, we pulled up MDE on her phone and were able to make an immediate ADR. Walked in less than 5 minutes later. Go figure!

 

[Stigsmom]

Yes, with the card (mine was a post it note) with reservation numbers/info on it. No problem.

 

[Heidi K]

We went in 2014 with no smartphone, tablet, or anything. It was perfectly fine. We couldn't make changes on the fly, but there was something less stressful about just having our plan and sticking to it. We did write down FP times and ADR numbers. The only difficulty was checking in to our Southwest flight home 24 hours in advance.

 

[siskaren]

FYI, the MDE app isn't available for Kindle.

 

[Tiggr924]

We've done it many, many times without smartphone, ipad, or any of those sorts. It's really not necessary, IMO.

 

[gap2368]

you can do it just fine just write time your FP and you are go to go.

 

[CarolynFH]

FYI, the MDE app isn't available for Kindle.

But you can pull up the MDE website on her Kindle using its browser. I've done that at home on wifi.

 

[mkla2015]

You can do it but it's so much easier with a smart phone- just my personal opinion. I like having everything on my phone.

I love being able to change FP and check wait times at any time.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

I haven't done them with a smartphone. So, back in the old days, there was this archaic medium called "paper". I print the information ahead of time and bring it.

 

[wendow]

We do it without devices. We have devices but those are the last thing we want to be glued to while on vacation with our kids. We just print or write down any numbers we need before. It's super easy and not a big deal at all!

 

[Magpie]

We don't bother with devices. Just note our FPs down on a small piece of paper, along with any ADRs we might have, and we're good to go. Additional FPs are easy to make at a kiosk, and we've never had to wait long in line to access one (usually, there's no line at all).

 

[MsThumper]

Until about a year ago, our phones were not "Smart" phones. We always got along fine with an iPod touch if we felt the need to carry a device.

 

[balletomane]

All of my info is on paper.

 

[pawprint86]

We did the parks without cell phone in Oct 2015.

We are Canadian, and didn't want to pay extra for a data plan in the US. But also, we made a commitment to look around us and not at our phones, and we pledged to leave our phones in the hotel safe.

We had a day-planner thing from the Birnbaum's guide that we ripped out, it had our dining reservations and fastpass times on it. We learned where the kiosks were to change or get new fastpasses.

I think unless you are the type of people who change plans a lot at last minute, you can easily do the parks without any device at all. We made some dining reservation changes a couple days ahead from the wifi in our room.

There are too many phone-staring zombies in the parks already! I figure I'm spending all this money, might as well enjoy the people-watching, interactions with Cast Members and guests, details in the theme park itself - things I would miss if I had a device and was wriggling a wifi signal out of it to check times on anything.

 

[Meriweather]

Have a smart phone.....don't use it in the parks and I have done it quite well.

 

[Shir Kahn]

Why waste paper if you have a phone? Staring at a piece of paper or staring at a phone, you're doing the same thing. It's just way more convenient when you have to make changes. Yeah there are people that only stare at their phones but that's their problem. You don't have to, you could just use it for the app. I've never quite understood the whole anti-smartphone thing.