Disney is really pushing phone usage!

[OhDannyBoy]

Contemporary has a Fuel Rod kiosk in the lobby. Is $30 for a mediocre charger a perfect solution? No. But it was a solution, and it had your cables, which you could have used on someone else's charger. This was a $30 problem.

Here's a 2 pack for $19.99 that I'd wager is leaps and bounds better than the kiosk ones.
https://www.amazon.com/Miady-10000m...29730945&sprefix=phone+battery,aps,181&sr=8-6

I agree! If you think it's bad now the new Genie will make it even worse as it tries to direct you to rides with smaller lines. You'll have zombies all over the park walking with the phones in their face not paying attention, walking into people, missing the amazing details of the parks.

Just like now. LOL

 

[kc51570]

Contemporary has a Fuel Rod kiosk in the lobby. Is $30 for a mediocre charger a perfect solution? No. But it was a solution, and it had your cables, which you could have used on someone else's charger. This was a $30 problem.

I’m not sure this is just a charging problem. Critics of FP+ complained about not wanting to have to be on their phone all day refreshing for FPs. I had no trouble with picking up new ones and did not spend my entire day on the phone. Genie seems to be forcing more phone usage, but the anti fast passers seem to be happy about the changes.

I do need reading glasses, but have 0 problem with tech. Not happy about the new Genie program for a myriad of reasons, none of which are because it is more technologically advanced.

 

[NotUrsula]

In addition to vision issues, touchscreen devices have another set of gotchas for older adults: problems with our hands, including zombie finger. As we grow older, the moisture content of our skin changes, and for many people of a certain age, touchscreens no longer work reliably. When that happens, one has to switch to a stylus, another PITA to keep track of. And if you have arthritis, also difficult to use.

Part of the reason I use a Pixel phone is that they have the best disability features for the hearing-impaired, but no amount of of app-tweaking is ever going to make a touch-screen device a good fit for a blind person. Cell phones are almost always helpful for people with disabilities, but we took a step backward when the technology abandoned everything but touch screens. Even wireless charging presents problems for the blind: my wireless chargers only indicate connection by means of a light.

 

[shh]

These posts are weird to me. If you can afford thousands of dollars for a Disney vacation, you should have a battery and a cable. Standard for everyone by now.

international is trickier, this is tough with Disney wifi.

I don't think you are actually reading the posts. It's not just about the battery/cable. I too have vision issues - like one PP mentioned - constantly looking down at a cell phone is a huge hassle, as it requires a different lens strength vs walking around/looking at signage, interacting with everything in the real world. You sound young - so you may not have heard or are familiar with Presbyopia - but it's a real thing for most people over 40.

While WDW may covet the young crowd...it's the parents and grandparents by far who are funding these trips. Annoy them enough and it'll impact the bottom line.

 

[shh]

and btw....I couldn't believe that WDW only offers Apple and not android items. Seriously? I only know a couple of people who have Apple phones - everyone else I know has Android. Seems weird to serve only 1/2 the market. I wanted to buy a cute phone case and not a single store on WDW property had android. Found a bunch at Universal - so they got my money instead.

 

[RoseGold]

I don't think you are actually reading the posts. It's not just about the battery/cable. I too have vision issues - like one PP mentioned - constantly looking down at a cell phone is a huge hassle, as it requires a different lens strength vs walking around/looking at signage, interacting with everything in the real world. You sound young - so you may not have heard or are familiar with Presbyopia - but it's a real thing for most people over 40.

While WDW may covet the young crowd...it's the parents and grandparents by far who are funding these trips. Annoy them enough and it'll impact the bottom line.

The original post was about losing cables and claiming there aren't any Andriod cables at WDW, which just isn't true.

I'm not a huge fan of the mouse right now, but this isn't why. Mobile ordering and check in and all of that has been great. I've never been to WDW when it wasn't a completely phone-dependent experience, as it has been for many years. Since Covid, I haven't seen many restaurants even have physical menus anymore.

 

[ST1TCH]

These kinds of posts always kinda amaze me. I'm in my late 40's....my parents are in their early 70's. Maybe it's my occupation in IT that gives me a proclivity to tech and using a smartphone but it's almost like an essential part of my life. Same goes for my wife. Same really goes for most of our family and friends. My parents (especially my Dad) are pretty savvy with their phones as well. I know plenty of my parents friends who are even more savvy.

Y'all do know that you can change the text size on your screen so it's easier to read? (for all the reading glasses comments)

And as has already been pointed out in the thread, these portable charging batteries are a must for a trip like Disney and are very affordable. Don't wait until it's too late and then be stuck with the crappy ones in these kiosks or what they might sell in a park store. Get something at least 10000mah and high speed charging and lean towards quality brands like Anker.

