Packing snacks

[Goofyta]

Since we won't have a car while at Disney, I thought about packing a duffle bag with snack type food and making it a carry on (that way things don't get smashed). I have things like crackers (individual bags), gummies, gripps, pringles, and some individual juices in plastic containers. I was going to get a few more things this week to add to it. My big question (and I will probably look it up too) can you do this? Will the airline have a problem? I am hoping not, as long as the bag is the proper size for carry on.

Also, we have a cooler similar to this

except it doesn't have wheels and is probably a little bit shorter. I was thinking of taking this too so that we can put ice in it at the hotel and put drinks in it for the kids (this cooler would stay in the hotel room). Would you carry it on or check it? It is one of those that has the plastic removable liner inside.

Thanks guys!!

 

[shyjade]

YES, you can bring snacks into the parks, and I don't see any reason why you couldn't bring them in your carry-on as long as it's regulation size.

Just a few thoughts:

If you're staying at a Disney resort you can rent a small fridge for around $10/day. This might be a better option (less hassle, and it has a small freezer section for freezing juice/water to take to the parks the next day).

A lot of posters have mentioned that it was a waste for them to pack a lot of snacks for the parks; most kids would rather have the specialty Disney snacks than the norm they would get at home.

Just a thought...good luck!

 

[Goofyta]

We probably won't bring the snacks to the park, too much to worry with. The snacks will be for when we are in the hotel room or swimming at the pool. We have the dining plan, so I am not too worried about food, but my kids can be snackers. My main concern was transporting the goods via the airline. I didn't want to have to pay to ship the snacks. You guessed it, we can be cheap

 

[shyjade]

That's not cheap, just economical! Disney can be very expensive and there's nothing wrong with trying to save a few bucks.

We're doing the dining plan also and I'm planning on bringing some snacks in a carry-on too for my DD (8). She's a snacker too, but a picky snacker, and at least I know she'll eat what I bring vs. spending $5 or more on a snack she may not like at the hotel.

Have fun!

 

[bicker]

As long as the bag is the correct size, I don't see any reason to be worried about carrying it aboard your flight to Orlando.

Regarding food in the parks, I was wondering this myself and so wrote to Disney for their official policy:

Dear Brian,

Thank you for contacting WALT DISNEY WORLD!

With the exception of food items for guests with specific dietary restrictions, we do not permit guests to bring food and beverage items into our theme parks.
Generally, however, plastic bottles for water, juice, etc. are allowed.

We hope this information is helpful, and we look forward to future opportunities to entertain you.

If you have questions or need further assistance, feel free to contact us.

Please include your full name, E-Mail address, and reservation number if applicable on all correspondence, and allow up to 80 hours for response to E-Mail.

Thank you - and have a DISNEY day!

Sincerely,

William Ferguson

On Line Guest Service
WALT DISNEY WORLD Reservations
P O Box 10,100
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-0100

 

[emma'smom]

I realize your question is about the size of carry-on's. However, I do want to emphasize the fact that you shouldn't plan on bringing TOO many snacks. We did this in March and the kids ended up eating almost none of them. We had the dining plan, so we had plenty of snacks in the parks and we were usually too full to do much snacking when we got back to the hotel (and we are big snackers/eaters normally).

One thing to think about is that we usually ended up sharing one-two snacks at a time in the parks. For example, we might get one box of popcorn and a coke and all have handfuls of popcorn. Then we would have another similiar-style snack in the afternoon. We weren't really trying to do this to "save" snacks, but we would see the popcorn cart and grab a popcorn...but say "let's look for the ice cream cart next", but then would get into a ride line, etc. This meant we ended up with extra snacks by the end of the day to use by the pool. Honestly, my kids just weren't interested in the pretzels and gummies that I so carefully packed from home.

When we go in June, I am only packing some little toddler graduate crackers for dd16 months and some fruit to give them for breakfast (mostly apples).

 

[got2travel]

We always take snacks to Disney with us. I've brought things in our carry ons and checked bags. It's not a problem with the airlines. This will be our first trip on the dinning plan, so I'm not bringing quite as many. But my son will still fill his fanny pack with snacks for the parks. We've never had any problems bringing in food. We don't try to take a picnic lunch in with us, just juice, crackers, beef jerkey, that kind of stuff. We've had security people joke with us and say he's got some good stuff in there, but none have ever told us we couldn't bring it in.