1 bdrm or bigger...to cook or not to cook?

[TINKERIFIC]

One of the many, many reasons for buying into DVC was the full kitchen. Yes, I LOVE, LOVE Disney dining, but it does get EXPENSIVE and I always feel 10 lbs heavier when I get back home because I love it so much .

On our next trip we are planning on eating mostly in with a limit of 2 TS and maybe 2 CS during a 7 night stay. Whereas, normally we have a CS and TS per day.

Curious, how many people actually fully depend on the kitchen and hardly ever "eat out"? Am I the only one?

 

[Duchie]

Nope, you're not alone. We use the kitchen for most meals while at WDW. It started because we have what you may politely refer to as a "Fussy Eater". Since there are 5 of us we were always in a 2-bedroom, so we decided to go ahead and use the kitchen for simple meals. Plus it had the added benefit of forcing us to take a break to return to our room (a must when the kids were little, not so much now but still nice to do). We liked it so much that even though our FE is not so fussy any more, we still do it this way. We may eat 1 TS meal while there (usually a character breakfast) and maybe a CS meal or two for lunch, but otherwise all meals are in the room.

 

[wideeyedwonder]

Curious, how many people actually fully depend on the kitchen and hardly ever "eat out"? Am I the only one?

We are new to DVC, and our "plan" (ha!) has always been to use the kitchen for most breakfasts (hot or cold cereal, french toast or pancakes, eggs, etc.), and have Disney cover the character breakfasts (Goofy's Kitchen at DLH for example).

Lunch is hit or miss, as we tend to snack all day, and/or share meals.

We are planning to have dinners mostly out of the kitchen (this will be our "splurge"), although one or two nights of frozen lasagna or pizza heated in the oven aren't out of the question...while I don't mind making breakfast, I don't want to be cooking dinner on vacation!

We'll see what happens...our first DVC stay won't be until early 2010 at the GCVs.

 

[rkwier]

We also try to do most meals in our room. We do all breakfasts - eggs, cereal, oatmeal, etc. - nothing too fancy. We usually order Giordano's pizza one night (yum!) and then have leftovers from that one other night for dinner. We make up a salad to go with it for a nice easy meal. Most lunches in the room, usually sandwiches - again nothing fancy. If we are there for four days, we usually only spend one day in a park and we will have lunch there if we are hungry. If we eat breakfast late and we are still full, we may just have a snack and skip lunch altogether. Frankly, I like the break that it gives us to go back to the villa. I also feel like I eat better since I am in control of what I prepare. During our trip on January, this strategy saved us $127 from the DP for 4 days/2 adults.

 

[JACKie SPARROW]

We do some meals in our villa. Breakfast is almost always cooked/prepared in our villa. I alternate breakfast meals; one day pancakes, eggs & sausage and the next day muffins/do-nuts. This way cooking doesn't becone tiresome.

We have found out that if we eat breakfast else where, it tends to slow us down.

When it comes time for lunch, we tend to hit our favorite CS like: York Shire, Tangerine Cafe, Flame Tree and a few burger places. Other than that We will come back to the villa and have a sandwhich, salad or hot dog.

Dinners we eat out almost every night except when we go to VB; then we eat out only 2 nights.

We drive to WDW and are able to take prepared food frozen in a cooler which saves both time and money

 

[jodifla]

We do all the breakfasts in our room, and about half of the dinners and lunches.

I get sick of eating out day after day...particularly now that Disney Dining has made so many of the menus so similar.

 

[JACKie SPARROW]

I get sick of eating out day after day...particularly now that Disney Dining has made so many of the menus so similar.

I completely agree with you . I can only eat steak a few times and my kids really get sick of nuggets, burgers & pasta. DH would eat steak daily if I'd let him . Either the menues are too similiar or too weird for my palate.

I would like to do some research for our next trip and maybe try some places off site.

 

[kim_d]

We almost always get a 1 bedroom (sometimes 2 bedroom) for our family of 4 and never use the kitchen to cook. We will use the microwave to heat up some leftovers and will prepare a quick breakfast (english muffin and peanut butter) or snack; but I don't think I have ever used the oven.

