How many night does everyone cook at their site?

[growinupdisney]

I had originally planned on one night getting trails end to go (chicken) and another night maybe cooking hotdogs, but hadn't really thought about cooking any other nights but I have been reading more and more noticing a lot of you guys eat at your sites! Obviously this would save some money, but i already have $ set aside to eat out majority of the time because we do have our favorites in the World to eat at but wonder now I may need to plan some more meals at our site! The last few time we camped at FW I cooked breakfast but forgoing this and just doing quick grab and go stuff that Im bringing from home, we aren't really big breakfast people!

I'm usually a go go park goer but the last few years I have slowed down a little my husband loves the Fort and would be happy maybe going to one park and the rest just hanging around there! So although we will be going everyday to the parks thinking going at rd and leaving early everyday and spending the rest of the day and early evening at the Fort which will now make it easier to eat there most nights. Possibly going back to parks after dinner.

 

[Maligator]

Whenever we are able to make the trip down we try to stay for about 2 weeks because it's a long ride and we can't go more frequently. That being said, if we didn't eat at the camp site, we would either go broke or have to cut the trip in half. We do usually eat out 2-3 times at Ohana, Trails End and maybe somewhere else. The rest of the time on park days, we do breakfast before leaving and then come back to the campsite for a few hours in the afternoon for a late lunch/early dinner. We carry a few snacks in a bag for the in between times while hitting the parks (cookies, granola etc). We don't mind travelling back to the fort for a break from the parks to do this. Gives the boys a chance to relax and DW and I to slow down for a few.

 

[bama_ed]

Growinup',

For park days we pack a picnic lunch/dinner and store it in a rental locker for one meal and eat Counter or Table service for the other depending on how the budget is and what park we are in (breakfast is at the Camper).

Days at the Fort will be about two dinners being Take Out chicken (the GAG) from TE and maybe a Domino's or Papa John's pizza (can usually get a deal of 2 large for $25 which feeds my crew of 5).

I grill meat on the charcoal grill one night (usually the arrival day) for at least two meals (sometimes 3 if I have enough charcoal). We eat one meat (say steaks) that night with instant mash or salad. I'll have some grilled chicken boneless pieces on there to put in the fridge after cooking and nuke in the microwave when ready to serve. You can buy takeout sides from TE like here:



big pieces of cornbread were in the black boxes - mac/cheese in the stacked cups. Not too expensive.

Here I had cooked chicken first then the steaks. Hot dogs (all beef) go on last for night 3 if needed - by then charcoal is dying.



They sell take-out French fries too. Note the greasy bag they came in on the table. Had them with the steaks.





So yeah, cooking back at the trailer save money but I try to cook once that lasts a couple nights and then augment it with take-out or easy stuff.

Bama Ed

PS - EDIT to add those prices were for 3 boxes of cornbread and 2 bags of fries to feed 2 adults and 3 hungry teenagers. turns out i bought too much cornbread because the pieces were quite big.

 

[ilovedisneymm]

We stayed for 3 weeks on our last trip and did the following...

Brought 6 steaks & 10 lbs of hamburger with us. I wanted to make some chili and a lasagna and I ran out of time before hand.

We make two or three walmart/publix shopping trips and dropped $200 each time. My kids and hubby EAT!

Breakfast

Everyday at the site. Bacon, eggs, waffles, sausage, juice, fruit, coffee - mix it up. I did get some eggos and pre-cooked bacon towards the end of the trip and that is a really quick and easy fill you up breakfast. I will be eating that pre cooked bacon again on our next trip. Cheap and quick and I thought it tasted pretty good.

Lunch at Parks

Quick service and we did twice at Beast Castle cause it is yummy and very healthy and decently priced.

Lunch at FW

Hot dogs, hamburgers, pasta, steak, repeat. One day we opt and did TE lunch and that was not very good. I wont ever do that again and it was expensive.

Dinner at Parks

We usually just did counter service or snack and ate a late real dinner back at "home".

Dinner at FW

Mostly TE to go, cheap, cheap, cheap and AWESOME. You can get 2 pieces of white meat chicken with 2 sides and corn bread for $9, you can't beat that! We would get two of those and sometimes beef nachos and split it between the four of us. TE to go would cost between $20 - $30 and fill you up after 10 miles in the parks.

We did 2-3 sit down TE dinners and cooked hotdogs, steak a couple nights too.

We enjoy cooking our own food. It does take extra time but one can only take so much Disney food.

This saves us 1,000 plus!

