cooking meals

[4luvofthemouse]

I'm just curious, How many of you actually cook full meals?
We are staying for 22 days in Dec. The first part of our trip we have the DDP the second part we decided to go for the basic since we will be in a 2bdrm .
We have about a month before our ADR's and I just don't know what to do.
We are planning on getting groceries, but i'm just afraid that once we get there I may not want to actually cook..lol But on the other hand 22 days of Disney food could end up being a little much.
I know that this is a "vacation home" but we have only stayed in a studio before and all our other vacations have always been in a normal hotel room, so I just don't know what to expect.

Has anyone had full intentions of cooking then changed their mind once they got there or has it been the opposite where you were surprised by the amount of cooking you did?
Any input would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks

 

[Cyndibear]

22 days!!!?????? Wow--I'm envious!!! Cook? No way....closest thing I come to cooking is toasting a bagel and using the microwave to heat a Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich. I'm on vacation and cooking doesn't fit in my carry-on or Owners Locker. No cooking for 22 days would be like heaven!! Take advantage of it!! Have fun!

Cyndi

 

[franandaj]

Here is a link to a Poll that I posted a while back
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2425299

I asked people how much they used the kitchen in their Villa. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that quite a few people cooked a lot of their meals. Maybe not all, but some.

Personally, I would go crazy eating out 22 days. I love to cook, but I love to eat out, so I try to strike a balance. On my Jan trip of 10 days we planned on 4 nights of dinner in the room, all the breakfasts in the room and a lot of lunches. If you're interested check out my Dining Review, I've got pictures of the meals we cooked in the room in addition to the meals out.

I was glad to come back to the room after a long day and eat one of my own recipies that I make back home. The only thing that happened to us were two things, each of the three women in our party had one night of serious stomach illness (if you get my drift), so we didn't eat as much of the food as we thought we would. Our 4th night of dining in, we had planned on hot dogs, but since we had so many leftovers and everyone was happy with that, we never had the hot dog dinner!

I would go for the cooking in the room, not every night, but some. It's nice to sit at home, watch a DVD and eat food that you are familiar with from home. Another thing that I do is I have a spice box which I made from a little plastic screw and nut box (that I got from the hardware store) and tiny baggies that I got at the crafts store. I put all my most used spices in there and then I have them for vacation.

Let us know how it goes!

 

[disneynutz]

You will find that DVC newbies are still in the commando mode and rarely cook.

Us old timers, are there for the family experience and to enjoy each others company. That includes limited visits to the parks and family meals in our villa on most days. The quality of Disney food and the dining experience has really gone down hill and we don't like being treated like cattle.

Bill

 

[toniosmom]

After a week on the dining plan two years ago, it was a welcome change to cook in the villa for the past two trips. We don't make anything that requires a lot of preparation and I find that we eat healthier. I don't love to cook, but making quick meals in the villa is no bother at all.

I find that we spend a lot of "time" eating out and I'd rather have that time relaxing by the pool or in a park. Since you will be there for 22 days, that will not likely be a concern.

I see that you have the DDP the first half of the time, so you will likely have some leftovers. You might want to consider cooking the second half of the trip and skip the QSDP.

 

[TINKERIFIC]

We are doing our first DVC stay in June. We will be there 7 nights - Sat. to Sat. We are in a 2 bedroom lock off at Kidani. We are driving in and I plan to do my own off site grocery shopping in lieu of delivery. I am also planning on bringing our crockpot for a couple od days, but am not 100% set on that. I plan to use the kitchen for a majority of our meals. I only made 4 ADRS for our trip.

Here is the TENTATIVE plan:

Arrival day (Sat) - depending on our arrival time and availability of our room, we definately plan on dinner in (spaghetti, salad, garlic bread) and maybe a late light lunch. Going to MK for parade and fireworks.

Sunday (Fathers day) - Big breakfast made by the moms and kids for the dads in bed (pancakes, eggs, bacon sausage, toast, OJ). Plan to do resort activities, community hall, pool and maybe DTD for Toy Story 3. Lunch in (sandwiches and fruit/chips) and dinner in (burgers or steaks). HS for fantasmic.

Monday - (DS 4th birthday...the actual day) MK @ park opening till around 6 or whenever. Breakfast in (breakfast tacos or cereal), lunch ressie at CP in MK, and dinner in (pizza night with salad).

Tuesday - DHS from park opening to whenever (non fantasmic day and park closes at 7pm). Breakfast same as day before...breakfast tacos or cereal, lunch ressie at MM, dinner in (make your own hot deli sandwich night with your choice of side)

Wednesday (break day) - sleep in. Big breakfast day 2 (same as fathers day breakfast), lunch in (on your own...leftovers or sandwich maybe mac n cheese) and grill night 2 (steaks and potatos). We will do some DTD shopping, pool, resort activities and then Epcot for illuminations.

