I've been thinking about the fact that...

[lisalonglash]

there won't be a DVD player at ASSp. If we buy a cheapskate portable DVD player and bring it, is it easy to hook it up to the hotel room TV? I'm sure there will be a few evenings when watching a DVD will be the event of choice for our boys and/or our nephews.

 

[Lollipop's Mom]

I am pretty sure there is lots to keep them busy without watching dvds. You are in DISNEY WORLD! The pools, the arcade, etc.. and if they want to watch tv, there is disney channel.
No offense, but I can't imagine spending 1000s on a family vacation, only to have my kids lay around and do something they could at home (watch dvds!).

If they 'must' have one - then you can hook a portable one up easily.

 

[lisalonglash]

I am pretty sure there is lots to keep them busy without watching dvds. You are in DISNEY WORLD! The pools, the arcade, etc.. and if they want to watch tv, there is disney channel.
No offense, but I can't imagine spending 1000s on a family vacation, only to have my kids lay around and do something they could at home (watch dvds!).

If they 'must' have one - then you can hook a portable one up easily.

While I agree with you in principle, my oldest son is extremely spirited and watching a DVD helps him to unwind after an exciting day sometimes. Also, at the time when we'll be at WDW, the parks are not open late, so we'll be returning to the resort for the evening. I'm not sure why I'm justifying my request for information on how to hook up a portable DVD player to the hotel TV, but there ya go...

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Hey Lisa,

I'm no help with an answer to your question (our first trip is coming up in January) but I totally agree with the whole "need to unwind" thing. Our ds, now 12, requires that coming-down period after an active day to help him relax and prepare for a fitful night's sleep. When we travel, the portable DVD player is just the thing to do it. That way DH can watch something on the room tv, and DS can watch his own thing on the DVD player with the earphones . Everyone is happy and therefore mom can relax too!!

 

[ferris198]

Hey Lisa,
Don't feel the need to justify your actions.
We took our portable DVD player when we went, as I agree with you it is a good way for the kids to wind down.
In the case of my son, he could watch a movie on the DVD, and we could watch TV.
As ours is the portable, we could either use the battery pack, or plug it into an outlet.
It was also handy to have on the plane.

 

[lisalonglash]

Thanks for your understanding and support - glad to know I'm not the only one with children who need to chill out after a super exciting day

As ours is the portable, we could either use the battery pack, or plug it into an outlet

Ferris - would you mind sharing what is involved with plugging the player into an outlet? If we do this, will the movie show up on the TV screen? Am I ever electronically-challenged LOLOL

 

[mickeywho?]

Our little portable DVD player came with cable to plug it into a tv - usually it's the red & yellow holes on the front of the hotel tv - obviously my husband sets it up for us! When you shop around for the player ask if it comes with the cable or if you need to pick it up seperately - should be pretty straight forward.

 

[lisalonglash]

Our little portable DVD player came with cable to plug it into a tv - usually it's the red & yellow holes on the front of the hotel tv - obviously my husband sets it up for us! When you shop around for the player ask if it comes with the cable or if you need to pick it up seperately - should be pretty straight forward.

Thank you , that's great information for someone as obviously tech-challenged as I am

 

[ferris198]

The portable can be used by itself, using the battery pack, or plugging it into the outlet.
It can also be used hooked up to the TV, the cables are usually provided.
Hooking it up to the tv is actually quite simple as the cables, and hook ups are colour coded, red, white, and yellow.
We generally used the portable player as a stand alone so that that way ds could fall asleep watching a movie on one bed, and we could fall asleep watching tv (usually soapnet watching reuns of Knots Landing ) on the other bed.

 

[starrzone]

there won't be a DVD player at ASSp. If we buy a cheapskate portable DVD player and bring it, is it easy to hook it up to the hotel room TV? I'm sure there will be a few evenings when watching a DVD will be the event of choice for our boys and/or our nephews.

No help here, but I must say that I agree 100% with needing "wind down" time at the end of a busy day! My friend and I always do that when we travel; when we were in Europe, we'd go to a convenience store, buy some junk food and flip on the tv. Hey, bloopers are the same whether they're in Italian, French or English!

 

[barkley]

just to share-if you will be renting a car you might check with the agency to see if they rent dvd players. we rented from budget just last week and they rented us a very cool little personal dvd player. it came with both a car and a wall plug in-and 2 sets of headphones. cost was around $12 per day-so not a great deal if you're going to be there allot of days-but not bad for a short to moderate stay.

walmart sells a decent dvd player that we bought just for travel-smaller than a portable, weighs less than a pound and comes with the tv cord hook ups. runs around $29.

p.s.-we've found that having the kiddos pre-select from their dvds the ones they want and then putting them into a small cd wallet saves tons of space packing wise.

 

[pxlbarrel]

If you have a video camera, plugging in a portable dvd player is no more different or harder than plugging in your video camera to watch your vids on your tv. As everybody has mentioned, use the patch cords that have the yellow, red and white plugs and stick it into the corresponding coloured holes on the front of the tv. (Those who have been in a resort room more recently than I can tell you if the tvs are configured with the input jacks in the front of the tv.)

One thing though.... before you take your dvd player with you, make sure it works with whatever you plan to play in it. Some of those cheap players are fantastic and will play ANYTHING... someimes more than my more expensive player. Other players... well, my cousin has a dvd player that won't play legitimate dvds but will only play copied dvds. Yeeesh. Go figure.

I don't bring a portable dvd player with me but I have been known to watch a movie/tv show or two on my laptop while on vacation. Heck, I brought a ton of cds with my favourite soap on it when I went to Japan and Hong Kong last year. LOL (Watching Japanese tv was entertaining for only a little bit... but after a while, not understanding a single word got a bit tiresome.)

 

[snickerboo]

Get a portable one. We have two portable one sand they came with the wiring to plug them into a full-sized tv. Ours are just cheap ones bought on sale at Walmart (cheap enough we bought one for each kid!) and they are great.

 

[maxie]

We've taken our portable DVD player the last couple trips.

As we go in January/February the evenings can be dark and cool. My boys enjoy unwinding with a movie. We just plug it into the outlet and they veg out for a bit. That leaves the tv for hubby and I to watch.

Having the DVD player is also awesome while waiting in the airport!!!