Healthy Portable Park Snacks

[SDSorority]

Hi everyone! What types of park snacks do you bring with you to the parks? I will be at a condo this year...offsite...... and want to bring snacks with me since we won't have the luxry of hopping on a boat...or bus...or walking... back to the room for a snack break. I am not planning on using the lockers, but we will have a car that we could keep a cooler in. My concern, though, is even though we could put cold packs in one of those soft sided coolers that the summer heat will make the food spoil.

Now, we're vegetarians, so we wouldn't have to worry about meat spoiling, but I'm planning on having snacks in my park bag so I'm hoping for minimal smooshage. Any help would be GREAT!!

 

[MsCoz2000]

How about trail mix, or granola bars?

 

[Chee Chick]

I carry granola bars and peanuts in my bag for snacks.

 

[Minniemouse07]

Nuts!

I plan on stocking up on some from Trader Joe's before we leave next month!

I'm also thinking of some individual bags of Pirate Booty (has cheese in it not sure if you do dairy) and/or TJ's kettle corn, fruit leather, goldfish, crackers...

Trips are about the only time I will purchase individually portioned items so I sometimes will bend our no high fructose corn syrup/no trans fats rule and pick up some of those cookie packs as a treat for the kids. Not healthy I know but if I NEVER let them have it then I'm facing huge problems when they start choosing their own foods when they are older and I'm not supervising all the time!

 

[GrillMouster]

We dont' bring all of this stuff at once, but these are things we've brought to WDW in the past: trail mix, dried fruit, granola, snack-sized ziploc bags of cereal, 100 calorie snack packs (nuts, cookies, other snacks). This past Saturday my wife packed a few 100 calorie snack packs of yogurt-covered pretzels in our backpack. They were tasty, but the heat caused the yogurt to melt, so our fingertips got a little messy. We've also brought little packets of powdered flavor mix for bottled water.

 

[SDSorority]

Nuts!

I plan on stocking up on some from Trader Joe's before we leave next month!

I'm also thinking of some individual bags of Pirate Booty (has cheese in it not sure if you do dairy) and/or TJ's kettle corn, fruit leather, goldfish, crackers...

Trips are about the only time I will purchase individually portioned items so I sometimes will bend our no high fructose corn syrup/no trans fats rule and pick up some of those cookie packs as a treat for the kids. Not healthy I know but if I NEVER let them have it then I'm facing huge problems when they start choosing their own foods when they are older and I'm not supervising all the time!

Good point. I do eat cheese- what is 'Pirate Booty'? Does it need to stay cold? I just picked up my Fearless Flyer at TJ's today- maybe it's in there!

 

[GrillMouster]

Oh, as for bringing a cooler...
I've seen other guests do this in the past, and we just saw it again this past Saturday at Magic Kingdom. Around lunchtime on Tom Sawyer Island we saw a family with a rolling soft-sided cooler (with a telescoping handle). We assumed that they brought their lunch with them and enjoyed a nice meal on the island...sounds like a good idea. A few years ago I noticed an identical cooler in the stroller parking area adjacent to The Lunching Pad in Tomorrowland at the MK.

 

[SDSorority]

Oh, as for bringing a cooler...
I've seen other guests do this in the past, and we just saw it again this past Saturday at Magic Kingdom. Around lunchtime on Tom Sawyer Island we saw a family with a rolling soft-sided cooler (with a telescoping handle). We assumed that they brought their lunch with them and enjoyed a nice meal on the island...sounds like a good idea. A few years ago I noticed an identical cooler in the stroller parking area adjacent to The Lunching Pad in Tomorrowland at the MK.

WOW I didn't know you were allowed to bring anything that rolled...

 

[birdie757]

This past weekend I brought carrot sticks in my purse and they were fine all day. We also do whole grain crackers sometimes too.

 

[Minniemouse07]

Good point. I do eat cheese- what is 'Pirate Booty'? Does it need to stay cold? I just picked up my Fearless Flyer at TJ's today- maybe it's in there!

TJs used to sell it but stopped when they started carrying Buried Treasure under their own label.
Pirate Booty is popped rice & corn whereas Buried Treasure is just popped corn. Both are just the puffy part of the popped kernels with cheese and have a lighter consistency than popcorn. I tend to like the Pirate Booty better, I think the BT is fine but the rice in the PB gives it a milder taste.
You can find Pirate Booty in most major grocery stores as well as Whole Paycheck (ahem Foods)... the regular grocery stores tend to carry it in the organic section.
You can also find Pirate Booty in multiple flavors (a new one is NY Pizza???) and the same manufacturer makes MY favorite snack food, Smart Puffs (think healthy puffy cheese doodles that don't turn your fingers orange). Our favorite flavor of Pirate Booty is Fruity Booty (peach and mango) but it is super hard to find.

