DVC..Not what do you eat in the villa, but HOW ?

[Pig Pen]

I rarely cook at home, let alone vacation!

 

[LSchrow]

varies but pretty much:
anywhere between 7-10AM, bfast (if we decide to actually have b'fast ~ only coffee is a neccessity ) is cereal or something from the BW bakery
& sometimes, we get energized & go to ABC commissary

then hanging out at the pool for a while or go for a walk (& deli meat sandwiches in the villa), or maybe over to a park & eat CS there

dinner is usually at an EPCOT restarant (so we can go on a ride or 2, watch illuminations), else a resort restaurant & hang out there.

as you can prob tell, we don't "do WDW" even remotely commando!!

 

[unixadm]

We drive down from Georgia, so we take a lot of non perishable food with us...then stop at the Publix to get the other stuff.

If we are doing parks, we typically get up very early, have breakfast at the Villa, then head into the park of the day. We will spend the morning hitting the rides (Thanks to TGM for some great touring advice so we see the most possible), then stop for lunch in the park. We then spend early afternoon hitting a few more rides, then back to the Villa.

We will either rest up for a dinner out, or cook something up in the Villa. Last year, we had the meal plan, so it was dinner out every night, but this year it is home cooked meals each night. Out of the 7 nights we are here, we plan on eating out 2 nights...the rest are back at the Villa.

 

[manning]

Going for the month of Jan. Will be eating in alot. The wash machine broke today and need the money to buy a new one

 

[eva]

We usually have coffee, juice, fruit, and bagels for breakfast. The rest of our meals are normally out. We do have assorted cheese, fruit, and crackers for light snacks with wine later in the day. Sometimes that will serve as our lunch too. We usually hit the parks around 9:00 am and then head back to the room around 1 or 2:00 for a light lunch around the pool or a snack in the room. Dinner is out every night. Since our DD's are grown and on their own, it is just DH and me most of our trips. So we can be more flexible with what we eat and when. No park commandos here. We only hit the parks twice during our last 7-day stay. But we still don't cook in the room much.

 

[WolfpackFan]

We are more prone to do cooking when we stay at HH rather than at WDW. At HH, I love to cook a good breakfast and then sit out on our balcony and eat it. We have never really cooked any dinner meals, but sometimes when we go out to eat and have leftovers, we will eat them for lunch in the unit. Now someone, made a suggestion here a while back that I want us to try when we go to HH in June. We might go to Fresh Market and get some pre-cooked meals and take them back to the unit to heat up for dinner. That way we're not going out to eat so much, but not doing a whole lot of cooking either. I have to say (and if my DW reads this she will be astounded), I do get tired of going out to eat so much when on vacation plus it can really get expensive after a while.

I wanted to add one more thing to my post. I can see us in the future eating more and more meals in our DVC units (even at WDW). I was amazed at how high our bill was when we checked out a few weeks ago. It was a total of $500 for meals for just two of us. This really reduced the benefits of being a DVC member, which was to save money on our trips. We have three more trips planned this year and have got to do better. The food at WDW has gotten so expensive, it is really ridiculous IMO. We spent $70 one day at lunch at Yak and Yeti. And it wasn't even that good a meal. Well, I apologize for my rant.

Oh, one more thing (this is the last). Our favorite "cheap" meal at WDW is Earl of Sandwich. Now if all the meals were that cheap and good, it wouldn't be any problem at all.

 

[Jeremy&Susan]

We love the kitchen for breakfasts, packing a quick lunch and occasionally having a smaller dinner in the room.

Our daughter is very young and any time we can avoid lines (food lines, ride lines, etc) the better.
By eating in the room for breakfast, our daughter can play with some toys, have her formula and then take a nap before we head out for the parks. Trying to do that while on a bus or waiting in line or in a cafeteria style restaurant for food, is very trying with a baby's patience.
Same holds in the parks for lunch. By packing a lunch, we can eat while walking her to sleep. We wouldn't attempt to make a baby, trying to sleep, wait in a food-stop for mom and dad to eat.
Lastly, we like to have a few small dinners to limit the gorging we do while on vacation. Eating out every night is just way too much food, even if you only get a main course.

Also the kitchens do save a ton of money. The last trip we just returned from was a 7 day stay at SSR. We only spent a total of $400 on food for 2 adults and the baby and that included about $100 for baby food. The food cost included eating dinner out 4 nights using DDE where we could and lunch at the castle with the princesses one day and one lunch at Le Cellie (sp?). While we don't go to WDW trying to save money, we were shocked at how inexpensive the food cost was while we were there.

 

[Boardwalker]

How much use the kitchen gets depends on who I am there with, what time of year it is, and how much money they want to spend.

I once took my daughter's girl scout troop to a Grand Villa and they took turns cooking dinner every evening. They were 9, so even cooking was a treat to them. We were there in the summer so the parks were open really late and we would head back to the parks by 6.

In the slow times, when the parks close at 7, it is rather hard to fit dinner in the room in. We would rather be watching the fireworks.

Now my daughter is grown and if it is just she and I, we eat out. The kitchen is great for breakfast and snacks. Cooking isn't such a treat anymore.

When I am there with my sister, we eat a big lunch out and then have stuff in the room to pick at for dinner. She is rather frugal.

When I am there with my brother we need the big fridge just to hold the wine... He isn't frugal, he is just very thirsty.

 

[tigger2esq]

we rarely eat full meals in the villa. that said--we always have coffee in the morning and our general light breakfast which we skip down to the boardwalk bakery for in the wee morning hours. I am a big fan of their muffins, bagels and breakfast sandwiches and fresh fruit. we also sometimes bring back food to eat at night. pizza, sandwiches and lots of snacks and desserts. but I personally never "cook" while on vacation--kitchen or no kitchen....

 

[Uncleromulus]

We've never had lunch or dinner in the room since we joined DVC in 1992. Once in a GREAT while we'll have breakfast--but that only involves a cereal bowl, the microwave, and the coffee pot.

 

[DisDaydreamer]

We tend to use the kitchen more than not, but then we tend to go to VB and aren't trying to blend WDW parks with home living. I always make breakfast, it is something I don't get to make at home before leaving for work at 6:30 am. I enjoy making breakfast. DW will usually make a real dinner two or three times during our stay. She is a great cook, and I think really enjoys having a truly free day to casually make a meal that is as good as any great restaurant.

For both of us, making meals while at DVC is a luxury rather than the hassle that we have before or after working all day. Good food, relaxed environment, good food. Happy campers. Just our way of loving DVC.

 

[allshookup]

I like to eat out a lot at home so the same goes for vacation. We are not commando types, we like to sleep in on vacation & at WDW we rarely get to the parks at opening. We usually get up & sit around the villa & have coffee & pastries. If we are staying for more than a week, we sometimes even have a light sandwich or snack before we head to the parks or pool. If we don't eat before hand or we're not eating till much later, we'll just grab a sandwich or snack somewhere. We almost always have either a big lunch or dinner out at the parks or one of the resorts. If we are at a MK, EPCOT or MGM, in the evening, we will usually stay for the night time shows, which means we might have a late night snack back at the room. That's about it! NO cooking for me...it's my vacation too!

 

[llmurphy17]

For us the kitchen was great. We always took our time in the morning and had breakfast and snacks. Sometimes my kids won't eat in restaurants since they are too busy distracted watching all the activity so being able to make sure they have at least good breakfast was a relief.

In the future I will also probably try to use the kitchen more since the prices for food are getting expensive.

Also being able to brew my starbucks coffee was a dream