 

[NotUrsula]

Was just at the eye doctor Friday. I cannot use bifocals or progressive lenses without nausea and headaches because the difference in Rx between my two eyes is too great. I use monocular contacts, but I'm developing problems with dry-eye now, so I also have to own two pairs of Rx glasses, neither of which allow me to see close to 20-20. I have to up the contrast on my phone to see the screen outdoors in sunlight, which, you guessed it, sucks power even more. A Fuel Rod won't cut it; I need a 10,000mAh battery to get through a full park day. Add to that the issue that many app features don't work if the screen is on high-contrast mode, and it just gets more and more frustrating -- which is not what these apps were supposed to be. Again, failure to design for accessibility for all guests.

 

[snappy]

With the Covid surge, I also cringe with the idea of touching surfaces and then using my phone, even in the grocery store, doctor appointments and visiting my mom at her facility. Increases the use of sanitizer exponentially.

 

[easyas123]

While WDW may covet the young crowd...it's the parents and grandparents by far who are funding these trips. Annoy them enough and it'll impact the bottom line.

I think you are 100% right w/ that statement.

These kinds of posts always kinda amaze me. I'm in my late 40's....my parents are in their early 70's. Maybe it's my occupation in IT that gives me a proclivity to tech and using a smartphone but it's almost like an essential part of my life. Same goes for my wife. Same really goes for most of our family and friends. My parents (especially my Dad) are pretty savvy with their phones as well. I know plenty of my parents friends who are even more savvy.

I'm also in my late 40's, and use tech all the time for work. I have a smartphone & use it. For some of us, well we value not being tied to tech 24/7. Can we do it? Yes, of course we can. Do we want to do it 24/7 after working year round with so much tech, when we just want to unplug just a little? Just a little...not saying we won't utilize our tech, but we don't want to be beholden to it. . If I'm using my phone so much during the day that I need to recharge it, then I've not been relaxing, I've been staring at a screen for far more of the day than I wanted to.
Do we have a choice when going to WDW in using this tech? For the most part, yeah - probably. But at what point will we not have a choice? Can we go elsewhere with our vacation $$$, yes. And some of us will. As I noted above, I think 'SHH' has a excellent point. What a shame, for those of us who really have come to value a trip to WDW to unwind and unplug. It's starting to become impossible.
I think, for some of us, it's starting to become more work than relax. More work than unwinding.

 

[snappy]

These kinds of posts always kinda amaze me. I'm in my late 40's....my parents are in their early 70's. Maybe it's my occupation in IT that gives me a proclivity to tech and using a smartphone but it's almost like an essential part of my life. Same goes for my wife. Same really goes for most of our family and friends. My parents (especially my Dad) are pretty savvy with their phones as well. I know plenty of my parents friends who are even more savvy.

Y'all do know that you can change the text size on your screen so it's easier to read? (for all the reading glasses comments)

And as has already been pointed out in the thread, these portable charging batteries are a must for a trip like Disney and are very affordable. Don't wait until it's too late and then be stuck with the crappy ones in these kiosks or what they might sell in a park store. Get something at least 10000mah and high speed charging and lean towards quality brands like Anker.

Yes I have the text size for texts increased. Does not seem to help when using the MDE App, or am I miissing something. Add in the glare and trying to social distance while using the cell phone.

 

[DisLiss]

I hear you. To me, a real vacation means as little driving or phone use as humanly possible.

But alas, right now, if one wishes to go to Disney, one must accept it as it currently is. I will say, though, that while COVID caused us to choose to reschedule our last summer trip twice over now, if I start to feel badly about that, I can at least tell myself that I'm not missing certain aspects of the world.

 

[Pyxie]

This would have worked if my phone was charged so I could make the order......OR if the Contemporary Resort had a business center and/or available computer to use. I was out of luck. I may not be phone tech savvy with apps, but I do have a brain and tried everything I could think of.

We stayed at a hotel on I Drive the 1st 3 nights of vacation to go to Discovery Cove/Sea World/Aquatica. For $119/night, we had a suite and the hotel had a business center (I used their computer every night checking for availability at Beaches and Cream, which I finally got ) and free buffet breakfast with made to order omelets/mickey waffles/toast/bagels/bacon/sausage/cereal/fruit ...everything!

Then we moved over to CR for $459/night with the tower basically shut down and smelling strongly of paint, mobile app needed to buy an apple juice!, no activities due to major renovation etc..etc... If it was anywhere but Disney I would have complained, but I love Disney too much. Id be happy in a closet there !!!

But you said you were with your daughter who also had a phone because you used her charger. You could have ordered from Amazon on her phone.

