Bringing Food and Beverages into Parks

[LCoulter]

Are they cracking down on this? I'm not bringing in a huge cooler of food. I bring in a backpack with a couple bottles of water, a bottle of soda, some dried fruit, nuts or granola bars mixed in with sunscreen, sunglasses, hats and rain gear if needed. Are they confiscating food and drinks?

 

[Allison]

There is nothing to crack down on as it is allowed. Just no glass or alcohol.

 

[LSUfan4444]

Are they confiscating food and drinks?

Nope. (unless what you're bringing is against policy - no alcohol, no glass)

 

[Mushu's Twin]

"Guests are allowed to bring food items—such as snacks or foods that do not require heating—into Disney theme parks. Inform a Security Cast Member of any food items when you enter the park." - From the Disney World Website

Bottled water and soda is fine! Just no alcohol or glass bottles.

 

[LCoulter]

Great, thanks, I thought things had changed on that.

 

[china mom]

I bring a soft sided cooler into the parks when I have a place to stash it like my daughter's stroller (we are over that now) or my mother's wheelchair. In it, I have juice pouches, sandwiches, snacks and chips. It is not against the rules and I have never even had a raised eyebrow from security.

 

[Klayfish]

I sure hope they don't change their policy. We bring in a HUGE soft sided cooler full of food and drink...often it will contain a full dinner for 5 (meat, sides, veggies etc...), 7 cans of soda, dessert. It would be majorly disastrous if we were no longer able to do that.

 

[AngiTN]

Not only have they not altered the policy on food, they seem to have no issues with rolling coolers. I was under the impression these were not allowed but based on the huge volume of these we see each trip, clearly they are allowed with no issues.
They don't bother me in any way, I'm not saying that at all. To me they are no different than someone pushing a stroller. But every time I see one I do think, I can't image dragging that in the park all day. It has to be a chore pulling that along

 

[JuniorSkipper]

Nope they don't confiscate foods

 

[Klayfish]

Not only have they not altered the policy on food, they seem to have no issues with rolling coolers. I was under the impression these were not allowed but based on the huge volume of these we see each trip, clearly they are allowed with no issues.
They don't bother me in any way, I'm not saying that at all. To me they are no different than someone pushing a stroller. But every time I see one I do think, I can't image dragging that in the park all day. It has to be a chore pulling that along

I think that's something that the CMs are somewhat confused on. We tried it one trip. We brought one of those hard sided coolers on wheels with the long handle. It was a 4 or 5 day trip, I forget by now. First few days were fine, but day 3 or 4, CMs at two different parks said they weren't allowed. They both told us that anything you bring in on wheels must be designed to be pushed ahead of you, not dragged behind you. Safety reasons...don't want anyone tripping on something you can't see behind you. They gave us a free wheelchair to put the stroller in. Frankly, we were OK with it, because we didn't like the cooler. As you said, it was a pain to drag around. Our bag of food, when full with everything I mentioned, is rather heavy. We have found it incredibly easy to just put our soft sided cooler (which is as large as a hard cooler) in an umbrella stroller and push. Easy as pushing a 3 year old, probably easier. More often than not, we just park it in stroller parking near a QS restaurant and leave it there. We come back for it when we're ready to eat.

We call it our "gear stroller"...can't take credit for the name, a WDW security person said it once, apparently they see it often. Not only does it carry our food, but if we're not leaving it in stroller parking, it carries the bag my wife uses to pack ponchos, suntan lotion, etc...

 

[supersnoop]

Not only have they not altered the policy on food, they seem to have no issues with rolling coolers. I was under the impression these were not allowed but based on the huge volume of these we see each trip, clearly they are allowed with no issues.
They don't bother me in any way, I'm not saying that at all. To me they are no different than someone pushing a stroller. But every time I see one I do think, I can't image dragging that in the park all day. It has to be a chore pulling that along

The policy only prohibits coolers (or any bag, for that matter) larger than 24"x15"x18". As long as it fits those dimensions, it can have wheels.

 

[dreiwhit]

I sure hope they don't change their policy.

