DO you cook in your villa??? WDW

[jodifla]

We definitely eat in the villa! We travel with friends often, so we kick back, roll out the martinis, cosmos, wine and beer, with some easy appetizers, grill some steaks and some veggies, and just do a lot of catching up!

Don't get the whole "I'm not cooking, I'm on vacation" point of view.

We also eat 90 percent of breakfasts in the room, and about 30 percent of lunches. Out of a week, we'll eat out 4-5 times for dinner, and eat in 2 or 3 times for dinner.

 

[msp2mco]

The longer we own DVC, the more we cook in the room. Since we usually stay at BWV, it is easy to get back to the room to make a meal while the kids go swimming. I opt for quick and easy food, but not necessarily microwave and reheat stuff. I also like having a glass of wine while serving appetizers or finishing the meal.

If I were going with a big group, I'd suggest dividing out the work of cooking. Perhaps ask the other family to plan a meal or two and combine it with your grocery list and share the responsibility.

We have always eaten breakfast in our room. It saves so much time.

 

[lakohls]

Last trip was our 1st in DVC, but we had stayed in a condo with full kitchen off property another time as well. We order ahead from gardengrocer.com as well. Kitchen is great for easy breakfasts, snacks, and quick easy meals for when some or all of you don't feel like going out, or the adr is too far away & you are hungry now. Also, our home is AK - so not as close to as many food options. And 4 young kids - they can't always wait the hour it will take to get to a park for a reservation.

Like others: cereal, drinks, PB&J, fruit, pasta, snacks. If/when we go for more than a week at a time I'll probably get more interested in real cooking. Enjoy!

 

[dianeschlicht]

We have done numerous trips with large groups of 10 or more. We found it was actually easier to dine in the room and cook much the same way we do at home than it was to be accommodated at WDW restaurants. Groups of that size are difficult at best and impossible at worst when trying for dining at WDW restaurants.

I would plan your character meals, and then plan breakfasts and some meals in the villa. In January, we had 8 adults in a GV at OKW. We ate all breakfasts in the villa (and yes, we cooked oatmeal, eggs, etc, etc). We made one main meal a day as well. This included all the same things we would normally prepare at home. It never took a long time, and it was always a much needed break in the day for the group. We often came back to the villa around 2...prepared and ate our meal...and then returned to the parks about 4. We found we really didn't need a third full meal, but often had sandwiches and such later.

We made most of our main meals from things that allowed for left overs (ham, turkey, etc.), and got the makings of light meals that way.

 

[weluvdisney5]

Yep we usually always cook breakfast in our room. We order our groceries online and they are always delivered before we even check in. Hope this helps

 

[WDWMom]

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??

We do it all the time. Some days only breakfast, some days 3 x a day. It's not so far from the parks. Depending on where you are staying and which park you at, the time may vary. BW has horrible bus service when they share buses with the Swan, Dolphin, Yacht and Beach Clubs. But if you get off at the Swan and walk to BW, it's MUCH quicker.

We make easy meals while there - tacos, frozen lasagna, sandwiches, mac and cheese, plus cereal for breakfast along with bagels and pop tarts.

 

[8timesblessed]

We do it all the time. Some days only breakfast, some days 3 x a day. It's not so far from the parks. Depending on where you are staying and which park you at, the time may vary. BW has horrible bus service when they share buses with the Swan, Dolphin, Yacht and Beach Clubs. But if you get off at the Swan and walk to BW, it's MUCH quicker.

We make easy meals while there - tacos, frozen lasagna, sandwiches, mac and cheese, plus cereal for breakfast along with bagels and pop tarts.

Glad I'm not the only one who figured this out. Our room was 1006 so we just got off at the Swan and walked across the bridge and we were at our room.

 

[ccgirl]

A dining plan for part of your stay sounds wonderful. Looks like you plan on getting some character meals? If that's the case; be sure to coordinate that with the dining plan. We eat quick breakfasts before we go to the parks, fruit, cereal, donuts, those kinds of things. We also pack sandwiches for lunch. Saves so much money over the counter service places. We buy a case of water bottles and freeze some the night before. That acts as ice to keep our lunches cool and as it melts it is nice cold water to drink. We don't cook a lot of dinners but if we do it is simple things like pasta or tacos.

Have fun! I LOOOOVVEEEE the extra space of the timeshare.