 

[Southern Bell]

I find it harder to plan when I am going to cook at Disney than I do at the beach. Especially Dinner. We don't typically run back to the camper just to eat. But... for the most part we are going to always have breakfast at the camper before we go, unless a character breakfast has been planned for that morning. If we leave one morning at lunch time , we all eat lunch before we go, and if its near dinner time when everyone wants to come back to the camper from the theme parks, we wait and have dinner at the camper. Every time you do this it saves a lot, and my family get very tired of what they call Disney Food.

During a weeks camping anywhere, I try to cook a big breakfast a couple of times. One being biscuits, egg, bacon or sausage(sometimes gravy) and one Pancake breakfast. If I cook anymore it will just be a pan of cinnamon rolls & muffins. We have been known to go out to McDonald's and get breakfast. When I don't cook or get breakfast out, we have cereal, pop tarts, breakfast bars, fruit, juice. If we are at the camper for lunch we just have a sandwich , soup, chips, fruit. For dinner we usually grill out at least 2 times during the week, one steak dinner(sometimes with shrimp) with baked potato and salad, and one meal of hamburger and hot dogs. Then I usually do a roast in a crock pot with carrots, potato's, onion, can of golden mushroom soup(sometimes I cook 2 quarts of my home canned green beans) we will have chicken at least once if not twice, either grilled or in my crock pot with rice, spaghetti once and the grandchildren usually have macaroni & cheese at least once. Sometimes we add fresh corn on the cob to a meal, or a bag of veggies in the freezer, thrown in the microwave. We usually buy pizza one night out. I haven't ever tried the FW to go chicken, pizza, or ate at trails end, but may this next trip.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

1) When do the Cabins, we are much like Boma_Ed. *
2) We eat almost exclusively at The Fort, except for sandwiches we take to the park.
3) OK, so we do hit Trails End during the stay.
4) But, this is campoing, so we liek to stay around the place.
5) Besides, we meet a better clsss of people at The Fort.
. . . friendlier
. . . more open
. . . laid back
. . . not is as much of a hurry


* We do cabins, and not actual tent or RV camping. My idea of Roughing It is when the TV Remote batteries die.

 

[Flametamr]

Our first visit we tried too hard to save money. We would eat breakfast at the camper then return for a late luch and usual eat counter service for dinner. We found we wasted too much time and stressed out going back and forth. On our last trip we ate breakfast most days in the camper and packed lunch and drinks in a rolling cooler to take in to the parks. When someone was hungry we went to the locker and got them something. Then we would eat dinner in the parks. Once we got to a park we never left until we were done for the day. The trip was much more enjoyable. Sadly I don't think we cooked even one dinner that trip. This year we arrive on Oct 30th and will cook out that night and early on Halloween. Then we are planning several dinners out to celebrate my then recent retirement and hopefully new career.

 

[SamRoc]

On our 5 night last trip we ate breakfast every morning at our camper. But for dinner we ate 3 times at our camper. Dd makes some really good chicken quesadillas, and i make a quick grilled chicken and salad one night then another night is the 3 packet crock pot roast dinner. The other nights are the hoop dee doo revue or trails end buffet and the liberty tree tavern.

 

[Chickp]

We will probably cook three out of our four nights this trip, but we're not planning on doing any parks this time. We make packets (the old school kind with sausage, potatoes, etc), walking tacos (frito bags with chili and toppings), and I may get crazy and do something new. If we were not camping at disney, we'd do burgers or hot dogs. We are eating at Sanaa for lunch midweek and Boma for brunch on our last day, and I think we're going to try Splitsville for dinner one of the nights.

 

[growinupdisney]

Growinup',

For park days we pack a picnic lunch/dinner and store it in a rental locker for one meal and eat Counter or Table service for the other depending on how the budget is and what park we are in (breakfast is at the Camper).
O
Days at the Fort will be about two dinners being Take Out chicken (the GAG) from TE and maybe a Domino's or Papa John's pizza (can usually get a deal of 2 large for $25 which feeds my crew of 5).

I grill meat on the charcoal grill one night (usually the arrival day) for at least two meals (sometimes 3 if I have enough charcoal). We eat one meat (say steaks) that night with instant mash or salad. I'll have some grilled chicken boneless pieces on there to put in the fridge after cooking and nuke in the microwave when ready to serve. You can buy takeout sides from TE like here:



big pieces of cornbread were in the black boxes - mac/cheese in the stacked cups. Not too expensive.

Here I had cooked chicken first then the steaks. Hot dogs (all beef) go on last for night 3 if needed - by then charcoal is dying.



They sell take-out French fries too. Note the greasy bag they came in on the table. Had them with the steaks.





So yeah, cooking back at the trailer save money but I try to cook once that lasts a couple nights and then augment it with take-out or easy stuff.

