DO you cook in your villa??? WDW

[8timesblessed]

We've only stayed at the GCV and we would eat most of our meals in our room. It was easy to go back and we would eat snacks in the park and go back for a late afternoon early dinner and then back into the parks.

Well we are planning a October trip to WDW for the first time and I just took two boys last week and stayed at the Boardwalk so I have a better feel for the lay of the land but taking 10 people I'm trying to plan food and don't want to buy everything in the park. So I'm curious if others cook meals in their rooms since they are so far away from the park??

 

[homedad]

we've never cooked in the room, we just like the benefits on the space not so much the abilty to cook

 

[daisyduck123]

Nope, never. Thank goodness for the DP and our TIW card!

I refuse to cook on vacation. Cooking would involve cleaning (wiping counter crumbs, loading/unloading dishwasher, etc.), which I also refuse to do on vacation.

I can guarantee that the only thing that will be in the fridge of our 2BR villa this summer is DH's beer.

OP, you mentioned "being so far away from the park"...many times, we just eat a CS or TS meal at our resort...no need to venture into a park to eat everytime.

 

[8timesblessed]

I'm just trying avoid paying $4500 in food if I got the dining plan for all of us for 15 days. I just didn't hear of many people cooking.

I want to be able to do a couple of character meals and then thinking the TIW would be best and maybe do the dining plan for the first 5 days we are there or something like that??

 

[daisyduck123]

I'm just trying avoid paying $4500 in food if I got the dining plan for all of us for 15 days. I just didn't hear of many people cooking.

I want to be able to do a couple of character meals and then thinking the TIW would be best and maybe do the dining plan for the first 5 days we are there or something like that??

15 days would be too long for my family to be on the DP. We usually do split stays & only do the DP for part of the trip (ends up being about 7 or 8 days on the DP). I think your idea of just 5 days on the DP might be a good idea. You could plan your most expensive meals for then.

 

[8timesblessed]

15 days would be too long for my family to be on the DP. We usually do split stays & only do the DP for part of the trip (ends up being about 7 or 8 days on the DP). I think your idea of just 5 days on the DP might be a good idea. You could plan your most expensive meals for then.

We are hoping for 4 days at BWV and hopefully doing the dining plan then moving to a GV in OKW for 6 days and cooking and then moving to AKW for 5 days and using the TIW and not doing the dining plan. We would use the TIW during the 6 day stay for the times we want to eat in the park. Hopefully it will work. I've not done the dining plan. I forgot to get it within 48 hours when I took just the two boys so I had to pay out of pocket for our 5 day trip and it adds up so fast.

 

[DonnaL]

Yes we do cook in our room.....quite a bit actually.....we usually stay for five nights and will have dinner in our room about 3 of those 5 nights. We also eat breakfast in the room just about every morning.....we do like to have a breakfast at Boma or Cape May Cafe once in awhile. I plan meals that are easy to prepare (I try for 30 minutes or under prep time....sometimes I manage that....others not) and easy clean up. I begin making a grocery list a few weeks in advance and edit that accordingly as we get closer....we order our groceries from Garden Grocer (www.gardengrocer.com). If you do a profile on the website you can save your shopping list and add/delete up until the time you order. I usually submit my order about four days before our trip.....depending what time of year it is......since sometimes GG delivery time slots fill up quickly and you need to watch the website to see if the dates are filling fast. After I decide what my menus will be I premeasure any spices I will need and use the little snack size baggies to take those in my travel bag with me. I simply mark the bags as to which spices are in it and then double bag several of the little bags into a larger bag and it goes in the bottom or a zippered pocket of my suitcase or sometimes I also send a box addressed to myself at the resort along with my check-in date......I will send dry goods (rice, cereal, coffee, sugar packets, spices etc.) again bagged to save room and then I only need to order fresh items from Garden Grocer. It usually only costs me about $15 to send a good size box.....but, since I'm only sending the amount I need and not ordering more than we'll use from GG.....I feel I'm saving money. Now.....after saying all of this.......we do plan to eat something light mid-day while out and about or if we plan to attend an evening EMH.......we may come back to the room mid afternoon and have a late lunch/early dinner there and then head back to the parks. We have found over the years we've saved a lot of money and also time by eating some meals in the room. We enjoy eating out as much as the next person, but, sometimes....especially at Disney....the restaurants are just soooo crowded and even if you have ADR's sometimes you wait ......I would rather spend that time do something else.

 

[Husurdady]

we've never cooked in the room, we just like the benefits on the space not so much the abilty to cook

What kind of dad...... [MAN]........ are you........you have never made your DW breakfast in bed? PS check out the number under my name.

 

[Buckeye Fan]

We generally order groceries from Garden Grocer (gardengrocer.com). I have been very pleased with their service. As for your original question, we are generally at Disney between 7 and 10 days each trip, staying in one resort (we don't hop). We seem to be falling into the pattern below:

Park Days:
* Breakfast - Cereal or bagels and fruit in the room.
* Lunch - Afternoon or late afternoon lunch in the parks (usually sit-down somewhere).
* Dinner - Sometimes in the parks (fast food), sometimes something easy to fix in the room.

