Okay, I finally broke down and...

[Tuffcookie]

bought a pair of Motorola Disney walkie talkies for our 2 trips to WDW this year. Anyone else have them and what do you think about them?

TC

 

[WANNABE@WDW]

we attempted to use our motorola walkie talkies in nov 2002. it was hillarious... we had a very hard time reaching each other. however, we had no problems receiving people other than our party. we gave up and used our cell phones. we witnessed other families who appeared to be having the same problems. i hope you will have better luck.

 

[eeyore0062]

We always use our cell phones... we seem to have better luck with them!

 

[HM]

We haven't really had much of chance to use ours. In December we tried using them at a local mall and found ourselves talking to another family. I thought we'd picked a good channel....but no. I still plan to take them to WDW in May, so we'll see how they work then. -HM

 

[grinningghost]

I'm glad I read this post. DH and I were talking about buying walkie talkies for our upcoming trip. We want to keep in touch with the kids. Are cell phones really the better option? Or can someone recommend a walkie talkie that works well in WDW?

 

[Horizons16]

well it all depends on if your plan is down into florida. if it is i would use the phones... if not paying $1 for a second is crazy.

 

[KathyR]

Ours work great! We do pick up other families on occassion, but that is no big deal to us. Just make sure you have one w/sub codes. If not then you are in for some trouble! You will pick up so many other families that you will want to throw them in the trash LOL! The sub codes are the key to having a happy successful experience. While you may still get some other family, chances are it will be just one other group. I also recommend having the vibrate feature on your radios (explained further down).

When you get to the park leave your radios on for a while set to whatever channel and sub channel you plan to have it on while you are apart. Tour together for a little bit to monitor how busy the channel and sub channel are. That way you can change your frequency to a better one before you split up if need be. Have call names to go by, and I don't mean your regular names. Who knows how many Bob's will be on your frequency. "Bob are you there?" Who knows who might respond. Have a back up channel plan in place that you both know so you can say this channel is too busy switch to the other one, and after getting a confirmation that they heard you and understood you, make the switch. Have a plan in place for when one of the parties is on a ride. It is rude to talk on your radio while in/on an attraction. Either turn the volume down or turn it off while expriencing any attraction. We have a vibrate feature on ours, so we call the other using the vibrate and if the one being called is on a ride then we vibe back w/o speaking so we don't disturb anyones ride experiences including ourselves The vibe back means hold tight we heard you and we will call you back in a few minutes when we get off the ride.

Just be prepared, and set up a plan for problems before you go

We LOVE having our w/us!

 

[SuzEm]

So what kind of coverage does WDW have? Is Cingular down there? I've been wondering about this very thing.

 

[ToyStory Fan]

I have a pair of Motorola's and a pair of Kenwood's. We have used them extensively. To put the range of them in perspective I was at the Turkey leg stand near frontierland and my DW was at the Food court area near the Astro Orbiter in Tomorrow land. That's about as far as you can expect for range. But they are most helpful when one of you goes to find a table while the other gets on line for food or something while having a quick meal in the parks. Or if you have 2 or more kids and decide to split up and meet in a "general" area later on.

 

[Horizons16]

Originally posted by SuzEm
So what kind of coverage does WDW have? Is Cingular down there? I've been wondering about this very thing.

I have a Verizon plan that covers all east coast in to about the mississippi i think.... i also have some other areas here and there around the nation. Its the family plan thing with abou 1,000 min between 4 phones.

 

[WANNABE@WDW]

I HAVE AN ALLTEL PHONE WITH NATION WIDE LONG DISTANCE. THE SERVICE SEEMED TO WORK FINE. MY SISTER IN LAW HAD SPRINT AND IT WORKED WELL TOO.

 

[kilee]

I have the family plan w/ Verizon and we never use all our minutes. We find that the text messaging comes in handy when reception may be bad, making it difficult to hear.

 

[CindyKansas]

We have the motorola 2-way radios and have used them the last two trips, but you do pick up a lot of other conversations. This summer we are going to use the cell phones. We also have Alltel, with the freedom across America plan. We rarely use all of our minutes.

 

[AKASnowWhite]

Originally posted by KathyR
Ours work great! We do pick up other families on occassion, but that is no big deal to us. Just make sure you have one w/sub codes.

I agree that the *sub-channels* are the key to successful walkie-talkie use at WDW!

Ours are an older model from Radio Shack (we've had them 3 or 4 years now), and have 14 channels, each with 15 *Quiet* sub-channels. We really have used them quite extensively, not only at WDW, and have had very little problems with *interference*.

 

[Terry S]

We have Cingular, the nation plan. It works fine in WDW and we don't get roaming charges with the nation plan.

 

[Vlahakis2001]

After a rough experience with Walkies we all use our cell phones.

 

[SuzEm]

Terry S: Thanks for the Cingular info. Looks like I need to switch to the Nation plan. Some friends of mine will be there at the same time and we'll probably use our cell phones to stay in touch. As well as being able to call home and check in with my DH - since he's not going.