Tips for Staying Off Your Phone in the Park

Everyone needs some Disneyland tips these days. It's getting harder to avoid spending all day on your phone at in the park. Genie+, posted wait times, mobile orders, virtual queues, show times, park tickets, dining reservations, Photo-Pass, and customer service are all handled through the Disneyland App. It's becoming a frequent complaint from park goers. And since the Disney apps are not well optimized for battery usage either, so many guests have to take battery packs to extend life. Some of it is unavoidable, but here are some tips you can use to reduce the time you spend on your phone.

Prioritize experience over recording. There are Point of View (PoV) videos of full ride throughs and shows all over YouTube. You can find a video of just about anything you'd like to see, and it'll be higher quality than you can get. Focus on enjoying the experience, not recording it.
Set alarms for Genie+. People using Genie+, the service that gets you into most of the Lightning Lanes at the park, will check their phones often to see if the window is open for them to get their next Lightning Lane. Instead of checking back frequently, you can set an alarm on your phone for the time. Then, just wait for the alarm to go off.
Wear a watch. I often find myself pulling out my phone to just to check the time. And then while it's out, I'll look at other notifications. A watch can help you avoid this - just look at your watch to check the time, and don't worry about seeing your phone.
Don't answer calls and texts. If you're carrying on a text conversation or answering a phone call, it's easy to get absorbed into looking at your phone. Don't answer, especially if you're on a ride. Focus on the experience.
Turn off notifications. Lots of your apps will give you notifications that aren't really urgent. You could silence the notifications so that it's not buzzing at you throughout the day.
Create memories together. Theme parks give you a new environment. Instead of scrolling through social media, play games with your friends or family. You can play I-Spy, search for Hidden Mickeys, play charades, or just talk... The queues can give you some great time to spend together.

Walt Disney created Disneyland as a place for people to spend time together, and the company has continued to build the environments with that in mind. There's art, architecture, music, and entertainment all over the park. Most things on your phone can wait. Live in the moment and enjoy the experience you're paying for. Use these Disneyland tips to get the most out of the experience.

Comments

Check Out Some of Our Most Popular Articles

Time Transforms Rio del Tiempo to Gran Fiesta Tour

Characters keep sneaking more and more into Epcot. This park started out as a permanent World’s Fair, but it doesn’t come across that way anymore. Nemo has taken the Sea, Lion King has been to the Land, Ratatouille and Beauty and the Beast are in France, and Frozen is in Norway. To celebrate Epcot’s 40th anniversary, let’s take a look at the Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Cabelleros, the first attraction at World Show Case to be transformed to a character ride. Rio del Tiempo Rio del Tiempo was conceived as an attraction to celebrate the history and culture of Mexico. Like the other original attractions at World Showcase, you can see a country’s influence on the pavilion. The Aztec temple facade drew people for shopping, dining, and the ride entrance. Once you boarded this gentle boat ride, you’d float by a volcano and another Aztec temple. After that, you’d take a trip through time that would show you snippets of Mexico’s ancient, recent, and modern history. The physical componen...

Edison Square, Unbuilt at Disneyland

Edison Square was a planned land at Disneyland that was never built. The area was intended to be a turn-of-the-century city block inspired by the inventions and innovations of Thomas Edison, the famed inventor and businessman. Some of it's planning was designed to mesh well with the then-planned Liberty Street, which turned into Liberty Square at the Magic Kingdom. Although the land was never completed, it remains an interesting part of Disneyland history and a fascinating look at what could have been. The concept for Edison Square was first introduced in the 1950s, shortly after Disneyland opened. The land was designed to showcase the technological advancements of the early 20th century, with attractions and experiences centered around the inventions of Thomas Edison. The area was meant to be located between Main Street USA and Fantasyland, and would have featured a variety of shops, restaurants, and attractions. Some of the proposed attractions for Edison Square included ...

Are the Rides Darker than Normal?

Have you ever thought one of Disney’s darkrides looked darker than normal? Maybe things were hard to see, or they didn’t glow the right way. I’ve heard this blamed on an old paint job or lights that need replacing. The blame always seems to go to the maintenance team. But normally, the too-dark-darkride has nothing to do with maintenance. It has a lot more to do with queue design and time of day. Theme parks are not built for the slow days. The walk ways, ride capacities, queue sizes, restaurants and show offerings are designed around keeping crowds entertained and busy. So are the visuals in the rides. Imagineers expect that guests will be waiting in line for each ride. Particularly for dark rides, they build indoor queues. This keeps the crowd entertained while they wait, but it also give you a gradual transition while your eyes adjust to the lower level of light. Take the Disneyland Haunted Mansion as an example. When the queue is full, you start off in the bright sun, and make your...

Magic Kingdom had WHAT in Tomorrowland?

I'm something of a late comer to Disney World attendance. My home park was Disneyland. I did go when I was little, but my memories are pretty vague. So going back as an adult has been fun, because a lot of the attractions seem new. But, I've been going back through some of the old attractions, trying to get a feeling for what I missed and how the parks have changed. Gran Fiesta Tour is an interesting one for me. I rode it, not knowing that the Three Caballeros were a relatively new addition. I thought it was a cute way to use some old characters. But I was surprised that those characters were there, because the Three Caballeros had always seemed so obscure to me. Don't get me wrong I thought the characters were great, I just didn't think anyone know who they were. Then I found out that the ride had originally been called Rio del Tiempo, I was just about cruise through Mexico. That made sense to me. It's a right showing off the country, which is something that belo...

World of Innoventions