Who qualifies for the no-bag line at security?

dawnball

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Jul 6, 2005
I'm traveling with an extended family group. We'll be 7 in all, ranging from Grandparents to a toddler. The tentative plan is to send my teenage daughter (who does poorly in lines) through the no-bag line, along with whomever else qualifies. They can go pick up a mobile order at the starbucks and meet us on the esplanade. My fee for getting your bags inspected is charged in americanos.

So who qualifies? (I've included my best guess, to keep me honest when I score myself)

Stroller-pusher - stroller has a basket, but it would be empty. So would the stroller, by my guess. (Bag-line)

Grandpa - carries a credit-card sized zipper wallet and a cell phone in his pockets. Probably carrying a bottle of water. (no bags!)

Grandma - has a zipper case for her cell phone. It fits fully in her pocket, but is probably 3"x5". (I think that counts as a bag, and they're going to be cranky at the metal detector).

Teenager #1 - cell phone and wallet (credit card sized) in her pockets, plus some non-feromagenetic misc that she's hoping not to have to empty out of her cargo pockets in front of a crowd. (No bags!)

Teenager #2 - will drop her bag with the bags-line people, carry her cell phone and head phones in her hand/on her head. (No bags!)

Responsible adult - snap-closed neck pouch (credit card sized) that isn't ferromagnetic, and cell phone. Has a knee brace, which is bulky but not magnetic (No bags!)

Pack Mule - carries toddler in a soft-sided kid carrier that has no pockets. Cargo pockets with misc kid-snacks. Nothing that would set off the metal detectors except a cell phone and the kid poking the frame as you go through. The toddler is probably clinging to a stuffed animal (or has shoved it in beside himself) and is alternately gesticulating with a water cup and turning it upside down to see how much water comes out. (I'm guessing no bags, but toddler on your back is probably the hardest to hand off.)

So, how'd I score?
 
Just don't count on a no-bag line being available at all security gates at all times. That is, sometimes there are no-bag lines available, and other times there aren't. Your group will move a little faster if you consolidate the number of people carrying bags, so once those no-bag folks reach the table, they can continue on to the metal detector, while the others hang back at the table.

As mentioned previously, anything with a zipper or clasp is often considered a bag, even if it's small. And in my experience strollers are considered "a bag" since security will have to look at them for any baskets/pockets even if they are empty.

As always, it's up to security whether they need to check something or not, so it's better to be prepared to wait and have items checked, than to assume you'll breeze through and be disappointed.
 


I‘ll follow this thread as I am pretty unsure what counts as no bag as well...

I don’t think it has anything to do with metals as the metal detector is the next step and you have to empty your pockets of metals before you pass...

It is actually kind of a philosophical question when a bag starts to be a bag...
I am quite unsure and that’s why I always chose the bag line...

I have a little purse (size of an credit card which has a zipper for change..) I‘d call that „no bag“...

And I have a small running belt you can wear under your shirt...(you can barely spot it under a shirt) and that just fits the just mentioned purse and an iPhone...
i don’t know... I‘d say it is a bag but you can’t see it and if you don’t have any metals inside you can walk with it though the metal detectors and no one would even know it’s there...

If I wear pants with big pockets I could put so much stuff in there (way more than in my running belt actually) and it wouldn’t count as bag...

I really think the distinction is between bag and no bag is pretty weird...
 
I really think the distinction is between bag and no bag is pretty weird...

I think it's a bit like the TSA, where part of the point is that you don't know exactly what the policies are on any given day.

For my teenager - she'd rather leave things home or carry them loose in her pockets than go through a slower line. It isn't that she can't, it's that it's a decent amount of mental effort, and the more of her energy she can save for the parks, the more she can do before going back to the hotel.
 
When we tried to go through the no-bag line on Harbor last October, the security guy told us that items with a zipper were a no go.

My pockets have a zipper...

I really don't see a fundamental difference between a trifold-sized wallet with a zipper and one without, but I don't make the rules, so...
 


If someone would have to open anything you have - including a zipper purse or wallet of any kind, then you are out. You have to be able to put the contents of your pocket in the tray that is not scanned and someone has to be able to just look at it and know it's okay rather than have to dig through it - I saw people being turned away with what you could call a larger than average wallet as the CM said someone would have to open in and inspect it. Also, as others have mentioned the no bag line is normally when there is a long bag line and we've gone when there is no such line offered as the other lines are already very short.
 
It isn't that she can't, it's that it's a decent amount of mental effort, and the more of her energy she can save for the parks, the more she can do before going back to the hotel.

Unfortunately, skipping past the security line to get into the parks is like winning a pie eating contest where the prize is more pie.
 
If you just carry your phone, keys and a small wallet that only contains money and credit cards/ DL, then you can go through a no bag line. Anything more than that and you'll probably/maybe get sent to the back of a regular line.
 
I'm not sure what your plans are in terms of arrival times, but if you go early enough there shouldn't be much of a security line to wait in regardless of bags or no bags. This way you don't have to worry about if you'll get sent back.

Also, in my experience, cargo pants/shorts pockets will have to be emptied.
 
If you just carry your phone, keys and a small wallet that only contains money and credit cards/ DL, then you can go through a no bag line. Anything more than that and you'll probably/maybe get sent to the back of a regular line.

This is why I asked, because the small wallet that contains only money and credit cards has a -ZIPPER-. And that's bad news bears.
 
