Do plan and cook meals?

[heartsy77]

We are taking our big family of 10, for our 1st Dvc trip in Wdw . We have 5 table service meals booked and I've started planning meals for the other days . My sil will grocery shop when we get there. Do other families do this? I figure we have a full kitchen and it will save me feeding 10 people 3x a day out!

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[CarolynK]

I usually have a general idea of what we'll be eating during our trip. Even if we use Magical Express, we'll rent a car for a day at the beginning of the trip so we can go to Publix and get groceries. We are a family of 4, and I keep it really simple - bagels & cream cheese for breakfast, ham and cheese sandwiches with chips for lunch, and dinners are pasta with sauce, sauteed chicken breast, etc.

You can do a search here, there are lots of threads about what others like to prepare in the villas. With 10 people, I'd definitely make a meal plan. It will make grocery shopping easier.

 

[dwelty]

We travel with another family and cook most of our dinners in the Villa. Breakfast is a quick and easy affair of cereal, toast, etc. in the villa as well. Most lunches are purchased in the parks as it just takes too much time to hoof it back to the resort. We usually do a mix of counter service with a few table service mixed in. We find that we still get the experience of eating out on vacation without breaking the bank. We also choose easy to prepare basic meals that all can agree on. Our kids can be picky so we stick with the basics. This has worked out really well for us.

 

[lawgator]

We are taking our big family of 10, for our 1st Dvc trip in Wdw . We have 5 table service meals booked and I've started planning meals for the other days . My sil will grocery shop when we get there. Do other families do this? I figure we have a full kitchen and it will save me feeding 10 people 3x a day out!

Yes, we absolutely do this. We always have breakfast in the room and I cook other simple meals such as spaghetti, salad, bread, chicken, pizza, etc. I drive to the resort, so can load the car with groceries and drinks while the rest of my family flies in. When I went last December I brought a large crock pot which was great for putting on in the morning and then the food was ready when we got home from the park early evening.

 

[writermommy6]

We are a family of 6 and this year we are traveling with additional family so that will make 9 of us. I do a meal plan that includes a few simple breakfasts-cereal, pop tarts etc but only if we plan to have a late lunch/early dinner in the park. For full days I plan bigger meals so that we can snack or eat sandwiches(that we pack and carry with us) an then eat a regular dinner. I make sure that one or two meals are for the crockpot. We drive down so I can carry mine. But you can buy one for like $30 at Walmart down there.
Also on my list are things like frozen pizza, pot pies, etc if we end up in the room during a time that wasn't planned.
When we get to our condo I take my list to the nearest store while hubby helps the kids unpack and get settled. When I get back they help me unload and then I do any pre-cooking for the week while making lunch/dinner. Everyone chips in.

 

[dgaston]

We too keep it simple -- Stouffer's lasagna and salad, son-in-law makes terrific chicken enchiladas, tacos, spaghetti. One of our tricks is getting salad and sauce from Olive Garden with their breadsticks (I know how to fix pasta -- ) and it still feels like a treat. We get lots of sandwich fixings and snack food too. Fruit for snacking, and make eggs, and pancakes for breakfast a few days, plus have cereal on hand too.

We just had a few TS reservations -- Crystal Palace, Biergarten, and a I think some of the kids did Teppan Edo.

 

[com_op_2000]

DW usually makes a one pot meal:
Stew
Soup
Lasagna
As we usually stay in studios, these work out great for reheating in the microwave. We sometimes will eat breakfast out and then depending on what we are doing that day either lunch or dinner in the room every day.

 

[Meggysmum]

We eat breakfast every day in the villa, I can't be bothered to go out and we are always starving as soon as we wake up.

Our trips are only usually a week so we don't bother cooking, the most I do is slam a pizza in the oven on the first night when we unpack.

On our next longer trip I think I will try cooking a bit more rather than racing out to eat all the time.

 

[csharpwv]

To the very best of my recollection we have never cooked a meal in a villa at Walt Disney World....

However,

We cook EVERY meal when we are at Hilton Head Island!

We love to cook there!

We have a trip planned in July, and are already starting to put things on our grocery list!

On our last week-long summer trip we took all of our food down with us, really... it was a pain in the rear! We will just do all of our shopping there, except for spices and such that we will bring from home.

