Maps for your PDA/GPS?

[queenmum2]

My family will be going to WDW in October and my DH gets a kick out of all my planning. I strategically spring things on him sparingly -otherwise he gets overwhelmed (and comments "That's why the laundry isn't getting done... ).

Anyway, upon discussing our ADRs and some strategies for maximizing our ROI, I told him that you can download menus for your PDA. He said "What we need is maps on a GPS so we can find where we want to be". Made me wonder - is there such a thing? Not that we have a hand-held GPS, but sounds intriguing - especially at MGM...we got hopelessly lost there last time looking for 50s Prime Time Diner.

Tracie

 

[KerriSue]

Bumping this thread

My husband is also one of those gadget geeks

 

[kaze1sd]

http://www.eguidestogo.com/
I heard good things about this but haven't personally tried it. This is a pay service but they do have a trial version.

http://pocketdisney.com/disney/web/portal/pd/default.asp
Check out the Mouse Maps. I think these might be a little dated (not sure) but these are free. I have it and felt it was a little hard to navigate for my taste.

I am not planning on bringing my PDA on our upcoming trip so I haven't really used the above two links heavily but I hope these help you.

 

[Minnesota]

According to a book I just bought you can get maps for your PDA at www.pocketdisney.com I have yet to try this myself (darn work keeps getting in the way of may planning ) As for GPS there is usually software included with the purchase of the actual unit or at least there was a few years ago when my dad bought one for my mom. I get to run it all the time when we go on road trips. Generally speaking you load the section of map you want (i.e. Orange County Florida) then you can zoom in or out to see what you want to see all the way down to about 50 feet.

A few bits of info though. I love playing with this thing and Mom and I have found lighthouses that travel guides said "are not accessible by land" and driven to them via roads that resembled deer trails simply because we could see them on the GPS. In all my trips I have never brought it to WDW as I generally have enough to carry around (PDA, Wallet, Camera, water) so I don't know how it specifically works there. We have discovered that if there are thick clouds - you loose accuracy. This means if you are zoomed in to 50 feet to see the WDW parks and your acuracy is 45 feet, the GPS is going to be about as helpful as the park map anyway. We also discovered in Chicago if you are in condensed buildings or inside buildings you can loose signal entirely which means most GPS units will take a few minutes to reaquire the satalights once back outside. In that time you could either already be lost or annoyed with having to wait for it. Some GPS units have a really cool search function too. You can either program in points you want to get to or with some units you can search out nearby parks, land features, water features.

As with everything there are good points and bad points - its up to you. Let me know if you have any other questions. One more thing - even if your GPS that you may buy does not show enough detail in WDW you could still use it. you can find the GPS coordinates for specific places online then navigate simply by latitude and longitude. This is a bit more dificult as you don;t have a map but it can still be done.

Minnesota

 

[Don Pacho]

Wow, incredible !!

love the maps on the PDA. Cool.

 

[queenmum2]

Shoulda known that if WE could think of it, then it probably has been around for 100 years!

Of course, I'm a Disney geek married to a - well - real GEEK . So I know he'd be thrilled to get pn board!

Tracie