Why You Should Be Using Airplane Mode on Your Phone During Disneyland Day

Have you ever noticed that your phone dies quicker during a day at Disneyland than it does on an average day? You may not think much of it since you’re naturally on your phone more utilizing the Disneyland app and your camera. However, while additional use does play a part, the real reason why your phone battery is draining faster than normal is much deeper than that.

In this article, I’ll be discussing the reason why your phone dies faster at Disneyland. I’ll fill you in on why this happens, the areas of the park that this happens in, and ways to avoid it.

If you’ve been struggling with your phone battery at Disneyland, follow along! These helpful tips and tricks are sure to keep your phone up and running during your magical days at Disneyland.

Using Your Phone at Disneyland

If you’re aiming for the full Disney experience during your time at Disneyland, you’ll most likely be using your phone quite a bit. To make the most of your Disney day, you’ll want to utilize the Disneyland app.

When using the Disneyland app, you’ll be able to access your tickets and passes, get Lightning Lane passes, mobile order food, link and view pictures, pay for your merchandise, see park hours, check wait times, join virtual queues, locate your car, and more. While these services and tools are all extremely useful and assist in helping you experience the most, they do cause you to be on your phone more than normal.

However, as I mentioned earlier, even though you’re on your phone quite a bit to plan out and maneuver your day, that’s not the main reason for the demise of your phone battery at Disneyland. So what causes the strain on your phone battery at Disneyland? Let’s take a look!

Why Does the Battery Drain So Fast?

The reason your phone battery drains faster at Disneyland is because it’s putting in a lot of extra effort to find reception. Now, you may be thinking that you have a great provider and have no issues at all with cell service at Disneyland. This may be true, but let me explain.

While you may have exceptional service at Disneyland, the real issue arises at select rides. Oftentimes, the queues and portions of these rides take Guests through tunnels and areas that are underground. When this happens, your phone tries extra hard to find reception that just isn’t there. This process is what causes your phone battery to drain rapidly.

The Reason Guests Are Taken Underground

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Not every ride at Disneyland takes Guests underground. To clarify, Guests are never fully “underground”. This isn’t a situation where you’re walking around Disneyland and there are Guests waiting in a queue or enjoying an attraction under your feet. Instead, these areas simply dip Guests under a layer of dirt. The reason this happens is because Disney needs to get Guests from the entrance of the rides to the show buildings – the buildings where the rides actually take place.

When Disneyland Park was built, a dirt berm was made to block Guests’ visual of the outside world. A Walt Disney quote that can be found on the D23 website perfectly explains the thought process behind this.

“I don’t want the public to see the world they live in while they’re in the park. I want them to feel they’re in another world.” – Walt Disney

The berm, along with the Disneyland Railroad, was made to surround the park and aid in the facade of the magical and enchanting world that Guests were visiting. The berm still surrounds the park to this day.

As Disneyland grew and expanded, it was found that not every ride and attraction was able to fit within this earthen wall. Because of this, show buildings had to be placed outside of the park's borders, on the other side of the berm, while the entrance for the attractions remained inside the park. In order to get Guests from the ride’s entrance to the show building, Disney decided to lead them beneath the berm and the tracks of the Disneyland Railroad. This is the underground moment that Guests experience and when the draining of your phone battery at Disneyland will take place.

These Rides Will Drain Your Phone Battery the Fastest

There are three specific rides in Disneyland Park where your phone battery will drain the fastest – Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Indiana Jones Adventure. When looking on Google Earth, you can see that the show buildings for all three of these attractions are on the opposite side of the berm and railroad tracks. There are specific moments during each of these rides when you’re taken under the berm.

For Haunted Mansion, this process starts to happen in the Stretching Room. At Disneyland, the Stretching Room isn’t a trick of the eye, but actually an elevator that takes Guests below ground level. After exiting the stretching room, Guests walk through a hall and head to the loading area where they get into their Doom Buggy. This is when you travel below the berm.

Early on in Pirates of the Caribbean, you’ll experience two drops. These drops are what lower you down enough to pass under the berm. When your boat is traveling through the caves, that is when you’re making your way under the berm and into the show building.

Rather than during the attraction, the queue for Indiana Jones Adventure is what takes you below the berm. As you wind your way through the caves and tunnels of Indiana Jones Adventure, you’re actually making your way under the berm to the show building.

Other Rides That Will Drain Your Phone Battery

While there is no earthy berm or railroad track that surrounds California Adventure, there are a couple rides in the park that will also cause your phone battery to drain. Specific rides that this will happen on are Soarin’ and The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel’s Undersea Adventure.

Even though you won’t be traveling below the surface, you will go a bit lower down in the show building. Somewhat like a basement, these attractions will take you slightly below ground level, but you will never have any amount of dirt above you.

How to Save Your Phone's Battery Power

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Now that you know why you’re having trouble with your phone battery at Disneyland, let’s talk about what you can do to help. One of the best tips that we can give is to put your phone in airplane mode. If your phone is in airplane mode when you’re at attractions where reception is hard to come by, it won’t be putting in that extra effort to find service. As a result, you’ll find a huge difference in the performance of your phone battery at Disneyland. As an extra precaution, you could put your phone in airplane mode every time you go on a ride or attraction, not just for the ones that are known to give phones problems. Since you won’t be using your phone on the attractions, this is an easy way to give your phone a break and preserve battery life.

However, make sure that you remember to turn airplane mode off when you get off of attractions. You don’t want to keep your phone in airplane mode all day. When you’re not on attractions, you’ll need your phone to use the tools and services on the Disneyland app. If you don’t take your phone out of airplane mode, you won’t be able to properly use these functions.

Power Banks That We Swear By

While you can take precautionary measures by using airplane mode, it’s helpful to have a backup power source. By bringing a portable power bank or charger, you’ll never have to worry about your phone battery at Disneyland.

There are many different power banks and chargers out there. However, they aren’t all great in regard to performance. You may end up with one that takes forever to charge, doesn’t hold a charge, dies quickly when charging a device, or takes a long time to charge devices. None of these scenarios are ideal. Especially during vacation.

We have two reliable power banks that we recommend – Anker PowerCore and FuelRod. Both of these banks are small, lightweight, and powerful. They can also both be used for iPhone, Samsung, and other mobile devices.

FuelRod is extremely handy in Disneyland. If you’re not familiar with FuelRod, these are swappable power banks. At multiple locations nationwide, including Disneyland, you’ll be able to find FuelRod’s SwapBox Kiosks. These kiosks give you the opportunity to swap out your FuelRod for a fully charged one. While you can recharge your FuelRod on your own, these kiosks are exceptionally nice for when you’re on the go. You’ll never have to worry about your phone battery at Disneyland when you have a FuelRod!