I've relied pretty heavily on my smartphone while traveling in the last few years, including one (brief) trip to WDW in 2018. For all the reasons others have cited I'm really dubious about the idea of leaving it behind...and yet....
Part of me thinks 'I used to do just fine without a smartphone,' but so much has changed to give smartphone users an edge with
MDE and so on. And, too, as a solo traveler I get a certain level of enjoyment out of snapping photos of things to upload to social media or send directly to friends (got a good snicker out of sending a photo of a pair of Captain America boxer-briefs I spotted in a
Disneyland Paris shop to an unsuspecting friend back in the states). I think it's easy to fall into the trap of relying on the phone to keep my brain busy, though, and feel like I'm "doing" something when it's a vacation and I don't need to be doing anything other than enjoying my surroundings. I agree with a previous poster, too, that while FP+ hunting can be satisfying and can get you through a bunch of attractions quickly, it distracts you from your surroundings.
I don't know what the answer is for me. I know that when I went to Kings Island for the first time last month (solo), I was surprised to find that I didn't need my external battery because I was on my phone so rarely. I'd really expected to drain my phone taking pictures and keeping myself entertained in lines, but I hardly even looked at the thing. I don't know if that's because it was a new experience for me or what, but I've been wondering if it's repeatable at WDW. I don't think I want to go so far as to leave my phone in my room (let alone leave it at home), but in general I've been thinking I want to de-optimize my upcoming trip by not worrying about getting as many FP+ as possible and not crisscrossing the parks to take advantage of low posted wait times. I think I'd rather just take each park land-by-land, enjoy the atmosphere, and accept that my FP+ schedule won't be optimal and that I might wait in a few longer lines...and that this approach will mean less time on my phone since I won't be constantly working to find the "optimal" next activity.
