No Outside Food Policy?

[badfingerboogie]

One experience I had at my last visit to the Santa Clara GA park (I was there to see a concert) in 2000 was a ridiculously strict "no outside food" policy. Upon entering the park, they searched our bags and found brown bag lunches and we were treated as if we had just tried to smuggle some evil item into the park. We were forced to eat our lunch at picnic tables by the lockers at the front entrance.

Of course, when we went back after we ate, they didn't search the bags at all that time! We had brought a camera to shoot photos of the concert, and I had a suspicion that cameras probably weren't allowed either. But I shot off several rolls of film at the concert, and was happy about that. (It was a free concert, but of course I had to pay the $37.50 that it cost at that time to get into the park, which of course wasn't the worst thing in the world!) The people with me should have listened to me when I told them that instead of eating out lunches where the park told us to, we should have just turned right around and entered again. I guess it would have worked!

It was funny (or perhaps shocking) to see that the employees seemed to be more concerned about people brining in their own food and not buying the park's $7 hot dogs and $5 sodas than they were about any variety of items which one would think would be much more unwanted in the park.

I guess my question is, has the "no outside food" policy always been in place, and if so, was it always so strictly enforced?

[ewilson]

As far as I know it alway has been there. I do remember though that it sometimes wasn't strictly enforced as I recall seeing people in the park with red wagons full of outside food and articles.

Once in Yankee Harbor I remeber a family actually went up to one of the grassy islands in the area in front of the Lobster and spread out a large blanket under a tree and began pulling out of their wagon, fried chicken, chips, and sodas. A whole full on picnic. Security was there within 5 minutes to tell them to pack it up, and how did they even get that all in the park. Of course this was way back in the days of no gate security at all, just ticket takers.

[steven]

This is standard practice for the theme park industry. I'm fairly certain that this policy was in place from the start.

Steven

[SFGAm Rules]

I believe that this has always been the policy at SFGAm, but they have just started enforcing it this year.

[Demondude102110]

I always sneak food in!lol