Phone charging in the parks

[Figment Mom]

I know you can swap out fuel rods at the parks. Is that the best strategy for keeping your phone charged? Mine drains the battery ridiculously fast.

I do have my own cordless charger but it's a little bulky. It lasts for days, though. Would love something slim and powerful. Suggestions?

Where do you keep your phone while it's charging? On my last trip I carried it in my pocket (cargo shorts) and managed to bend/loosen/ruin the charging port.

 

[MrsPrice]

I use the Anker Powercore II. It is slim but a little heavy since it is so amazing. I carry it in my backpack and our family of 4 uses it. The nice thing is that I don't have to charge it each night so if I forget one night to plug it in we are still good to go.

 

[Figment Mom]

And...I just read a couple of blogs about the fuel rods. I guess I have an answer to one of my questions. Poor capacity.

 

[Goosey515]

I have a Mophie charging case. When I charge the phone the case also charges. As my phone loses charge I can just turn on the case and it charges my phone without any external charger. I keep an external charger in my bag, if I need it, I can also use that. Generally, though, the extra charge from the case gets me through the whole day.

 

[starry_solo]

And...I just read a couple of blogs about the fuel rods. I guess I have an answer to one of my questions. Poor capacity.

I think that's why they have all the stations to exchange it out?

 

[NYCgrrl]

Another Mophie case owner; thing of beauty and all regular members of my Disney traveling crew has one except for one of us. His phone is rarely used so unless he wants to carry an external charger himself and he doesn't he enters the parks w/o one.

 

[gharter]

Another vote for the Anker Powercore . Love it. There are usually 2-4 traveling in our group. It will recharge every phone at least once and then just recharge it that night..

 

[sethschroeder]

I think that's why they have all the stations to exchange it out?

Except most people would need to replace it 3+ times to charge a single device. That is the downside.

 

[Andrea464]

Another Mophie user here. Love it!

 

[Tomh]

And...I just read a couple of blogs about the fuel rods. I guess I have an answer to one of my questions. Poor capacity.

While it is true that the capacity of one charge on a Fuel Rod is pretty low, the whole point of the Fuel Rod is that when you have used it's charge, you do not have to plug it in and recharge it, you can pretty quickly swap it out at a kiosk for a freshly charged Fuel Rod, and continue on your way. In this way, you basically have an unlimited charge on your Fuel Rod. We used one Fuel Rod to keep 5 phones charged throughout a 2 week trip, and had no problems. The phones we used it on were 4 Galaxy S7's, and a Galaxy Note 8. The Note 8 has a pretty big battery, and I found that if I was at, or above 45% charge, I could get it to 100% or very close with just one Fuel Rod. Below 45%, I would need two Fuel Rods to fully charge up. I have bigger, more powerful chargers, but in the parks, I use the Fuel Rod because it is small, and light, fits in my pocket neatly, and gets the job done.

 

[Figment Mom]

I'm intrigued by a charging case. I did quick glance last night online and I'm not sure any are still available for my S7 Edge. I'll keep looking.

 

[shocker]

Don't forget to use battery saving methods like turning down the screen brightness, forcing sleep when you're done using for a bit, & completely closing apps so they're not running in the background eating up battery (I'm truly amazed at the # of people who still don't know how to do this). Also, take screen shots of information, it takes much less battery to bring up a photo than to launch an app to retrieve info.

For my one phone, I carried 2 external batteries (small), 1-2 charging cord with multiple tips, & a cube plug w/2 USB ports into the parks. I kept a third external battery on charge in my room. I took a rest/nap break every afternoon in my room & could recharge then & take another fully charged battery in with me for the evening. My last several trips have been solo & I was a hyper-user of my phone. I sometimes used the batteries & when I did, I left them in my backpack purse & wire out to my phone, still in my hand or in my pocket. Most times I sat down for a meal I found a place to plug in & recharge.

A few I can remember:
The Wave (contemporary)
Kona Cafe (Poly)
Food courts and lobby areas (All Stars)
Backlot Express (HS)
Satuli (AK)
Nomad Lounge (or Tiffins) (AK)- they share a charging station at the check-in desk & there are plugs all over the lounge. I chose to put 2 batteries on their charging ports & plug my phone in while in the lounge so I could stay on it.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Don't forget to use battery saving methods like turning down the screen brightness, forcing sleep when you're done using for a bit, & completely closing apps so they're not running in the background eating up battery (I'm truly amazed at the # of people who still don't know how to do this). Also, take screen shots of information, it takes much less battery to bring up a photo than to launch an app to retrieve info.

Agreed. On vacation I make sure to turn off email access as well since yes it's my leisure time and somebody can just as well send me a text if it's really important.

 

[Figment Mom]

Thanks for the tips. I find the battery drains quickly when there isn't a strong signal in the area and the phone is always searching for a signal. If I don't need to get calls or texts I put it in airplane mode to reserve the battery life.

On our last trip each day I set a screenshot of that day's schedule as the lock screen on my phone. Back then you had to go to a kiosk to get 4th FP so I want using the app constantly.

 

[dominiondad]

We used the fuel rods. We had two of them to keep our 3 iPhones charged. Worked perfectly. About everytime we thought the fuel rod was getting low, there was a swap station nearby.

 

[NYCgrrl]

We used the fuel rods. We had two of them to keep our 3 iPhones charged. Worked perfectly. About everytime we thought the fuel rod was getting low, there was a swap station nearby.

How much do you pay for a fuel rod rental? Just wondering.

 

[Bethislucy]

How does the Anker mini compare to the II?

 

[NYCgrrl]

How does the Anker mini compare to the II?

This article might help you to make a decision based on your power needs, durability, etc :

https://www.pcmag.com/feature/368589/the-best-portable-chargers-and-power-banks-for-2019/1
HTH

 

[dominiondad]

How much do you pay for a fuel rod rental? Just wondering.

You buy them, so they are yours forever. I think I paid $20 each when I bought them online. You swap them out when they are dead. It's free to swap at WDW but at some locations like airports they charge a buck or two. You can also recharge them yourself.

 

[wdwrule]

Just a thought....but an expensive one...when we notice our battery consistently draining really fast we end up either replacing its battery or purchasing a new phone. (This happens to us only after several years.) One year before the trip we noticed this and bought new ones. What a huge difference in battery life!!