Bama Ed

PS - EDIT to add those prices were for 3 boxes of cornbread and 2 bags of fries to feed 2 adults and 3 hungry teenagers. turns out i bought too much cornbread because the pieces were quite big.

There are 5 of us 1 or 2 orders of cornbread be enough? Like your idea of not wasting the coals and cooking all the meat in one night!

 

[bama_ed]

I'd say 2 of the large cornbread boxes would be enough.

Although, I am proud to say that my family has a feud going when it comes to cornbread. There is one faction in the family that likes the "sweet" cornbread (ala the Jiffy yellow mix at the grocery) and the other faction likes the "non-sweet" cornbread (ala the Martha White Gladiola mix at the grocery). Trails End to go, IMO, has the non-sweet variety.

My kids also can pass the blind fold test on whether or not a sip of Mountain Dew is diet, normal, or the "made with real sugar" kind so take my advice with a grain of salt.

Bama Ed

 

[JETS70]

We enjoy cooking our own food. It does take extra time but one can only take so much Disney food.

This saves us 1,000 plus!

We love Disney and have a couple of favorites that we always try to hit such as Mama Melrose's. You are very right though, you can only take so much Disney food. If you have transportation, Apopka Vineland Rd offers some excellent options that are close, affordable, and really good. Orlando Ale House, Giordano's Pizza and Chevy's to name a few. This along with a few nights of cooking at the Fort and you got it. We usually end up having breakfast 3 to 4 times at the camper and dinner such as steak, chicken and a favorite of ours, spaghetti with sauce that was made at home. IF....... we eat a lunch, it is usually just a counter service hamburger, chicken strips or a pizza and salad from Pizza Planet.

 

[5stljayhawks]

on our two week trips, sit down table dinner in the parks is usually just one -two times, maybe a quick service or two. Rest are camper driven, I shop at costco when I arrive, by package of steaks, give me two nights for fam of 5, and some left over for steak/egg burrito's for the way to the boat.

I am also an advocate of precooking at home, freezing and hauling. Spaghetti sauce, biscuits and gravy and taco meat. Heat and serve, leaves up time to do other things. Also paper plates and plastics ware. easy fast cleanup.

 

[Corndog88]

We are headed down for 9 nights and we have ADR at one place per day. And those meals are from bfast to lunch to supper at the various parks and such. So our goal is to eat as much at the camper and take snacks with us, or counter service for the in park. But we shall see how it goes when we get there.

 

[dindy]

We are headed there soon and plan to cook 5 out of the 7 nights. We have ressies for the other 2 nights. When we were camping there over the summer, we made reservations for for 4 or 5 nights out the 8 we stayed. For us, it was too much. One of the reasons we love the fort is because it is so relaxing. We can cook/grill a meal and toss a football, or the kids will ride around the loop on their bikes or play basketball. When we had so many reservations, we felt like we had to rush to get showered after swimming at the pool and then head right over to a park for dinner. It took away the ability to be a little more flexible and relax.

 

[StormyCA]

We're planning to have breakfast in the trailer, a midmorning snack brought in (granola bar, fruit), a late lunch in the parks (other than 2 ADRs for dinner). Before we leave I'm pre-cooking, vacuum packing, & freezing individual-sized portions (dirty rice, chili, pasta) for a late dinner when we get back to the trailer. We'll take them out of the freezer in the morning to thaw & microwave them & fix a salad. We'll probably grill steaks on our arrival night since it's not a park day. Other than that, no cooking for me, I'm on vacation too!

 

[growinupdisney]

Trying to figure out how to keep frozen stuff "frozen" for the trip down! We have a popup so would it be best to fill a cooler of ice put food in and in the popup,it's 12hr drive for us? We do have a fridge/freezer for after we get there.

 

[5stljayhawks]

You will need to ice down your cooler before you leave. I take a clean 1-2 gallon milk jugs fill 1/2 way with water and freeze. then fill rest with water and freeze. Then about 4-5 days before I am leaving I fill my cooler with frozen milk jugs and bags of ice. every day I drain and refill with ice. This way when you put frozen food into cooler, food will stay frozen.

Also dry ice is another option. I have not used

 

[SamRoc]

All of this talk of food at the fort is making me crave cornbread and honey butter! thanks alot!! lol!!!

 

[drdisneygirl]

We do a big breakfast at the camper and then we pack sandwiches and snacks for the parks most days. When we went in January 2015, my daughter danced at DTD so we had a couple of nights we left the park early. I did crockpot meals those nights. If we stayed in the park until close we did a counter service for dinner.