Do You Cook In Your Villa?

[disneynutz]

Just wondering if our fellow DISers cook meals in their villa. We have increase our villa meals, saving money for addilional vacations.

[WoodysRoundup]

So far, we've just had fruit, yogurt and cereal for breakfast and maybe a frozen pizza at night. But cooking? NO, not on vacation. I do enough of that at home! ;)

[KiminChicago]

We're planning our first trip "home" in October and we're going to cook a lot of breakfasts in our villa. We're going with my sister and her family and the plan is that one or two of the adults can cook breakfast while the other adults are getting the kids up and ready to go. We're not "commando" type vacationers, so this will probably be the fastest way to get us out to the parks without getting up at the crack of dawn. We'll probably do one character breakfast, but the rest will be eaten in the villa.

And we always pack some microwave popcorn and other snacks to make after a day in the parks, just in case someone's hungry before bedtime.

[bobbiwoz]

Just coffee, breakfast cereal, with a couple of leftovers thrown in. If I'm solo, I like to have some soup/sandwich fixings. If Disney's idea was that ME would keep people on site, it works for us. For 2 years now, for the two of us, we only get a car for Church on Sunday, and since that's often our last day, we don't buy groceries. With the larger family, however, we find it does pay to have a car and do our shopping...but it's mostly meals for the DGC, Purdue nuggets, mac and cheese, lots of fruit, bread, sandwich meats, cheeses, peanut butter. We have done very little "cooking." I would be willing to, we just don't seem to be there long enough!

Bobbi:goodvibes

[LadyKay]

You forgot one selection, none of the above! :rotfl2: That is my selection. We always use DDP and room service (morning double shot espressos). I cook, serve and clean at home. Vacations are my brief escape from that.

[eyeheartgoofy]

No, we really don't cook. Most days, we eat breakfast there ... cereal, toast, fruit, bagels, etc. We do eat some lunches and dinners in our room, but mostly just sandwiches, chips, fruit, etc. Last year, we had a frozen pizza and a bagged salad one night ... that was the biggest meal I've ever "cooked" at Disney!

I like having the storage area, the microwave and the fridge ... but the stove never gets much of a workout when we are there.:rotfl: I like eating out when on vacation.

[stopher1]

Breakfast, yes, snacks yes... nothing else really. Pancakes, waffles, eggs, typical breakfast stuff. Cookies, brownies, muffins - those kinds of snacks.

[Fatalbie]

Last trip we did the DDP and ordered a grocery delivery. We used we go shop and it was fantastic!! Discovered that the DDP is nice and all but the lack of flexibility for a larger group makes it difficult. Maybe its not so much the group size as the separation of ages, me, DW-GP's-GC's. This spread made it difficult to be so tied to the dining reservations. Most day involved an afternoon snack back at the villa for nap time anyway, and we decided that with the younger ones in the future it will be far more enjoyable to do dinner at the villa rather than plan on x-port time and ressies. This will free us up to go back to the parks at a reasonable hour, or just relax after a meal. It does get difficult when you thought your reservation was at the right place at the right time, sox months prior to the trip, and suddenly one or more of the people in your party are not cooperating with your plans!! LOL.

We always do breakfast in the room, unless a character meal is on tap. Snacks and lunch are usually in the park.

Adults only trips will be DDP all the way!!! I do wish they would do away with the dessert and allow for an app instead. I like to have dessert later at my own pace after dinner has settled a bit.

Jim

[StayFLA]

We cook any meals needed at the villa with a few meals out. Always have breakfast, eggs or cereal or waffles etc. and off we go. Lunches are normally bought at the park, but consist mainly of snacks, turkey legs, chicken fingers, ice cream. Mid afternoon at the villa we make sandwiches or microwave stuff. If we return to the villa a little later, we make cheesesteaks, pasta, sloppy joes, etc as dinner. Quick stuff in a pan is key. We will have one or two big dinners out. I'll call the day before or the same day for ressies and have a big table service dinner out and treat it as an event and not just a meal. I will not make early ADR's as I don't plan a vacation around meals unless it is something like princess breakfest or V&A (something really special and hard to get same day).

