So, who's cooking more in their villas these days?

[walkdmc]

We were just at WDW, stayed a Kidani, and ate breakfast in the room everyday. It was so easy and relaxing I can't imagine scheduling a breakfast in the parks anymore. It was so nice to just hit the parks running and not worrying about an early ADR.

I still like eating lunch in the parks but we even eat dinner off property.

 

[dblr]

We drive down most of the time so we will make double batches of some meals @ home then freeze half for our trip, we like to take our crockpot as this way we put something in on low when we go to the park and when we get back it is hot and ready to go,then we just fix something extra to go with it. We also camp in a rv so we use alot of our ideas from camping to use in the villas.

 

[kritter]

Hello UCONN Jack and Kritter,

We're another CT family, recently purchased BLT and staying our first time in August

My husband and I were just talking about the pros / cons of eating in or the DDP. I didn't know you could buy the plan for less than days than your stay..where are the details on that?

I think its a great idea to purchase pre-made meals and either bring or ship them to your villa. I'd consider this since there will be 6 of us, which includes 4 teens from 15 - 19 years old. Oh and one vegan!

Hey there,

Lovely weather today in CT??!!

 

[kritter]

Are you talking about the meal assembly services, like Dinner Afare? We use them at home. On our last trip, which was two weeks instead of our usual one, and included two extra adult relatives, we decided to cut way back from our usual one TS per day. I brought some of those frozen meals (we drive, 8 hours) and it worked out great! They include everything, so you don't find yourself without the one spice you need, or have a lot of groceries left over.

I notice that there are similar franchises in Orlando. Dinner Afare has one in Winter Park, Super Suppers has one in Winter Springs. At home, they will assemble for you AND deliver! Has anyone here tried this from an Orlando-area place?

Love this idea I wonder if Dinner Afare will deliver to the resorts??

 

[Micca]

It isn't the cost of the food that has us eating in, it is the quality of the food. WDW food has gone from decent to okay to just plain lousy. I can prepare better tasting meals in a studio with a crock pot and electric skillet! We used to enjoy the TS restaurants because the meals were so good, but now they essentially do nothing but fill us up and empty our wallets. I saw another thread where someone posted that you should be able to walk out and say, "Wow, that was great!" But that just isn't the case anymore.

We will be in WDW for 2 weeks over Christmas and have only one ADR for the Candlelight Processional package.

I'm with Alexander on this one. We don't do a lot of cooking in the villa, but we love to have bagels, sandwiches, snacks, and bringing pizza to the room.
It gets to the point where the turkey sandwich made with ingredients from Publix tastes better than many of the selections available on site and lunch doesn't cost a fortune.

 

[MELSMICE]

It gets to the point where the turkey sandwich made with ingredients from Publix tastes better than many of the selections available on site and lunch doesn't cost a fortune.

Definitely agree. I'd rather make my own fresh turkey sandwich with my own fixings!

I know that WDW chicken fingers/nuggets are a big thing, but I am not a fan. I can't even begin to describe what they taste like to me......maybe rubber with a some bad spiced coating on it.

 

[perdidobay]

Due to many factors, just one being the increased price/decreased quaility of the food WDW offers, we eat much more offsite and in our villa than we did when we bought DVC 10 years ago.
It is just DH and I most trips, and we always eat breakfast in our villa, and occasionally lunch.
Now that our daughter and son-in-law live in Clermont, we do alot of offsite eating at places they like in the area:
Giordanos, Robata, Devenney's Irish Pub, and San Jose's to name a few.
Shoot, even the food at the Tiki Bar and Grill on Lake Minneola is better than alot of WDW food!
I keep a supply of coffee and other non perishable things at their house and we stop at Publix in Clermont and stock up on everything else we need
for our stay.
During our weeklong trip next month, we will be eating at Ragland Road on my DH's birthday per his request. Other than that, I have no plans for dining in any sitdown locations in WDW.

 

[Fatalbie]

I wrote a trip report after our first DVC stay in Jan 07. It included dining reviews and an enthusiastic endorsement of the DDP. Several things have changed since then and have impacted how we approach dining while at the World. Some changes we made including family size, eating habits, and how we approach our vacations at Disney. Some changes are systemic including removal of appetizer and gratuity and the whole ADR window experiment. All of these combined have led to us doing significantly more, almost all actually, eating in our villas.