 

[NotUrsula]

Yes I have the text size for texts increased. Does not seem to help when using the MDE App, or am I miissing something. Add in the glare and trying to social distance while using the cell phone.

You're not missing something. The MDE app is NOT disabled-friendly, even if you are defining "disabled" as simply farsighted. For starters, it has no Settings option; the only thing you can set is language preference and whether or not to get notifications; you can't set the notifications to be anything other than sounds (normally I have my phone set to flash for notifications, but that doesn't work with MDE.)

It is not possible on every screen to enlarge text within the app, not by permanent setting, and not using finger-spread page zooming (it works on some screens, but not all: you can enlarge the theme-park reservation screen, but not the Mobile Ordering one, which is bass-ackwards, since you are much more likely to be using a phone to order food). It also has a tendency to hang when used with the phone set to high-contrast mode.

St1tch, the OP related an incident about a lost charging cord, which of course is on her, but it all fits with the reality that if you cannot comfortably rely on being able to consult/use a smartphone to make all your in-park decisions, then your ability to enjoy the parks to their fullest is diminished, and the galling part is that that is not accidental, but designed-in to the present day park experience. If you are going to sell power-related phone accessories in the parks at all, then you need to sell them for all types of phones, not just one brand. (I'm not going to extend this wish to things like cases, just items that allow phones to actually function.) And if you are going to create an app that uses this much power, then the power banks sold in the parks need to be up to the challenge of providing it. A 2600 mAh Fuel Rod isn't going to do that for a current-generation smartphone.

It's not just about text size, it's about forcing a guest to both carry and frequently use a fragile, expensive device that requires an independent power source. If you are going to make it so you cannot take advantage of the majority of park activities without it, then it should at least be designed so that it is less likely to fail. Step 1 for that would be stripping down the excess content & visuals so that power & bandwidth consumption is reduced, and beyond that, creating a settings menu that allows disabled guests to decide for themselves how they can best interact with it. The Disney Company prides itself on accomodating the disabled, but this is one area where they have really fallen short.

PS: One note I will chime in with here is that as a HoH person, text messaging is a certified miracle for me, especially in a theme park, where the level of ambient noise is so high that I simply cannot carry on a voice conversation without being able to lipread. DH prefers voice calling, but in theme parks at least, I've finally persuaded him to text even if I'm standing right next to him, because I so often misunderstand face-to-face conversation when ambient noise is loud. Cell phones are a Godsend for the Deaf and hard of hearing (and that goes double in a pandemic), but definitely not so much for the vision-impaired.

 

[Adventureland]

I'm usually near/on my phone, can't complain there. I wish the app was more optimized, it seems to eat up quite a bit of battery and is still rather finnicky. The main screen is cluttered with a bunch of stuff I don't need, why not put my plans at the top?
After a certain point I could not do mobile check-in on the app very easily. Only after the phone detected I was near the restaurant and I could click the notification I got. Not usually a problem and thankfully I never had a problem with mobile order (which I greatly preferred to talking through an actual menu, probably because I'm a Zillenial lol) but I think they need to iron out the app before pushing it even further.

And YES. The Iphone cables are so annoying. Most folks have Samsungs, why not offer at least SOME cables for them? Very inconvenient.

 

[Miffy]

There are solutions to many of the problems/complaints expressed in this thread.

If you need to have your reading glasses in order to read your smartphone, then you can put them on a string around your neck or push them up on your head, a la sunglasses. Also, you can get reading sunglasses, for that matter. Or put fold them into the front of your shirt. Get cheap readers so you wouldn't mind losing them.

Can't read your phone's screen in the sunlight? Neither can anyone else. Find some shade.

Don't want to look at your phone all the time? Don't. It's not a necessity. Back in ye olden days you might've had to take the park map out of your pocket after every ride. Did that seem burdensome to you? And if you needed your reading glasses to read the map . . .

If your complaint is that certain aspects of a vacation at WDW are more and more reliant on having a smartphone, you are correct. They are. But it's really not horrible, burdensome, awful, or cruel of Disney. You don't have to use a smartphone. You can just wander around the parks, stand in standby lines, and soak up the atmosphere. Nothing wrong with that and in fact that can be lots of fun.

Most anything--especially since we're talking here about a vacation and not a serious life event--can be dealt with if you start looking for solutions. They exist and there're lots of them.

 

[PFopma]

I'm 60 something and pretty tech savvy compared to many friends. I'm an Art Director who has been working from home since March 2020 so I'm my own IT department most of the time. I really don't want to spend my time at Disney with the phone as an appendage. I may glance at it while I am waiting in line but I really don't want to depend on it for dining, room key, navigating around the parks, and access to attractions. My phone is less than a year old and I need to charge it every day with average use. But I am certain it will be an issue having to stop and charge your phone throughout the day just so you can keep going and actually be able to get in your room at the end of the night.