We've always brought 4 kids on prior trips, but as Fatalbie brought up, if it is only the Mrs and me, I would consider the DDP and eat like we've never eaten before.

Ralph

[carol1231]

I make most of our breakfasts and dinners. Lunch we usually eat out. Since we drive I bring our groceries and saves time of going to the store when we get there. I plan out our meals and have it all written down so I know what we are having on which days. Saves a lot of money.

[DisDaydreamer]

Yes to everything... We're weird in that respect. We prefer to cook all our own meals. Once in a while we buy out... or actually get room service.

[shellybaxter]

There isn't a choice for me. The only thing I "cook" in my villa kitchen is reheating leftovers. We use the fridge for water and wine. We like to eat out and have snacks in the parks so we are usually too full to eat much in the room. Our "grocery" stops are for laundry soap, drier sheets and bottled water :upsidedow

[bzzelady]

It depends on the trip. On short trips, I just have breakfast stuff and snacks.

On longer trips, or depending which family members we bring with us, I have been known to cook the majority of the meals. Last June when I drove the in-laws down, I premade things ahead of time, sealed them into food saver bags and froze them, and layered them into the cooler. I made meatballs/sausages and sauce, taco meat, and chicken/gravy to go over waffles. We had meatball and sausage sandwiches, pasta night, build your own tacos or taco salad night, white chicken chili, and made chicken and waffles for our friends who live in Kissimmee and miss that Pennsylvania Dutch treat.

Occasionally if I am driving, I bring my crockpot. Usually I will plan what meals I will make with it, premeasure all my dry ingredients for my recipes at home into a Ziploc bag, and get the meats at the grocery store.

When we stay in a villa at VWL, my DD9's tradition is to bake brownies at the beginning of our stay...let me tell you that can drive the guests passing in the halls entirely crazy :)
Last year when we stayed at VWL, I also made a small turkey on Thanksgiving Day.

So yes...my kitchen definitely gets use when we are in a villa at Disney :laundy:

[edk35]

We do bagels and cold cereal. We mainly use the kitchen for snacks and drinks in the fridge. I think last summer when we were there for 2 weeks...I made a couple of griled cheese sandwiches and a frozen pizza once.

[Anal Annie]

We make coffee, toast bagels & heat oatmeal in the micowave. The part of vacation that I look forward to most is NO COOKING OR LAUNDRY! None. Nada! Zip!:hyper:

[jarestel]

We always have coffee in the villa and cook breakfast a couple of times per trip. It's much easier than piling out of bed and trying to herd everyone out to make that ADR time slot. Saves time, saves money, and the food quality is generally as good or better than we get in the restaurants.

But we don't go nuts with the cooking. We still eat out plenty!

[Buckeye Fan]

We always have breakfast in our room. We also eat our smaller meal (usually lunch, but sometimes dinner) in our room. It's usually sandwiches, or something we can heat up (frozen pizza, soup, etc.).

[wdw1014]

One of our big reasons of buying DVC was so we would have the option to cook in our room. We drive down, so I do grocery shopping before we leave. I cook and freeze many of our meals, then all that is needed is heating. I do try to keep my time in the kitchen to a minimum. We also don't eat all meals in the room.

[Inkmahm]

Cook? Never lunch or dinner. Not once.

I like being able to have breakfast in the villa before we head out mostly because it saves park time. I'd rather be doing things in the parks than wasting time eating breakfast.

We rarely eat counter service, usually eat Signature TS. Enjoyment of good food is a big part of our Disney trips for us.

[perpetualplanner]

We do a big breakfast in the room - it gets everyone up and moving - think 1 teen and 1 pre-teen boy. We do snacks especially for pool days - cheese and salami and crackers, fruit, chips, etc... Otherwise, we mostly eat out but with that big breakfast lunch is usually minimal (except for the teen who practically lived for the Food & Wine festival beef empanadas last trip).