Thursday - AK park opening to whenever (park closes at 7pm). Light grab in go breakfast (breakfast bar/drink, pastry, etc.), late breakfast/early lunch ressie at TH with characters, late afternoon snack (bring with us from villa) and dinner in (crockpot pot roast, which was started b4 we left for AK in the morning)

Friday - Epcot park opening to whenever. Breakfast in (cereal or breakfast tacos), lunch ressie at San Angel, and dinner in (crockpot jambalaya, which was started b4 we left for Epcot in the morning)

Saturday - big breakfast to fuel us for packing up and leaving day!

This plan will need to be tweeked, but we are using our villa a lot for cooking, but I do not think we are planning anything that takes a large amount of cooking prep time or a lot of effort. We love to grill (what Texan doesn't), but that will be the guy duty and we are doing it on our off park days.

We are hitting the parks every day, BUT will not be staying there from open to close...just till whenever we feel the need to leave. We are hitting the parks on non EMH days, the day after late EMH.

 

[dbs1228]

We have been buying grocery's for the past 10 years while staying at FT Wilderness cabins and would not do it any other way! Kids preferred breakfast and lunch of their own picking and there was no waste because they did not like the pizza or burger from the park. Dinner was grilled chicken (of course we loved the outdoor space and cooking on the grill) and the next day for lunch we would have salads with grilled chicken.

Another favorite was spagetthi and meatballs, another meal was left overs or meatball subs. We never go crazy and become slaves to the kitchen we just never want to spend the time sitting in a resturante when we can be at the resort. We usually dine at Disney 1 or 2 evenings out of 10. It just works for us.

 

[TLPL]

22 days vacation in WDW and you don't want to cook?? You must be super rich!!

 

[backyardponder]

Since you are going to be there 22 days, I assume you'll have an AP. You might want to consider a TIW card which will give you more flexibility on spreading out your meals and also give you discounts on alcoholic beverages.

Have fun!

 

[BEASLYBOO]

Us old timers, are there for the family experience and to enjoy each others company. That includes limited visits to the parks and family meals in our villa on most days. The quality of Disney food and the dining experience has really gone down hill and we don't like being treated like cattle.

Bill

Bill, I can't say it any better! Besides, 22 days of nothing but Disney food, my family would abandon ship!

 

[zorro77]

We will be at OKW for 15 nights so not 22 that's a nice trip. We have not done the dinning plan but have 4 reserv. for meals. We cook a lot. Make most breakfast like cereals,eggs,fruit and yogurt. Usually have one other meal also in the room. I like to cook so i will make chicken meals, fresh meatballs and lots of salads. Most meals are simply and not just about saving money but weget tired of the other foods. It is sometimes more relaxing to just make a meal and if one like to cook its ok. I bring along a lot of spices to have and we go out a few times when their to pick up the food we need. Home in 6 days.

 

[nono]

We've done 3 weeks, and yes, I cooked. So did my husband. No, I've never gotten there and decided I didn't want to cook. I really like my cooking! And, I really like to cook!

Now, if you don't really love what you make and don't get a kick out of making it, I can see you deciding to eat out more. Why don't you get supplies for a few meals and see how it goes? That way you don't feel "forced" to cook. And you can always scoot out for more groceries if you are sticking with your original intentions.

Most of all: HAVE FUN!

 

[Pattiwig]

When we go down for more than 4 days, I cook. Since we usually drive, I plan the meals ahead of time, and bring down the dry ingredients. Then I only have to shop for the perishables. We usually eat breakfast in, lunch out, and most dinners in. Each person gets to choose their favorite resturant, and that is where we eat on the nights out. I don't think I would enjoy eating out for more than a week.

 

[heathers4um]

I have been doing alot of thinking on this for a bit since joining DVC just this last week and planning our 1st trip home at OKW...when we go in Nov - just DBF and I this one time - we will do a garden grocer delivery to tie us over for the bulk of the week...easy things, not 4 course meal type meals. There's just something about waking up and lazing around at sunrise with coffee and breakfast on your patio and not rushing out the door to make a dinner reservation after a lazy day in the pool or a busy day resort hopping that makes it feel like a vacation. We will go out quite often but not for every meal every day - we will mix it up and maybe do a late lunch one day in DTD, a breakfast the next at Olivia's, followed by a dinner in a nice restaurant the next day...it just makes it feel like special meals when you do it that way.

 

[TINKERIFIC]

I agree...we are doing 4 ADRs and they are on our park days for lunch in the park. This was done to just save the commute of leaving the park, going back to the resort eating then returning back to the park. I figured that instead of splitting up our day at the park, we will just eat lunch there and leave early and not close it down. This way we can eat dinner in our villa or grill, have a picnic and swim, etc.

