Ok, so I’m hearing a lot about the water at the parks tasting bad and its been so long since I’ve been there that I don’t remember at all. So I have been looking at water bottles that have the built in filters. But then also wondering if taking a water bottle to carry around is just a hassle that could be handled another way.
Any advice as to take a watter bottle or not or to do something else? No idea what else there would be besides taking a bottle of water in and then just refilling it at a fountain even if it tastes bad but incase there is something I didn’t think about.
We last went in the summer and brought a filtering water bottle. We refilled at water fountains, and you can also get cups of ice water at counter service restaurants. We drank a ton because it was a 104 heat index every day, and were grateful for the bottle. Of course, we shared one bottle for our family of 3, so it was a minimal extra thing to carry.
Thanks @manateesmom I know we are going in February so the heat not such an issue but I want to still make sure we stay hydrated.
@PrincipalTinker I usually take a backpack to the zoo here when we go but I was thinking about trying to go bagless to the parks but I’m starting to think that I should just bite the bullet and take our backpack. Are there any problems associated with or things to be aware of when it comes to taking a bag in to the parks? Besides what I hear about really long bag checks?
You can take your backpack on just about every ride. I think the only exception is that recently they stopped allowing bags on KRR (I think- but they have been playing around with those lockers for awhile). I usually take a refillable cup filled with mostly ice on my way to the bus and a water bottle in my backpack. When the refillable cup is gone, I will drink the water bottle and then on my way back to the room at the resort I refill my mug. If the backpack gets annoying you can always rent a locker. Bags checks can be busy, just remember to have everything unzipped and if you have a camera bag or any other bag, take it out and have it open before you get to the check. They check on both sides of a table too.
@PrincipalTinker thank you for all the information! I think we will be sticking with our backpack or at least my big day pack fanny pack. There is just so many things I can’t seem to leave behind. You know “just in case”!!
Always bring a water bottle - you will be doing a lot of walking and need to stay hydrated no matter what the weather is like. We never bother with filtering bottles, we just use a plain water bottle and refill it with the free ice water at CS restaurants (it’s filtered).
We brought a small camelback backpack in Sept, but took the camelback bladder out and instead packed 3-4 frozen water bottles with our snacks, because we thought if we just used the bladder, the water would be warm/hot after being against our back in the FL heat all day. The frozen bottles kept snacks like baby carrots cold, and by the time we wanted a drink they were melted enough. The backpack was tiny so not a hassle at all to carry around. If you don’t need to bring much, I would recommend one of those.
Look into collapsible water ‘bottles’- we bought Vapur brand for our trips and loved them! They’re so lightweight and easy to fold up and throw in a bag when not using them. Also, some styles have clips so you can clip to outside of bag (no leaks all over stuff!) or to belt loop. So many people asked us about them while we were there. Also brought individual lemonade/koolaid packets for those who didn’t like the taste of the water (I didn’t have a problem with it).
Thanks everyone for the insights! I will be looking in to several of these things! And I have decided to take some kind of pack in and some kind of bottle/container for water now to look into these things and figure out which ones will work best for us.
We’ve always brought water bottles and refilled at water fountains. None of us ever thought there was a problem with taste, but we normally just drink tap water at home too. I was really happy to find that the water fountains were cold enough for the summer so we never needed to worry about ice.
I hate taking anything into the parks. We travel light. Now we normally don’t go in the summer - so that is a whole different thing. We HATE carrying things at all. We normally just either get a bottle in the park and / or refill at a restaurant.