Do you cook?

[JBx3]

We are going for 8 nights next May and we are thinking we may want to cook 1 or 2 dinners in our 1 br. Last year we went for 9 nights on DDxP and we got so sick of eating out that we thought we might want to try to eat in our room. But this time we are not doing any dining plans opting instead for TIW and I'm thinking this will help us not feel so sick of eating out. I can't decide if we should do 1 or 2 nights in. I know we will be doing breakfast in a couple of mornings but lunch will always be in a park. Do you ever cook dinner? And, what do you make?

We also get burned out from eating out over long stays. It is only 3 of us but we always do the 1BR stay now. for an 8 night stay, we would make dinner 4 of those nights, we basically split it down the middle and may also add a lunch day or 2 out of it as well. This keeps us excited about our dining out options and we enjoy it more. It also gives us good quality family time when choosing to make dinner in. Some how in that vacation environment our dinner conversations are much different that when we are at home.

what we make is no different than if we were at home, we do not back off. We always try to travel with all our cooking spices so we do not need to buy them when we get there. We also try to buy our villa needs fopr a couple days at a time so we do not waste during the last days of the trip.

 

[disneynutz]

Yup, and we love it! Just recently started to cook though - we've owned for 7 years now, and used to do 2-3 TS meals per day with either DDE/TIW, DP or DxDP.

We realized last summer how much money we have wasted on Disney food, and we have decided no more of that! We've eaten pretty much almost everywhere, including Signatures and a few special events, and we've noticed such a decline in food and service at most places, but such a huge increase in prices, especially since we have to travel during peak seasons.

Not only are we saving a ton of money, but we have nice family time together, and we get to eat good food, as we cook very healthy here at home, and like to do that on vacation too. We do not eat out at home, so we love being able to hang out in our villa, eat good food, take a rest and go back to the parks feeling refreshed!

We really love cooking in our villa now! Tiger

Same here, plus we eat off site for a couple of dinners. The cost savings can be $1000 per trip and we can put that money towards our next vacation.

Bill

 

[P-elmo]

We do every breakfast in our room. Usually just cereal but for 1 or2 mornings I might make pancakes and sausage. We probably eat about half of the other meals in too - hot dogs/corn dogs, frozen pizza, quesadillas/nachos, and other kid friendly foods. Those microwave frozen corn/broccoli bags now are awesome for our travels.

With a 9,7, and 4 year old, cooking in the room is probably more relaxing then keeping the peace while waiting for food at the restaurants.

 

[jelwallace]

Before DVC we ate out the whole time we were at Disney. My first DVC trip I was dragged kicking and screaming into a 1 bedroom because I thought it was a waste of points to have a kitchen when we eat out the whole time. After 2 nights I was convinced that the 1 bedroom was the best thing ever. We eat breakfast in the room (sometimes just cereal and sometimes eggs and bacon) and we eat dinner in the room (spaghetti, tacos, cooked a Thanskgiving turkey this year, baked chicken). Lunch is either snacks at the pool or quick service or sit down in the park. We fly so I do an order through Garden Grocer and they have always been great to deal with. I find cooking in the room is healthier, cheaper, and quicker and the kids don't notice the difference.

 

[DCLbrideSept2009]

Last trip I did a little more actual cooking than I really liked (which also means clean-up). We made spaghetti, tacos, BLTs, etc. But this trip (we leave tonight!!!) we are going to Costco when we get there for some of their more "ready to bake" meals. We also hit up Panera on arrival day and get the big thing of bagels for breakfasts for the week. YUM! And actually pretty cheap/reasonable.

We plan on doing no more than one meal "out" per day, whether it's TS, CS or even off site. Some days we may not do any meals "out." There are 7 of us. So meals at Disney can be pretty pricey. We bought DVC for the space AND the kitchen to help save on food costs.

 

[anna08]

We have saved sooo much money by cooking in the villa!!

I pride myself in trying to find the best combination of recipes and ingredients that we can throw together for breakfast and dinner, and use them all up. We do an occasional character meal, but we find eating those meals at the villa just goes with our more relaxed pace in general.

We are a parks in the morning, swim & nap in the afternoon family so this works well with our relaxed approach to WDW.

We pack lunch for the water parks - I think we saved over $60 for that one meal alone! Remember drinks alone are 2.50 each!!

We try to grill out one night and eat by the pool - usually on a night where we're gonna watch an outdoor movie and hang by the resort.

We spend the savings on Disney cruises!!

