To Cook or Not to Cook, that is the Question?

[SINYMom]

Okay, getting ready for our first trip 'home' and my question is, how many owner's cook during their vacation? I don't cook at home now so I'm trying to figure out why anyone would want to cook on vacation?

As for 'home cooking', I have a husband for that. He is a much better cook than I am, and my three boys will back me up on that one!!

Okay, I can handle cereal, eggs and toast, other than that, look to the Man.

 

[Starr W.]

We usually just eat breakfast in our villa, but on some Non-DVC trips we have gone out and stopped by the local store and bought a pre-cooked chicken, some sides from the deli, etc and ate in our villa.

Now some people do alot of cooking, I don't ever plan on doing anything more strenuous in a DVC kitchen than making coffee or microwaving leftovers from the night before.

 

[DeeCee735]

vacation = no cooking!
vacation = no cleaning!
vacation = no making of the beds!
vacation = fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun

 

[MrsNick]

I've cooked breakfast and made lunch. On HHI I think I cooked two dinners.

That said, the breakfast thing is actually personal preference. I prefer to have my coffee and "get it together" before I have to face the outside world. Also, DH and I both work full time, so it's a big deal to us to be able to sit down together and have breakfast "in." Besides, it's much quicker than going out for breakfast.

In HH, I made eggs and toast since we had the full kitchen. At Vero Beach, it was toast and coffee, yogurt and fruit mostly since we were in the Inn Room with just the kitchenette. On the last long weekend we did at SSR, we bought the DDP, so I did no cooking other than making coffee (since we prefer our coffee to whatever they serve - Nescafe?) and serving pastries I got as our snack credit for breakfast.

Lunch I made at Vero Beach because I got sick of the counter service. And what's easier than making a couple of turkey sandwiches. Then we had dinners out.

At HHI I made one or two dinners. We sat on the deck, drank a few beers while I broiled a couple of steaks, baked some potatoes in the microwave and made a salad. No big deal, kwim?

I do agree that you shouldn't spend your whole vacation cooking and cleaning, but, I don't mind a little bit of my own cooking to all that eating out.

 

[MagikMom]

We usually always eat breakfast in our room. Saves time and money. On our last trip I made meatballs and sauce. I prepared it at night and let it cook on low over night. We were able to eat 4 dinners by just cooking that one meal. We had pasta and meatball 2 nights, english muffin pizza's and meatball sandwiches the other 2 nights. All the rest of the nights we ate out. We were there for 10 nights. It was nice to have something quick and easy to eat when we didn't feel liking going out to dinner. It worked out so well for us that I will probably do that every time.

 

[DVCLiz]

My rule for cooking when staying at a DVC villa is - whatever groceries I can buy at the resort are fair game. I'll get a Stouffer's lasagna if we are tired, but I won't make anything that requires actual cooking. So I'm a big "reheater". Frankly, if we aren't eating dinner at a table service restaurant (which is rare) we're most likely getting room service, or I'm sending a daughter down to get counter service and bring it back to the room.

I don't mind the concept of someone making dinner every night, not at all!!! But that's not how I would ever use the kitchen facilities at DVC!!!

 

[Hollymom1229]

Depends on the trip. If it's just DH and I we stay in a studio, eat out pretty much all our meals, and just the kitchenette to reheat leftovers for snacks. This upcoming trip is going to have the whole family and we will be making breakfast a few mornings.

 

[eliza61]

I've actually cooked at disney usually breakfast & or lunch. When I'm on vacation, we usually roll with the punches. If we get up and nobody feels like rushing to get dress, I'll whip up some light breakfast. If we're taking a break from the parks or are changing our clothes after going to the water parks, I'll make a lunch- nothing big (sandwiches or burgers).

 

[KelNottAt]

All breakfasts in the villa. Quick, simple, healthy, cheap.
Either lunch or dinner in the villa, but not both.

For us, one meal "out" per day is plenty and a real treat. Eating out more than that is expensive, fattening, and time consuming, IMO. Plus, having a kitchen to save on dining is one of the ways we justified the DVC purchase.

