Pack or Send ahead - SNACKS!

[WDW2002]

I am planning on purchasing snacks to take with us for WDW. Should I pack them in an extra suitcase or send them to us (at ASMo) ahead of time??

 

[neuend1]

I think it is a great idea to send anything you can ahead of you. Last time, I sent a large (very large) box to Coronado Springs. I sent it there two weeks ahead of time since I wasn't sure how long the post office would take. Well, my box got there within a couple of days but Coronado held onto it for me for a week and a half! In fact, they even held it a little longer as we got settled in first before retrieving it.

It saved us hauling those heavy items to the airport and through MCO to the car. When leaving WDW, we repacked the box (adding some more to it) and brought it to the post office to mail back home. There is a post office in Celebration that is quite handy or there is one of those expensive "We'll mail it for you" places next to the Publix Grocery store (the one by Orange Lake Resort)

In fact, now that you mention it. I think I will send a box on ahead for both my November and December trip!

Thanks for the reminder.

 

[disneefamily]

Disnee Dad Says...................................Pack your snacks in your luggage! You'll have plenty of room. Cost zero. Anyone who needs to ship snacks needs help on what to pack!!

 

[whozit]

I shipped my snacks ahead of time. I'm glad I did....it saved me dragging that much extra stuff through the airport. Also, check with your airline on what their baggage rules are (both carry on and checked). You have probably heard that many of the airlines have recently started cracking down on checked baggage. They have strict rules on suitcase size and if your bag is oversized (based on their definition), you may have to pay a $50 or $75 charge for each oversized bag. (It has reported that some airlines are rewarding their employees for identifying and charging extra for oversized bags. It is important to note that many of the popular pieces of luggage that people are using measures up as “oversized”…..even if it is the same bag you used for years, you might be slapped with an extra fee when you go to use it this time (and once you’re at the airport, ready to check in for your flight, you really don’t have any option but to fork over the extra dough. Also, some of the airlines are limiting you to two checked bags per ticket (exceed the limit and you’ll be hit with the extra bag charge, again, I think $50-$75, depending on the airline).

 

[SilverL]

Why bother packing snacks and taking up valuable suitcase space when you can just by snacks there?

Instead of spending a little extra money on snacks everytime you go shopping before your disney trip, why not start settign aside money for snacks there?

No extra luggage to drag around, and you won't have to worry anything spoiling.

I just don't get why people worry so much about bringing snacks and bother to bring an entire other bag full of them.

 

[WDW2002]

Originally posted by SilverL
Instead of spending a little extra money on snacks everytime you go shopping before your disney trip, why not start settign aside money for snacks there?

Snacks, including breakfast, is EXPENSIVE at Disney. We won't have a car to "run off property" to the store. 30 min grocery stop is still only 30 mins, not enough time to shop in a store that you don't know the layout of. Having 2 kids who snack more then eat meals. You take your pick.

I plan on packing/sending snacks, including breakfast items ahead and using the 30 min grocery stop to pick up items such as water and other heavy items that can't be packed.

 

[neuend1]

I agree that Disney resort food is expensive. Not all of us have cars. In fact, when I go in December not only will I not have a car but for the first weekend and most of the next week I will be staying at the Grosvenor and then the COurtyard by Marriott. These places offer even less in the way of snacks (or inexpensive meals). The next weekend I will be at the All Stars.

I am physically handicapped so walking over to Downtown Disney may be way too far for these 60 year old arthritic legs. Having a box shipped beforehand allows me to have something to munch on before I get to the Parks. I get up at 5 am and the parks open around 9 - that is a long time to be hungry. Hope to be able to take doggy bags back with me.

 

[whozit]

WDW2002

I agree! You can buy tons of food , on sale ahead of time and save yourself lots of money on breakfast, snacks and even some lunches. Then with the money you saved, you can buy some snacks at the parks that you just can’t get at home or can’t ship ahead (the Disney $2.50 ice cream bars, treats from the French bakery at Epcot, or other snacks that you just can't get anyplace else). Spending $16adult/$10child (oops, that’s out of date, those prices are rising) for one character breakfast doesn’t sting quite as bad when you know that your other breakfasts were nutritious, healthy and were very inexpensive. I wasn’t interested in trying to cook at the resort, or spending a lot of time on food preparation, but by planning ahead, we had plenty of reasonably healthy food that worked for breakfast or on the go snacks, for not much money. We also had more time to enjoy the park attractions instead of wasting time waiting for waitstaff to serve us food or waiting in lines for counter service. And, I don’t think a child’s Disney experience is robbed of anything by not eating the chicken fingers every day at the parks.