I'm not sure what your plans are in terms of arrival times, but if you go early enough there shouldn't be much of a security line to wait in regardless of bags or no bags. This way you don't have to worry about if you'll get sent back.

Also, in my experience, cargo pants/shorts pockets will have to be emptied.

Well, Grandma, Grandpa, and the toddler will be ready to go at the crack of dawn. The toddler can't go on his own and Grandma and Grandpa are scared of Disneyland, because it's different from Disney World. They'll mill around in confusion. Pack Mule and Responsible Adult are currently planning to escort them to security about an hour before rope drop, and if any teenagers want to go with us, that's when they should go, too! Otherwise they're not my problem. There's a good chance it'll take an unexpected 20-30 minutes to get everyone moving in the same direction, though.

It's early in the reservation period for SWGE though, so I'm anticipating both extra crowds and lots of very confused people. Particularly in my party. "Why is bag check all the way back here? Do we have to do this again to go to the other park? Where are the teenagers going? Oh, I have something else in my pocket that I forgot!"

Pack Mule may have to make other plans, but well-loaded cargo pockets are just so convenient through the day.
 
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Grandma and Grandpa are scared of Disneyland, because it's different from Disney World. They'll mill around in confusion.

I heard that! I am always so jealous of the groups you see in the parks where the grandparents are calm, in charge, and paying for everything.** My sympathies lie with the people for whom going to Disneyland with grandparents is like taking extra kids.

**Except the one time I saw a group where the grandparents made everyone in the group wear matching T-shirts announcing that the grandparents were paying for the whole trip. I'd like to think I would have the strength to say no to that scenario.
 
I mostly agree with your list, but as others have noted, some of the CMs have said that anything with a zipper (excluding clothing) or wheels would need to go through the bag-line. So this would include zipped wallets* and the cell phone case. They do also ask you to empty your pockets into the bins, especially if it looks like you have a lot of stuff in your pockets.

(*That being said, I did carry my bi-fold zipper wallet through the no bag line. I had it unzipped and opened flat when I got to the front of the line. It's only big enough to hold the DL, credit cards, and cash (not even a coin area). So at that point, it was easy to see from a glance what was in it (like any other bi-fold wallet).)

Personally, I would have Teenager #1 put the stuff that she doesn't want to have to pull out in front of everyone into a baggie and send them with the bag-line people. You never know when you'll get a CM that is really strict and makes everyone completely empty their pockets.

Of your list, I think the biggest "maybe" is Grandma. I don't know how the larger cell phone case would be handled. Again, any chance she could give the case to the bag-line people and just carry her cell phone without the case for a bit?
 
I heard that! I am always so jealous of the groups you see in the parks where the grandparents are calm, in charge, and paying for everything.** My sympathies lie with the people for whom going to Disneyland with grandparents is like taking extra kids.

**Except the one time I saw a group where the grandparents made everyone in the group wear matching T-shirts announcing that the grandparents were paying for the whole trip. I'd like to think I would have the strength to say no to that scenario.

The grandparents are great at Disney World. We could give them the toddler and say "Meet you after 15 rounds on the teacups, we're sleeping in!" and re-aquire a fed, dizzy kid. They're completely lost at Disneyland. It's just similar enough that they feel like they know where they are, and just different enough that everything they "remember" is wrong.

So we just keep a running commentary of everything that's different, and we'll all have a good day! "We're heading to Star Tours, that's just where it is at Disney World! Astro Orbiters is in the wrong place, so just keep going past it."
 
I mostly agree with your list, but as others have noted, some of the CMs have said that anything with a zipper (excluding clothing) or wheels would need to go through the bag-line. So this would include zipped wallets* and the cell phone case. They do also ask you to empty your pockets into the bins, especially if it looks like you have a lot of stuff in your pockets.

(*That being said, I did carry my bi-fold zipper wallet through the no bag line. I had it unzipped and opened flat when I got to the front of the line. It's only big enough to hold the DL, credit cards, and cash (not even a coin area). So at that point, it was easy to see from a glance what was in it (like any other bi-fold wallet).)

Personally, I would have Teenager #1 put the stuff that she doesn't want to have to pull out in front of everyone into a baggie and send them with the bag-line people. You never know when you'll get a CM that is really strict and makes everyone completely empty their pockets.

Of your list, I think the biggest "maybe" is Grandma. I don't know how the larger cell phone case would be handled. Again, any chance she could give the case to the bag-line people and just carry her cell phone without the case for a bit?

I'll probably suggest that the zipper wallets could be replaced by a ziplock baggie with a credit card, room key, photo ID and $20. That makes it waterproof for the rides! No one needs their costco card, insurance cards, or the business card they've been meaning to do something with. They should leave all that at home, or at least in the hotel.


Yeah, if Teenager #1 is leaving stuff with the bag line anyway, it isn't a big deal to leave everything. She'll just want to smuggle it discretely back into her own pockets.

Grandma's "cell phone case" is completely a bag. She has room in there for all kinds of things. But at Disney World, they'll usually let her just zip it open at the top so they can peer inside. Then an hour later she has a baggie full of nuts. "Where were you carrying those?" "In my cell phone case!" One of us will just appoint Grandma stroller-pusher. As long as Pack Mule and the toddler go through the bag check line with her, she won't grumble that it takes too long. Grandbabies are an excellent distraction.
 

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