10 days in a studio--Eating?

[TDC Nala]

I'm doing 10 days in a studio too (and it's just me, not five people) and I'm not going to worry about food, I'll just buy it when I want it. I don't do the dining plan. But if I were trying to feed five people I might use a grocery service (or, if you have a car, hit up a grocery store) and get some canned soups and sandwich fixings. Making hoagies or subs would work. You could even take those out to the parks.

Only one of the OP's kids will be under 3, she'll have a 3 year old and would have to pay for the dining plan for that one.

 

[bianca]

My favorite cooking item in a studio is an electric sandwich maker (I have a Mickey one from years ago). I have learned to make omelets and pancakes in the morning and tons of different sandwiches for lunch/dinner. I even order a tube of brownie batter for my studio fridge, as it bakes up nicely in the sandwich maker for a quick dessert. Search around the web for lots of suggestions about recipes. To us, it is way more convenient than a crock pot and takes up less space.

 

[rentayenta]

The reason they don't have sharp knives in studios is so you don't kill anyone staying with you when they drive you crazy after ten days. So make sure you bring a sharp knife is you plan on cutting anything in your meal preparation.

That's pretty darn funny!

 

[buzz5985]

Thank you for all the ideas. I am definitely going to bring the crock pot. The possibilities are endless with the crock pot. I also had not thought about using dry ice. I will definitely look into getting a cooler that can maintain the dry ice, fabulous idea! We will have an AP, as we are going in April for a week as well, so, I'll look into the Table in Wonderland card. Thanks for the advice everyone!

I understand the space of a studio, but, we will be fine in the studio with the 5 of us. We had a 13 day vacation this past June that was a 7 day cruise and WDW combined, and we were fine. Everyone always ends up in the room with us anyway, so, no need to waste points on a larger room. When the girls get older, then we will get bigger accomodations.

We bring an electic frying pan. I find I get a lot more use out of it. Bought it at Kohls for about $20. It's only a 12 inch square with a glass cover. WE keep it in it's original box and throw it into the car when we drive. Our last trip we cooked - bacon and eggs, grilled cheese sandwiches with soup, taco's, chicken fahitas, pancakes. Beef and brocolli. I put together little snack bags with any spices I need for a recipe. We also like to BBQ. But when we do - we make good use of the coals and cook chicken, steak, burgers, etc. And just reheat for the next night. The fridge is bigger than you think. Get down on the floor, and pack it solid.

If you want to save some money, we ate out at places from restaurant dot com. We paid $2 for each $25 GC one (waited for the 80% off email). House of Blues, Giardelli's, Shula's.

Have a great trip!!!

Janis

 

[roumic]

My favorite cooking item in a studio is an electric sandwich maker (I have a Mickey one from years ago). I have learned to make omelets and pancakes in the morning and tons of different sandwiches for lunch/dinner. I even order a tube of brownie batter for my studio fridge, as it bakes up nicely in the sandwich maker for a quick dessert. Search around the web for lots of suggestions about recipes. To us, it is way more convenient than a crock pot and takes up less space.

I would love it if you would be willing to share your recipes/meal ideas. We will be in a studio again this January and I was thinking about bringing my sandwich maker. We are hoping to eat out only once a day.

 

[Jonell]

I would go with the DP. Our last trip to WDW was with 3 adults and 1 child, and we opted not to get the DP. We were in a 1 BR at BWV so I was able to cook. Bad Ideal !! It made the vacation less enjoyable. We really didn't save much money because at the end I was tired of cooking and we ate out and paid oop. We ended up eating at O'hana's, Tusker house, Cape May, Tangerine Cafe, and Boardwalk Bakery, snacks at the park, plus the groceries was about $700. The dining plan would have cost us I think $1069. So unless you plan on eating in the studio every meal I would do the DP and save the hassle of having to prepare meals.

 

[daisyduck123]

We always do, or use TIW.

Cooking on vacation (which then leads to cleaning)?? Unthinkable, IMO.

