Saving $$- 'Cooking' in the hotel room

[Mouse House Mama]

I still see nothing wrong with a good cabbage roll now and then while at WDW and if you did happen to call housekeeping on me, I'm pretty sure after I invite them in, I could win them over with a taste test. They would say
Gracias, señor and leave knowing the power of a good cabbge roll. The only worry I would have is that housekeeping would raid my crock pot and eat them while cleaning my room. How would I be able to enjoy my day at MK knowing that my cabbge rolls were left defensless in the room and being raided by housekeeping? What would I do for food? What would happen to my budget?

Well, then you would be forced to make ketchup, er tomato soup with ketchup packets and hot water. Head to the fixins' bar to make a salad and you have whole meal! Delish!

 

[DCLbrideSept2009]

It's going to cost about $10/day for a fridge at Pop. I would suggest either staying at a mod that already has a fridge or even better, renting DVC points and staying at a studio. That would give you a kitchenette with a bigger fridge, microwave, toaster, etc. There's a Panera nearby to get super yummy bagels and cream cheese (we do this EVERY time!). Since you'll have a car, also lots of off-site places to eat cheaper than on-site. Giordano's is good and there are usually restaurant.com GCs. Sweet Tomatoes always has coupons out (sign up for their e-mail). Smokey Bones is a new place we discovered on our most recent trip and super yummy! Signed up for their e-mail list and got a coupon (free app, I think). Cici's. If you're Costco members, their food court is super cheap to eat at. You can get a whole pizza for $10 and we LOVE their pizza! On-site, Earl of Sandwich is SUPER yummy and relatively inexpensive.

The cost per night for a studio would be more than Pop, but the savings on food would more than make up for it. Not to mention plenty of room for bottled water, soda, beer, wine, etc.

If you rented a 1-bedroom, you would have a full kitchen. Or as someone else suggested, stay off-site in a condo with a kitchen.

We are DVC members. We not only like the MONEY it saves us eating in the villa, but it also saves us TIME.

 

[tlbwriter]

I also wanted to point out to you guys that we used to use the fridges in the rooms all the time, yogurts, milk, cheese sticks sort of things, until DS got violently ill one year, sick for a couple of days at Disney. We had actually brought back some plain pizza from Wolfgang Pucks and put it in the fridge, he ate it the next AM for breakfast and was sick as a dog.

I can only assume that the fridge didn't get cold enough to keep it safe, the rest of us had eaten it the night before with no problem. So be warned, I will never keep perishables in the Disney fridges again.

Actually, the fridge was probably cold enough to keep foods safe if they started out cold (milk, cheese, etc.) But your pizza started out warm, and by the time it cooled down it had spent too much time in the temperature danger zone.

 

[Disneyliscious]

The only worry I would have is that housekeeping would raid my crock pot and eat them while cleaning my room. How would I be able to enjoy my day at MK knowing that my cabbge rolls were left defensless in the room and being raided by housekeeping? What would I do for food? What would happen to my budget?

"Ma'am....I'm going to have to ask you to CALM DOWN and step away from the cabbage rolls!"

 

[staceyhzoo]

Making grilled cheese with the iron is my personal favorite.

Hey, that was my staple in college

 

[tinkarooni]

Actually, the fridge was probably cold enough to keep foods safe if they started out cold (milk, cheese, etc.) But your pizza started out warm, and by the time it cooled down it had spent too much time in the temperature danger zone.

That may be the case. Be careful everybody, please don't put your hot cabbage rolls in the little fridge.

 

[Alexander]

Hi all. I'm looking for some 'recipes' for 'cooking' in the hotel room. Basically I'm just looking for ideas. Here's the situation:

We'll be at Pop for 5 days with a car, so we're going to rent a fridge and shop at Publix so 2 of our 3 meals can be eaten/'cooked'/made in the room. I'm thinking we'll want to do breakfast and a light dinner in the room, TS at lunch time to get us out of the heat for a while. Do the Pop fridges get 'cold enough' to keep things like yogurt, cheese, milk cold (at a safe temperature)?