I thought the eating in the villa thing would be a hassle. Quite frankly, it is a whole lot easier to plan a day when you are not tied to the ADR. Flexibility and spontaneity come back to the vacation. For me, still using Disney transportation predominantly, the amount of time freed up is the icing on the cake. Trying to get from one place to another when you want to go resort to resort or park to park can be a real PINTA.

Our most recent trip was to a GV at OKW. We did a Wegoshop order and had exactly what we wanted and needed. Most of the meals were simple but consisted of the comfort foods we all like.

I’m still a firm believer that you can get a decent meal from a quality standpoint at most of the restaurants. Price makes TS less frequent for us. Most of my go to TS are usually available even for walk up if you play your cards correctly. We did a walk-up family meal for 11 at O’Hana in Oct.
Jim

 

[toniosmom]

We just got back from 7 days at BLT and had only one TS meal - at Chef Mickey's. For me and my DS5, it cost almost $70 for dinner, which is just ridiculous since he only ate lettuce. I ordered food from Garden Grocer and we ate the rest of our meals in the villa, with the exception of a burger lunch at MK one day. I don't think the food quality is worth the price in many cases. My son is not very restaurant-friendly, so I can't do any fine dining, which is where I would enjoy dining out. When we walked the bridge from BLT to the Contemporary, we always smelled the incredible aromas from the various restaurants and I longed to be waited on. But, that's not in the cards for us right now and I save SO much money by dining in the villa. I also feel that we have SO much more time to do the things we want to do as well. We're not rushing to an ADR all the time. I think if I were there as a couple (without kids), then I would appreciate dining out every day. However, with kids, it's a whole different experience, especially when you have a young son who moves slowly and hates to be rushed.

 

[Jen_in_NH]

One of the biggest reasons we bougt DVC was to be able to cook in the room. For our last trip, we had 1 character breakfast, 1 TS lunch for the Candlelight Processional package, and 1 TS dinner. We had a few counter service lunches, but for the most part, either ate in the villa or packed food to bring with us.

 

[merby]

We generally do breakfast in the villa. Mostly cereal, bagels, and other basic stuff, but once or twice during the trip I will go all out and cook eggs, bacon, and maybe even some pancakes. On days we go to the parks we don't like to go back to the room for a break because our DD (4 years old) doesn't generally make it much later than 7 or 8 anyway so a couple hour break in the middle of the day eats up too much time. Plus DD enjoys the character meals too much so DW and I feel somewhat obligated to do them while we are there.

 

[poohbear7]

We started eating our meals in the villa's a few years ago. We found it a lot easier freed up more time and no worries we had to be at a certain place at a certain time. I bought a slow cooker we keep in the Owners locker. When we returned to the room our meal was done. Wish we had done it sooner. As everyone likes the ease of eating when we want instead at a specific time.

 

[BUDDYBEAR]

WE ARE SAVE WHERE YOU CAN

 

[staceymay00]

We all know Disney trips are expensive, but the one cost of our trips that always bothered me was how much we spent eating, and half the time we didn't even enjoy the food all that much. We usualy eat breakfast (cereal, bagels) in our room, even in a regular hotel room. I prefer the extra sleep that allows us to get. We usually eat CS or TS lunch because we're in the parks most days. Now that we've bought DVC we'll probably eat dinner in our villa more often. Just meals that are easy to prepare, or we'll order pizza or pick up subs. We have no problem going off site to eat, either. The main reason we bought DVC is that we want some of our Disney trips to be on site, and we really like having a kitchen and laundry for a week long trip (I prefer to wash a load of clothes evey other day rather than go home with a bunch of dirty laundry). Add us to the list of folks looking forward to a little less Disney food. We do still enjoy a character breakfast once a trip, and there are a few TS places I look forward to, but I love having the option of some meals in our villa.

 

[kirstenb1]

It bugs me to spend money on restaurants and fast food here at home! Make no mistake, I'm very spendy in other ways!! Just not much on food. So the only meals we do at WDW are counter service lunches. Breakfast is definitely in the villa, and I cook a few nights, and do takeout the other nights.

