have you done the parks with out smartphone?

[MeganMango]

Possible? Yes. Making any fast pass changes would be hard. I was there a few weeks ago and expecting to see more Kiosks for after you used your first 3 fast passes, but I normally had a pretty good hike to find one. They are far and few between, and usually are tucked away in the corner of somewhere. So even though you can't use the app to make the additional FP, the kiosks were a pain to use and couldn't imagine relying on them to make last minute changes.

Using the app would be much easier in general.

 

[pa. dad]

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!

There are CMs who can get you info on wait times as they are now carrying.

 

[agavegirl1]

No. Not since they invented wait time apps.

 

[wendow]

There are CMs who can get you info on wait times as they are now carrying.

Yes, I know. We have just not found the need to ask a CM for info. However, we travel in low-crowd times so maybe that is why. We just have been 100% fine on Disney trips without devices in hands all day.

 

[mummabear]

We go each year without any phone at all. Roaming is $5 per day and not really needed so we just enjoy not having the interuption.

 

[Davey Jones II]

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.

That's because people become hypnotized by the damn things, and fail to look where they're going, bump into you, block walkways, hold up the line in the queue, etc.

And no, no one stares at a piece of paper; they might look at it for a few seconds, to read the info written down, then put it away. But those smartphones turn people into zombies all day long...

We've done all our WDW and DLR trips without the dumb machines. My g.f. had a tablet p.c. and left it at the hotel room, where it belongs. One time, I used it to change a couple of FP+ reservations. Other times, we used the kiosks to book additional FP+. We go on vacation to get away from it all, not to be hooked up to gizmos all day.

I use a "trip planning notebook." Everything I need is in there, including day by day commando schedule, reservation numbers, phone numbers, etc. I leave it in my backpack. I open my eyes and enjoy the beauty around me. I interact with the people and the themed environments.

I don't even own a smartphone (thank God for small favors).

 

[goofyintoronto]

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.

yup, same here. Im canadian so my data is turned off when im in florida, i rely solely on wifi and its been totally fine. Sure its spotty but nothing earth shattering. For the most part it works just fine.

 

[goofyintoronto]

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.

I use both actually. I have a paper/schedule that I print out that includes all my adrs, adr times etc. And I also use my phone/MDE. I find the paper much easier, as I just unfold it, glance, and put it back.

 

[Paigesmom2013]

I wrote our plans on an index card but I loved looking at our pictures on the app since we bought memory maker. It's also so easy to change a Fastpass on your phone. I had to stand in line at a kiosk for a 4th fastpass and was annoyed at the people who had no clue trying to make fastpasses.

 

[disneyseniors]

Count us as non smart phone users. We are not against technology, but come from an era that did not have them. I love my laptop and spend way too much time on it (on disboards) Don't bring it on vacation. I don't like to be tied down to a phone. I know you don't "have to", but there are definitely a lot of people hooked on them. I wish everyone would leave them behind at their resort for one day or even a few hours and see how they like it!
I write our small schedule on a piece of paper and put it in my pocket. Usually has 3 fp's on it, but we only use one or two of the ones we really want. Why make us set up 3 fp's when you really don't
want to ride dumbo??? Never understood that. So, like lemmings, we make the required 3 fp's and never use them, probably blocking someone else who really loves dumbo; makes no sense to me! I just pull out the paper, take a quick look, and go if I want to. We stand in lines if we don't have a fp. Don't mind doing that, as it was the only way to do it for a long time. We have met some interesting people while in line. We stood in line for 7dmt, even tho we had a fp. We got dumped on with a severe rain storm on our 7dmt fp day, so we are glad we took the time to ride it earlier.
We also didn't use the dining plan last year as an experiment. We really like the freedom to eat what we wanted, when we wanted, and where we wanted. We also saved money and calories! all good
So count us as one of the dinosaurs who don't have a smart phone (much to my grandkds/kids embarrassment) and count us as ones who really enjoy the freedom of actually looking at it all, taking in the surroundings, without constantly looking at a device. Very freeing
There's not much at Disney anymore that can be spontaneous, and we have a little bit of that magic again

 

[MouseyMin]

The MDE app runs fine on the iPod Touch. Recommend she bring it.