 

[DVCconvert]

Okay, getting ready for our first trip 'home' and my question is, how many owner's cook during their vacation? I don't cook at home now so I'm trying to figure out why anyone would want to cook on vacation?

As for 'home cooking', I have a husband for that. He is a much better cook than I am...

Well...I am "the man" -- And I look forward to cooking while staying in a DVC!
I've always found it to be a pleasant experience with the family! Sure we like to 'eat out' -- but as we always stay in a 1 bedroom or larger, cooking in - we've always found to be cheaper and healthier for us!

All but one or maybe two breakfasts we do in our villa, and at least 75% of dinners we eat in!

HTH

 

[shellbelle1971]

We always cook in our villa.

Every breakfast.

Most lunches.

Every dinner but one or two for the kids. (DH and I may go out with or without a child or two, but the rest of the kids stay "home" with G'ma or a Fairy Godmother.)

It's just too stressful to take all 7 kids to a restaurant!

 

[BlakeNJ]

I like to plan ahead, both meals and schedule. I usually plan dinner once every three nights and breakfast on most, if not all days. Even breakfast in the parks can add up quickly. I leave lunch up in the air, especially if we're in the parks that day--we most always wil have lunch there. If it's an off day, I'll try and make lunch in the villa.

We too justify the expense of DVC by eating some meals in the villa. There is just too much food on the dining plan--I doubt if we'll ever do it again.

Blakely

 

[dhluvsDisney]

I love to cook, and cooking in a DVC is great! I much prefer it as my family will eat much healthier than they would given restaurant food choices. We usually begin our vacation not in a DVC and go out then, but as soon as we hit our home resort, we are a cooking! I look forward to making a complete grocery run.

 

[Sammie]

We get the Dining Plan and no cooking.

 

[jarestel]

We don't cook very often but lately, given the crowded state of the Disney restaurants and the fact we normally travel with a fairly large group, we find it actually more relaxing to cook in rather than try to get everyone moving in the right direction to make an ADR time. Certainly for breakfast this is true, since Newton's first law definitely applies to my grand-kids!

 

[Cee]

Don't do anything that you would normally do at home...except for sleeping.
Cooking and any kind of cleaning is RIGHT OUT.

 

[chrissybear]

We do most of our breakfasts in the villa. While some are getting ready others are eating. It takes less time to eat in the villa than go out for breakfast. Some days we have sandwiches for lunch. We make a few dinners, frozen pizza and salad or speghetti and meatballs. Nothing too time consumming. We do like to eat out a lot, but we try to save some $ by eating some meals in.

 

[Inkmahm]

I eat breakfast in the villa. My DH only has tea in the morning and he is good to go. We never ever eat lunch or dinner in the villa- we're in the parks!

 

[Esteri]

We always make our own breakfast. Breakfast burritos take no time to make, are very healthy stick-to-your-ribs breakfasts, and are easy to eat "on the hoof".

Lunch and Dinner? It depends on the "tempo" of our vacation. If we are going commando - there will be very little cooking in the villa simply becasue we're not there.

Our next vacation is 10 days with only 5 in the parks - we'll be cooking "in" a whole lot more. Probably three or four dinners, and some lunches. And we're trying to go "cheap" this year. (Flights using miles, tickets leftover from a previous trip - you get the idea.)

On the all adults out night (we bring in a sitter for the boys) the boys make their own dinner in the villa - and really have fun with it. We hit V&A and really have fun with that.

I looked closely at DDP and decided that it didn't match our dining habits. So, we'll probably never get it.

 

[jodifla]

DDP is very expensive and a waste, IMO, when you have your own kitchen.

In a week's stay, we'll eat all of the breakfasts except one in the room, half of the lunches, and two or three dinners.

We invite friends, so we have fun cooking meals together with great bottles of wine, appetizers, etc.

Not sure why some people think cooking is so difficult, or detracts from a vacation. It's part of our vacation....