We used garden grocer one trip and ended up with a lot of unused food- we just didn't feel like cooking in the room.

 

[TINKERIFIC]

I definately do not want to be cooking on vacation either...my dinners will definately be something frozen or out of box...or very easy to prepare...spaghetti, frozen lasagna, etc.

One wish for a DVC would be for them to have crock pots. Those are the best thing. Throw dinner in there before heading to the parks, then come back to a wonderful hot late lunch, early dinner.

Or, maybe a small grill on the porch...kind of like a camping stove or something...attached to the wall or something. Sorry, I am from Texas and most of our meat is grilled....steak, chicken, hamburgers, etc.

 

[Golden Rose]

DH, DS, and I generally cook breakfast in the room, have lunch in one of the parks somewhere, then have dinner at a resort (unless we're staying at an Epcot resort, in which case we often eat in Epcot.) DS really doesn't yet care much about the characters, so we've cut back on character breakfasts for now.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

We just plain don't like to eat restaurant food all of the time. I can't do breakfast, lunch and dinner at Disney. We no longer do Disney commando style and actually enjoy our resort time. For example, our next stay is for 6 days, we have ADR's for 2 nights, we will do counter lunches 3 times and the rest of the time we will eat at the villas. Not only will it be food that we prefer but it will be much less expensive in the long run.

 

[Dee77]

I am thinking that it would be a money/time saver for us to cook in the room however for our upcoming trip we are going to use the DDP. Next year, however, I really want to cook in the villa. I am thinking that with a large group of us we can split the responsibility of food prep, cooking and cleaning up. We'll see, I have a few people in the family I need to convince before it becomes a reality. I agree that having crock pots in the rooms would make things so easy.

 

[Goofy's apprentice]

We love to use the kitchen ! At home we are often so busy that meals are a rush and we don't get a chance to cook like we enjoy.

We always have breakfast supplies and take turns cooking. Our kids actually like to make pancakes or eggs so that is a treat.

Lunches are likely purchases as we are out and about. We aren't commando vacationers so sometimes our breakfasts are quite late and lunch isn't really anything more than snacks.

We love to BBQ. At SSR the picnic pavilion at Congress Park has been the scene for quite a few bbq parties.

It's so nice to be able to spend more time at the pool instead of getting ready for dinner. When the kids were little we could let them play longer and then they would eat their dinner out on the balcony. No pressure, just great family time.

 

[HayGan]

We definitetly plan on utilizing the full kitchen. Heck, we even utilize the kitchenette in the studios. Our plan for our upcoming trip is breakfast in the villa, most luches in the villa and a few dinners in the villa. For dinners we plan on having pretty easy meals. Some of the ideas that we have are

lasagna with garlic bread and salad
roasted chicken (from Publix) with mashed potatoes and veggies
sandwichs with potato salad (again from Publix)

We will also eat out (or ordering in) from some Orlando restaurants while we are there. We plan on trying Flippers, Gioradanos, Texas de Brazil, Cafe Tu Tu Tango and some others.

We are really disappointed with Disney dining recently. The quality seems to be on the decline while the prices just get higher and higher. The full kitchens are one of the top reasons why we bought DVC!

 

[TINKERIFIC]

We love to BBQ. At SSR the picnic pavilion at Congress Park has been the scene for quite a few bbq parties.

It's so nice to be able to spend more time at the pool instead of getting ready for dinner. When the kids were little we could let them play longer and then they would eat their dinner out on the balcony. No pressure, just great family time.

I am looking forward to this opportunity as well. We would love to take full advantage of the BBQ. Hopefully they are not that crowded. Anyone provide experience with the availability of BBQ? I am thinking that during the midday...maybe around 2pm...they are not as busy? I was thinking about maybe making a late lunch the big meal of the day since the hotels/villas seem to be less crowded at that time. We plan to take a break between 1pm and 5pm each park day.