Tips for Bringing In Food

[HLAuburn]

We want to make a day trip to Epcot this weekend for the Flower/Garden show, but to keep costs down, we wanted to take lunch and snacks with us into the park. We plan on taking a cooler (that fits the requirements), so I was looking for some do's and dont's of taking in food. What kind of things keep well and what things should we avoid bringing?

It seems simple enough, but I was just talking to a friend today who said they tried this once and never again - the sandwiches were soggy etc and it just wasn't worth it.

I see people do it all the time, so there must be a "right" way to do it! Any advice?

Thanks!

 

[Maggie'sMom]

Don't bring anything in glass containers. Glass is prohibited in the parks.

I'm not a big fan of sandwiches because I don't like how they get soggy. If I were going to bring in sandwiches, I'd pack the items separately, i.e. pack a loaf of bread, the sandwich meat in its own baggie, condiments in single use packets, etc. I usually prefer to pack more "snackish" type foods: nuts for protein, pretzels, raisins, goldfish crackers, baby carrots, grapes. Apples would work well.

 

[peanut520]

we always pack lunches for the zoo and the childrens museums and never had an issue with sandwiches. i think it will have a lot to do with what kind of sandwiches you pack. dd and i like pb and j or cheese sandwiches so soggy is never an issue, but dh likes meat and as long as i put cheese between the bread and meat there isnt an issue. if you want to pack things like chicken/tuna salad then put them in a separate container.

 

[dragonfly08]

For our trip last month, I brought snacks and lunch with me each day. We did cereal bars, baggies of trail mix, crackers, pb&j sandwiches, and bagels with cream cheese. I used Gladware containers because they were lightweight, and if for some reason they got lost/broken/etc. I wasn't out a lot of $$. Everything traveled well and we had no issues with things being soggy.

 

[dizneechic]

One of our "go to" meals for day trips is cheese sticks, crackers, peperoni and a fruit and veggie. We pull apart the cheese sticks and have those with the crackers and peperoni, and of course munch on the fruit/veggies throughout the day. Easy to pack, no worries about sog, and everyone enjoys.

 

[brymolmom]

WOW - hasn't your friend ever done a picnic in a park? We do that all the time, and bringing our lunch, snacks and drinks into WDW is very similar. We bring sandwiches...we usually make them that morning as I prefer that to doing it the night before. You can put them into sandwich bags or even hard-sided sandwich rubbermaid. OR, if you are truly worried about sogginess - skip the sandwiches - and bring cold leftover pizza, fried chicken, or crackers with cheese, pepperoni and/or a small portable thing of Peanut Butter.

We usually use frozen water bottles as our 'keeping cold' agent, as we find this works better and is less messy than ice when using a soft sided cooler (which we always bring to WDW).

We also bring fruit - a rubbermaid container with strawberries, rinsed, cut up and ready for eating (this is a staple at almost every meal for our family), grapes and maybe a couple of apples. We bring some sort of 'chip' - either in the top of the cooler (think container of Pringles) if there's room - or in our backpack. And we also bring some 'treats' - either cookies or M&M's or something similar. Here again - putting them all into a rubbermaid container before putting them in the cooler might avoid messiness.

Then drinks - just make sure they're good and cold when you pack it.

This sounds like a LOT and we don't bring it all on every trip - we just put whatever will fit into the cooler.

We just did a trip to the DC zoo and packed a lunch - DH and I each brought a small 6 pack size cooler with a strap - and strapped it onto our back. We fit plenty and neither of us carried anything too heavy since we divided it up.

 

[MSSANDRA]

Try to make it a little special so it will not seem quite so hard to pass by all the good snacks in the WS:

We do not take food to WDW but other places this works well:

deli meats
cheese (nice quality)
nice bread or roll and or whole grain crackers
grapes
non chocolate cookies (chocolate will melt!)

If you are going to truly find a place to do it picnic style, add pasta salad

Really you may come out almost as well to eat a good breakfast before you arrive, plan dinner on exit and split a CS meal or a few snacks to get you through the day!

 

[SoonerSarah]

We took in sandwiches (bread is the orrowheat sandwich thins), string cheese, bell peppers, cucumbers, carrots, strawberries, mangoes and grapes. We didn't pack each of the fruits and veggies for each meal, we changed it up here and there. We didn't have a problem with the sandwiches getting soggy. We used freezer packs, put the drinks on the bottom, and then the sandwiches & fruits & veggies.

I will not eat soggy bread. I was very pleased with how well the sandwich thins held up without getting soggy, and we prefer them for our girls so that they can have a whole sandwich without having all of the bread.