In park communications question..Throwaway Cell swap maybe?

[jtoast]

How does everyone communicate in park? I prefer not to use my cell as roaming would kill me and I can't come back to my old plan if I go national.

Has anyone had any luck with something like the Motorola 2 way radios? I don't mind spending the money on them but am concerned that their may be too much interference to make them really useful.

My other thought is to pay for 2 throw away cell phones once I get out there but that just seems wasteful to use them for a week...is anyone interested in maybe doing something like the fridge swap except for portable cell phones?

If so, PM me. We will be in CA from July 3rd-10th. Not sure of which of those 10 days we will actually be in DL but I'm sure we could work out the details.

 

[spazzyjazzy]

We use our phones by text messaging each other. We have used walkie-talkies but, then we got preoccupied by listening to the other people on our walkie-talkies and that was probably the funniest stuff we have ever heard.

 

[hlbtimes2]

We didnt have good luck using our radios in the park. It was hard to hear them, and it was also hard to find a channel that wasnt in use. Luckily our phones work well in the park and we didnt have to use roaming.

 

[buckler]

We are taking our Motorola Talkabout 250's to the DL an DCA parks next week. I'll report back on how they work out for us. They have 14 channels with 38 subchannels to choose from, so hopefully we will be able to find a subchannel that isn't being used a lot. We have successfully used these at WDW.

I just looked at Amazon and found a reviewer that said he/she used the 250 model I have at Disneyland and they worked ! I think the key to getting the radios to work is buying a model that has subchannels to increase the number of channel options. By the way, they don't make the 250 now, I bought them several years ago. I'm sure the newer models work even better.

 

[blackjackdelta]

We use the cells, tried the WT"s a few years back and there was too much cross talking.

Jack

 

[HydroGuy]

The Motorola TalkAbouts that have sub-channels up to 99 seem to work well for us. Our old ones had sub-channels up to about 35 and those always had cross traffic and were not effective. After we bought new ones a couple years ago and used the sub-channels above 35 there was very little traffic there and we could find our own sub-channel. We plan to use these again next week at DLR.

We have cell phones for a few family members and those become the last resort backups. The nice thing about the Motorolas is that we have one for every family member. Rarely is that necessary, but on our last DLR trip we lost our DS9 on a busy Main Street one evening which could have led to some mutual panic between child and parents plus wasted time searching for each other. But what happened was better. As soon as my DS9 realized he was lost he popped on his Motorola and called us about 30 seconds later and we re-connected in another 30 seconds. That reconfirmed to me the value of having all family members with communication devices. If everyone has a cell phone like some families do these days then that serves the same purpose. Our younger members do not - only the teens have cell phones at this point.

 

[mickey+minnie91]

Hi, you know after reading your posts, I realized that I have these talkabouts. Ive never used them. My 5 year old got them as a present for his bday and I now dont know where the instructions are. Any tips or a brief over veiw on how to use these. This would be a great thing to have on our trip in since we are traveling with another family. I dont think they are going to want to keep up with my "commando" style of tourning. Plus I love all the tips

 

[stacielee]

Hi, you know after reading your posts, I realized that I have these talkabouts. Ive never used them. My 5 year old got them as a present for his bday and I now dont know where the instructions are. Any tips or a brief over veiw on how to use these. This would be a great thing to have on our trip in since we are traveling with another family. I dont think they are going to want to keep up with my "commando" style of tourning. Plus I love all the tips

Which ones do you have? We have a couple different sets and I could scan in the directions (if I can find them) and email them to you.

 

[piratewench1]

We just came back from Disneyland on 6/11.

I activated an "old" cell phone for $5, got almost 2 hours of airtime (national), and never had to pay for any more airtime! If I decide to keep it activated, I'll have to pay a minimum of $10 every 4 months. Not a bad deal at all.

Let me know if you want details. It was fast, easy, and worked great!

 

[jtoast]

Which provider was that with PW1? I haven't found one yet that would give me a minimum package like that?

 

[piratewench1]

It's through PagePlus Cellular. PM or IM me for the deal I found.

 

[piratewench1]

OK, apparently I don't have enough posts to be able to PM ?????!!

I can email the info or you can chat with me on AOL IM - I'm "DiscountDental4u" .. I'm sorry!

 

[piratewench1]

OK, I just did a fresh PM instead of replying to the PM I received and it worked fine. Go figure!!!!

 

[SnackyStacky]

Virgin Mobile runs on Sprint's network. I'm not sure how Sprint's reception is out there in Anaheim - BUT...

You can get a Virgin Mobile pre-pay for as little as $20 per phone and it comes with a $10 startup card (included in the $20 price tag). You can use them for this trip and them keep them if you travel elsewhere again. I don't know how much the long-range walkie-talkies are, but I should imagine that they're not much less than $40.

As someone else suggested, you can also text with the cell phones.

Just a thought!

 

[jtoast]

*nod* had already thought of the prepaid route and have decided that's probably the way to go. I will just pick up 2 or 3 phones when I get to CA.

Texting is probably my most cost efficient method but I absolutely despise texting so thats just not an option..heh.

 

[SnackyStacky]

I absolutely despise texting

Me too, but I'm usually in the minority on that one! Non-texter solidaritry!

 

[Sleeping Becca]

Sprint has great reception at DL, never had a problem with service.

 

[buckler]

Update: We used our Motorola Talkabouts in Disneyland and DCA today. We were on one of the 1-14 channel subchannels and no one else was on our channel.