Maybe I plan too much, but i've thought about what we would do. At DHS, AK and Epcot, we would leave a cooler in the car and go back to the car for lunch. At MK, it would be too much of a hassle, so we would probably just buy food at a QS restaurant. What I would hate is if they prohibited you bringing in water. I sip on the water in my Camelbak all day!

Nope they don't confiscate foods

There was one jolly CM who wanted to confiscate some girl scout cookies because they were his favorite! He was just joking, of course.

 

[WEDWDW]

Are they cracking down on this?

There were some rumors going around last year that The Mouse was considering banning food/drinks,but nothing ever came of it.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Not only have they not altered the policy on food, they seem to have no issues with rolling coolers. I was under the impression these were not allowed but based on the huge volume of these we see each trip, clearly they are allowed with no issues.
They don't bother me in any way, I'm not saying that at all. To me they are no different than someone pushing a stroller. But every time I see one I do think, I can't image dragging that in the park all day. It has to be a chore pulling that along

I've heard of some people renting a locker for their coolers that fit.

My grandmother does this when we go to a zoo, aquarium, etc. She's done it when she's gone to WDW with my family (I've never been with her). It drives me insane because she's older and we don't want to let her pull/push the thing but she insists we have something "good" to eat. So we end up pulling/pushing it or leaving it in the car and going back to the car to get it when it's time to eat. We always tell her we will buy food and it's ok but nope. Now that I'm older and have my own kids, she gets mad because my kids want to eat QS wherever we are so they don't even eat what she brings.

When we go to WDW I don't pack any food. I think I'm traumatized from my childhood. lol

 

[LCoulter]

I hope they don't change things, we still buy plenty of food and beverages in the park even though we carry some. When it is hotter than blazes, I can't imagine buying bottles of water all day long....DD and I drink a lot when it's that hot. The few snacks I carry are more for emergency when someone is not feeling well and I think their sugar is low....we would much rather spend money on popcorn or a mickey bar than eat my granola.

 

[North of Mouse]

Are they cracking down on this? I'm not bringing in a huge cooler of food. I bring in a backpack with a couple bottles of water, a bottle of soda, some dried fruit, nuts or granola bars mixed in with sunscreen, sunglasses, hats and rain gear if needed. Are they confiscating food and drinks?

Absolutely not! Where did that get started??

There are some people that may ruin it though, and they know who they are!! Sneaking in alcohol (disguised in soft drink bottles,etc.). Taking huge coolers, or worse still rolling ones. Some people love to flaunt the rules.

 

[AngiTN]

I hope they don't change things, we still buy plenty of food and beverages in the park even though we carry some. When it is hotter than blazes, I can't imagine buying bottles of water all day long....DD and I drink a lot when it's that hot. The few snacks I carry are more for emergency when someone is not feeling well and I think their sugar is low....we would much rather spend money on popcorn or a mickey bar than eat my granola.

You don't have to. It's free at all QS locations. Filtered too.

 

[Klayfish]

Absolutely not! Where did that get started??

There are some people that may ruin it though, and they know who they are!! Sneaking in alcohol (disguised in soft drink bottles,etc.). Taking huge coolers, or worse still rolling ones. Some people love to flaunt the rules.

I definitely understand the alcohol thing, but why is it flaunting rules to bring a huge cooler in? Ours is comparatively mega sized. Don't know the exact dimensions, but don't know I've seen anyone else have one bigger than ours. It's soft sided, so it's not a hard Igloo cooler, but it's still huge. Never had a single comment, complaint or anything from a CM or security.

 

[Accident]

Something to note is animal kingdom with the animals does have further restrictions which I don't remember off the top of my head. it's things like plastic straws and similar which they don't use also in the parks.

 

[AngiTN]

Something to note is animal kingdom with the animals does have further restrictions which I don't remember off the top of my head. it's things like plastic straws and similar which they don't use also in the parks.

Right. No straws, even those attached to juice boxes, etc. They'll take them off the package. We don't haul around food from home but I wonder how they are with plastic baggies like a sandwich bag?