What do you like to cook/make in your hotel room, when you're traveling to the world or anywhere else? If you have gluten-free, nut free, soy free... any allergy-free ideas, I'm sure people would like to see them, too!

OP--only you know what you can eat, it is difficult to eat in a value resort to begin with, and eating no meat, no gluten, no nuts, no soy, etc. makes it even more difficult to prepare meals with nothing more than a fridge.

I would suggest either just eating out where they can attend to your dietary needs or stay somewhere that has a kitchen where you can safely and easily prepare your own special meals.

Most people would say grab some bagels, or make sandwiches, or throw together a salad with some precooked chicken, but you are not able to do any of those things. I think maybe you should re-evaulate your lodging choice.

 

[gillenkl]

Do you fire up the crockpot and cook in your bedroom at home? I'm guessing NO. So why would it be ok to do this in a hotel room?

I'm sorry the idea of cooking in a hotel room not equipped with a kitchen is ridiculous not to mention thoughtless with regards to other guests.

 

[a1tinkfans]

Do you fire up the crockpot and cook in your bedroom at home? I'm guessing NO. So why would it be ok to do this in a hotel room?

I'm sorry the idea of cooking in a hotel room not equipped with a kitchen is ridiculous not to mention thoughtless with regards to other guests.

We just had this discussion over dinner tonight (at a restaurant ) I swear, the people I was with thought I was kdding when I said people actually Cooked in a hotel room, then mentioned what I learned here, about hotdogs and/or chili in coffee pots and grillling sandwiches on an ironing board, and setting up crockpots in a bedroom
I would think these types of threads were really jokes, or what is that...trolls....but alas, it is not.
It really does SHOCK me when I contemplate this. It totally grosses me out and to me is beyond acceptable for a hotel stay.
[/UThere are approapriate accomodations for those that choose to cook] while on vacation , villas, come to mind...but to Cook in a room ...it's UNsafe, Not Hygienic and just plain INconsiderate.
I do not begrudge anyone a vacation....But I do think that one should make appropriate arrangements for their vacation and if the food budget is really not available, then perhaps the vacation money is better spent on healthy nutritious food at home, KWIM? Food is a basic necessity and that should always be FIRST for a family, not getting to disney 1st and the heck with eating, we'll just cook hot dogs in our room every day...thinking about this sets my head spinning

 

[jennyopenny]

I read a blog one time that suggested stopping at a thrift store, purchasing a crock pot, and then heating a family size can of spaghettio's while at the parks.

 

[mab2010]

A family dinner of Spaghettios....ugghh!

 

[DonnaL]

While BWV is one of my favorite places to stay......yes, I do agree a variety of cooking smells sometimes inhabit the hallways.........my DH calls the place the "hallwalk". My very favorite area of BWV is actually the section above/behind Jellyrolls facing the canal........can't wait to get there 10/16 for our F & W trip........those upper floors are absolute heaven in the morning sitting on the balcony with a cup of java.....just watching the boats on the way to/from HS. However, back to the smells.........a great majority of those cooking smells....especially in THAT section of "hallwalk"....comes from Big River Brewing kitchen.

 

[jaminmd]

I went on a business trip last week & I had to iron my clothes after I unpacked them. DH wanted to know what the stains were that were on the ironing board. Now I realize it must have been someone's melted cheese.

When you make comments about sweaty, wrinkly pants, remember that we don't expect to eat off of those pants, so the point about covering your tortillas with foil makes no sense and is a pointless argument.

Hotel room cooking is one of the cheapest, tackiest things I have ever heard of.

