WiFi in the parks

[Bob Dolewhip]

Hi everyone,
Can any recent visitors tell me how good the Disney wifi is in the parks?

Is it overloaded and slow (like disneys website?)

I would like to rely on it for my itinerary in MDE, but I don't want to put the effort into entering plans and notes if it will slow me down.

 

[CAS239]

The only issue I ever have with their wifi is that sometimes it works slow while on the MDE app because so many others are on it on the same network. Outside of that I never have issues of the wifi dropping off unless your deep inside a ride. Like pirates of the Caribbean, I usually lose wifi and then sometimes cell service because of all the walls when you get close to getting on the ride.

Outside of using MDE sometimes I've never had issues with other stuff over their wifi. Watched football games, played games, used the internet, etc

 

[AngiTN]

I find it totally unusable. I have to turn it off and just use my data.
When I try to use wifi it drops continually. Drop, connect, drop, connect, 20 times in a 5 min period. Just annoying and useless.

 

[Accident]

It's wifi, it's spotty depending on where you are. open fields don't work as well as near but not next to a building.. a trick though is if your near rides, face the closest entrance/fastpass and walk a little closer. the fp+ touch point is also some of the wifi at disney so you can get a better signal.. It's usable for the app, i dont' find it slower than at home but depends on the wifi and whose around you.. (lunch in a packed place to eat, a lot of phones going.. in the hub waiting for fireworks and you get the idea)..

i find a lot that find it unusable tend to have their phone settings not ideal or an older generation phone with the lower end wifi ability. disable to slow down some things like you may not need your email and calendar to stay synced or syncing very often, etc etc..

with that said, I just keep PRL updated and turn wifi off when i'm at disney.

 

[AngiTN]

.

i find a lot that find it unusable tend to have their phone settings not ideal or an older generation phone with the lower end wifi ability. disable to slow down some things like you may not need your email and calendar to stay synced or syncing very often, etc etc..

with that said, I just keep PRL updated and turn wifi off when i'm at disney.

I have a brand new Note7 Edge that I keep up to date. I broke my prior phone, a Note4, and had the new one delivered to me at the resort so the phone was pretty new. I've even put it in airplane mode and use minimal operations and use Wi-Fi. Still awful in the parks. I have no issues at the resort.

While where I live has some of the fastest Wi-Fi in the country, used to be the fastest, I could handle the slow speeds but it won't even stay connected long enough to pull a list of my FP up on the ap. Cell service on the other hand is great

 

[alliecat523]

It never stays connected for me either.

 

[goofyintoronto]

It never stays connected for me either. Such a pain!

 

[KittyKitty]

Person with "dumb phone" question. Doesn't airplane mode mean no wifi connection? I have a tablet that has wifi.

 

[AngiTN]

No.

Person with "dumb phone" question. Doesn't airplane mode mean no wifi connection? I have a tablet that has wifi.

It means no data. You put your phone in airplane mode on a phone and them connect to the plane's wifi

 

[Nohal]

It was spotty for me. On and off continually. Wish I knew the trick of getting close to a touch point for FP before my trip. Hotel room wifi (AS Sports) was pretty terrible. I would have to re-connect everytime. It never stayed connected.

 

[Accident]

I have a brand new Note7 Edge that I keep up to date. I broke my prior phone, a Note4, and had the new one delivered to me at the resort so the phone was pretty new. I've even put it in airplane mode and use minimal operations and use Wi-Fi. Still awful in the parks. I have no issues at the resort.

While where I live has some of the fastest Wi-Fi in the country, used to be the fastest, I could handle the slow speeds but it won't even stay connected long enough to pull a list of my FP up on the ap. Cell service on the other hand is great

That's interesting, I wonder that is so different that you get a completely different experience.. (this is part of what I do for a living so more curious than most would be).

 

[Hikergirl]

I was surprised at how well it worked for me last week. I was expecting to have to use my data, but I had no issues with the wi-fi. To be fair though, I wasn't using it constantly so it may just have been coincidence that it was working great at the times I needed it.

 

[P'colaBeachBum]

I find it totally unusable. I have to turn it off and just use my data.
When I try to use wifi it drops continually. Drop, connect, drop, connect, 20 times in a 5 min period. Just annoying and useless.

Ditto. I have never had luck with the WIFI at the parks.

 

[Criickette]

I was surprised at how well it worked for me last week. I was expecting to have to use my data, but I had no issues with the wi-fi. To be fair though, I wasn't using it constantly so it may just have been coincidence that it was working great at the times I needed it.

My experience exactly! I had no issues with the wifi at all. However like quoted, I was only on MDE, email, quick searches...

 

[bbjunkie]

I had no issues with the wifi in the parks or in the resorts. Never had a problem with it dropping when on MDE. I didn't use it for mush else in the parks, though, with the exception of posting a couple of pics to Facebook while waiting in lines, etc. Never tried to use it while on rides or in restaurants, though, so I can't speak to that. I used my iPhone, and my daughter uses an older iPod touch and we just didn't have problems. Back at the resort, I used the wifi more, checking Memory Maker photos for the day and doing other things, but didn't have a problem there, either.

 

[OKW Lover]

I find wifi to be spotty. Sometimes its great. Sometimes its very slow. I can understand having poor reception deep inside some of the ride buildings, but I'm talking about just being out in the parks.

 

[kiford]

We've never really had problems. Occasionally when in our room we'd have to reconnect after a couple of hours of non-use but generally few issues in the park or the resort.

 

[GaryDis]

Person with "dumb phone" question. Doesn't airplane mode mean no wifi connection? I have a tablet that has wifi.

On an iPhone as well as an iPad with cellular, putting it into airplane mode will disable both cellular and wi-fi, but you can then manually reenable wi-fi without either enabling cellular or getting out of airplane mode.

 

[SuperPreparo]

We were just there a couple weeks ago. I did have problems with losing the connection, but nowhere as bad as our previous trips.

 

[Disney_Princess83]

Person with "dumb phone" question. Doesn't airplane mode mean no wifi connection? I have a tablet that has wifi.

It's not a dumb question. We come from Australia and we keep our phones on airplane setting. We can connect to wifi and just MDE, Twitter, Instagram and have no issues. That way we don't pay for our data.