 

[MCSfromWA]

We are going to WDW next month and we plan to cook most of our meals in our villa. I agree that the proximity of VGC makes it pretty easy to prepare and eat meals in the villas at DLR, but I think with some planning it will be fine at WDW as well. We are planning one meal each day in the park. We will be eating breakfast in the villa and we are planning to order supplies for simple lunches or dinners. I think we could plan on cooking more except that it has been more than 5 years since our last trip to the world and my family and I are hoping to eat at some of our favorite restaurants. We are also planning a split stay and so when we are at the epcot villa, we will go to epcot and DHS and we will go to MK when we are at BLT so that we can reduce travel time by avoiding the bus when possible -- that should make it easier to cook in. Have fun!

 

[KGD]

We cook breakfast in the villa everyday and have the DDP for the rest of the stay. We have eaten light lunches and snacks as well. Or get snacks from the quick serve restaurant or store in the resort and take back to the room and make a pb&j sandwiches for the kids.

 

[Princess Roo]

We always have breakfast in the room, except for 1 character breakfast, and we also have a few dinners in the room. Always easy stuff - sometimes we'll bring a frozen casserole or two with us, or do a grocery store rotisserie chicken over salad with great bread, or a quick stir-fry. With a large group, just make sure you split the responsibilities for cooking/cleaning so one person or couple isn't stuck doing all of it! (ETA: with your screen name, just realized your immediate family might be the whole group. My advice still stands...get the kids to help for souvenir money!)

I think I'm the opposite of the not wanting to cook on vacation mentality, though...I'd rather cook a few times at WDW while I'm having a lovely vacation and save the money to get a vacation from cooking at home when WDW is far away.

 

[ddoconnell]

We always cook in the villa In fact when we were at WDW at Thanksgiving for my husband's work, they put us up at the YC and my DD complained that there was no kitchen so she could fix her breakfast (ok, for me to fix her breakfast!) and she could stay in her pj's One of the reasons we bought DVC was the full kitchen. We almost always take some folks with us and we share the cooking and cleaning duties. Always have breakfast in the villa, and usually dinner. Lunch is usually in the park....non-park or short park day is sammies at lunch in the villa! Dinner is a full meal with meat, veggies the works. That keeps all of our teens on a good diet...with a few treats thrown in after all it is WDW! We do plan some special meals out whether they are character meals, or the awesome buffet at Trail's End in Fort Wilderness!

Different from other PP's we use wegoshop.com and LOVE them!! They shop where you want them to shop and even got us some great BOGO's this last time!

I don't want to even think about not having my kitchen so we can have our meals and snacks without all of those high park prices. Saves some of that cash for souvies!!

Have a fantastic trip!!

 

[hbehrman]

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!

This was one of the major reasons we joined DVC as we are a family of 5 and even when staying at POR we always ate breakfast in the room. WE usually stay 5 to 7 days visiting 3 parks. On the way home we plan at staying overnight at HHI.

We have a similar plan as the one above, however we stop at BJ's at the Millennia Mall on I-4 on the way in from the drive from NC and stock up (and a bottle or two from the BJ's liquor store next door, not that we drink a lot);

Staples from BJ's:

Stouffers Lasagna
Variety of Frozen waffles, pancakes and french toast
Chicken Wings and/or Nuggets
Meat for meals (Lamb or Fish usually)
Sausage or bacon
Cereal
Milk
Juice
Salad
Fruit
Bread
GoGurts
Snack bars

Park Days:
* Breakfast - Kids choice of the above breakfast
* Brunch/Early Lunch (before noon) - usually in the park at a sit down, sometimes a character meal
* Snack -- Either brought along or a treat at a Snack favorite (ie. Aloha Isle)
* Late Dinner (as in between 7 and 8) - back at the room or a light meal at CS restaurant

Non-Park Days:
* Breakfast - Kids Choice
* Lunch - Usually sandwiches or things we can heat up in the microwave or in the oven. Unless we take a day trip to St Pete (Leverocks) or have lunch with my uncle in Orlando (usually DTD place or Chinese close to where he lives)
* Dinner - We plan on cooking a couple of days to save money and because too many kids meals is not good.

 

[akl-fan]

We cook about 75% of meals in the room and save ourselves a fortune. I would love to be able to eat out every day but it is just not practical with a young family and we typically stay for 14 days.

