Bringing your own drinks into the parks to avoid the never ending price hikes

[SL6827]

With Disney raising the prices of a lot of snacks and drinks in the parks today, who all brings in their water, cokes, pepsi, ect to drink in the park? I think some people freeze the drinks and bring them in, but what would be a good product to buy in which to carry them in? Some type of insulated backpack, bag, ect? With the prices of drinks and water going through the roof, what are your tips with bringing your own drinks?

 

[Lionsfan]

With Disney raising the prices of a lot of snacks and drinks in the parks today, who all brings in their water, cokes, pepsi, ect to drink in the park? I think some people freeze the drinks and bring them in, but what would be a good product to buy in which to carry them in? Some type of insulated backpack, bag, ect? With the prices of drinks and water going through the roof, what are your tips with bringing your own drinks?

We bring in a cooler with ice with our drinks.

 

[SL6827]

We bring in a cooler with ice with our drinks.

We have never done that. In fact on my last trip in the parks, I went bagless. It was awesome but may be the only time we do it because with the prices on a never ending rise, I can see that water, drinks, snacks, might just start needing to be brought in by us as well.

 

[Twilghtsprkle]

We bring a backpack with our waters & snacks (kids have allergies so bringing our own is just less hassle). At meals we get ice when we order at QS.

 

[LYSE]

Just water in in a bladder and insulated bottle, but we are carrying bags no matter what with a kid.

 

[runwad]

We use an insulated backpack cooler we got at Target. I believe it's an igloo brand. But last trip we forgoed the backpack and just got ice water at counter service places, it was fine.

There are 5 of us so we load up the cooler and it's heavy. Used to be I had a stroller that I pushed it around in (and also other snacks I loaded in it) but the family put the kibosh on me doing that anymore since our youngest is 18

edit: With the way Disney is going, I wonder how long it will be before no outside food or drinks will be permitted??

 

[SaintsManiac]

We bring insulated bottles.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

We grab free water at the counter service places. In August alot of them had cups of ice water on the side ready to grab. Others had a jug with a spout and cups so you could pour your own.

 

[SL6827]

edit: With the way Disney is going, I wonder how long it will be before no outside food or drinks will be permitted??

That ran through my mind as well. I believe it could happen in the future because more people will be bringing in stuff because the pricing will have gotten to be extremely over the top. Can you imagine what it will be once SWGE opens? But ya, I wonder too if they will ever ban outside food and drink.

 

[MrsPete]

No way. Drinks weigh so much, and I hate carrying bags in the parks. We ask for free ice water at various restaurants frequently.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

When we had a stroller rider, we brought in a lunchbox full of drinks. Now we just get QS ice water when we're thristy. At meals we usually buy a fountain drink or bottled drink.

 

[ibob52]

edit: With the way Disney is going, I wonder how long it will be before no outside food or drinks will be permitted??

That would be a Return to a old policy restriction.

 

[JR522]

We used to bring a cooler in a backpack. Now we just each bring one frozen bottle of water each and drink it as it melts. Then we get free ice water from CS locations at every opportunity to stay hydrated. As many have mentioned, it's so nice to go into the parks without bags.

 

[yeahdisney]

We like to be bag less in the parks. We each can carry in our one pop/drink. Once it's gone then we drink water in the parks.

 

[starry_solo]

I usually drink their ice water. For sodas, I'll bring a can or two and get cups of ice at counter service

 

[twoolle]

We bring an RTIC 8 can lunchbox cooler but it stays in the stroller. However once we are out of thebatroller stage we will probably just bring a bottle of water and refill those and also bring some Mio flavoring because for some reason I crave other stuff besides water when I'm at Disney.

 

[Klayfish]

We bring everything into the parks...lunch, dinner, soda, etc... It's super easy. We don't carry it around with us. We put it in a giant cooler bag that goes in an umbrella stroller. We park it somewhere and leave it until we're ready. So once we get past the front entrance and park it, we're bagless. We spend a small fraction of the money most people do to feed ourselves.

 

[snappy]

We used to bring ice chest full and leave in car. We take breaks so it was a perfect way to grab a snack and drink. Stopped doing it when we do adult only trips. With the new round if price hikes, will likely resume. No freaking way do we do Disney without a car, don’t want to be stranded at their mercy. We don’t have to pay to park at parks since we have at least 1 annual pass active.

 

[bluezy]

We like to be bag less in the parks. We each can carry in our one pop/drink. Once it's gone then we drink water in the parks.

That's basically what we do, except we don't like the free ice water so we buy bottles of water once we're in the park. We know it will cost us more money but it's an expense we plan for. I'd rather save up money for an extra month so we can be bag free and buy whatever drinks/snacks we want in the parks than lug around a backpack full of frozen water bottles. I kept track of how much we spent on snacks and water/drinks in the park (outside of meals) on our last trip and for a family of 6 (all teens/adults) we spent about $200 over 7 days. We could have spent less, but we knew we had saved up more than enough money to cover the cost of the trip even with everyone buying 2-3 snacks/drinks in the park each day so we didn't worry about it. In reality, we usually only bought 1-2 drinks per person per day outside of meals. We keep cases of water in the room to drink there and we usually each grab a bottle to drink on the way to the parks. We take an afternoon break so we each grab another bottle before heading back to the parks in the evening.

As for those planning to freeze water, I'll just mention that the last 2 times we stayed at AoA (2018 & 2016) our refrigerator didn't have a freezer (prior to that, they did. However, it was a very small freezer and it would have been a challenge to freeze enough water for our family every day). I also believe that the refurbished rooms at Pop and ASMovies have refrigerators that do not have freezers. Maybe it's all part of Disney's diabolical plan to force people to buy more cold water in the parks...."We'll take away the freezers in their rooms so they can't freeze water bottles and ice packs anymore!!! If they want cold water all day, they'll have to buy it!! bwahahahahaha...."

 

[Klayfish]

You can get free ice water at any QS place in the parks...and it's filtered so it tastes great. We do it all the time.