Free In-Room Wireless at WDW Starts Today

[brivers222]

That's one rumor I'm seriously skeptical about. I can't see Disney making a big deal about rolling out free wifi at the deluxe resorts and two weeks later suddenly charging for it. Maybe after a year when everyone has gotten used to it (like how the DDP used to be a great deal and then they kept scaling back value while upping the price, but everyone was used to it so no one noticed), but not after two weeks. That makes no sense from any angle.

I just read this... "Complimentary in-room wired internet will also be available at these resorts until Octobert 24. If the testing for complimentary Wi-Fi is successful, the free availability will continue in the future. This will not affect the status of Disney Vacation Club members, who currently receive complimentary Wi-Fi."

I am guessing that is why it will be a fee based wifi after the 24th... then in the future they may make it free.

[texas211]

About time!

I do try and limit my internet time while at Disney, it is nice not to have to pay $9.95 for something the holiday inn gives me for free!

I travel a lot for a living. To me paying for internet is like paying for cable in the room, or clean towels.

I bring a wireless router.

[dnickels]

Wow, seems like people have been calling for this for years now, surprised to see it so suddenly.

I'm surprised because I've always understood Disney to follow the casino model where they want the guests to maximize the amount of time spent in the parks/shopping/dining areas because they don't make any additional money if folks are sitting in the rooms. It wouldn't be hard for a family of 4 to burn an hour or so between all 4 family members checking their email/facebook each day. Sounds like a win for the guests (at least for now) to me!

[Goes4FastPass]

Just the number of people using it at a value would drive significant planning. At a deluxe/mod, you can only have so many people connected in any given area, while at a value, it's like a sardine can, so you'll have tons of people. It could bring a poorly designed system to it's knees. The cost associated with that type of system may prohibit them from allowing it to be "free"...

The system should not be poorly designed.

What's with these value resort sardines? Next thing you know they be expecting toilet paper in their rooms just like deLUXE guests.

And when it comes to standard minimum motel room offerings like mini-fridges WDW should treat ALL guests well and think of new ways to make their DVC members feel special.

[Polynesian Dweller]

Have been seeing one oddity in the wifi, they seem to be blocking YouTube. If you try to go there directly it will not connect. In facebook imbedded YouTube is reported as block and reason given is because its r rated. I didn't know that NASA and the PGA Tour did r rated material.

[BrerGnat]

Have been seeing one oddity in the wifi, they seem to be blocking YouTube. If you try to go there directly it will not connect. In facebook imbedded YouTube is reported as block and reason given is because its r rated. I didn't know that NASA and the PGA Tour did r rated material.

Are you serious? That's a bit much. My son spends a fair amount of time each day watching videos on You Tube, particularly of marble runs and such. Nothing even remotely "R" rated. Why can't they just stay out of people's business while they are online? Why do they care what sites people are visiting?

[magicofdisney]

Have been seeing one oddity in the wifi, they seem to be blocking YouTube. If you try to go there directly it will not connect. In facebook imbedded YouTube is reported as block and reason given is because its r rated. I didn't know that NASA and the PGA Tour did r rated material.

There are a few spots in MK where you can pick up wifi. The first time this happened for me was in the Emporium. I was looking for an animal my friend asked me to purchase for her. I tried to send her a picture and it wouldn't go through, via text message. It was then I realized I was on the wifi and not using my data plan.

Between your posts and my experience, I'd say they're definitely restricting certain usage.

[DizneyRox]

There are a number of things I've seen that Disney blocks on their Internet. My solution is to create a tunnel home and just do everything through that.

Any business worth their salt is going to do this. Imagine the number of people leaving their laptops on all day to downloads torrents, etc. I know several people who do just that on vacation (Cape Cod and such)...

[Polynesian Dweller]

Are you serious? That's a bit much. My son spends a fair amount of time each day watching videos on You Tube, particularly of marble runs and such. Nothing even remotely "R" rated. Why can't they just stay out of people's business while they are online? Why do they care what sites people are visiting?

At 4:22 pm YouTube is now working fine. It did not work for the first two days. Guess they're trying to figure out what they should or should not do. YouTube downloads are quick.