And where do people charge their phones? I used a lounge to charge my phone during Food and Wine and spending quite a bit of time there waiting for my phone to change. I may pick up a few of the portable battery packs but then that is one more thing you have to carry around.

 

[Turksmom]

I'm 60 something and pretty tech savvy compared to many friends. I'm an Art Director who has been working from home since March 2020 so I'm my own IT department most of the time. I really don't want to spend my time at Disney with the phone as an appendage. I may glance at it while I am waiting in line but I really don't want to depend on it for dining, room key, navigating around the parks, and access to attractions. My phone is less than a year old and I need to charge it every day with average use. But I am certain it will be an issue having to stop and charge your phone throughout the day just so you can keep going and actually be able to get in your room at the end of the night.

And where do people charge their phones? I remember going to the Chase Lounge during food and wine and spending quite a bit of time there waiting for my phone to change. I may pick up a few of the portable battery packs but then that is one more thing you have to carry around.

There are charging ports in the chairs near Soarin" and the tables near the Tangled restrooms- not sure if there are others. Son and I have new Samsungs- which don't come with cords, so we'll have to remember to buy those before we travel

 

[reddog21]

I personally like most of the advancement Disney has made with smartphone technology but I do agree that battery life can be an issue. Smartphone use is just going to get bigger not just in Disney but everywhere.

 

[DISNEY1975]

Maybe this is an age gap thing (making a HUGE assumption here, that you may be older than me, if I am wrong don't beat me up LOL), but is charging your phone not part of a normal everyday routine? That is an honest question as for me plugging my phone in nightly is part of my everyday.

Yes young lad, charging my phone is part of my every day routine. I can tell you are young and didnt read through the posts...just skimmed. If you read them all, you would have seen that multiple times I mentioned I lost my charger somewhere between my luggage being in storage with bell services and getting to my room. I did not give specific times, so maybe it was confusing, so here is exactly what I did that day, starting with my phone being at 100%.

We woke up!
We left I Dr hotel at 7am and headed straight for the Poly for breakfast at 7:45am
This is where my DD and I split up. I went to Kona and she and friend went to Ohana...with her charging cord to use with her powerbank thingy.


After breakfast, she went directly to MK. I poked around in the shops, bought a few things, took a few pics. At that time, around 9am, I got a text from Contemp that our rooms were not ready. I knew they wouldnt be, but I drove over there anyway so I could park car. Since my DDs friend bought this HUGE thing of chocolate from the MM store the night before, I drove up to the front of CR and asked if they could store the luggage so the chocolate wouldnt be in the hot car all day. I waited over 1/2 hour for bell services, but they finally came and took the luggage from the car and brought it indoors, never to be seen again until 3pm.

I then parked the car and went to the CR shops. I then decided to take a ride on the monorail. I saw this adorable couple with amazing matching shirts and had to get this picture to show my husband. This is my new goal I want a Golden Anniversary Tour too!

(Hard to read, but it said Golden Anniversary Tour, 1971 - 2021
Epcot
Magic Kingdom
Sanibel Island)

And they were holding hands



Then I took the monorail.....and some more pictures (still waiting for the text about my room and receiving more texts telling me to use my phone for direct to door)










I then headed back to the parking lot to get the car and drive off property to get water and go to BC for my Beaches and Cream ressie at 1pm

But....on the way, saw the monorail coming, so took anther picture



Then...went to get water and Beaches and Cream





So...because I was dining alone, I had 2 choices.
1) eavesdrop on every conversation around me
2) Go on my phone and check the weather back home, check texts, messenger, reply to some, read about Boo Bash etc...

I went with option 2.

After lunch, my phone was at about 40% because MDE was on the whole time. This was around 2. I went to the Marketplace at the BC, looked around and got the text my room was ready.

Got back to CR, went straight to room and called bell services for my luggage, which came rather quickly. Now my phone is in the 30%s. Since I was meeting up with my daughter at 6 for dinner and it was 10000000 degrees outside, I decided to charge my phone a bit and take a shower.

Thats when I noticed I didnt have a charger and went around the WORLD looking for one, and bought a powerbank for $30 that did next to nothing. As time was ticking before I had to meet my daughter at the MK, my battery was dying a slow death. I really wanted it charged to take pics at the MK, but it didnt work out. I did use her charger for the remainder of the trip and kept MDE off for the majority. I had a magic band and knew where I was supposed to be when.

The end. Now does it make sense to you????