DLH - do you take a lot of food from home with you?

[tracer]

When we travel to DL, we always take a ton of food. We have little kids so having food on hand is essential. Plus it saves us a lot of time and money....ok to the point...it has been years since I have stayed at the DLH, do they mind if you bring your own food up to your room? We usually have a big ice chest, a tub or two or food and two flats of water.

 

[Jennifer03]

Yes, it's fine to bring your own food and drinks to the hotel room.

 

[avalon451]

They don't care. They have dorm-sized refrigerators in all rooms in DLH, I believe. Some people order groceries to be delivered from Vons or Albertsons-- that's what we do, since we fly in and can't bring all that stuff from home.

 

[DizMe]

No, at DL we don't because we fly and it's too hard to bring things along. Also, it's my vacation and I don't want to try putting together sandwiches in a hotel room. Last year I did try to bring some things, but decided it wasn't worth it (had to pack it all in my suitcase--and I'm talking about a hot pot, French press, coffee, cocoa, and snacks).

However, when we went to Hawaii last year, we had an ice chest in our hotel room and brought food from the farmer's market because the hotel food was outrageous in price and we were quite a long drive from a grocery store. We knew this ahead of time and bought what we wanted before we drove up to the hotel from the airport. It saved us a bundle, so I sure understand where you're coming from. Since there are many options for us at DL, we don't try to bring food.

We like to stay at DLH, too, so I'll tell you one thing that works for us. We like to eat breakfast at Steakhouse 55 at least once. We have 3 little girls (5, 5, and 8). The girls and I split the adult pancake breakfast, which gives each girl a large pancake and 2 for mom. Dad gets an egg breakfast and the cost is very reasonable. We also go right across the way to Compass Bookstore and get milk, fruit, bagels, and that sort of thing. It isn't cheap, though--it costs almost as much as the Steakhouse breakfast! Luckily, my girls and I share a lot. You can also save a ton of money by not getting drinks. Bring your own water and refill the bottle as needed! There are a couple of places in the park to refill with cold, filtered water if you can't stand the taste of the regular water at DL.

Edited: forgot to add that you can have groceries delivered from Von's and...Albertson's, I think. You can choose what you want online and have it delivered, which is neat! I believe you have to be available for delivery within a 2-hour window or something like that. I considered that option since we don't have a car while there, but as I said above, it's my vacation!! LOL.

 

[tracer]

Great, thanks Gail for answering my next ? about the refrigerator. Do they have microwaves too? We take oatmeal for b-fast...suppose we could just warm water up in the coffee pot if there is one in the room.

Dizme, we do Goofy's for b-fast every trip, just a tradition we started years ago. Other than that we take our own b-fast stuff if the hotel of choice doesn't have a continental one. Cereal, oatmeal, bagels, yogurt, fruit, etc... I will mention steakhouse to DH and see if he is interested, we have never been there and sounds good. I think if I were you and had to fly, I wouldn't pack food either.


I am glad to know they won't mind us trucking up our own grocery store

 

[Hofmanns4]

We were just at the DLH this past week. Since they have free coffee in the lobby, the rooms do not have coffeemakers. However, we did not know about the free coffee the first day and saw in the hotel book that you can request a coffee maker which we did. They brought it up in just a few minutes with coffee and cups. We did not use it when we found the coffee in the lobby, except for heating up some nacho cheese from Crocs bits and bites!

We also brought water, soda, beer, cereal cups and some snacks with us. The water we brought up in the case, but everything else we packed in a suitcase. I would have felt a bit odd taking that much stuff in, but that is just me being silly.

 

[StitchFan1973]

We were there in Sept., and had the bellhop bring up our cooler with the rest of our luggage. He was pretty un-fazed by it. We bring things for breakfast mostly, like Costco muffins. Those travel pretty well in a freezer bag. We also buy the little boxes of cereal. We also found that freezing a couple of gallon milk jugs of water kept everything cool. We used emptied and washed water bottles and filled them with milk. It came in handy for both breakfast and for the cookies we always get at the Main St. Bakery to take back to the hotel room. Buying milk in the hotel always seems too expensive to me.

 

[kaoden39]

I always bring my own Diet Pepsi. It can not be found any where on the resort. I even take it into Disneyland in my bag and nobody even blinks an eye.

 

[cheshiregirl]

We bring apple juice, milk, Gogurt, mozzarella cheese sticks, fruit snacks and fruit cups for our DS 14 months. He eats table food, but not the junk that DLR thinks that kids should eat like PBJ and mac'n'cheese. So, he tends to share with mom and dad any fruit that comes with our meals and we also will pick up a fruit box from Whitewater Snacks at the GCH. It is a steal at around $4 in that it is enough fruit to last DS multiple meals over at least 2 days. With 3 different kinds of melon and fresh pineapple, it would cost me more than that to buy all the fruits at the grocery store. So, depending on your kids and their appetites, this might be a good option for you too.

 

[Gisele]

No, If by car, am not interested in having to bring anything back. If going by plane, especially so. If going by Amtrak, most definitely not interested in lugging lunch ables on board. Now I did return with some tasty snacks, but that is different he he! So I left from home, with one purse and two small bags, and returned from said train trip, with the same, plus one plastic goody bag for me. Interesting thing about traveling down by train, that at some point, my purse, two small bags, and one jacket (Forgot to add that ) and coming back as well, but especially traveling to Anaheim, felt really quite heavy at some point. Thank god, that by the time I had departed from the Anaheim Amtrak Station, there was a nice line of cabs waiting for me, as it were. One of my missions on my last trip, since I was not going by car after all, was to keep things as compact as possible, it worked. I am thinking though, that the next time that I might travel by Amtrak, etc. that I will use one of those small rolling carry on type pieces of luggage. In red preferably!

 

[disneymom23]

We are going to DL in a few weeks. I placed an order with Von's to be delivered the day we arrive. The main reason I did this was to have a case of water for the parks and the hotel room. I also ordered breakfast items (bagels, cereal bars, bananas) to eat in line. And some snacks (granola bars, peanut butter crackers). My son needs to eat every couple of hours or he gets really cranky! There is a $50 minimum so I ordered a few things that I would have packed and will just bring home with us- bandaids, toothpaste, etc. just to get us to the minimum.

I won't bring much food into the parks. Part of the fun of the trip is the food. But some snacks are essential.

 

[JenDisneylandlver]

We always have water (usually a flat), sodas, and some small snacks in the room with us. Nothing too big, I'm not on vacation to make meals! But it's never been a problem onsite.

 

[thebordcu]

How about a portable microwave? We are taking the auto train down so can store it in our car.