I enjoy eating dinners out as everyone can be happy with their meal!

[SCDizneyDawn]

Another one here that none of the choices apply! We use refillable mugs for coffee, eat cereal or muffin for breakfast and always eat lunch and dinner out! The most cooking in our unit that would happen would be toasting of a bagel:goodvibes

[perpetualplanner]

We do a big breakfast in the room - it gets everyone up and moving - think 1 teen and 1 pre-teen boy. We do snacks especially for pool days - cheese and salami and crackers, fruit, chips, etc... Otherwise, we mostly eat out but with that big breakfast lunch is usually minimal (except for the teen who practically lived for the Food & Wine festival beef empanadas last trip).

I enjoy eating dinners out as everyone can be happy with their meal!

[DisFlan]

We do the standard coffee-juice-cereal/danish breakfast in the villa and eat lunch and dinner out. If we have family along that includes kids, we work in a character breakfast or two. We always seem to end up with a bunch of leftovers in the fridge that we reheat as snacks or maybe a lunch. And I usually throw a few bags of microwave popcorn in my luggage. No "real" cooking - it's a vacation! :goodvibes

DisFlan

[palhockeymomof2]

we do coffee and breakfast as well.....cereal..muffins etc in the morning.. snacks etc before going to the pool in the afternoon....then wine and cheese in the pm....;)

[blondietink]

We always cook breakfast and dinner in our rooms. Lunch we do counter service or a snack item. This saves us a lot of money and it gives us some down time in the afternoon before heading back to the parks for the evening. My DS has numerous food allergies and it is just easier cooking in the room for him and the hassle of getting special meals cooked in the restaurants.

We save a lot of money doing this compared to either the DDP or paying outright for TS meals. This helps us stay longer on our vacations and take more of them per year. ;)

[dbprimeaux]

First trip staying at SSR in a 2 bedroom - We had the basic breakfast items - cereal, waffles, poptarts, biscuits, coffee, etc... (almost every morning)...Lunches were eat in the Parks most days....Dinner - was eaten at DTD or frozen pizzas, mac & cheese, and microwave meals in the room.

Second stay at SSR in a 2 bedroom was basically the same....

Last trip (Nov 21st-Dec 1st) at SSR in a 2 bedroom - We ate out EVERY meal! DH likes TS for every meal (DTD, Parks, Artist Palette)... Well, I did that...and we spent a TON of $$$$!!! I think we will go back to "cooking" some meals in our room. I don't mind having some meals in the room and eating counter service, but DH doesn't like it...

[patsal]

Usually it was for coffee and breakfast, maybe snacks occasionally, maybe a quick lunch occasionally. The more we go though, the more I have found that cooking a bit is no big chore. I do use more convenience foods--which I wouldn't use so much at home, so kind of a treat for everyone involved. I have also recently been less impressed with WDW food quality so paying resort prices for mediocre food is not something I will do. We do go offsite a fair amount of time for dinners as well. We usually saty 14 days through so eating out that much gets old too.

Coffee is, well coffee but a higher end brand like Green Mountain, so much tastier than WDW coffee.

Breakfast is simply frozen waffles or pancakes, scrambled eggs, bagels, cold cereal and milk or hot oatmeal. No biggie there!

Lunches, though very few in the room, might be soup/sandwiches/salads

Snacks--whatever they wanted and put in the cart when we shopped! My kids are big on freeze pops, ice cream novelties and crackers. I have baked brownies and cupcakes on occasion.

Dinner is easy stuff. Tacos, fajitas, spaghetti with red sauce, fettucinni alfredo, salads, garlic bread, baked chicken, potatoes, veggies--just super simple meals that require very little prep and cook within 45 minutes.

[Disnydad]

All of the above.

