Our family vacations to Disney World are great snapshots of mobile communication technology.

We used to use little family radio walkie talkies at Disney World, but was hard to find a free channel sometimes. Then new models came out, with even more channels. Then cellphones came along.

This trip, I found myself using text messages on my iPhone more often. It was a good way to have a quick conversation in a quiet environment, where my amplified cellphone voice would be intrusive. (Yes, I know my cellphone isn’t a can on a string, but somehow, I feel I have to talk louder.) And texting on my phone was great when I scored a bench seat near the live street band. A phone conversation from there would’ve been useless. Another plus: if the person on the other end was on a ride, my message would be right there for them when they got out — no need for them to call up voicemail to get the message.

But texting wasn’t perfect. My husband and I used our iPhones pretty well. But Mama has a beam-me-up Scotty flip phone, her texts tended to be terse and cryptic. And then there’s my brother, the frugal geek with no data plan. Texting him would be like calling collect. Not cool. So we made lots of normal calls as well.

I’m hoping that the next time we all get together at WDW, we’ll all have good phones and data plans. But then again, maybe some new technology will be out in two years. Another reason to look forward to our next big family vacation.