On DDP - what food to pack and put in fridge?

[imamom22gr8kids]

We are doing the DDP and from what I am reading, I feel it will be plenty of food for the 4 adults and 2 kids in our group. I do want to bring some granola bars and other snacks for the 'in-between' times when little ones get hungry. I will also have a refrigerator in our room. Should I plan on bring bottled water with me into the parks with some snacks? Any suggestions on what food to bring with me - mostly concerned about beverages as we are big water drinkers and don't want to spend a ton of money on bottled water while there. Thanks!

Michelle

 

[Susan555]

We are doing the DDP and from what I am reading, I feel it will be plenty of food for the 4 adults and 2 kids in our group. I do want to bring some granola bars and other snacks for the 'in-between' times when little ones get hungry. I will also have a refrigerator in our room. Should I plan on bring bottled water with me into the parks with some snacks? Any suggestions on what food to bring with me - mostly concerned about beverages as we are big water drinkers and don't want to spend a ton of money on bottled water while there. Thanks!

Michelle

We bought some individual drink mix packets at Wal Mart, so we'll be getting large cups of ice water at CS places when we get lunch or a snack, and we'll just add the drink mix to them. I've heard Orlando water tastes a bit odd to many people, or we would just drink it plain. I don't feel like lugging bottled water around the parks in my backpack, and I also don't intend to pay $2 or more per bottle to buy it at the parks - not when its FREE in a cup with ice!

 

[mtrak17]

We were on DDP last month and we brought WAY too much food with us - cereal, milk, snacks, granola bars, Powerade, pretzels, bread, peanut butter.

The only thing we used was the bottled water (we used 3 bottles per person per day) and we each ate one granola bar per day.

Otherwise, we left everything unopened in the room when we left; it was really a waste of food to bring so much! AND we hardly used any of our snack credits until the last few days, when we got a lot of stuff to bring home. The DDP is just a lot of food, even if you're getting salads and healthier fare.

(I am not a salad eater, but I realized by the second day on the DDP that if I didn't get salads for an appetizer, they'd have to roll me home!)

 

[Tink]

I have two DDS 8 & 5. The 8yo is like her father and gets up early, so I keep cherrios in the room. Sometimes she gets hungry before the 5yo and I are up and ready to go. I also keep milk in the room (goes good with the cookies we eat ).

As they got older, I stopped keeping so much in the room.

We are going this August and was there 2 years ago in August. We just bought the water around the parks since it was cold and that's what we needed.

 

[Kayleebug]

I am not sure if you are driving or flying, but if you are driving you might want to consider bringing some fresh fruit (bag of apples, bananas). I just can't bring myself to use one snack credit for one apple. DEFINITELY bring the bottled water! I'd get a case of it, keep it in the room, and put it in the fridge. Bottled water is about $2.50 each there, and I'd rather use my snack credits on yummy stuff or cute snacks to bring back home (gummy mickeys, chip and dale pretzels, etc.)

 

[Berkshires96]

But, I found that I needed things for times when it wasn't convenient to wait in line or stop moving from place to place. We went in Dec 06 and our kids were 2 & 6. Since we had a stroller it worked out great to bring a small softside cooler into the parks. Inside was a couple bottles of water, couple of juice boxes, and a few string cheese. I also used it to put in the leftovers from the big Counter Service meals on the dining plan (mostly desserts or I tried to get fruit as a dessert and save for later) In by regular bag, that hung on the stroller, I kept a gallon ziplock bag with various snacks (granola bars, cheese & crackers, fruit snacks, etc). It was so nice when my kids were saying, "mommy, I'm hungry for the billionth time" to just hand them the bag and let them pick, and they thought it was a big treat.

In the room, I kept individual bowls of cereal, milk, crackers and the rest of the snacks that I used to resupply the park gallon ziplock bag. I also would always get fruit (grapes or mixed fruit) as dessert if we ate at our resort and then keep that for in the room or poolside for the kids. Used snack credits to buy chips, boxes of donuts and mickey crackers too. With the DDP you will NEVER run out of food, but nice to have some convenience items handy for in between.