 

[downontheBW]

We've never cooked in the villa because, recently, there is just DH and myself. This spring, we did a mini family reunion at OKW with our grown sons who have moved away from home. While we didn't "cook", we did eat breakfast in the room every day. Just cereal or English muffins. Plus drinks and snacks for other times. We ordered from Garden Grocer and had great service. Next time I'd plan to do a few simple lunch or dinner meals in the room. I may work up to turning on a stove or grill in the future

What I noticed is that, for a couple or family that still lives in the same house, cooking in the room would save money and likely be easier than some restaurants with small children. But, for family or friends that don't see each other that often, the "together" time of preparing a meal, sitting back to relax and just enjoying each other is precious - and often better in in the room than in a restaurant.

 

[Deb & Bill]

We brought our panini maker and bought tortillas, cheese, avocado, tomatoes, etc to make paninis. We'll have breakfast stuff - cereal, muffins, English muffins, etc. We have muffalettas that one of the mom's made for us on our trip and we're going to have those tomorrow or Sunday. Sandwich stuff. And lots of snacks.

 

[Quicklabs]

Yep! I make every meal in our BWV 1 BR villa. Like others, this is one of the main reasons why we bought. We could easily get by with a studio, since it's just DH and me, but we save so much money and eat very very well. I go to Whole Foods and Publix off Sand Lake, buy up some great stuff and lots of wine and enjoy our breakfasts and dinners overlooking the BW. Often, we don't need a lunch. We do take some fruit and some things into the parks for a quick snack, and we're good. Love, Love, Love cooking at the BW!

 

[Tamar]

We have a hot breakfast in the room every morning. I've yet to cook a dinner, though.

 

[wendy774]

Thanks for the responses. I was also thinking simple...spaghetti one night and tacos another. We might even sneak in a lunch if we stay at the pool one day!

 

[disneychic]

We typically have breakfast in the room (every day while on vacation) We have done lunch on occasion (when we order from garden grocer) cold cuts, chips, pasta salad, etc. But we've never had dinner in our room.

 

[Brian Noble]

Do you ever cook dinner? And, what do you make?

For dinner, we reheat/assemble more than cook; we'll typically do this once, or maybe twice, in a week-long stay. Here are a few easy meals we've done over the years:

* A pre-made roast chicken, plus a bag of frozen veggies and a loaf of frozen garlic bread (you have to acquire this same-day).
* Frozen pizza (or lasagna if you have time) plus a bagged salad.
* Giordano's delivery (cheaper than Disney!)
* Tacos or fajitas (the most "cooking" I usually ever do).

We do always have breakfast in.

 

[OurDogCisco]

You know, at WDW for some reason I can't get into the cooking mode. So, we do breakfasts and snacks in. It seems like we are always on the move at WDW that we don't have time to cook and plus my family doesn't really like convenience type foods. They love BBQ'd food too but since they only have charcoal it always seems like a hassle to BBQ in Florida. However, we do own other time shares and I'm constantly cooking so, we can afford more vacations. I pre-plan my menus and I make sure everything can be used for multiple meals. For example, when we go to Hawaii we stop at Costco and buy a turkey roast; mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, rolls, gravy and veggies. I use the leftover roast for sandwiches. I use the leftover bread for french toast, etc... Or we have fajitas one night with flank steak and I use the leftovers the next day for lunch to make nachos. I do plan so, I bring small containers of spices. I even bring vanilla extract in those little tupperware containers, etc... I think, it is totally doable to cook in your unit if you plan well. I actually like it better than eating out.

 

[TLSnell1981]

We eat 1-2 meals a day in our Villa, but nothing complicated..

 

[mecllap]

Yes, absolutely. For me, the main appeal of timesharing/DVC is the kitchen -- I can stay on vacation longer because of the money I save by not eating out all the time while there. And we can have food that we know we will enjoy eating and that is generally healthier choices. We don't generally do anything very complicated, tho.

 

[sallysue66]

Last year was our first year in a villa with a kitchen (only studios prior) and I only cooked breakfast. We did order pizza one night. But about 8 years ago when we rented a house off site for an extended family trip we did eat most dinners there. We drive so my sister & I prepared lasagna, froze it and took it with us. Grilled steaks one night (bought at home on sale), grilled chicken another. Easy stuff that didn't keep us in the kitchen long. Kids were little and it worked great. Hard to do that now since they want to sleep late and close the parks.

 

[quirty30]

We've only done breakfast and other easy, uncomplicated meals. I would be hesitant to try and cook anything really gourmet unless I one day get an Owner's Locker and could have access to better cookware. One time I tried to cook eggs, and even with Pam, the eggs stuck to the pan.

 

[Brian Noble]

I keep a medium non-stick skillet in my OL for exactly that reason.

 

[Madhatter266]

Last February we stayed for two weeks and to save money we "cooked" in several nights. We brought items that we could microwave - Chef-Boy-RD raviola, Dinty Moore Beef Stew, canned chow mein and micro rice and one night we fixed a big salad. It was great. I personally wouldn't want to do it every night because I still love to eat out. But I must admit it was relaxing to know that you did not have to be somewhere for an ADR.