Who still brings water bottles into the parks?

[becca0831]

Hello all! First trip to Disney since my kids were in a stroller. Back then, I didn't worry about hauling stuff into the parks - snacks, extra clothes, cooler for drinks, etc., because I had a stroller basket to haul it all in. Now, as my kids will be 11, 10 and 7, I am trying to minimize what we bring in. I know we will bring a backpack for all of the necessities and some snacks but I am back and forth on beverages. We have the DDP but don't want to waste snack credits on beverages. I know you can get a glass of ice water at any QS counter but how does it taste? I don't want to bring in 5 water bottles. Do you drink the free water? Bring in water? What do you do? I even thought about just bringing in 3 portable water bottles - a Brita filter one and two others that we can share. Just trying to see what other people do. I don't want to be a pack mule!

 

[BuckeyeBama]

We carry very little, but included is a bottle of water for me and my wife each day when we go in Sept.

 

[Praying Colonel]

Hello all! First trip to Disney since my kids were in a stroller. Back then, I didn't worry about hauling stuff into the parks - snacks, extra clothes, cooler for drinks, etc., because I had a stroller basket to haul it all in. Now, as my kids will be 11, 10 and 7, I am trying to minimize what we bring in. I know we will bring a backpack for all of the necessities and some snacks but I am back and forth on beverages. We have the DDP but don't want to waste snack credits on beverages. I know you can get a glass of ice water at any QS counter but how does it taste? I don't want to bring in 5 water bottles. Do you drink the free water? Bring in water? What do you do? I even thought about just bringing in 3 portable water bottles - a Brita filter one and two others that we can share. Just trying to see what other people do. I don't want to be a pack mule!

We bring our own water in, via LifeStraw Go Water Bottles. But we're just empty-nesters now and we can each manage our own stuff. If I was packing for 5, I might not.

The free water's fine, but you still have to find a CS place and wait in line for it. And the water fountains seem to have the worst water pressure in the world. YMMV.

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

The QS water tastes fine to me, and I don't like FL tap water. But I still almost always bring my own in - I don't like either waiting in line behind folks ordering food, or feeling like I'm cutting the line by just going up to the counter. A few places do have self-serve soda fountains with a water option, so I like those.

Even when I do depend on the QS places, I still bring a refillable bottle, so when I do get water, I get 2 or 3 cups. I drink one immediately and pour the rest into my own bottle for later.

No need for you to be a pack mule - 11, 10, and 7 are all old enough to carry their own stuff!

 

[siskaren]

Since your kids are 11, 10 and 7, there's no reason you need to be a pack mule.

 

[21hearts]

I always use the free Disney water when we go, but with that said I'm pretty local and my tap water tastes the same so its "normal" to me.

 

[LuvDaisy&Minnie]

I don't like to carry stuff. So I bring in almost nothing. Definitely don't want to carry a water bottle. But I haven't been in the extreme heat either. That may make a difference.

 

[Reimagineer]

I had each of my kids (17, 14, 11) bring their own small backpack each with their own water bottles. We refilled them with water at the CS places or at the water fountains...we were sure to have those small crystal light packets to flavor the water with so the kids wouldn't beg for something with "taste." Overall it worked really well.

 

[Alesia]

The water is filtered and tastes exactly like any other filtered water. I don't carry water bottles.

 

[Mel.I.Am]

Any line I can avoid is a plus. So my whole family carries Hydration packs because believe it or not we do get thirsty "in" line for rides. And by the end of the day when we're most tired it's empty anyway so there's little weight there.

 

[kj2mom]

We went in July and I wanted my children to drink a little constantly. We had two Brita bottles, one I froze over night the other had water to start the day out. When we got free water from the CS locations we would drink one and put the other in the bottles to drink until we stopped again for more water. The backpack we used had two drink pouches so I brought two Dunkin Donut coozies and put one of those on each side to keep the water cool and collect condensation. There were 3 of us (myself and two 13 year olds) so my daughter and I shared a bottle leaving the other for my son (he isn't that great at drinking without devouring the squirt top so my daughter and I shared leaving the other for him). The water tasted fine except for the very last day the family we were traveling with complained so we pulled out the flavoring we had been carrying with us but never used before to make it a little more palatable. Otherwise we were fine with the CS/Brita water.

 

[redkel]

We bring 2 filtered bottles -- these: http://www.amazon.com/RefresH2Go-Fi...452757&sr=8-22&keywords=filtered+water+bottle
You can always filter the water and then pour back into a cup while dining, or drink out of bottle if you want to carry some with you.

We each (3 of us) also travel light with just our water bottles, ponchos and only necessities in our own small drawstring bags. DD - 9 carries her own stuff.

 

[JESSketeer]

We just bring the aluminum water bottles we buy right from the Disney store, fill it with ice and water from QS spots and we're good to go! The QS water tastes fine to us...way better than the water fountains!

 

[minnie mum]

We bring our own bottled water with us. From the time my kids were school age they carried their own stuff in their own backpacks.

 

[elaine amj]

I don't like waiting or searching for water. So we bring our water bottles with us. When on DDP, we would just get 1-2 bottles of water with our QS meals. Then again, we don't drink that much pop. It's a treat for my kids to get to share one cup of pop.

 

[SJMajor67]

My family and I usually bring in two huge water bottles (the 24 oz ones or something like that) we buy once we get arrive at our hotel. We fill them up a quarter of the way to halfway and freeze them the night before so the bottom is ice and keeps the water cold throughout the day (yes the ice doesn't melt all the way until later at night) and then just share those throughout the day. When they get empty we just find a water fountain and fill them up for free, and do that for our whole trip. Considering water is like four dollars for a 12 oz bottle it saves quite a bit of money.

 

[georgina]

I always bring a refillable bottle and fill it at the water fountains. The taste doesn't bother me and I drink a lot of water throughout the day. I get water at CS if I am getting food at the same time.

 

[AquaDame]

My husband drinks a lot of water and I try to as well, so we actually use a camelbak bag as our park bag and take turns. We fill it up with ice from a machine and then the rest of the way with water and it has a built in filter. When/if we run out (its a 1L bag but we often do) then we stop by a CS and get a couple more cups to refill with.

 

[bluezy]

We don't carry any bags to the parks so no water bottles for us. We just buy water when we're thirsty. We've gotten the free water from the CS places but none of us really likes the taste. The kids (teens) actually prefer to get Powerade rather than water. We go to Disney in June, so it's hot and we drink a lot of water/Powerade, but we still prefer to buy it rather than carry it around. We usually share 3 bottles of drinks between the 5 of us because no one ever finished a whole bottle anyway.

 

[kelmcg]

I would always put 2 water bottles in my backpack and bring them into the park for myself.I don't like the taste of the water at WDW. My DH and DS's will drink the free water. I've also brought in the small bottles of kool-aid mix and powerade mix, to give the water some flavor. (These are very small bottles, they are very concentrated so you don't have to use a lot to flavor the water.)