 

[pampam]

Because of a digestion problem, I am on a very restricted diet. so, most of my meals are prepared at the resort. I do not cook in the room, however. I use the microwave at the food court. Here are some of the things I have prepared in the microwave.

scrambled eggs
special bacon
grain free, sugar free muffins
omlets using left over veggies from meals bought in the food court
or cheese omlets

DD loves eating in the food court, so she has had things cooked in the microwave and eaten it there

hot dogs
weiners and beans
chili
cereal
oatmeal
toast
frozen pasta meals


I prepare the food in the room and take it on a tray to the food court to cook. I always make sure I leave the microwaves clean.

 

[wide awake]

This thread is still going? For all of those that say rent someplace set up for cooking...gross!! I cannot even imagine using a kitchen that other people have cooked in. No way is it going to be clean enough for me, the whole thought of it makes me sick. Which is one reason I always buy new houses...

 

[SDSorority]

Going back to the fridge thing... should we keep bags of ice in the fridge to make sure my milk products stay cold? We wouldn't put hot items in a cold tiny fridge....

 

[tlbwriter]

Your milk should be just fine in the fridge without ice.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Right. Ice would actually melt in a properly operating refrigerator, since the optimum temperature is 36 degrees.

 

[canopynut66]

Hi all. I'm looking for some 'recipes' for 'cooking' in the hotel room. Basically I'm just looking for ideas. Here's the situation:

We'll be at Pop for 5 days with a car, so we're going to rent a fridge and shop at Publix so 2 of our 3 meals can be eaten/'cooked'/made in the room. I'm thinking we'll want to do breakfast and a light dinner in the room, TS at lunch time to get us out of the heat for a while. Do the Pop fridges get 'cold enough' to keep things like yogurt, cheese, milk cold (at a safe temperature)?

What do you like to cook/make in your hotel room, when you're traveling to the world or anywhere else? If you have gluten-free, nut free, soy free... any allergy-free ideas, I'm sure people would like to see them, too!

If you have free dining why cook? enjoy your vacation. but the fridges would keep most all cold enough. to actually cook in the room really not suppose to unless you go to all stars into a suite. or other resorts have them as well. any places to eat on dining plan can prepare gluten free allergy free foods just have to ask or call ahead for the chef. DTD also now has gluten free bakery.

 

[SDSorority]

If you have free dining why cook? enjoy your vacation. but the fridges would keep most all cold enough. to actually cook in the room really not suppose to unless you go to all stars into a suite. or other resorts have them as well. any places to eat on dining plan can prepare gluten free allergy free foods just have to ask or call ahead for the chef. DTD also now has gluten free bakery.

We don't have free dining- our PIN was a room only.

Thank you! I actually got a CALL from the chef at the Wave the other day asking what we can eat!! I don't want to do TS for every meal, though. We're gluten free, soy free, nut free, and limited vegetable oils (and we also don't eat meat...), so doing a CS is difficult.

I'm thinking we'll bring a fully enclosed hot water pot (no open burners) to heat up water and bring some instant rice or rice noodles. They cook just in hot water (not boiling) and I can add veggies and coconut aminos to that as a 'soy-sauce'. I'm also planning on getting a can or two of beans to make rice and beans with Franks Red Hot Sauce (YUM) We're also going to the store to get Environkidz version of Kix to have with a mix of milk and protein powder and fruit for breakfast each day... everyone's ideas are helping so much!

We can't have chickpeas (falls into the nut category for us... isn't that weird?!), but I talked to Babycakes' manager Emily lovestruc her) and she said we can have the brownie because there's no chickpea flour in it! Everything else has it, so we'd have to be really careful. It's not because chickpeas or nuts make us sick- it's because of an Omega 3/Omega 6 balance that the doc has us on. So if we eat it, we have to take extra Omega 3 to balance. Pretty strict diet, which is why I need to be creative to have items in the room we can have for meals, not just snacks. With a hot water maker, I think that should be all the appliances we would need.

Don't you all worry- I'll take plenty of pictures of what I come up with to make sans appliances!