How do you heat up the meals?We never eat our meals in the parks, we bring everything in. When I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING. Full dinner for 5, including meal, sides, dessert and drinks. No problem whatsoever. Saves us a ridiculous amount of money. We literally spend 10x less than what most do.
Only if they are very hungry.Will our food be confiscated by security, if we were to attempt to bring meals (ie sandwiches) from the outside?
Rolling coolers are actually specifically allowed as long as try fit within the dimensions.Also, you can't bring a rolling cooler. So be prepared to carry/stroller/locker any coolers you bring.
Rolling coolers are actually specifically allowed as long as try fit within the dimensions.
We never eat our meals in the parks, we bring everything in. When I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING. Full dinner for 5, including meal, sides, dessert and drinks. No problem whatsoever. Saves us a ridiculous amount of money. We literally spend 10x less than what most do.
Obviously, this strategy will be the most cost-effective way of eating in the theme parks.
But is it legal or not?
Will our food be confiscated by security, if we were to attempt to bring meals (ie sandwiches) from the outside?
What kinds of things do you bring for a full meal. All I can think of is sandwiches and fruit so I'm genuinely interested.
I admire your commitment! I am a picky eater but like chicken etc. I just can't get my husband onboard so it makes it very difficult to do. Or maybe I'm just making excuses!Our meals will look something like this (obviously some variety, but this is an example)…
DW – she has a salad. Usually spring greens and boneless skinless chicken breast. She also packs a very specific number of almonds.
Me – I’ll use the same chicken DW does, but just cut it up and put it in a small Thermos (the size of a large coffee mug). Maybe add some BBQ sauce on top. I also have some veggies such as baby carrots, peas, corn, etc…again put in a small Thermos
Kids – Depends if we’re buying them dessert or not. If we are, then it’ll be the same boneless/skinless chicken. If we aren’t buying dessert, we may let them have nuggets or HotPockets. We’re health nuts, but we’re on vacation, so we relax the rules some. Maybe add some mac and cheese or pasta. Always veggies, the ones they share with me…you’d be amazed how much peas can fit in a Thermos.
Drinks – at home, we let the kids have one soda per week, and it’s always diet caffeine free. We stick to the diet caffeine free rule, but we let them have a soda every dinner while on vacation. DW and I will have sodas too, usually two each. So we wind up packing 6 or 7 cans...though sometimes DW will just bring zero cal packets and flavor some water.
How do we keep it hot? A lot of it is supposed to be cold, so we don’t heat that. But things we want to stay warm like nuggets or HotPockets will go in the Thermos after we heat them at the condo. We put those in our canvas bag. While they aren’t piping hot by time dinner comes, they’re still warm. For the cold stuff, we have a very large soft sided insulated cooler bag. I also have a bunch of large ice packs. I line the bottom of the bag with ice packs. We keep the sodas in the fridge in the condo, so they start out ice cold too. So even in the summer heat, our cold food will stay fridge cold for at least 4-5 hours, easily.
Lunches will be a bit more simplistic. PB&J for the kids, or maybe deli meat sandwiches. Same for me. DW has her salad (she’s hard core). A bunch of fruit, some chips/pretzels for the kids, some midday snacks such as peanuts, cheese sticks, protein bars and we’re good to go. We don’t bring drinks in for lunch, just use the free ice water at QS places.
I know it sounds like a lot of work, but it isn’t. When we make meat, we cook in bulk. Just throw 8lbs of plain chicken in the oven and let it cook while we’re relaxing. At the same time, make a 5lb roast in the crockpot. That meat will last us many, many days. DW and I have the packing and prep down to a science. She has her “jobs”, I have mine. We can get fully prepared to go in 15 minutes, no sweat. We do it as we’re having our morning coffee and getting ready for the day, very easy.
It saves us so much money, it’s all worth it. I read about people spending $50/person/day, many spend more. We’re a family of 5, so that would be $250/day. We were just there for 17 days, so that would have meant spending $4250 on food. Maybe more. I didn’t save our grocery receipts, but I’m very confident our total grocery store bill was $400-$500. Add in about $100 worth of desserts. We did eat out twice, off property, each bill there was about $75. So our complete and total food spend was around $650-$750.
Wheeled coolers aren’t supposed to be allowed in the parks, but we saw plenty of them. We tried it out once a few years ago and didn’t like it at all, so we went back to our bag.
Any counter service will give you a cup of ice and water, as far as I know.1. Any microwaves in the theme parks, for the public?
2. Where does one get the free water? Water fountains? From take out food counters?
Our meals will look something like this (obviously some variety, but this is an example)…
DW – she has a salad. Usually spring greens and boneless skinless chicken breast. She also packs a very specific number of almonds.
Me – I’ll use the same chicken DW does, but just cut it up and put it in a small Thermos (the size of a large coffee mug). Maybe add some BBQ sauce on top. I also have some veggies such as baby carrots, peas, corn, etc…again put in a small Thermos
Kids – Depends if we’re buying them dessert or not. If we are, then it’ll be the same boneless/skinless chicken. If we aren’t buying dessert, we may let them have nuggets or HotPockets. We’re health nuts, but we’re on vacation, so we relax the rules some. Maybe add some mac and cheese or pasta. Always veggies, the ones they share with me…you’d be amazed how much peas can fit in a Thermos.
Drinks – at home, we let the kids have one soda per week, and it’s always diet caffeine free. We stick to the diet caffeine free rule, but we let them have a soda every dinner while on vacation. DW and I will have sodas too, usually two each. So we wind up packing 6 or 7 cans...though sometimes DW will just bring zero cal packets and flavor some water.
How do we keep it hot? A lot of it is supposed to be cold, so we don’t heat that. But things we want to stay warm like nuggets or HotPockets will go in the Thermos after we heat them at the condo. We put those in our canvas bag. While they aren’t piping hot by time dinner comes, they’re still warm. For the cold stuff, we have a very large soft sided insulated cooler bag. I also have a bunch of large ice packs. I line the bottom of the bag with ice packs. We keep the sodas in the fridge in the condo, so they start out ice cold too. So even in the summer heat, our cold food will stay fridge cold for at least 4-5 hours, easily.
Lunches will be a bit more simplistic. PB&J for the kids, or maybe deli meat sandwiches. Same for me. DW has her salad (she’s hard core). A bunch of fruit, some chips/pretzels for the kids, some midday snacks such as peanuts, cheese sticks, protein bars and we’re good to go. We don’t bring drinks in for lunch, just use the free ice water at QS places.
I know it sounds like a lot of work, but it isn’t. When we make meat, we cook in bulk. Just throw 8lbs of plain chicken in the oven and let it cook while we’re relaxing. At the same time, make a 5lb roast in the crockpot. That meat will last us many, many days. DW and I have the packing and prep down to a science. She has her “jobs”, I have mine. We can get fully prepared to go in 15 minutes, no sweat. We do it as we’re having our morning coffee and getting ready for the day, very easy.
It saves us so much money, it’s all worth it. I read about people spending $50/person/day, many spend more. We’re a family of 5, so that would be $250/day. We were just there for 17 days, so that would have meant spending $4250 on food. Maybe more. I didn’t save our grocery receipts, but I’m very confident our total grocery store bill was $400-$500. Add in about $100 worth of desserts. We did eat out twice, off property, each bill there was about $75. So our complete and total food spend was around $650-$750.
Wheeled coolers aren’t supposed to be allowed in the parks, but we saw plenty of them. We tried it out once a few years ago and didn’t like it at all, so we went back to our bag.