If you stayed offsite..

[Jill2150]

What do you do about dinner and how does your schedule work throughout the day? We are going with a 21 month old, renting condo in Windsor Hills. So we will go to parks first thing and we are not sure at this point if she will need to go back to room for a nap or sleep in stroller. But we will likely have to leave for a nap. If we then go back to parks mid-day, I am wondering then how to handle dinner. To be honest, I don't really want to spend the money to eat in the parks. And a lot of the good restaurants are also in the Dis hotels and you would have to leave the park for that anyway. I would rather just eat offsite. I guess my dilemma is that I don't really want to leave twice and waste half the day going back and forth. Thank you!

 

[krismom]

We have stayed off site the last few years because we are a family of 6 and I can't justify the cost of 2 rooms onsite VS an entire condo off site (for half the price!) For us... it just isn't practical to do the mid day break and return to the condo. When they were little, they napped in the strollers and we knew every out of the way place in each park that was dark and air conditioned. Now- we just let them sleep until they wake up (no rope drop for us!) and then go to the parks until just before the meltdowns occur!
Beware trying to eat offsite however, we have never had much luck at any of the tourist spots (most were all 90 minute waits) around dinner time. We ate in the condo mostly... either way- enjoy and make the dining reservations just in case!

 

[DawnM]

We have never gone back for a nap, even when the kids were little. We just let them nap in the stroller. They WILL get tired enough to do it.

We usually eat b-fast at the condo, take snacks into the parks, eat cs for lunch and try to eat late (around 1:30-2pm) so that with snacks we really aren't hungry until around 7pm or so. Then we go off-site or back to the condo.

We go off season, so we haven't had to wait too long for tables.

Dawn

 

[kileybeth]

when we have stayed off site (most of time until last 3-4 trips) we would eat big breakfast, take snacks into park (enough to equal lunch time eats, things like gogurt, snack crackers, granola bars, fruit peices, cheese sticks and drinks) and then eat counter service for dinner. Never spent more than $50 total for food for family of 6.

Now that we have stayed on site we know how close some of the resort restaurants really are so don't worry about losign to much park time if you want to eat at one of them but do remember your ADR's.

I ditto the off site restaurants being really crowded. We mostly go in off season when parks close earlier. We often had over one hour waits. even as late as 10pm!

A good option might be to order-in back at the condo. I think windsor hills has take out menus available.

You should post this on the other thread for off site accomadations. they will have lots more options to give you probably.

 

[okeydokey]

We have stayed off site with little ones. By evening we were all ready to get back to the condo anyway. We did some take out and made some quick easy dinners in the condo. We never went back in the afternoon for naps. The kids napped in the stroller. IMO the travel time back and forth was not worth it. If I had put them in the car to drive back to the condo in the afternoon they would have fallen asleep for the ride.

 

[Gillian]

IMO the travel time back and forth was not worth it. If I had put them in the car to drive back to the condo in the afternoon they would have fallen asleep for the ride.

Travel time was not an issue for us, but the kids falling asleep in the car was! We've had mixed results with the stroller nap.

The best thing we found was to get out as early as possible and do as much as we could before lunch time. For us this included bringing snacks so that we didn't have to eat if it wasn't a good time. When my mom came along we brought sandwiches, when it was just us we did pretzels, cheese cubes, carrots. Usually we did a counter service lunch at some point.

If you can get go very early and come back in early afternoon, then you can eat at the condo or an offsite restaurant or a resort/park restaurant (make ADRs). Some of the parks will be open late so you might want to go back for a while after resting for Illuminations/Fantasmic/fireworks.

 

[nemomama]

We always stay offsite, and never return to our condo for naps. But our kids are great stroller nappers. We have breakfast at the condo, and then head to the parks for rope drop. Our kids are early risers so this works great for us. We break for a CS lunch, do more stuff in the parks while they nap in the stroller, and then usually have early reservations for dinner, around 5-5:30. We usually leave after dinner since our kids won't last till the fireworks yet.

I would suggest, if you don't want to spend a lot on dinner, make lunch your big meal. Then you can see more of the parks afterwards and head out for dinnertime.

