Cell phone reception in the parks

[WDWPrincess]

I'm assuming that the parks do not have free wi-fi?

I have an iPhone and my carrier is Sprint. I would like to upload photos to Facebook and Twitter while I am in the parks - when I was at Disneyland, this seemed to be an issue because the uploads would often be delayed.

Does anyone have any comments good or bad regarding when they tried to do this in the parks?

I'm asking about the parks themselves- not the resorts.

[Strmchsr]

The parks do have free wifi though it's pretty spotty on whether it works. I've found the wifi to be completely unreliable and I turn it off most of the time.

Cell phone reception in the parks is no problem except inside some of the pavilions. I've not had any problems uploading the occasional pic to Facebook using my data plan.

[Goofeygal]

Yes the parks and resorts do have free WI FI. Not the best but they do have it.

[John]

Disagree on reception... Verizon seems to do ok. AT&T and Sprint are a little iffy at times - especially doing ANY uploading. Calling and texting seems ok most times though.

Wifi is good when you can get it...

[1DisneyNut]

Verizon works great most everywhere except when you are inside some of the large buildings. The steel and concrete block the signal.

We were there July 5-6 and the free wifi in the parks has good signal in most places but they do not have enough bandwidth available to carry all the users. The wifi is totally unreliable but can be used at times.

[minnie04]

I have Sprint also and I can never upload pictures as I take them in the parks or really anywhere on property. If we leave the area then they download the phone reception is bad too at least in AOA rooms. I would have to go outside and walk a little to get a good reception. I do know ATT is better, but I’m stuck with Sprint for now :ack:

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

Has anyone used the My Disney Experience app? How good does it work?

[Polynesian Dweller]

Has anyone used the My Disney Experience app? How good does it work?

I have and it and the park wifi worked well during our 8 day trip. Reported wait and FP times were very accurate. Did most everything with it including having it find us a table at Le Cellier while we were in Epcot and at a good time 7:30pm.

Didn't push the wifi since hoping to do a lot a streaming isn't reasonable in areas with large numbers of users.. However, posted to FB (including pics) and to Twitter. You have to sign in a lot because they use very short ip lease times to be able to share the connections. You can think you are connected when you are not. If things slow to a stop, just go to the sign in screen and login again. It will be fine after login.

[MargaretMessler]

No issues in the parks, except as people have said, deep into some pavilions and attractions. I didn't bother with the free WiFi in the parks, as my phone seemed to struggle trying to find/connect to it. WiFi at my resort worked well. I uploaded pics to FB & Twitter nearly every day I was there for a week.

I have Verizon for service.

[VWL Mom]

The parks do have free wifi though it's pretty spotty on whether it works. I've found the wifi to be completely unreliable and I turn it off most of the time.

Cell phone reception in the parks is no problem except inside some of the pavilions. I've not had any problems uploading the occasional pic to Facebook using my data plan.

:ditto:
Verizon user

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

I have and it and the park wifi worked well during our 8 day trip. Reported wait and FP times were very accurate. Did most everything with it including having it find us a table at Le Cellier while we were in Epcot and at a good time 7:30pm.

Didn't push the wifi since hoping to do a lot a streaming isn't reasonable in areas with large numbers of users.. However, posted to FB (including pics) and to Twitter. You have to sign in a lot because they use very short ip lease times to be able to share the connections. You can think you are connected when you are not. If things slow to a stop, just go to the sign in screen and login again. It will be fine after login.

Great I just downloaded it:mickey:

[magicofdisney]

I have an iPhone with AT&T. When they first introduced the wifi in the parks (test phase?) I could not send pics via texting. Since it's gone live, I've not had problems uploading to FB.

The only times I've had issues in the last couple of years is when staying at POR. Many time we'd need to step outside our room to make or receive phone calls. Recently I did a survey for Disney and they specifically questioned my cell reception in various locations. So, while reception can be spotty for us at the resort, our wifi was spot on with no noticeable drops in connection or slow speeds.

[AvonleaCF]

I had T-Mobile for years and had great service around the parks and at resorts, but no service at all inside buildings, including the room. That was before free Wi-Fi.

I've since switched to Verizon, but haven't used it at Disney yet. Glad to hear it works well.

[SandmanGStefani24]

I used to have sprint, and never seemed to have any issues with reception anywhere in WDW. (Which was odd, as here at home signal was garbage) I uploaded pix to FB, texted, and made calls all with no issues. Plus at the resort was able to use the hotspot feature with good success. Although I was using a droid, and I know sprint iphones are sketchy at times. Maybe this was your issue? :confused:

Now a very happy Verizon customer :D

[ransam]

i use sprint, and to be honest the reception comes and goes. sometimes it's awesome., sometimes not so much.

[Eric87]

I've been down with both Sprint and Verizon. Sprint seemed to constantly roam and I would lose battery by the middle of the day. I now have Verizon iPhone, and my last trip texting and posting to Facebook all day on my data plan with no issues and plenty of battery life.

[ANG]

I have AT&T. The WIFI was great in the parks and in my room. I guess I was expecting too much but was bummed there was no wifi in the bus stops, because that's where we were using the MDE app the most.

[Tekneek]

With the new agreement announced with AT&T, hopefully quality of service for their customers will be excellent throughout WDW in the near future.

[King Triton]

Wi-fi is inconsistent, but it does work in some places. One thing I found is that on my phone I needed to turn wi-fi off while at WDW unless I was actively using it, since there's a lot of thrashing with the phone trying to reconnect to Wi-Fi...thus killing the battery.

What was nice is having Wi-fi work in places where I completely lost my cell signal...for example the Soarin' queue...