 

[heathers4um]

the last 3 trips we have taken its just beein DBF and I our 1st trip as a combined family will be hopefully in the fall and we plan on cooking on our villa...I am actually looking forward to it! It was decided this last trip that we will be more successful trying to please everyone - 'some' people in our family are quite particular...*ahemDBF*...but I am not naming names. And his daughter, who will be 9 this summer, is just like him so...with that in mind, we will have breakfast in the villa to begin our day, either pack a lunch and grab a locker in the parks or maybe scout out a CS for lunch and then dinner in the villa when we are done for the day. We likely wont stay every evening to watch the fireworks, but on the days we do we will reverse it and go back to the villa early for a late lunch and then head back out again. On non-park days or waterpark days, we do the breakfast and pack a lunch thing and get home earlier - it will feel nice to come back and relax to a home cooked meal.

 

[LeahA]

We do not do the dining plan.

We cook breakfast in our room. We have done:

Cereal
Eggs and Bacon
Pancakes and Sausage
Bagels/Doughnuts/English Muffins

We bring some quick meals for our 3 boys:

Mac and Cheese
Spaghettios
Peanut Butter and Jelly

We bring some snacks:

Fruit
Chips
Cookies
Cheese and Crackers

We bring drinks:

Pop
Beer
Water
Juice

We have done the DDP and we have paid OOP, for our family the DDP is too much food, and we have paid less OOP.

I could never do the DDP for the entire stay of 15 days!

Cooking doesn't take that much time or energy. It would be a great way to save some money even if you cooked a few meals in!

 

[DVCTigger]

We are another family that eats in the villas. That was a huge reason to buy into DVC. The money we save on food for the time we are there allows us more trips to the world! We have two DS's 19 &17 that eat a ton! We figure we have to eat at home, so if we eat the same way on vacation food money is a wash. Room is "paid for", so the only cost for us is a very occasional TS and the flights to get there. We typically get non-expiring passes, and we only go into the parks a couple times each trip. So we only have to buy park passes every 3rd or 4th trip. We have done everything from easy quick meals to very elaborate. The villas are supplied well enough to do so.

 

[arthur06]

We are staying in a studio for 5 nights starting April 9th. It is more of a challenge to cook in a studio, but it's only the two of us going.

I have been adding items to GG when I think of things that I want. We are mainly only adding breakfast type items.

We have:
Bananas
Apples
Oranges
Cereal
Eggs
Bread
Milk
OJ
Donuts
Eggo Waffles
Syrup

Then lunch items are only, lunch meat, cheese and chips with pop and water.

I bought a Continental Electric 6.5 in. Electric Mini-Skillet to cook my eggs. Breakfast will be egg sandwiches with a piece of fruit and donut for me and DW will have a waffle of bowl of cereal.

We have dinner reservations for Monday and Wednesday night (Kona on Monday and Via Napoli for Wednesday)

We are good with a big breakfast, light to no lunch and a nice supper. This seems to work well for us, and the mini skillet is perfect size for a nice warm breakfast!

 

[momhmmx2]

We cook breakfast most morning in the room. Eggs, pancakes, cereal, etc.

I have a crockpot in our Owners locker and "cook" our dinners that way! It's awesome! BBQ pork, Fajitas, roasts, chicken etc...Ready for us when we return from the parks.

Left overs are served at lunch.

When we don't have a car, we use wegoshop to deliver groceries. Marge does an awesome job! And, if you need more stuff later in your trip she offers a discount on another delivery

I bet she would buy a crockpot and deliver it for you. They cost $30-40 even if you use it once and Leave it behind you will have saved money compared to feeding 10 people at Disney!

 

[AZDisFamily]

When we go to DL, we don't have the dining plan options, so we opt to have groceries delivered via VONS and eat all of our meals in the room.

With WDW, we also cook in the room, but we also get the dining plan. We tend to have breakfast in the room, and then a sit down dinner using the TS credits on the dining plan. Since we do the dining plan events that take 2TS credits - Castle meal and HoopDeeDoo Revue - we also end up eating at least one or two dinners at the room. For those I usually do pasta with some fresh fruit & veggies one night and then a bag-n-season chicken dish the next night.

We usually use our CS meals for lunches in the park. We are not big on bringing lots of our own snacks and our kids like to get their "snack choice" each day we are there, so that's where our snack credits get used up.

I like eating out, but after about 3 consecutive meals out, I like the familiarity of cooking, so I don't find it a bother to our vacation.