 

[Darcy03231]

We got up, had a big breakfast, went to the parks early, came back in the mid-afternoon and had a late lunch/early dinner and then went back in the evening after everyone had a rest/swim. We snacked in the parks if we were hungry, but ate our big meals at the villa. Since we were there in August and it was hot the kids really did want food in the parks. It was ice cream and slushies.

On the first day/evening we were there we made a big potato salad, macaroni salad and tossed salad, enough for a few days. When we ran out we made more. We had a grill and we kept it easy - hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, steak. On a couple of nights we made a casserole the night before and put it in the fridge (lasagne, chicken casserole, mexican shepard's pie). When we came back we just popped it in the oven while the kids swam. I used the foil disposable pans so there really wasn't any cleanup. We also had a crock pot and I made pulled pork for sandwiches and meatballs & spaghetti sauce. One night we had meatball subs and another we had spaghetti & meatballs. Not only did it save a lot of money, we didn't have to wait at a restaurant while everyone was tired and hungry or wait for delivery.

 

[jazzmine]

We are staying at an off-site condo this trip (and did on our last trip as well). We plan to do most meals at the condo although we have a few ADRs for character breakfasts, lunch (one day), and dinner (one day). We'll do the majority of lunch at counter service in the parks. But for dinner we are going to play it by ear. If things are going well we might grab something at a park. Otherwise we'll eat back at the condo.

As for naps, my son naps well in the stroller so we are planning for that. We got a bigger sun shade for his stroller so he'll be able to snuggle in and take a little seista when he gets tired.

 

[kileybeth]

OMGoodness! Darcy, you sure have some kind of stamina. After a full day in the parks the last thing I want to do is set a table, stand on my feet to get a meal on the table and then clean up after. or grocery shop.

And I want to be the one in the pool relaxing while someone else gets my meal ready! guess with a family of 6 I do that quite enough at home day in and day out so it's my vacation too.

My DH always says why don't we just fix something easy and then sits down while I think it up and fix it! how easy that is for him! He knows not to even ask that of me on vacation.

sorry, guess you hit a soft spot with me on that one.

My kiddos where asking to take easy mac with us for our couple days in the condo before we move on site. I told them if they are willing to use their own money for paper bowls, shop for the stuff (don't forget plastic utensils, S&P, dish detergent,etc.) and clean up after (throw it all away and wipe down counters) sure, no problem! I'll be downstairs in the restauant eating. they quickly decided they would join me in the restaurant.

yes, I'm a kitchen wimp.

 

[Darcy03231]

OMGoodness! Darcy, you sure have some kind of stamina. After a full day in the parks the last thing I want to do is set a table, stand on my feet to get a meal on the table and then clean up after. or grocery shop.

And I want to be the one in the pool relaxing while someone else gets my meal ready! guess with a family of 6 I do that quite enough at home day in and day out so it's my vacation too.

My DH always says why don't we just fix something easy and then sits down while I think it up and fix it! how easy that is for him! He knows not to even ask that of me on vacation.

sorry, guess you hit a soft spot with me on that one.

My kiddos where asking to take easy mac with us for our couple days in the condo before we move on site. I told them if they are willing to use their own money for paper bowls, shop for the stuff (don't forget plastic utensils, S&P, dish detergent,etc.) and clean up after (throw it all away and wipe down counters) sure, no problem! I'll be downstairs in the restauant eating. they quickly decided they would join me in the restaurant.

yes, I'm a kitchen wimp.

It really wasn't bad at all. We were there for 16 days so we didn't plan to go to the parks at all the first day. We got to the villa, unpacked and then went to the grocery store (less than a mile away). I'm one of those people who only need about 6 hours of sleep a night so I made things after the kids went to bed. We used a lot of paper and plastic so there really wasn't a lot of clean up. I don't cook much at home as DH is out of work before I am so he does most of the cooking. I really don't mind cooking on vacation - as long as its simple meals. Once the salads were made it was just throwing some meat on the grill. The casseroles are easy ones, less than thirty minutes to make and pulled pork has to be the easiest thing to make. Just throw the roast in the crock pot and let it cook all day, shred, add barbeque sauce and serve with rolls. I made the meatballs the first day we were there and just threw them in the freezer until we were ready to eat them. That morning I took them out, put them in the crockpot with the spaghetti sauce and just let them reheat. I found I had dinner on the table faster than if we went to a restaurant.