We grill just about every evening, and either pack lunches for the beach, or plan our day around coming back in the afternoon for lunch and a nap, or pool time, or activities around the resort.

I think we will likely spend a decent amount of our first evening there cooking things for the week and prepping veggies and such - there will be 12 of us, 8 adults, and 4 kids, so with so many adults, we are going to rotate responsibility for table setting, cooking, and trash/laundry duty between adult couples.

It is going to be SO much fun! I can't wait!!!!!

 

[DisMomme]

We usually eat breakfast every day in the room. I make 2 big casserole type dishes (last year i made an american chop suey then later in the week a chicken & sstuffing bake) that we eat through the week. The rest of our meals are in the parks. With 2 teenage boys, i also make sure i buy some frozen, microwave style foods for their midnight snacks. If they aren't eating every 2 hours or so they are 'starving'.

 

[DVC Sue]

We also do simple meals. Breakfast is always in the villa, but not usually lunch. I make thinks like stuffers lasagna and hickey that people can pick at.

 

[Escape Artist]

Another great thing about having the kitchen is using leftovers from the fridge and microwave. We order a big take-out dinner and get pizzas from Giordano's the day we get to the DVC, and between that and anything I make, we have great leftovers to re-heat for the rest of our stay.

I made the mistake of planning every dinner before - the reality is, sometimes you just don't want to prepare or eat a big meal, and I had lots of food leftover, both prepared and unprepared. Now I only plan food for every breakfast, bring tons of snacks (purchased at home prices, not resort prices) and a do few major meals, supplemented by re-heated leftovers from the fridge. That works better for us!

 

[CarolynK]

Another great thing about having the kitchen is using leftovers from the fridge and microwave. We order a big take-out dinner and get pizzas from Giordano's the day we get to the DVC, and between that and anything I make, we have great leftovers to re-heat for the rest of our stay.

I made the mistake of planning every dinner before - the reality is, sometimes you just don't want to prepare or eat a big meal, and I had lots of food leftover, both prepared and unprepared. Now I only plan food for every breakfast, bring tons of snacks (purchased at home prices, not resort prices) and a do few major meals, supplemented by re-heated leftovers from the fridge. That works better for us!

We love Giordano's (there are a bunch in the Chicago area)! I didn't know they have a WDW location, and according to their website they deliver - great for our first night since we won't have a car until day 2!

 

[CarolynMink]

We cook for some of our meals. However, we fly, use magical express and usually do not rent a car. I pack one suit case with nothing but food. I do fork over a ton of money for a few items at the resort QS restaurant (milk). We keep it simple. I have a rubber maid container that holds bread, PB & J, Pasta with can sauce, Mac & cheese, a bag of cereal - out of the box packs best, Tuna packed in foil packets. You get the idea.

 

[disfanforlife]

Another great thing about having the kitchen is using leftovers from the fridge and microwave. We order a big take-out dinner and get pizzas from Giordano's the day we get to the DVC, and between that and anything I make, we have great leftovers to re-heat for the rest of our stay.

I made the mistake of planning every dinner before - the reality is, sometimes you just don't want to prepare or eat a big meal, and I had lots of food leftover, both prepared and unprepared. Now I only plan food for every breakfast, bring tons of snacks (purchased at home prices, not resort prices) and a do few major meals, supplemented by re-heated leftovers from the fridge. That works better for us!

We haven't cooked or ordered in. I would like to do that for a few meals on our next trip. I looked at Giordano's only and it looks great! What other restaurants do you order out from?

 

[disfanforlife]

We have always used the dining plan. Our last trip two weeks ago I decided to get the TIW card. I have found that the dining plan doesn't fit our needs anymore. We do enjoy eating out at Disney, but sometimes we want to share a meal or just have an appetizer and no dessert. The TIW worked well for that. We have a second trip booked for December so we will be able to use the card for that as well making it even more worthwhile having bought it. Still I would like to either cook or order in one or two meals and enjoy some evening time in the villa. So I started looking at suggestions and what others have done. My thought was packing an extra suitcase with food - flying SW so bag flies free and we do not rent a car. I am thinking of bringing home made meat sauce already frozen and packed in ziplock bags along with spaghetti. Also packing bagels, cereal, popcorn, and other snack items.

