Do you Cook at Disney

[Paticake]

We do cook at Disney when vacationing with adult kids and grandkids. In June we had large breakfasts, pancakes, eggs ,bacon, sausage, fruit etc. We also do tacos, grill steak or chicken, sometimes do pasta. We did frozen French fries and chicken fingers for the kids one night. Sandwiches, salad, hot dogs for lunch if we weren't at a park at lunch time. We did a few sit down dinners but find it much more relaxing eating at our villa when travelling with 4 kids (1yr, 4yr, 5yr, and 7yr). When it is just me and DH we tend to eat out more.

 

[aprilgail2]

Nope. I get a vacation, too.

No way am I cooking on vacation! We are going away on vacation for 6 weeks in July, the most we are going to do is throw some fruit in a cooler in the car for breakfasts- the rest we will eat out, even if its grabbing a sandwich at a deli.

 

[smcabee]

Not in the room but occasionally we do a shrimp boil on the grill by the quiet pool. Shrimp, potatoes, corn, onions etc.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

We enjoyed having a condo with a kitchen on our trip last year. We mostly made breakfast foods like oatmeal and bagels. My sister made a crustless quiche and had a piece for breakfast each day. If we weren't at a park for dinner, we did really simple things like take-out pizza. A few times we had frozen dinners and bagged salad, or cheese, crackers and fruit. Sometimes the teen boys just wanted cereal for dinner. We usually ate enough during the day at the parks that we weren't hungry for a large or heavy dinner. We did save quite a bit of money by having breakfast at the condo, lunch and snacks at the park, and grazed at the condo for dinner most nights.

 

[powellrj]

I would say I heat more than cook on vacation. I will make toast for breakfast and heat-up leftovers and have snacks available.

 

[Burnedout]

Omg I can't imagine 6 weeks of eating out! There just aren't that many good places to eat out. Ick!! I love our cooking and love knowing what quality of food is in our meals.

Lol it takes all kinds.

 

[nluvwithdisney]

When we rented a villa, we made basic things for breakfast like eggs, bacon, and toast. It was nice also to be able to warm up leftovers from dinners that we really liked as snacks.

 

[burnurcomputer]

I cook! I stay at my timeshare and its not a big deal at all. Side dishes are normally quick as can be and a main dish can be simple. You can do a stir fry with meat of you choice and keep it simple with broccoli, carrots, snow peas. squash, and some cashews or some pineapple. Or make sweet and sour chicken with rice, veg on the side.

Cooking isn't that big of a deal. It just takes a bit of time to plan ahead, and if you are used to cooking for a family, it only takes a few minutes to make a list and meal plan.

 

[aprilgail2]

Omg I can't imagine 6 weeks of eating out! There just aren't that many good places to eat out. Ick!! I love our cooking and love knowing what quality of food is in our meals.

Lol it takes all kinds.

We are driving across country for that time, looking forward to sampling different kinds of local food-even if we wanted to we could not cook, not staying anyplace more than a day or 2 and then moving on. Going to stay away rom chains for the most part- other than cracker barrel a few times because we just love that!

 

[mom to minnie&mickey]

I don't cook but I do prepare meals in the room. Now that values have a fridge we stop and pick up staples and snacks along with deli chicken, bagged salad, dressing, tuna, vegetables and fruits. We make sandwiches with the chicken and salads with veg. and tuna. Along with breakfast everyday we probably get about 4-5 meals (usually lunch on our non-park days) out of this. It is healthy and for what one meal costs at the food court I can feed my family of 4 so it is also good for the budget as we never do the meal plan.

 

[happymommy]

We do cook some at Disney when we're renting a DVC villa. Not a ton but it's just nicer to make a quick breakfast while the kids are getting ready to go.

If you do grill, you can buy Bic Flame Disks - I bought a bunch from Amazon for a trip a couple of years ago when we stayed at a condo that only had charcoal grills. They were so easy and great to use! Much easier and cleaner than using charcoal! We made brats one day plus I had chicken marinating in terriyaki sauce that I brought with us (we like Yoshida's sauce but you can only get it at Costco or Sam's club).

Since you're driving anyway, I think it would be easy to plan your meals ahead of time and bring a lot with you. For sure I'd bring plastic food storage containers, foil wrap, baggies, spices, etc. Plus you could make things like lasagna or casseroles ahead of time and freeze them to bring in a cooler if you have car space.

We drove once and I loaded up the back of our minivan with large plastic storage containers (much easier to bring than bags) of pantry items. We also had a cooler with some meats like hot dogs and cheeses, plus soy milk (son is dairy allergic so we did find cooking easier for some things) and water. That trip we were there 10 nights at the Boardwalk Villas, and once we checked in we never had to run to the store.

