Walkie Talkies

[Conniesaurus]

We were thinking about purchasing walkies talkies for our upcoming vacation. What range would be need, mile range that is if we are in Disney World. What about price range, and brands? Any help would be great, we seen some for 40 a piece with about 5 miles. Thanks.

 

[anniet]

I paid $50 for a pair a few years ago- I think they have a 3 mile range, and they work fine in the parks and at the resorts. I even could slightly hear my BIL while we were on the mono-rail at the TTC and he was outside of Splash Mountain.

I wouldn't spend a ton of money. Also you need to realize there will be lots of others with walkie talkies as well, so chances are you'll be sharing channels.

 

[canwegosoon]

We use the cell phones instead...afraid that others might be on the same frequency with walkie talkies. DH always has his cell for work (even on vac.) and he got me a verizon phone that you put $20 every 3 months (because I don't like to use them), but using them to meet up at Disney is a great use.

 

[Dean]

There are those with a 2 mile range and those with a 5 mile range. Realize they will never reach teh full range listed. We have both types and I'd recommend the Motarola ones at Sam's. They are about $60 with a charger and two rechargeable batteries. They are the 5 mile range and have sub codes plus an option that allows you to talk to only the same type of radios (Motarola). There are others out there but definitely get rechargeabel type and a 5 miles range.

 

[FLYNZ4]

We own Motorola talk abouts... and I am not impressed. I agree with the suggestion on cell phones. If you are out of range... cell phones have voicemail... vs walkie talkies that are just frustrating.

With family plans being so cheap now... everyone in my family has a cell phone and we use them every day. We did not make this move until they started reaching driving age... but that is about the time that family use of cell phones started becoming cost effective.

/Jim

 

[JimC]

Cell phones are great if you have service. Vacations where there is no service -- cruises, boating on a lake, portions of national parks and the like are just what the GMRS and FRS radios are made for.

 

[Poorman]

We have the Motarola's that Dean is talking about, they work just fine, We could talk from the BWV to Epcot very clearly. They also have weather channels and alarms and clocks built in. We also got them at Sam's. The cell phones were a problem while inside the BWV,not much of a signal.

 

[gopherit]

I also like the fact that if anything happens to a walkie talkie, it's a good bit cheaper to replace! I don't have a problem letting my kids use the Motorolas we have... but my cell phone, ummm, no.

Also too -- CHECK YOUR PHONE POLICY. Many cell phones have roaming fees or cost more minutes, etc if outside designated calling area. Could be painful to find that out after the fact.

I will say, however, that the nice thing about the cell phone is if your child is lost -- you have an immediate source of contact. We take our cell phones with us and give each kid a small tag (like a key ring -- attaches to a belt loop, sneaker lace, etc) that has our cell # on it. If we ever lost a kid they know they can have a CM contact us. With the radio systems, you never know if the frequency you choose is going to be the favorite of other folks as well. We follow the rule about radio frequencies (use family birthdays... unusual numbers that everyone can remember! Like my birthday -- Oct 6 -- would be Channel 10, selection #6.) We know that if we can't reach the other radios using son #1's birthday, we then try birthday of son#2, then dd's. Never had to go past son#2 yet!

 

[edcrbnsoul]

Check in your Sunday paper ads, I think Best Buy has a 10 mile pair on sale for 69.99, it was them or Circuit City.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...45662&productCategoryId=cat06017&type=product