[Fortywinks]

We always have breakfast and mostly lunch in our rooms. We drive, so we buy groceries locally we we arrive. Saves $$. For the most part, try to have one TS meal daily. Since we do the early park schedule, down time around lunch time is helpful before heading back to the parks for the evening.

[OurDogCisco]

It depends on the trip. On short trips, I just have breakfast stuff and snacks.

On longer trips, or depending which family members we bring with us, I have been known to cook the majority of the meals. Last June when I drove the in-laws down, I premade things ahead of time, sealed them into food saver bags and froze them, and layered them into the cooler. I made meatballs/sausages and sauce, taco meat, and chicken/gravy to go over waffles. We had meatball and sausage sandwiches, pasta night, build your own tacos or taco salad night, white chicken chili, and made chicken and waffles for our friends who live in Kissimmee and miss that Pennsylvania Dutch treat.

Occasionally if I am driving, I bring my crockpot. Usually I will plan what meals I will make with it, premeasure all my dry ingredients for my recipes at home into a Ziploc bag, and get the meats at the grocery store.

When we stay in a villa at VWL, my DD9's tradition is to bake brownies at the beginning of our stay...let me tell you that can drive the guests passing in the halls entirely crazy :)
Last year when we stayed at VWL, I also made a small turkey on Thanksgiving Day.

So yes...my kitchen definitely gets use when we are in a villa at Disney :laundy:

That must be soooo nice. We fly and I've thought about bringing Dream Dinners along or something like that. However, with all the luggage restrictions it is getting harder and harder to take food on trips. I've been know to bring a whole suitcase of non-perishables to save grocery shopping time. Maybe next time I'll see if there is a Dream Dinners in Orlando and order a couple of meals.

[lsutigger2]

The only one I did not checked was "coffee". Neither Dh or I drink coffee.

But I don't do all of them on the same day or all of the time. It depends on several factors: how long we are staying, did we drive or fly, where we are when we get hungry, are friends with us, etc etc etc

I do like having the kitchen and we do use it.

[mumto3girls]

Ours depends on where we are and the size of our unit.

Typically now when we stay at HH we eat all breakfasts and lunches in (except possibly first and last day--depending on if we have gotten to the grocery store, if the room has been ready when we got there and on the back end if we still have groceries and whether or not we have checked out). We don't do anything complicated--sometimes DH will make pancakes with a box mix, but usually just cereal, bagels, frozen waffles or french toast sticks for breakfast and sandwiches, frozen pizza etc for lunch. Sometimes I will pack a picnic to eat at the beachhouse or pool. We generally eat out most dinners.

When at WDW we typically eat breakfast in and most lunches and dinners out.

Prior to having children and even at times with up to 2 kids, we we would stay in a studio at HH and WDW and then would eat out more. We now have three DDs and studios are in our past until DH and I manage to sneak away for a trip without them sometime.

I enjoy eating out and to me it is a part of vacation--not having to cook, everyone being able to eat what they like and not having to clean up, but I don't mind quick breakfasts and lunches at HH. It really isn't a big deal. I also don't mind breakfast at WDW--its faster and gets us to the park quicker. I'm not as crazy about lunch and dinner in the room at WDW. That means we have to get back to the room and I don't always want to take that time to head back right when everyone is hungry. With little ones we often do a nap as well and aren't necessarily ready for that break right at lunchtime.

The flexibility of the kitchen is fabulous though. Making breakfast is a huge money and time saver for us. Love being able to store water and other beverages without worrying about a cooler. Love being able to take leftovers back to the room and reheat them for a late night snack or a quick lunch the next day. Love trying to cook what we have caught off the pier at Hilton Head.

I also like the fact that although we choose to eat out fairly often right now, we don't have to. In this economy it is nice to know that with our DVC accomodations we can have a nice vacation without spending a lot of money--DVC is paid for, HH is a reasonable drive, we can hit the grocery store and eat every meal in if necessary and the kids are totally entertained by the pool--at least for now.