 

[Halefamilyof6]

Last trip we planned what nights we'd go out to eat and brought what we thought we'd need and had groceries delivered. With that being said, we brought a TON of food home.

This time we don't have the luxury of driving...going to Hawaii takes that option off the table. And instead of five days we are going for 21 days over two islands.

Besides a character breakfast at Aulani, we will eat at 'home' for breakfast. Maybe, after surf lessons, we'll go out to a late breakfast, but that's it. I have a hard time spending $$ for our family of six (and for one week of our trip, we'll have another adult, making it a family of seven) for breakfast.

Lunches will be portable stuff - things we can load up in ice chests and take to various beaches.

Dinners...that's the one I'm grappling with right now. There's no way we can afford to go out every night. But, I have to account for some dinners out...but will buy easy to prepare food for other nights. I love Costco for their chicken, and other prepped dinner foods. Or their marinated tri-tips.

But, yes, we do take advantage of the full kitchens!

 

[butsy113]

We cook for some of our meals. However, we fly, use magical express and usually do not rent a car. I pack one suit case with nothing but food. I do fork over a ton of money for a few items at the resort QS restaurant (milk). We keep it simple. I have a rubber maid container that holds bread, PB & J, Pasta with can sauce, Mac & cheese, a bag of cereal - out of the box packs best, Tuna packed in foil packets. You get the idea.

I do the exact same thing! We fly Southwest so each of us can have 2 bags for free, which gives us 8 bags total. 4 for clothes, 2 for the air mattress and extra pillows/blankets, and 2 for food. In addition to the above stuff, we take several boxes of cereal and a lot of snack items. PB crackers, fruit snacks, pop tarts, etc which can go into the parks. The rubbermaid container keeps things from getting smashed. Although mine was cracked last time we arrived down there, it is easy enough to replace. If I need enough items I will place a Garden Grocer order for all the perishables or heavy items. e.g. case of water, 2L soda, beer/wine, fresh fruit (I do pack several cans of fruit), lunch meat, cheese, milk.

I will say every time I pack food in my luggage my bag has been inspected. My lock will be in a different area of my bag than I normally keep it and they leave a paper inside saying it has been inspected. Everything is always fine, but thought I should mention it.

 

[Paticake]

We always cook a breakfast in the morning. This year we have 1 Princess breakfast ADR for myself, DD, DDIL and 2 DGDs. We only have one other ADR for Via Napoli. We are planning on grilling hot dogs, hamburg, steak and chicken. We will have the makings for sandwiches, taco's, and spaghetti. There are 10 of us for the week including 4 kids- 7,5,4 and 21 months. Also my Dad and his wife with very limited mobility plan to join us for a couple days. With such a big group it is just easier to do the morning and evening meal rather than trying to get everyone out the door. I don't mind cooking and the guys will do the grilling. I know we will do counter service lunches.

 

[Greysword]

We use the kitchen in a 1BR (or larger) quite extensively. In fact, we use it to motivate our park time.

We pretty much always rent a car for the stay, but we have used the grocery delivery when not renting. This makes it convenient to get the groceries.


As for our plan:

All breakfast (except one character breakfast) is eaten in the villa (usually cereal, eggs/sausage-bacon/toast).

We use lunch as a motivator to leave the parks from morning touring and ensure we have afternoon downtime. Thus, we will eat most lunches in the villa (sandwiches, leftover dinners).

Finally, we nearly always eat dinner in the villa before heading back into the park (usually easy prep like spaghetti/pasta&sauce, casseroles, heat & serve frozen meals, burgers & fries, etc).

As an aside, we also use the kitchen to store/prep snacks in the park and celebrate special occasions (birthdays, holidays, anniversaries) with a small gathering of family/friends that come to visit (I'm from FL). Usually, this involves cake, special meals, etc.


Other thoughts:

We actually save quite a bit of money not using the restaurants at WDW, and this becomes even more of a psychological thing, as we feel the quality has dropped a bit and prices risen over the past decade or two.

The kitchen and washer/dryer are the true "best kept secret" about DVC. Both are indispensable for us, and we are always happy to have them at both resorts (WDW & DLR).


A final note...

The kitchen is even more important for families with food allergies. While WDW is a safe place, for the most part, it would be comforting to know family members can have the same food as at home in WDW simply by visiting a supermarket or using a grocery delivery service.