 

[Alexander]

I went ahead and ordered 12 full dinners from Dinner Afare (we are staying 14nights). I am having it shipped to my mom's house (comes via UPS) because we'll be staying there 2 nights before we head to the BCV.

I ordered:

Entree Title: 3 lb. Savory Herb Prime Rib Roast with Horseradish Sauce
Entree Title: Chili Lime Crab Cakes
Entree Title: Seared Chicken with Basil Mustard Cream Sauce
Entree Title: Chicken Enchiladas Verde
Entree Title: Pork Chops with Red Beans and Rice
Entree Title: Southwest BBQ Pulled Pork Egg Rolls
Entree Title: Calypso Chicken with Black Bean Salad
Entree Title: Apricot-Bourbon Glazed Stuffed Pork Tenderloin
Entree Title: Steak Fajitas
Entree Title: Chili Con Carne
Entree Title: Kung Pao Chicken
Entree Title: Italian Sirloin Croquettes with Garlic Tomato Sauce

Each one feeds 4-6 people. The total cost delivered was $320. How many meals do you think that would buy me in WDW?!

We'll add some steam 'n mash potatoes or rice and a veggie to a couple of the meals, but I still feel like we are miles ahead of WDW meals! Can't wait to try the food, the reviews are great.

 

[LIFERBABE]

Groupon Orlando offer today was $40 for $20 @ super suppers in winter Garden

Their menu looks awesome and they deliver. We may just pick up for dinner 1 evening

I also have restaurant.com certs for HOB, Kimonos, Giordanos for our holiday trip.

 

[Sammie]

Groupon Orlando offer today was $40 for $20 @ super suppers in winter Garden

Their menu looks awesome and they deliver. We may just pick up for dinner 1 evening

I also have restaurant.com certs for HOB, Kimonos, Giordanos for our holiday trip.

Do you have link to Super Suppers?

Ok I am only seeing a listing for Winter Springs, FL.

 

[Tiger926]

I went ahead and ordered 12 full dinners from Dinner Afare (we are staying 14nights). I am having it shipped to my mom's house (comes via UPS) because we'll be staying there 2 nights before we head to the BCV.

I ordered:

Entree Title: 3 lb. Savory Herb Prime Rib Roast with Horseradish Sauce
Entree Title: Chili Lime Crab Cakes
Entree Title: Seared Chicken with Basil Mustard Cream Sauce
Entree Title: Chicken Enchiladas Verde
Entree Title: Pork Chops with Red Beans and Rice
Entree Title: Southwest BBQ Pulled Pork Egg Rolls
Entree Title: Calypso Chicken with Black Bean Salad
Entree Title: Apricot-Bourbon Glazed Stuffed Pork Tenderloin
Entree Title: Steak Fajitas
Entree Title: Chili Con Carne
Entree Title: Kung Pao Chicken
Entree Title: Italian Sirloin Croquettes with Garlic Tomato Sauce

Each one feeds 4-6 people. The total cost delivered was $320. How many meals do you think that would buy me in WDW?!

We'll add some steam 'n mash potatoes or rice and a veggie to a couple of the meals, but I still feel like we are miles ahead of WDW meals! Can't wait to try the food, the reviews are great.

Those sound good - I think we can make some of those in our villa.

Still sounds expensive to me though, at over $5.00/pp if 5 people eat, if it's less people, than it costs more per person. Plus, you still have to add food to some of the entrees. Sure it's much cheaper than WDW food, but it's still a lot more than cooking yourself. Our food is expensive here in Canada, and we spend just about $5.00-6.00/dinner for the 4 of us to eat (2 adults, 1 toddler and 1 school age), and that is for stuff like chicken, steak, veggies, rice, etc. Dinner includes: meat, starch and veggie, but I know the big bulk of your cost is labour, delivery, and prep. It's interesting to see the comparison, and a good option to have besides off-site or eating exclusively at Disney.

Good option though, if it works out for you. Having food delivered is always cool! Enjoy! Tiger

 

[dianeschlicht]

For those of you who will have a car and want to dine off site occationally, there are a couple of Good places to eat not far off site. We found Bahama Breeze this trip. There are 3 locations near WDW, and their food is very good and not expensive. LOVE their fresh squeezed lemonade too!