If you plan ahead of time, it is easy! And I agree about chili - I make it all year long. It's something my whole family likes. I use ground chicken instead often - it's good that way. I find tacos are good but chili is so much easier!

 

[Burnedout]

We are driving across country for that time, looking forward to sampling different kinds of local food-even if we wanted to we could not cook, not staying anyplace more than a day or 2 and then moving on. Going to stay away rom chains for the most part- other than cracker barrel a few times because we just love that!

I couldn't even do it when we went across country. Lol still wouldn't work for us. But I see how you would find it working best. We usually made sure we had a microwave and made eggs, fixed sandwiches or salads and didn't eat out unless it really was something special. THose places are absolutely worth it!

 

[dsdeleon]

When we rent an RV, we do crock pot chili and shredded chicken. We usually always make a full hot breakfast, wrapped up for rope drop. We also bring back most of the TS meals back for heat up. Last week we had TRex rotisserie chicken and BBQ ribs that tasted much better in the crock pot heated up an hour.

 

[aprilgail2]

When we rent an RV, we do crock pot chili and shredded chicken. We usually always make a full hot breakfast, wrapped up for rope drop. We also bring back most of the TS meals back for heat up. Last week we had TRex rotisserie chicken and BBQ ribs that tasted much better in the crock pot heated up an hour.

We are just going in small SUV, no rv for us. Tossing a tent in there too in case hotels all booked and we can find a camp ground. It's just me a my then 15 year old daughter so don't need a lot of room.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I refuse to cook on vacation except when we are staying at a cabin at my sisters resort and that's only because I have no choice since it's in the middle of nowhere.

I cook every day at home and don't want to cook on vacation.

I like your list though - it looks good. Maybe swing by Publix and pick up a bunch of their fried chicken and some potato salad. It's delicious cold!

 

[MichaelaF]

Thanks for posting this, OP! If I had my preference, we would only "cook" breakfasts, but this upcoming trip with my parents in their RV (plus my DH and DS), we are planning on a LOT more cooking. We are spending a lot more time at Fort Wilderness this time, and less time in the parks, so we've basically planned one nice meal on each park day, plus one breakfast at Trail's End (my favorite breakfast on property!), and otherwise cooking and/or packing meals. Couple of things I have planned:

Breakfast: Baked Oatmeal, Breakfast Casserole (both easily made for several days at once and reheated in the morning), crockpot French Toast, plus toast, bagels, fruit, Lara Bars, the usual. (My favorite Breakfast Casserole recipe is here: http://www.multiplydelicious.com/thefood/2012/03/breakfast-casserole/)

Lunch: Deli stuff (chicken salad, etc), meat/cheese/crackers (homemade "Lunchables"), olives and pickles, fruit

Dinner: (These will likely partially be done by my mother, since she loves cooking dinners in the RV.) Burgers, Ribs, crock-pot chicken, etc

Here's a recipe someone else posted in another thread where I asked for recipes:

There is a great crockpot chicken recipe that has been posted on here a few times, but essentially you put chicken breast and/or thighs (boneless/skinless), a jar of salsa, frozen corn, and a can of drained black beans in a crockpot and let it cook all day. At the end of the day, in the last 30 minutes, shred up the chicken and stir in a block of cream cheese (my family only uses 1/4 - 1/2 block actually) and let it melt. Serve it over rice (in your case I would suggest precooked rice from the freezer section) or in tortillas (also an easy choice). I actually throw in some sliced onions at the start of the cooking too. Maybe a salad or steamed broccoli for a nice healthy green side dish.

 

[lakelandgal70]

This last trip in August I cooked breakfast to save some money. Worked out great. Even though we get studio, they have microwave and toaster.

 

[JoeyEmmaMomma]

We don't. I will pack some breakfasts, snacks and lots of waters.

 

[marmalade]

We are just going in small SUV, no rv for us. Tossing a tent in there too in case hotels all booked and we can find a camp ground. It's just me a my then 15 year old daughter so don't need a lot of room.

Your trip sounds like a lot of fun!!

 

[choppee]

when we have gone to disney, we stayed off-site. cooking in the condo was easier for breakfast and dinner. we would eat lunch at the condo. one thing about my kids though, they don't eat cereal so i had to get creative with their favorite breakfast food of oatmeal!

before we left home, i would pack several baggies of instant oatmeal already mixed with raisins, dried apples, nuts and brown sugar. when we arrived and started our park days, i would just run the coffee maker with water and have the children choose their favorite listed bag of oatmeal and mix it up in a disposable bowl! easy peasy, lemon-squeezy.