Resort Wifi

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Joined: 05/15/2012
Posts: 91
Resort Wifi

I understand that free wifi is now available to guests who stop on Disney property?

How reliable is it?

I am thinking of taking a laptop so that we can let people at home know we've arrived safely via Skype etc and just wondered if the connection was capable of this or if it is more for general Internet browsing?

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Joined: 03/02/2012
Posts: 38

Cadac,

The Wifi isn't quite terrible but is close to it. I have yet to understand why you can get a signal but can't send or receive email reliably. I find the rooms are pretty bad in this regard and have experienced it at WDW and DL in many hotels. I work everywhere I go and it can be a real nuisance. On the other hand, cell reception is usually very good so I can often make up for bad Wifi with 3G connections on my phone or iPad when the computer doesn't cooperate. On the other hand, it is much better than being overseas!

Hope that is helpful.

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Kristen K.'s picture
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Joined: 09/01/2011
Posts: 23803

The Disney WiFi is a pretty new thing, with major updates to the system happening in the past year. I haven't stayed at a WDW since it became standard, so I can't really say myself. Prior to the updates, I found things to be touch and go. One vacation my access would be perfect, the next trip I would want to scream because uploads were so slow it was useless.

Check out these two articles that we've posted about it:

http://www.wdwforgrownups.com/articles/wi-fi-now-available-all-disney-world-resorts

http://www.wdwforgrownups.com/articles/free-wifi-comes-select-disney-resorts

Who has been to WDW and used the Resort Wifi in the past 6 months? Information from folks that have traveled in that time would be best. Can anyone help?

finngirl's picture
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Joined: 04/11/2012
Posts: 1072

We just got back yesterday - stayed at POR. Forget using the wifi with your smart phone. That was a complete disaster. The connection either failed completely, or was cutting in and out.

I don't know if using a laptop, netbook, etc. would work better, but I heard complaints from others too. I figured I didn't need a laptop, since my phone is fully internet capable. I was hoping to use the wifi connection instead of the regular phone connections, and save some data usage. No luck. sad

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MrHub's picture
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Joined: 10/29/2009
Posts: 9504

Well when we were there in January at the Poly it was pretty good. I was streaming a web cam the entire trip and it never dropped. Try to upload pictures to photobucket was a pain sometimes, but over all I say it was really decent. Never lost signal.

Mase's picture
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Joined: 03/02/2011
Posts: 5438

At Animal Kingdom it was great. I brought a MiFi with me just in case, and we never used it. I uploaded 70-100 photos a night with no problem over there internet. So at least AKL Jambo was reliable for us.

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Offline
Joined: 05/15/2012
Posts: 91

Thanks guys Smile

I will probably just take my iphone then and try and use Skype that way. If not I will just get myself a phone card, just in case.

Would be nice for it to work but as it's free I can't really complain lol.

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Joined: 09/12/2010
Posts: 4704

We were at POFQ 2 weeks ago and our experience was as follows:

Laptop - no problems
iPad - spotty reception

And we were sitting next to each other.