[Mousemates]

At 4:22 pm YouTube is now working fine. It did not work for the first two days. Guess they're trying to figure out what they should or should not do. YouTube downloads are quick.

well, my wife and son will be glad to know that we can now watch "chinchillas taking dust baths" not just at home, but at WDW as well.

[Mogie]

Sounds like Disney is trying to attract some more business types!

[hokies4life]

We were pleasantly surprised to get the free WiFi at CSR when we checked in on the 15th. We thought it was just because we were in Casitas area, but it looks like its part of this new promotion. At least we'll get to take advantage of it while we're here . Nice speeds and like pp said some embedded videos were blocked the first couple days but things seem fine now.

[Disney Doll]

I might bring the iPad2 i am getting in a few weeks with me now... i wasn't going to because I am getting the wireless only one... but dang.... I am going to be uploading picks all trip now

My experience has been that it's more hassle than it's worth to upload pics using Disney wifi because it's so slow. It can be done and I have done it just because I had time to kill after my little guys were asleep, but mostly it's just irritating and time consuming.

We've had access to the free DVC internet for the last couple of years and it doesn't bother me one bit that they are extending this to non DVC members. In today's internet age it's about time Dinsey caught up.

Just as an aside, my husband has Verizon 4G and I have Sprint 4G. Neither of us got great connection at Wilderness Lodge unless we were on their wireless. We didn't have that problem last year at Beach Club and we didn't have that issue in the parks.

[Polynesian Dweller]

The roll out this week may have improved uploading. I've uploaded a few pics at the Poly and haven't noticed any problems. Could be they've installed better infrastructure to accommodate more people.

[Scar]

This is all very vexing to me.

[Disney Doll]

The roll out this week may have improved uploading. I've uploaded a few pics at the Poly and haven't noticed any problems. Could be they've installed better infrastructure to accommodate more people.

Nope. We just retunred Tuesday and it was still pretty slow.

[AdventurelandTikiGirl]

Just returned from a weekend at Coronado Springs. The wifi was terrible. I could barely get any pages to load. And I had to spend a half hour on the phone with Verizon because somehow being on Disney's wifi screwed with some of my phone settings (the same thing happened to my mom). I'll stick with the 3G network while at Disney.

[Polynesian Dweller]

Just returned from a weekend at Coronado Springs. The wifi was terrible. I could barely get any pages to load. And I had to spend a half hour on the phone with Verizon because somehow being on Disney's wifi screwed with some of my phone settings (the same thing happened to my mom). I'll stick with the 3G network while at Disney.

Interesting because I am being honest about the Poly. It was fast, at least as fast as at home, and after they stopped blocking YouTube I had no problems at all. Actually, both DW and I were using it and she had no trouble either.new were very impressed.

Don't know what that says. It could either be device settings or they haven't got it right everywhere.

[BrerGnat]

Just returned from a weekend at Coronado Springs. The wifi was terrible. I could barely get any pages to load. And I had to spend a half hour on the phone with Verizon because somehow being on Disney's wifi screwed with some of my phone settings (the same thing happened to my mom). I'll stick with the 3G network while at Disney.

This happens a lot on cell phones when you use the wifi signal. Almost every time I connect to a wifi signal other than my home network, my phone comes to a standstill (pages won't load, email won't refresh, etc.). I have to restart it EVERY time. I use AT&T, and it's not an issue with the carrier, it's an issue with the phone. Once I restart the phone, the wifi works fine. My husband's AT&T windows phone does not have the same problem as mine.

I'm sure if you had tried the wifi with a different type of device (a laptop, ipod touch, tablet), you wouldn't have noticed any problems. Some cell phones are notorious for having issues switching between 3G and wifi when both are available.

[Disney Doll]

Interesting because I am being honest about the Poly. It was fast, at least as fast as at home, and after they stopped blocking YouTube I had no problems at all. Actually, both DW and I were using it and she had no trouble either.new were very impressed.

Don't know what that says. It could either be device settings or they haven't got it right everywhere.

I think it has to be that they are still working out the kinks. My husband is a phone nerd. He sells them for a living and would know if there were some kind of setting that could have fixed it. Now that we are back he says he wishes he had run a speed test so we could give a specific example of how slow it was.