For breakfast, I shipped individual boxes of kid’s cereal, I measured out “grown up” cereal into individual ziploc snack bags). Also shipped juice boxes, raisins, dried apricots, foil pouches of tuna (they now sell foil pouches of chicken too), triscuits, wheat thins, aerosol cheese (I had never used this before, but it was pretty good and needed no refrigeration), granola and cereal bars, Chex “morning mix”, single serving applesauce and diced fruit (used for breakfast sometimes and for snacks-- and they required no refrigeration) and pudding cups (this was a big hit), peanut M&Ms, packages of cheese/peanut butter crackers assorted cheese & cracker packages, rice krispy treats, trail mix, pocket bread or tortillas (not as bulky as bagels and don’t have to worry about smashing them, like regular bread), peanut butter, cookies, and Frito-Lay “snacks to go” (these are new in our area, I don’t know if they are available everywhere, but they are chips or other salty snacks in a plastic container (about the size of a pringles can) with a recloseable snap on lid….these worked well in the backpacks, as the chips didn’t get crushed), and assorted candy.
Then when we stopped at the grocery store on the way from the airport, we bought yogurt, milk, string cheese, some deli meat for lunch on the first day, apples and oranges (that didn’t need to be refrigerated since the room was cool enough). It worked great for us and I’d do it again.

 

[neuend1]

Thanks a lot for the ideas. The only one I could thing of was peanut butter and chips. Somehow this didn't sound very good. I will keep your list of things to send.
If anyone else has other suggestions of food/snacks to ship I sure would appreciate the information.

 

[tmli]

I'm really interested in this concept as I never have enough space. Have any Cdns done this cross border--anything different to consider? How do you address it to the hotel?

 

[neuend1]

Can't answer you "across the border" question but I can tell you how I addressed the box.
I wrote down my name, when I would be arriving, and my reservation number (in addition to my return address) I wrote a note saying, "Please hold box until my arrival" and they did!

I then sent it to the hotels address (in my case Coronado Springs)

 

[whozit]

I called my resort (POR) ahead of time and asked if I could ship a box for pick up on my arrival and where to send it. They said yes you can and they gave me the address of the resort (which was slightly different than the address shown with my reservation confirmation). They told me to address it as follows: Attn: Resort Guest {your name here} arrival date mm/dd/yy, then follow that with the resort name and address..

 

[SilverL]

Ah, well, we always get a rental car. And I know snacks in disney are expensive, that's why we have meals offsite a lot. We don't stay at the WDW resorts either (though I'd like to some day)

We like to stay in hotels we can get milage at.

 

[disneefamily]

Disnee Dad Says.............................By all means buy all the food you want, but pack it in your luggage and the cost is zero. On our last trip we packed 3/4 of a suitcase with food, shipping cost 0.
After the shipping costs it's probably cheaper to buy the stuff there!!

 

[Tara8595]

I haven't in the past, but this next trip (11 days, 22 hours...), I think I'm just packing a small plastic grocery bag with some snacks and canned drinks, so I can have my own minibar in the room that won't cost a fortune. It will probably look the same as the minibars and snack baskets look, but won't cost me $2.50 for a Snickers!

Plus - I don't know about you guys, but after a week of Coke, Sprite, Minute Maid lemonade and orange soda, I could usually kill for a Mountain Dew or Dr. Pepper. So, this time I'm bringing a few cans with me.

I always end up going home with some shopping bags as carry ons - might as well take some with me on the arrival flight!

I don't like eating breakfast in my room though. I feel like I'm missing something - maybe that will change when I have kids, but for now, I feel I enjoy the whole experience more if I'm eating with others in the lounges or restaurants.

 

[poohlover]

This is a wonderful idea! I always go down with extra food in our bags...with 6 kids we go thru LOTS of snacks! BUT, in Nov I am traveling down with just our 3 younger ones, 9, 7 &4. To not have that extra bag will be a blessing and possibly save my sanity!! We still have to bring LOTS, my hubby and the 3 thers will be following 3 days later. Just have to let the older kids get in the school time.

 

[WDW2002]

Funny that this thread come back up because I was just putting some stuff in a suitcase (it is a smallish 17 in?) and what we planned to bring is NOT all going to fit in there. I guess it is time for plan B.

 

[OrganizeTN]

another option is to use one of the online grocery stores and have it mailed directly to the hotel. NetGrocer.com has some great sales from time to time and to me the prices are in line with local stores. Shipping rates depend on where you are mailing to and FL fits into the cheaper one and shipping starts at 3.99 and up depending on the size of your order. An order of $75 - $99 costs 9.99 to ship. We will be driving but do not have extra room and do not want to spend my time shopping so I will be using NetGrocer for my trip in January.

Krisann in TN

 

[flylittlebird]

We also packed an entire suitcase filled with snacks for our 3 kids. Favorite and most creative snack: tortillas, Chihuahua cheese, jalapenos, bacon crumbles and avacados.
Lay a sheet of aluminum foil on flat surface, place a tortilla on it. Layer cheese, jalapenos and bacon bits on it. Cover with another tortilla and place a 2nd sheet of foil over it.
Fire up the clothes iron and place it on top until cheese is melted.
Garnish with avacodo wedges.

Another good idea is a concentrated punch mix in the can or powdered ice tea mix.

 

[Carrieberry]

We are doing the suitcase plan. This way we will have an extra bag on the way back for our souviners, which we always seem to have trouble finding room for!

We are taking all of our dry goods and then will be using our 30 min grocery stop to get soda, water bottles and perishables.