Snacks @ the park???

[MrsSpfaff]

I have this elaborate plan filled with cute applesauce cups and homemade Disney shaped treats, sandwiches and drinks to fill their backpacks (that I will end up carrying all day) and my 7 year old walks up and says, "Why don't you just give us $50 bucks and we will snack our way through Disney?"
Really??? Then I got to thinking I am the only one that will need real nutrition for the day. Our Hotel provides breakfast and a light dinner. My son wants to buy a huge pickle for his lunch. The kids are not the most reliable when it comes to eating what I pack them anyways!
Is it silly to think that if I hide some small snacks and waters in my bag for the melt downs and let them just buy all the snacks they see that
1. I can keep the cost to under $20 per kid per day? (5,8,9 year olds)
2. Letting them snack will get them through the day?
3. That the energy of all that sugar will run out by 9pm?
Should I plan more money per person?
This is so against my controlling behavior to just let them run wild with food for 3 days!!

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

We are ones to snack our way through our Disney day. Mickey shaped pretzels for the kids (jalepeno cheese ones for mom and dad), split some skewers from Bengal BBQ, a chimichanga, etc. I'd supplement it with some healthy treats like apples or frozen gogurts. If its a longer trip we try to get in healthier "real meals" but usually we don't.

 

[sweethannah]

There are some healthy snack options available, my DD7 loved the skewers at Bengal BBQ

If I were to go that route ( and it's not a bad one if you don't feel the need to sit for a more substantial lunch ) I'd make the deal that a healthy option would have to go along with a more junky one.. at least that would give me the feeling of some self-control.

Days at the Park are long - a full belly usually means a happy kid who is less prone to the highs and lows of blood sugar crashes.

We found that if we ate a solid breakfast we could snack all day and have a good dinner and be really looking forward to it

If we grabbed a quick bite to get to the Park early we'd have a bigger lunch. DH gets cranky when his blood sugar is low

 

[Jana0326]

My kids are 5 and 7 and we always bring waters and at least some snacks in with us, but buy our meals and some other snacks too. Having our own snacks is great for those times when the kids are starving and need something quick. Plus, it saves money. $20/day per kid seems pretty low to me, but I've never really figured out exactly what we spend each day.

 

[MrsSpfaff]

We will have a huge breakfast (if they eat), then, hopefully, I can get them to space out 3 snacks between 9am and 5pm. They want a big pickle, candy apple, ice cream. I can pack some cheese sticks and yogurt and sandwiches but it will cut down on what I have to carry. We dont want to have to sit down at all! The light dinner is pretty early for us and it looks like enough to call an actual dinner. I know when my husband and I went to Disney World last year we had 2 sit downs and a snack and it was WAY TOO MUCH! But I also don't want to hear all the I wants whining

 

[dzny12]

definitley take in snacks etc. but use it as a light lunch picnic on TSI. Let them run around. Are you planning on going back to hotel for dinner then returning to the parks? Maybe plan on tying there snacks to a certain time ie 4 rides then a snack ... 20$ a day for our kids is plenty. but invest in good snacks like dill pickles YAY. try to tie snacks into some decompressing time, that also helps the highs and lows.

 

[nikkislaght]

Was there in March with a 7yr old, 11yr old and a 14yr old.
We took cheese sticks, crackers. pre sliced apples. fruit cups, and those tuna salad packs,
took the little glad containers with a small "dressing/sauce' container and did carrots , olives, cucumber and ranch dressing.. we also had slim jims, jerky and mini summer sausages.
We froze water bottles to keep everything fresh and cool, and also did the frozen yoghurts (in the tubes)

We also had the 100 calorie bags of cookies.. candy and crystal lites.
Went to costco and got large bag of trail mix , which on the day just put in small zip lock bags.

each kid had their own fanny pack. filled with some of the smaller snack stuff, to allow them the freedom of snacking at their own pace...
after lunch the back pack was a lot lighter and everyone was very full from our lunches...

This left odd times that when they asked for a soda or an icecream I was more then happy to allow them to have it..

Personally I would never just give my 7 yr old $50. to spend on "snacks" at Disney. The melt down he would have from only eating "snacks" (to him that would mean sugar) all day would put me over the edge...

 

[seagodess]

3 snacks between 9-5. Is that including breakfast and lunch or on top of it??? That seems like a lot of food to me.
DS is not much of a snacker unless he is bored. We plan to eat before going to the parks, returning to the hotel for lunch, then play it by ear for dinner. As for snacks, IF he/we want something, we will probably get something small at the park. I cant even think about eating that much food and then going on the rides. Plus assuming it will be warm outside, that makes us eat less too.
I would suggest bringing a few snacks that are easy and then letting them each choose one other thing to buy at the park each day or something like that.