OT- Dutch Wonderland- No outside food or drink?

[waltskids]

I noticed on the website for Dutch Wonderland that its says they don't allow any outside food or drink, but I was wondering if they are strict with this rule. We're so used to Disney and allowing us to bring snacks and water into the parks. Has anyone been there recently? Did you take any food into the park? Thanks in advance!

 

[3R1C]

They are pretty strict - bag searches before you go into the park.

It use to be so nice...you could take entire picnic lunches in and just sit them on a picnic table and come get them when you were ready to eat. But since Hershey has taken over, they don't let you take a thing in.

 

[pooh136]

Yes, they do check bags, but I always take water bottles, juice boxes, snacks, etc. in and have never had a problem. I've only ever seen them turn away people with coolers of food. If I have a choice, I will go to the older bag checker instead of the younger ones, because he only glances in the bag, while I've seen others really rummage through bags. We have season passes and are there nearly every week. Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[Crazy4Disney72]

In 2007 we brought a small soft-sided cooler in with sandwiches and grapes for the kids for lunch. We also had water bottles in our backpack. The guard searching the bags told us that the water bottles were fine to come in, but the cooler of food (and I'm talking only slightly bigger than a lunchbox, nothing big) had to stay in the car or a locker and they had an outside picnic area, that the only outside food that could be brought in was baby food for infants. We only brought lunch for the kids, my sister, stepmom and I were going to buy lunch, but we ended up just buying for everyone which was a waste because the kids didn't really eat much of it, they would have preferred their lunch packed from home!

 

[Melrosgirl]

I was there last week. Snacks and drinks are okay. They basically don't want you bringing picnics with you inside the park.

Coolers (any size) are not.

Same thing for Sesame Place. When I was there a few years ago, they made me throw away my mini cooler (only contained water bottles). They said it was because hard sided coolers could not go through metal detectors to search for weapons. I asked them where the metal detector was. They said they don't have one. LOL. Made no sense to me either. In any case, they told me I had to take it back to my car (parked very far away) or throw it out. I chose to throw it out. I kept the water though.