Non-Park Days:
* Breakfast - Eggs, sausage or bacon, biscuits and fruit. My kids LOVE breakfast, so I don't mind fixing it when we're not rushing to get out the door.
* Lunch - Usually sandwiches or things we can heat up in the microwave or in the oven. Nothing fancy.
* Dinner - We usually cook a couple of days just because it's a nice break. Staples seem to be spaghetti, tacos, grilled chicken/veggies, pulled pork sandwiches. On occasion, we have ordered pizza or Chinese, but have yet to find a place that delivered that was really good.

If we were spending 15 days there, I would definitely cook a few days. I'm a homebody, which is probably why I don't mind cooking and LOVE OKW! Enjoy the planning, and hope you have a wonderful vacation!

 

[bumbershoot]

We did breakfast at the villa several times, and we had some microwave veggie entrees (Publix had such a great price on Amy's frozen meals!) for those evenings when we'd had big lunches and weren't all that hungry by the time we got back to the room.

On our second trip I think we're going to plan a few more dinners (spaghetti, simple things like that) for similar evenings.

 

[MiaSRN62]

Yes, we cook maybe 25% in the room. This could be eggs/bagels/pancakes in the morning......and maybe a frozen pizza or mac n cheese in afternoon. Then I usually have things like pizza bagel bites or similar for late night snacks when returning "home" from late nights in the park.

We used to cook even more in our villas when my mil was alive. She could not keep up with the hectic fast pace we could in the parks. So we would factor in some "down time" with her in the room, allowing her time to rest and recharge.

 

[DVCconvert]

yes, all the time. We'll drive to Publix to get stuff. Some dinners we'll go out.
With a crowd like that I thinkyou need to find a blend of eating in and out so you won't get over tired.

HTH

 

[londonderrydisneyfan]

We eat every breakfast in the villa, mostly easy stuff but a few days we'll have eggs and pancakes. Most of the lunches we'll eat at the parks, but if we're back at the villa in time we'll have either sandwiches or leftovers. Most of the dinners we'll eat in the villa and will be pretty simple -- tacos, hot dogs and hamburgers, rotisserie chicken etc...

 

[JBx3]

On our average 6 night stay, we will make dinners 2 or 3 times and go out at least 3 of the 6 nights.

Breakfast almost always in room, lunch almost always out.

We are also learning to not over buy on groceries as we can't stand leaving leftover items to waste, but, our process above does help cut a few bucks from the high cost of on property meals.

We never rent a car and do not like going off site, so we have comprised with the above plan, about 60% dinners out and 40% dinners in. Breakfast almost always in.

 

[moredisneyplease]

Cooker here!!! the full kitchen is one of the things that sold me on DVC! We do breakfast in every morning (except for one character breakfast), pack lunches and snacks and then eat in on a non park/short park day. We'll do counter service or a nice meal for dinner if its a long day out. Have fun!

 

[ssawka]

We usually eat breakfast in the room, but get the DDP for lunch and dinner. For us, the restaurants are part of the Disney experience. Granted the food at most of the restaurants is mediocre, but we love the atmosphere and themeing of many of the restaurants.

 

[Magic3forme]

The only meals we eat in the room are breakfast, but that consists of something from the bakery at MK.

I am on vacation.. no cooking here. I want someone to cook and clean up after me!!

 

[treehugnmama]

We cook all breakfasts in the villa. When we go to vero we cook all of our meals in the villa. I find at wdw I can't be bothered coming back to he room and there were so many restaurant we wanted to try. Recently we have been traveling at free dining time so it has been so busy at sit down places that I have been coOking more dinners as well. We have earn at most restaurant and have very fee that we like

 

[edisneydreaming]

We cook when we go for a long stay (a week or more). We get tired of eating out all the time. I try to plan one meal out a day (generally either lunch or dinner) and we cook the other. We eat almost all our breakfasts in the villa but only make eggs or pancakes a couple of times. We take a break in the middle of the day to swim and relax anyway so cooking a meal isn't a big deal. We do pasta, hot dogs and hamburgers, salads, tacos and other easy things. We don't do any fancy cooking as we don't have everything we would need but we all enjoy a easy and relaxing meal. I love the fact that my kids aren't so overstimmed they actually eat. With a group your size I would plan to cook at least a couple of times to save money. Enjoy!

 

[cseca]

We don't really cook but we eat in our villa definitely.
Saves a good bit of $.
Especially bfasts like all PPs said. I order a bunch of bfast food from Garden Grocers and eat most of the morning meal that way. Except for 1 or 2 char bfast.
I also order some quick micro meals or deli sandwiches for quick lunches or nights when we don't feel like going out to eat again.
No they're not the healthiest items but we're on vaca and Mom (aka ME) isn't going to slave over the stove like she does at home