 

[Eljay]

http://piratesbooty.com/
Here's a link to Pirates Booty info.

I like the Soyjoy bars.
They are made from soy and dried fruit and there is nothing that will melt in the heat. Delicious!
http://www.soyjoy.com/index.aspx

Kashi makes good healthy snack bars.
Just be sure not to bring any bars with chocolate or other melty ingredients.
http://kashi.com/products/category/Snack Bars

 

[mousireid]

We stock up in our room and bring baggies in necessary but teh mini packs are very helpful in a bigger bag - just grab a couple and go.
We too love pirates booty and also the 'veggie stix' chips are SO addicting! We like craisins, raisins, yoghurt raisins, granolas, granola mix/trail mix, dried fruit (especially the tropical mix), carrot sticks or celery sticks, natural fruit snacks and strips, apples, crackers, nuts, pringles come in wee containers for non-crushability(!) Just some ideas

 

[sunsetbeachgal]

We always carry packages of those Lance peanut butter crackers-the ones where there are six to a pack. Fills you up and no mess!

 

[maxiesmom]

WOW I didn't know you were allowed to bring anything that rolled...

It is against Disney's rules to roll anything behind you thru the parks. Could be that they were carrying it for a while, and just put the handle up when they were eating. At least, I like to think that is what they were doing.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I'm not a big fan of bringing in snacks, for a good number of reasons. Mainly, it's a pain and not worth the savings to me. But I think it's worth mentioning that there are a couple of healthy options available inthe parks. MK has a fruit stand near HM. AK has a fruit stand in front of the safari. Epcot has a few fruit items available in the Land's food court. Hoenstly, I've compared prices, and some of them are not bad at all.

Oh, and most quick serve kids' meals have grapes, carrots and applesauce as side options. Lots of vegetarians order kids' quick serve meals. Pecos Bills has a meal that's veggie sticks. In the Main St Bakery you can get uncrustables pretty resonably.

Oh, and one place you simply must try to splurge - 'Ohana. Despite the meat fest that will surround you - the best chef in all of WDW is now there. Let the staff know when you book the reservation that you have a vegetarian. Remind your server if he doesn't mention it upon being seated. You should have a great meal! You won't be treated second class.

Beyond that, WDW is pretty good about catering to vegetarians. Again, just let teh staff know ahead of time- like when you call to book, or call after you book them online. (I think tehy like 48 hours, but they can always do somethign onthe fly too.)

 

[TiffinyKC]

DS and I eat a lot of crap at WDW since we are really dilligent throughout the year, so we enjoy ourselves on our vacations. We're not vegetarians, but we do not eat red meat.

However, we do try to do one or two things right and I will carry around trail mix, dried fruit, and cliff bars. These are all excellent sources of protein and good carbs to keep us up and going througout the day.

Tons of water too!

 

[howlongtildisney]

When I went in December, I took tangerines, bananas (some smoosh problems), granola bars, some homemade snack mix, and baby carrots. I might not take the baby carrots with me when it's hot, but otherwise those things should work.

 

[Smithkids]

We had a stroller, so it was very easy for us to throw a small cooler in the bottom of the stroller- we had bottles of water and gatorade in the freezer over night and then used them to keep everything cold. By the time the water bottles melted enough to drink we were ready to eat. If you are keeping the cooler in your car, you could try the frozen water bottle thing to keep items cold (although I wouldn't try it with anything that could spoil- just in case...).
The granola bars didn't work out for us- they got all sticky and the kids ended up too messy!

We did boxes of raisins, packs of goldfish crackers, pretzels, Dole mandarin oranges in the individual cups...we also threw in some Gogurts (little tubes of Yogurts- the kids ate them while we waited for the parks to open, so I don't think they would store for the whole day.

I agree though- there are many healthy choices throughout the parks. Although, I must say that by the 4th or 5th day, my kids were getting tired of the same things every time from the kids menu...not much variety there!

 

[MinniesYooHoo]

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the Pirates Booty!!!! Usually DD steals it away from me anytime I have it. So I started buying 2 bags at a time, 1 for me, 1 for her!!!!!

 

[Lyndria]

We take packs of peanut butter crackers, frozen grapes, pre-made pb-n-j sandwiches (my kids eat these all day as snacks), Kellog's Fiber bars for me; and chips. These all get carried in a mickey themed sling type bag that I can carry or put in the stroller with the kids. It isn't too heavy and the food stays uncrushed.