[justjudy]

DH likes to cook breakfast in the villa -- and who am I to stop him :). We also have our morning coffee (can't go anywhere without that!) and now and then a snack. Even thoughI don't cook on vacation I love having the convenience of the full kitchen.

[BlakeNJ]

I know, who cooks on vacation? I do. Not all meals but a dinner here and there. Actually, 2 on our last 7 night stay. It was fun. I picked easy meals--meatloaf with the frozen--ready to mash potatoes and a frozen veggie. Second night was tacos--a kid favorite here. Cooking dinner made it really feel like our "home" as corny as it may sound.

I also made 1 breakfast with eggs, sausage and toast. Easy on a non-park day. We never ate a lunch in the room. Just snacks here and there.

I think I'll cook more on our next trip. Our youngest is 1 1/2 and makes eating out stressful. I think we'd enjoy dinner in the room then head out for ice cream at DTD or hit Goofy's Candy Shop!

[alldiz]

Always Coffee....snacks...ie heating up Chef boy r dee for DD....

Breakfast will be opening a cereal box...or maybe toasing a waffle or something.

No real cooking though.
Kerri

[JimC]

Breakfast every day and snacks occasionally. Very rarely lunch (usually a left over from a prior dinner or I will run out and bring back lunch to eat in. Very, very rarely dinner -- like lunch.

But none of it is really cooking.

[aprince&princess]

So far we have only made coffee in our room, and have only stayed in a studio. We just booked a 1 bdrm for summer and will probably make breakfasts for that trip. We usually do a cs lunch and a ts for dinner.

[Ksp]

We will usually have breakfast in the room - cereal/coffee/danish, etc.
Lunches are normally in the parks - I usually try to find a late lunch seating, or we do the walk-up choices.
Dinner is either in the room, or kept to a walk-up choice, just for the sake of our budget.
We try to keep some basics in the room - drinks, snacks, maybe we'll bake something, too. This last trip we cooked quite a bit and I liked having a little down time from the hectic park schedule.

[disneynutz]

We do enjoy the Stouffers heat and eat meals with a nice salad. Not much work and you end up with a pretty good meal.

http://www.stouffers.com/Products/Index.aspx

[bobbiwoz]

We do enjoy the Stouffers heat and eat meals with a nice salad. Not much work and you end up with a pretty good meal.

http://www.stouffers.com/Products/Index.aspx

I'm going to be with 4 DGF's in March, for 4 nights, and I think something like these will be good, as you say, with a salad. We're getting together next month to plan...there seems to be a difference between having our meal together at lunch or dinner. I've thought it's best to go early, get together for lunch/swim/rest then go out. We'll see how it works out.

Bobbi:)

[Paticake]

We usually cook breakfast in the room. Generally we do lunch in the parks. We have cooked pizza in the room also. When we had 14 staying at SSR we also would BBQ. This next trip in June (DGSs first trip )(2yr and 8 months) we will be eating at the villa more often. The little guys will need naps and will go to bed early. I am already planning some things to cook so I really enjoy people's suggestions.

[starbox]

We used to do coffee, until I realized that refillable mugs can be used for coffee.

At WDW - we don't cook at all - even when we've stayed in a 2bd. At VB, we make breakfast, lunch, and snacks in a studio. If I had a full kitchen and Vero, I'd buy fresh seafood and fry it.

[BEASLYBOO]

We split the stay by eating in 1/2 the time. My family does not like to eat out every day. The portions at the restaurants are huge, and often that's tomorrows lunch w/ salad etc.

I also like to use the outside grills, and grill steaks or chicken. We buy or bring charcoal, add a salad and microwave potatoes and it's a very nice meal.

We spend the most of our DVC time during summer so we alternate the park days with water parks and just pool resort days, so it's nice at the end of the day to eat at the villa and not have to get redressed to go out.

Thank heaven, our commando days are over! It's all about relaxation.