 

[crisi]

I'm not a dining plan fan, but with ten days - eating out every day starts to taste the same. Especially at Disney where a lot of your food options are single sourced (the burgers are pretty much the same everywhere). With the car, you get the ability to get groceries more than once, go off site to eat something that might taste a little different - and with ten days you'll have time to do it.

 

[DisFanatic]

Hubby and I love our studio stays. I pack an electric skillet and just re-heat meals..
Before our trip, I cook our dinners ie. meatloaf, roast chicken, roast pork, meatballs for spagetti and then I vacuum seal them and freeze them, then when we are in our studio and are ready for dinner, just cut open the vacuum sealed pack and throw in the skillet, let warm and dinner is ready.. no cooking nothing.

I do the same with breakfast, cook the bacon and sausage ahead of time and just cut open my vacuum sealed package and warm... Easy way to bring homecooked meals to disney and pay a 1/3 less than if you were to purchase the ddp... AND you know who made your food and what went in it...lol lots of disney love!!!... enjoy!

 

[bobbiwoz]

I would do the dining plan. At least you'll get to eat some meals on real dishes that way. You say that you normaly do the dining plan and with the ages of your children, I'm guesing they would enjoy some character meals.

Cleaning a crock pot in the little sink won't be easy and you probably will want to bring some real utensils besides the sharp knife if you decide to cook after all.

I see that you have a 2 part reservation, 2 different resorts. I would at least do the dining plan for one of them.

Bobbi

 

[AirGoofy]

We are a family of four - dds 9 & 7. We have tried DP, DxDP, and no DP in studio stays of 6 & 7 nights. We have found that DP is no longer that good a deal as it was years ago when it included gratuity. We have found that on the DP, we tend to eat more food. So, we bring or get food from grocery, do some meals in the studio, and just pay OOP for meals. We also use our DVC discount. We split meals when we are not that hungry. As a family, we have eaten ice cream sandwiches for lunch. At the end of the week, we spend the same OOP as on DP, but we eat when we want, where we want, and had more fun than counting credits. Now, we would have had more food on the DP, but I would prefer to eat at Fulton's with my DVC discount than Chef Mickey for dinner with DP. Good luck with your decision.

 

[kent285]

We will be in a studio for 10 days in June. I am trying to decide if we want to do the dining plan or not. We normally wouldn't do Disney without the dining plan, but, the thought of eating that food for 10 days seems a bit much. However, in a studio, we wont have a kitchen. It will be me and DH, and a 7, 3 and 2 year old. Switching to a 1 bedroom is not an option.

Suggestions?

For me, eating out for 10 days with 3 little ones would be more of a nightmare than trying to eat in a studio. The electric frying pan is a good idea (usually cleans easily with paper towels). Purchase Crock Pot liners for the slow cooker-just throw them away. Bring a large Pyrex measuring cup to boil water...Kraft Mac and cheese, etc. Check out Crockpotgirls.com for some easy crock pot recipes. Either way, have a great trip!

 

[TG4AKV]

We spent 9 days in a studio last spring and ate most of our meals in the room. It was nice to come back to the room and have a delicious pot roast waiting for us in the crock pot and if you buy the plastic bag liners, clean up is a snap. I also brought a stack of paper plates, one large glass bowl, some real silverware and a sharp knife. I think we used the coffee mugs to eat cold cereal, instant oatmeal and soup. The only thing we had to wash after most meals was the silverware and maybe the glass bowl. Clean up can be a bit of an issue as the sink is teeny tiny. We ate instant mashed potatoes, canned soup, canned vegetables, bagels, cream cheese, yogurt cups, eggs, cold cuts, crackers, cookies, a store-bought roasted chicken, fresh fruit and a large bag of individual sundae ice-cream cups from Publix which fit very nicely in the freezer. Other years I put freezie pops for the freezer and just replenished them every day as we ate them. The biggest items in the fridge were the milk & juice containers and there's not much you can do to change that. I transferred the roasted chicken into a large zip-lock so that I could pack more stuff around. I also brought a box of medium sized zip-lock bags with us to pack left-overs. We seemed to have plenty of food choices and probably ate much healthier than if we were eating on the dining plan.