Connected to the "real world" while at WDW?

[NYBaloo]

Imho, the Orlando area TV stations leave a lot to be desired, especially the news! That being said, we used to love watching the Appliance Direct commercials! But what the hubby and I have discovered is buying several bottles of wine and each night we sit by the pool, have a drink and relax. Neither of us want to hear anything about the outside world. It's amazing how many folks go by and say "we should have thought of that". And for getting to sleep, we have old time radio shows on our ipads that we can listen to as we doze off from a wonderful Disney day.

 

[Dog Ate Mouse]

When it comes to vacation, it is just that vacation. A lot of todays people forget what vacation truly is. It means down time and a much needed charge of ones system. It means getting away from day to day life and activities. It also means finding your laugh and getting care free and totally relax. When we are in WDW we do not bring cell phones or gadgets into the parks. My wife brings with her a small little digital camera that really takes great pictures. Now at the resort we have our lap top and it is on for two things:

1) To check in and see how the dogs are doing at Best friends in the Doggy Day camp on web cam
2) My wife down loads her photo's from the previous day so she always makes sure she can take all the pictures she wants.

We do not look at E-mails and we tell our Daughter to only call us if there is a problem. Other than that we have no communications with the world and the only thing that matters is what we are going to do for the day. We truly do get wrapped up in our stay and forget about life and issues for 10 days. After our WDW vacation ends, then we start to slowly get back into reality. The first week of vacation I am unwinding and adjusting to a slow and easy pace. By the start of the second week I am completely laid back and care free singing songs and just going with the flow and making our on pace and activities to do and see. When I come back to work the first few days are horrible but I am still relaxed and fully energized. A vacation like this is so healthy for the both of us. Our biggest stress for the day is what we want to do. To me a vacation means just getting away from it all. We both love not being connected. This year is eve more so. My wife and I have take care of our Mom in our house for 9 years. The tenth year my Mom had to be placed in a nursing home because she could not walk and we both work and could take care of her propperly. My Mom passed away this Past January 1, 2014 at 4:45 in the evening. This last year was the most difficult because we visited her everyday and made her feel that she was never forgotten. So this years vacation is truly nothing more than about us and getting away from it all at WDW. My daughter and grandson and son-in-law wants us to get away and forget about them and our two dogs. They plan to make sure that my dogs are cared for that will stay at Best freinds in Berlin NJ. They will also take care of our two cats and told us that if we even call other than telling them we arrived safe and sound that there will be trouble to pay. So I already know our Dogs will be removed from best friends if any issues arise and will be at our daughters house. So with a crew supporting the two of us like that, how can we not just go and not call them unless there is something wrong or tell them we have arrived at WDW. It's times like this is when you apprecaite your children even more so.

 

[PrincessMia]

I don't check any email, turn on the TV at all, or read/listen to the news. At all. With a very plugged-in family, DH and I take pride in truly disconnecting at the World. All of this comes with the obvious disclaimer that we use the app to navigate our trip. There's not much of a choice these days, and I enjoy being able to make/change plans on the fly.

 

[KLeigh]

My "Must Nots"
- Absolutely no work of any kind
- No news, only check the daily forecast
- No unnecessary cell use (except for taking pictures, checking wait times, making ADRs, and the occasional call/text to my parents to let them know I'm not dead - even at 27, lol)
- No worrying about things back home

 

[tinkerblonde11]

The last time I went I tried to stay away from my phone as much as possible... until I realized just carrying around a small smart phone to quickly grab at random times was easier than my larger camera for snapping pictures, and the quality is about the same. Between that and checking FP times, I was on my phone more than I expected. I made a rule with myself no social networks for posting until the trip was over so that helped with the disconnecting. My family very rarely watches the news or any of the TV channels other than Disney's when we're in the room. Then again it may be because we leave asap and get back around 1 each night... But I agree that disconnecting is always good!

 

[lisa 1989]

We usually watch some tv before bed. American TV has just become part of our holiday over the years and feels as much of a tradition as nightly fireworks to us now. Besides we take bets on how many adverts one programme can contain, lol!

 

[KCheatle]

When it comes to vacation, it is just that vacation. A lot of todays people forget what vacation truly is. It means down time and a much needed charge of ones system. It means getting away from day to day life and activities. It also means finding your laugh and getting care free and totally relax. When we are in WDW we do not bring cell phones or gadgets into the parks. My wife brings with her a small little digital camera that really takes great pictures. Now at the resort we have our lap top and it is on for two things:

1) To check in and see how the dogs are doing at Best friends in the Doggy Day camp on web cam
2) My wife down loads her photo's from the previous day so she always makes sure she can take all the pictures she wants.

We do not look at E-mails and we tell our Daughter to only call us if there is a problem. Other than that we have no communications with the world and the only thing that matters is what we are going to do for the day. We truly do get wrapped up in our stay and forget about life and issues for 10 days. After our WDW vacation ends, then we start to slowly get back into reality. The first week of vacation I am unwinding and adjusting to a slow and easy pace. By the start of the second week I am completely laid back and care free singing songs and just going with the flow and making our on pace and activities to do and see. When I come back to work the first few days are horrible but I am still relaxed and fully energized. A vacation like this is so healthy for the both of us. Our biggest stress for the day is what we want to do. To me a vacation means just getting away from it all. We both love not being connected. This year is eve more so. My wife and I have take care of our Mom in our house for 9 years. The tenth year my Mom had to be placed in a nursing home because she could not walk and we both work and could take care of her propperly. My Mom passed away this Past January 1, 2014 at 4:45 in the evening. This last year was the most difficult because we visited her everyday and made her feel that she was never forgotten. So this years vacation is truly nothing more than about us and getting away from it all at WDW. My daughter and grandson and son-in-law wants us to get away and forget about them and our two dogs. They plan to make sure that my dogs are cared for that will stay at Best freinds in Berlin NJ. They will also take care of our two cats and told us that if we even call other than telling them we arrived safe and sound that there will be trouble to pay. So I already know our Dogs will be removed from best friends if any issues arise and will be at our daughters house. So with a crew supporting the two of us like that, how can we not just go and not call them unless there is something wrong or tell them we have arrived at WDW. It's times like this is when you apprecaite your children even more so.