 

[WDWMom]

You will find that DVC newbies are still in the commando mode and rarely cook.

Us old timers, are there for the family experience and to enjoy each others company. That includes limited visits to the parks and family meals in our villa on most days. The quality of Disney food and the dining experience has really gone down hill and we don't like being treated like cattle.

Bill

I totally agree and couldn't have said it better.

I/we cook easy things. Breakfast is cereal, bagels, pop tarts same stuff we eat at home. Lunch - sandwiches, mac n cheese, spaghetti-o's for the boys, pizza rolls. Dinner is usually frozen pizza, tacos, Stauffers lasagna. We buy raw carrots, cucs, peppers for veggies and some fruit. We try to eat out only once a day for lunch if we are at the parks. I don't mind cooking these easy meals and DH helps too. We all clean up. No problems even being on vacation.

 

[Lost in Neverland]

We cook several meals in our villa. The Disney food plus the fact that I have to trudge through a park in most cases to get to the resturant just makes it even more pleasant to eat in the villa. For what it is worth we usually eat out at the world just as we would at home. We usually eat out a couple of times each week and generally stick to that. My kids are great about helping to clean up when I cook so really does become a family affair.

 

[Jen_in_NH]

We were there for a week before Christmas, and most mornings, we cooked breakfast. We also cooked dinner in the room twice, as well as a few lunches. My son was 2 at the time, and is a type 1 diabetic. It was much easier to cook in the room for him, and to know what was in teh food and how much he ate, than trying to guess in a restaurant.

Being able to cook and having a full kitchen was one of the big selling points of DH and I buying in

 

[4luvofthemouse]

Personally, I would go crazy eating out 22 days. I love to cook, but I love to eat out, so I try to strike a balance. On my Jan trip of 10 days we planned on 4 nights of dinner in the room, all the breakfasts in the room and a lot of lunches. If you're interested check out my Dining Review, I've got pictures of the meals we cooked in the room in addition to the meals out.

Thanks for the link. That food looked really good! Any chance of you being interested in being someone's personal chef..

22 days vacation in WDW and you don't want to cook?? You must be super rich!!

That's the response we get from most people when we just mention we are DVC members! I wouldn't say rich but sometimes I do like to pretend

When we go down for more than 4 days, I cook. Since we usually drive, I plan the meals ahead of time, and bring down the dry ingredients. Then I only have to shop for the perishables. We usually eat breakfast in, lunch out, and most dinners in. Each person gets to choose their favorite resturant, and that is where we eat on the nights out. I don't think I would enjoy eating out for more than a week.

I like the idea of each person picking out their favorite restaurant.

Now, if you don't really love what you make and don't get a kick out of making it, I can see you deciding to eat out more. Why don't you get supplies for a few meals and see how it goes? That way you don't feel "forced" to cook. And you can always scoot out for more groceries if you are sticking with your original intentions.

Somedays I could spend all day cooking and other days just thinking about it makes me cringe. I think planning for a few meals to start with is the way we are going to go.

Thanks everyone for the help!
For some reason I just kept thinking that I had took cook "big" meals. I think I was in overload mode and didn't really to stop and think about things. I really like the idea of the crock pot, I never thought about bringing that.

So after talking with DH this what we've decided:
No DP for the second part of our trip.
Plan to cook a few meals. If we end up making everything than we will just make a trip to the grocery store.
Make ADRs for the busy days like Xmas & NYE, we do have TIW so if we do want eat out more than originally planned we can use that.

I keep forgeting that DVC is a different way of vacationing. It really is a home away from home. We don't have to do everything in one trip because we are always going back. Now that I've thought about it a few meals at home with DH and DD will be a nice change!

Thanks again!

 

[franandaj]

Thanks for the link. That food looked really good! Any chance of you being interested in being someone's personal chef..

For years my friends have been telling me I should open a restaurant! No way, I do it out of love and enjoyment, if it were a job, I'd hate it! But thanks for the compliment.

Thanks everyone for the help!
For some reason I just kept thinking that I had took cook "big" meals. I think I was in overload mode and didn't really to stop and think about things. I really like the idea of the crock pot, I never thought about bringing that.

Just keep it simple, even if you only do a jar of spaghetti sauce add some meat & veggies, buy a bag of salad and frozen garlic bread. Hamburger Helper, Baked Chicken, Frozen Lasagna, Chicken Nuggets, Hot Dogs, Tacos....I could go on, but you get the idea, they're all easy. Especially if you have a car you can always get more if you need it. If you're driving a Crock Pot is a great idea. Perhaps once we expand to 2 Owner's lockers we'll add one of those! We fly so not a good item to pack!

I think you have the right idea, it's easy to be creative and still stay simple. Tell us all about it!