Walkie talkies

[Mehudicka]

Our family has been to WDW oodles of times, but not in the last two years, and I suddenly now have a teenager who reeks of independence. Have any of you bought those walkie talkies to use during your trips so you can communicate if your group breaks up?

If YES, what are your expeirences... and which make/model would you recommend? Is there a certain mile range that we should get.

We are leaving the last week in August! Thanks!

M.E., Walt's Biggest Fan

 

[Dopey's twin Dippy]

oh please dont tell me that my favorite place on this earth is going to be run over now with WALKIES and CELL PHONES. oh please its going to be like every other place, the movies, restaurants, burger king, the malls, oh no. lol...... i wonder how my mother with 6 kids got by.........lol lol

 

[Mskanga]

We have the motorola FR60 that I bought 3 years ago, we have used them plenty of times at amusement parks and never had a problem, they have the subchannels ( make sure you get subchannels or you will hear other people talk on the same channel ) , they have a 2 mile distance limit , they worked without a problem in each one of the parks but if you plan on going to one park and she goes to another park, I suggest cell phones. This last trip we had our cell phones with Verizon nationwide service , it worked like a charm.
I still take the radios with me because my 10 yr old sometimes likes to venture out around the hotel for a few minutes and I can track her down that way, she likes to go down to the gift shop.

 

[Belleotheball]

On our last trip to Disney we brought along our walkie talkies (or family radios) - I think I bought them at Best Buy, they were the Uniden brand - not too expensive. They have the 2 mile range and also have the subchannels. We always picked a weird subchannel to be on, because if you don't you always are overhearing someone else's conversation. The channel we picked was fine, never bothered by anyone else.

I loved having them! We didn't want to use our cell phones because of our plan - not good long distance. So the walkie talkies were perfect. We also used them at the airport! Very easy to use, clip right on your belt like a cell phone - I have two little kids and it came in handy when we split up to take one on a ride, the other for a snack, or bathroom, etc. It was really good when we did the baby swap, so my dh could ride a roller coaster - I woule take the girls for a snack and then he would call me and say where he was and then I would go ride the ride, etc. I honestly don't know how we could have gotten on without them. My mother-in-law chided us for having them, saying they wouldn't work out and that a friend of hers had them and they were static-y, but she quieted down when she saw how well they worked. We still use the radios - they go with us whenever we travel out of town and sometimes, even the shopping mall.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[asa'smom]

We used the Motorola Talkabout T5410. They worked great. If we happened to be on the same channel as someone else we would just change chanels. No problems. Again ones with subchanels is a must. Also we always used them when we were in the same park. Don't know how they would work if your were in different parks. I would adventure to say not to good. We also used them at the resort if ds want to adventure by himself we could keep up with him.

 

[nataliesdaddy]

yeah the motorolas we have work ok - like other shave said you want to have lots of channels and lots of security codes or subchannels - we have 5 milers... but that is five miles line of site... to get past 2 miles on a one watt signal you have to register the talkies with the fcc for I think 75 bucks... they worked, were kind of convenient... I think nest time we moght buy a couple cell phones... or buy hand held ham or cd radios... you get more distance... and if I have gone back to the hotel to get something... and I am a mile or two from my kid and spouse then the extra ease of use would be good... just that is an expensive way to go... the walki talkies are like 55 bucks tops