I'm sorry to hear about your mom! But it sounds like you have a great support system behind you! I hope that your trip gives you some much-needed relaxation

 

[R W B]

I'm on all my phone checking emails and getting texts all the time no matter what or where I am. Its definitely a bad habit. I'd like to get to the point where I'm not like that on vacation but I'm not there yet. I own a small business that's growing pretty quick so I have to be available always at this stage.

As far as TV, I'm a news junkie but I do understand y'all's view on watching news there. Really is no need to considering I can get weather on my phone.

 

[SyracuseDisneyFan]

I also usually text a family member who ends up not coming to check on my fur siblings.

 

[jprieur]

Put the iPhone in Do Not Disturb mode, and exempt family members from incoming calls/texts for emergencies. I guess I could turn off email too, but when the ride goes down during my fast pass window I like the alerts to notify me to make another selection.

Way to tired at night to watch anything of intellectual value in the hotel, so usually just on disney info channel for background or some cartoons. Let the world fall apart while I am there, will deal with it when I get back to reality.

It is a bit of a bummer with MM+ basically requiring a smartphone for full utilization. Such is the way of the world now.

We always joke on the ride back to the airport, how ugly the real world is - that first view of a strip mall when you leave the gates (gross), the unkempt bathrooms at MCO, coupled with TSA (FAR cry from CM level happiness) employees. Real world, no thanks! For what it costs to vacation at Disney, happy to tune that out, it will certainly be there when I get back, like death and taxes, life is too short to worry about certainties.

 

[Britt]

.....we (wife + me) ...both have our own businesses ...so keeping 'connected' is a must. My wife has an at-home Spa Party business ...and I've seen her book numerous parties while waiting in the stand-by lines ...and sitting at a bar at the resort ...or in one of the eating venues. She also needs to coordinate said parties with her employees while we're away .....

Oh see, I couldn't do that. My husband has been going to school FOREVVVVVER it seems and brings his laptop to work on homework/reading/studying when the kids are in bed. It drives me nuts and it's in our downtime...I cant imagine during actual park time. LOL It's awesome she's successful though!

 

[JillC LI]

One of the things I always aim to do while I'm at WDW is disconnect from the "real world." With the new FP+ and other things that require me to have my smart phone handy, I don't get as much disconnect as I'd like. But, that's neither here nor there. My biggest struggle is when we're in the room at night and the kids go to sleep -- do I watch TV or not?

On the first day of our last trip to WDW, I was sitting on a ledge waiting for DH, DD and DS to ride ToT. A woman sitting next to me was fiddling around on her smartphone and suddenly got very visibly upset. I asked her if she was ok, and she told me that the Sandy Hook shooting had just occurred. Obviously I was horrified as well. When I had my first moment alone with DH, I told him what had happened, and we made a point of not turning on the radio or tv in front of the kids for the rest of the trip so as not to upset them. That was an extreme situation though.

 

[Matt_Black]

Now that you bring up something like that, on my last trip, we headed for home November 2, 2013. As you may recall, there was a pretty serious incident the day before at an airport, so airport security nationwide was a little more thorough. It was good to have that heads up, ESPECIALLY considering what a cluster... uh... fudge Orlando's security line can be.

 

[AngryEyes]

Must watch ESPN for baseball highlights as I fall asleep and I have to go on my laptop to check on my fantasy baseball team each night.

Everything else can wait until I get home.

 

[minniemickeyfan]

I only use the phone for checking the weather channel app, and the My Disney experience app. We have a strict rule about no TV at Disney. And get this -my husband is so "unplugged" he still has a flip phone.

 

[Mouse_Trap]

The cost of roaming has always meant almost zero usage on any holiday abroad.

I will periodically connect to free wi-fi to pick up news etc from home - usually only for the sports scores though. Mobile is carried, but really only for emergencies.

What really is that important that it can't wait until you get home?
If it's really that important, then someone will ring you.

 

[JillC LI]

....funny story: At home ...in our bedroom ...the TV is on ALL NIGHT ....because it keeps the dog company (seriously)

This was actually a trivia question on my local radio station about 2 weeks ago: What do 35% of all dog owners admit to doing for their pet? The answer was leaving the TV on when they leave the house to keep the dog company! You're not alone

 

[Uncle Remus]

I try to but I just can't. I would stress more about my business if I wasn't connected to it.

 

[SteveW]

We're quite lucky in that watching American TV is part of the holiday so even that's fun for us. Man, do you have a lot of ad breaks

Funny you should mention ad breaks. I was watching a movie one night on CMT and thought the commercials were running long, so I timed it....program ran for 8 minutes & the commercials ran for 10 minutes. I shut it off and went online to my favorite Disney website.

 

[Mouse_Trap]

American TV always seems crazy to me.....so many ad breaks which seem to run forever.

In the UK we are really not used to that, maybe 4 minutes every 15 maximum on commercial tv and of course no breaks at all on the BBC channels.