Bringing Food Items into the Parks...

[Justbranches5]

Haven't been to WDW in 3.5 years...with the economy the way it is, are they more lenient as far as actually allowing families to bring small soft-sided coolers w/sandwiches and snacks into the parks? (I searched this site & the WDW site to see what the policy is, but couldn't find an answer. I'm sure this has been asked many times before, but I couldn't find it...sorry!).

I see many posts saying that the poster brings in PBJ sandwiches, snacks, etc, to save money, but are they "sneaking" them in or are they being allowed? Many years ago, they were pretty thorough in searching your stuff at the gates. Thanks for you help!

 

[Justbranches5]

Okay, finally found the answer to my own question! Apparently, "sandwiches" is the keyword to use in searching for this answer

In case anyone else is wondering...soft-sided coolers with water bottles, sandwiches, fruit and snacks are allowed. No glass or alcohol.

 

[Ddennis37]

We always carry a small backpack with us into the Disney Parks. As long as you don't have glass or weapons, they're fine with it.

Generally we take chexmix snack bags, beef jerky, water bottles, fruit snacks and sometimes sandwiches with us. Generally we take just enough to tide us over while waiting in line. We eat breakfast in our rooms, snack throughout the day and have an early, decent size dinner.

You don't have to sneak items in, though. We haven't been to WDW since our first trip in June 2006 but will be going this Thursday for 10 nights. Hopefully nothing has changed in respect to that policy.

 

[Brad Bishop]

This is good to know. I am going to be there on July 4th and was going to load up a backpack with frozen bottles of water. I figure that would tide us over through the day.

I'll probably still end up buying some water there, though.

 

[VAN]

Besides the search for weapons, etc, they are looking for glass and alcohol at the entrances.

Just remember that backpacks and coolers with wheels are NOT allowed. Coolers that are allowed must be the smaller sized ones that can fit into a locker.

I think people recommend PB&J a lot because it doesn't necessarily need refrigeration. If you were to bring a meat sandwich in, you would most definitely need to have some way of keeping it cold unless you were going to eat it right away.

We've always brought in snacks to tide us over ... I just wouldn't take in so much stuff that you are "lugging it around" with you. Nothing spoils the fun more than being a pack-mule!!

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Brad: CS restaurants will give you free ice water and there are drinking fountains to refill bottles. I wouldn't load yourself down with too many because you can refill them. I know a lot of people talk about the free water; however, you still have to stand in the regular order line (and they can be LONG especially over the 4th) to get them. We've always gotten free water,however, we get it as part of our food purchase ... not just getting water only.

 

[bzzybee13]

Besides the search for weapons, etc, they are looking for glass and alcohol at the entrances.

Just remember that backpacks and coolers with wheels are NOT allowed. Coolers that are allowed must be the smaller sized ones that can fit into a locker.

Just to clarify - we can bring backpacks in to the parks, just not if they are full of food...right?