Motorola Disney Two-Way Radio ??s

[The Sybah Shelstah]

Just wondering what anyone has to say (yah or nay) on the subject of whether or not buying and using the two-way radios (specifically the motorola Disney 2-way radios) is a good idea/worth it?

They go 2 miles- but do they actually work well within each park?

And also- I have a question- on the website linked to these radios from mousesavers.com it describes the item and in the description it says they are "perfect for ages 6-12". Why? I think I can assume why not younger than 6- but what's up with the 12yr old maximum? Why are they NOT perfect for 13+?

LOL
Seriously though... that stumped me. I can't figure out why they are saying that- 6 through 12yrs old?!?

I was more thinking of using them for me and my husband so that we could go our seperate ways (each with one or two children) and not be worried about meeting up again. We pretty much stuck together like glue on our last trip (but probably mostly because the place was SO packed being the busiest week of the year) and only one time did we "seperate" on accident and had a heck of a time finding one another again. So I thought this would be a good idea for those kinds of times or if we seperated on purpose?

So if you have used them- please give me some feedback on them?
Also things like do they work well in each park? Or do you end up getting frustrated because other's with 2-way radios are interferring so you can't use yours?
Do the batteries run down quickly so you'd have to replace them atleast every day? (I'm thinking like digi camera batteries that run down so quickly everytime you use the camera. I have rechargable batteries- but would they need to be replaced more than once daily?)

Things like that.
Thanks in advance if you can help.

 

[CRCrazy]

We've used regular Motorola Talkabouts on trips for a couple of years now - they do have the privacy codes, and we've never had any trouble in the parks but we do go at a slower time of year. We forgot our radios at home on our December trip - thought we could get along without them, then our two teens got stuck on Splash Mountain during MVMCP for an hour, while we were waiting outside at our meetingplace. The next morning, I purchased a set of the Disney Motorolas at the hotel gift shop!

They are great - I still use them instead of the older ones here at home. The only reason they might not be recommended for teens is the embarrassment factor. As a call factor, you hear Mickey's Voice paging "Hiya, Pal!" I guess you can change that to Minnie's voice or a regular call ring, but I haven't tried that. I haven't tried them in different parks - we've always used them when splitting up in a park to go on different rides, or different counter service food for picky eaters! The batteries last pretty long - I've never had to change them during a trip, but they only use regular AA's, so it's easy to do.

We split up to get food one time, gave a radio to my 13 year old so she could grab a hot dog at Casey's while we hit the Turkey Leg vendor - everything in Frontierland was closed, so we ended up hitting Cosmic Ray's in Tomorrowland, and she found some characters she wanted in her autograph book, so we kept in close contact by radio, and she found her way back to us. It was a good thing we had them, as she had a hard time figuring out where we were - everything in tomorrowland has neon lights!

 

[strawberryblonde]

We used these in Dec. 2002 and had great luck with them. No clip for your belt though, which my DH would have liked.

 

[dvcfamily41801]

We used them on our trip in October and thought they were great!! Had no problems with interference at all. They did not have the belt clip, but I just put the string around my little wallet/purse thingy and had no problems. We did not have to replace the batteries at any time on the trip, in fact I think we still have the same ones in there!!

 

[MickeyEars]

I just purchased these this week when I saw them on sale at Amazon. We also have the Motorola Talkabouts, but these were so cute I just had to have them!!! Very speedy service I might add. They were here in two days. It's great to see all the good reviews of them here. Now I feel better about staying in touch with my two boys. Thanks!!

Carla

 

[Alice28]

I bought a pair not too long ago for our upcoming trip. They are so cute- they take AAA batteries, 4 each, so that's quite a bit. But you can change the paging voices to Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy or Daisy. My 5 year old and I tested them out for a week and lo and behold, the one he was using already ran out of battery juice. (Probably because he was constantly holding down the talk button). I'm glad to hear the good reviews and I already have them packed for our trip!

 

[The Sybah Shelstah]

Thanks for all the comments/info! I appreciate it!

 

[Obsessed w/Disney in OH]

One little suggestion...

We've used our radios at WDW, but one year we had technical difficulties and my husband could not hear me, but I could hear him. The lesson we learned was always form a back-up plan!!

Luckily, I knew about where they were heading after the ride they were on, so we headed there. We were very fortunate, but we could have wasted valuable park time "looking" for each other. So, please, don't rely on the radios as the only means of meeting and making plans.