 

[BlakeNJ]

I over ordered food wise (from Garden Grocer). We were on the DDP and I bought breakfast items which went to good use but other snacks were a waste. Really no need. I even brought salty snacks/soda for later in the evening when back in the room and we didn't eat any. We were just too full!

Water was great to have. We left each morning with a few bottles and made sure we finished then early in the morning for two reasons--not to have to lug them around all day and make sure we got plenty of water in us. If you don't want to pack water or oder from Garden Grocer, Staples will deliver a case of water for free to your hotel if you sign up for their delivery service. For around $6/case, it's a great deal.

Have a wonderful trip!

 

[patsal]

We are DVC so I have the full kitchen, but since the DDP I do very littel cooking--who am I kidding I "m on vacation and did very little coooking pre DDP now I do very simple food prep without any cooking!

I bring cereal bars, a few cans of chips, bag of pretzels, box of crackers (cheeze its) a box of cereal and small jar of peanut butter. Once at the resort I head to the grocery store where I pick up a loaf of bread, OJ and Milk, fruit, yogurt and butter. Of course a case of water and perhaps gatorade or powerade. We go for 2 weeks so I shop twice to replace anything we've used up. We usually do the cereal or toast for breakfast with juice and fruit. If we are doing signature dining one night I might have light fare fixings for if the kids are hungry (luncheon meats or cheese to make grilled cheese) and bagged lettuce.

 

[bicker]

We brought a box of oatmeal with us -- that was our breakfast most of the days. We also had two cases of bottled water delivered by Staples. We didn't need anything else.

 

[GC&S]

We brought a box of cereal for breakfast and had bottled water. I think I had some granola bars or something similar but they were hard to identify after being in my bag for a week and smooshed beyond recognition . Because we had the DDP we were never hungry and rarely ate between meals. I thought dd (4) would get hungry but we were so busy she never did.

 

[jamounger]

Equal or Splenda and cream for your coffee. I also pack the maxwell house coffee that comes in the filters. a few snacky things and Pop Tarts.

 

[Disneyof3]

I was wondering the same thing because this is our first time on the DDP. I'm bring for family of 5 and were driving too, 2 bags of bits and bites,bag of cookies,fruit snacks,popcorn,granola bars and cereal boxes(small ones),milk,bagels and cream cheese. Now that will last us for the drive down and for the drive back home. (24hrs to get to WDW and 24hrs to get home again) We usually can't bring fruit over the border but if they have stickers on them then we can. I usually wait till I go to Walmart in Kissimee and get them.

 

[sandym718]

bicker- a question for you - how did you cook the oatmeal?? Are there microwaves available in the resorts? We'll be at the Poly and eating breakfast in the room. My DS loves oatmeal, so he'd be thrilled if he could have it a few mornings. It's a nice filling breakfast, too.

Thanks!

 

[bicker]

We are DVC members so all our rooms have microwaves.

 

[pperfectmom]

bicker- a question for you - how did you cook the oatmeal?? Are there microwaves available in the resorts? We'll be at the Poly and eating breakfast in the room. My DS loves oatmeal, so he'd be thrilled if he could have it a few mornings. It's a nice filling breakfast, too.

Thanks!

You could always use your coffee pot to heat up the water. That might be kinda hard if you have coffee in it though.

 

[beth_cam]

bicker- a question for you - how did you cook the oatmeal?? Are there microwaves available in the resorts? We'll be at the Poly and eating breakfast in the room. My DS loves oatmeal, so he'd be thrilled if he could have it a few mornings. It's a nice filling breakfast, too.

Thanks!

My kids ate oatmeal almost every morning with hot tap water. They now do this most mornings before school.

We took a lot of snacks like little packs of donuts, cheese and crackers, box of cereal but didnt eat a lot of it except for breakfasts. We got milk and oj when we could with counter service at the food court and kept them for breakfast. We get a refillable mug for souvie purposes and I can't live without my drpepper (brought plenty of them) so if we ate counter service at the hotel, I'd have my drpepper and hubbs would have his mug which gave us two drinks that came with our meal to save for breakfast.

 

[sandym718]

Thanks everyone! Didn't think about DVC, bicker - duh! I'll probably take some and try hot tap water - that should work, he's not too picky!! And we'll have cold cereal (fridge at the Poly for milk) and other breakfast goodies, so it will be all good!