To cook or not to cook?

[disneychick05]

I was wondering how often DVCers use the kitchen while on vacation. We love to eat out all over WDW when we go down but I would like to use our kitchen a little while we are down there for 9 days. What kinds of things do you cook? I do know that I won't be getting too fancy with whatever I make. What kinds of food would be good to have in the villa? Thanks!

 

[vernon]

We don't often cook in the evenings. Mostly just have breakfasts in the room and occasionally light lunches ( salad and cold meats) if we're around the pool for the day. We usually have a few Pizzas in the freezer in case anyone's too tired to go out for dinner at any stage.

The only time we've cooked "properly in a DVC room was at HH when we did Xmas lunch, it was all stuff that was bought as "place in the oven" and needed minimal preperation, but it came out pretty good )

 

[jx3smom]

We only use the kitchen for quick breakfasts. We usually have bagels, cereal, oatmeal, toast and coffee or tea. Sometimes we'll warm up the leftovers from all those wonderful dinners out for lunch. The microwave also gets used for snacks such as popcorn. We'll be there for 20 nights in April (BCV, BWV and Vistana). I am planning on eating in 3 of the nights at Vistana.

 

[huey duey & luey]

We have only used the kitchen for breakfasts in the past. For our upcoming trip we are going the same time as our DVC friends. We plan on switching babysitting duties a few nights and on those nights we will probably feed the kids in the rooms (mac and cheese chicken nuggets etc.)
Tara

 

[geffric]

I take my slow cooker and make beef stew, or pot roast. I also make a turkey breast that we use for dinner and for sandwiches ..
I make breakfast, too

 

[NancyDVC]

We mostly do breakfast and snacks. We also eat in with take out from Publix. Their chicken dinner combo works well. A chicken, salads and rolls and whatever we get for dessert. I have made chicken parmagiana using precooked chicken cutlets (not breaded just grilled) sauce in a jar and mozzarella (already shredded in the package) along with a salad and spaghetti.
My favorite is the 'clean up' meal the last day when we eat a combo of all the doggy bags and left overs. It makes for an interesting meal.

 

[inky dinky doo]

I'm doing low carb, so this past December, over the course of 10 days, I made Scrambled Eggs To Go one time, roasted a chicken one day, and made a low carb pizza. The kids also had cereal or bagels for breakfast, and we snacked on string cheese, veggies, and fruit. Other than that, we ate out.

Pat

265 days and counting . . . again!

 

[jodifla]

We do a mix of cooking in and eating out. We eat almost every breakfast in ... bagels, eggs, bacon, cereal, coffee, etc. Even pancakes occasionally.

In a five night stay, we normally cook two evening meals. One is typically a pasta dish and a Caesar salad, and then we normally grill steaks or hamburgers one night. If you add up those seven meals in the villa, it adds up to quite a lot of dough you can save.

We eat most lunches in the parks.

 

[Duchie]

We mostly use the kitchen for breakfast, lunch, and snacks. For dinners, we've done spaghetti, tacos, sandwiches - anything easy that doesn't take a lot of special equipment.

 

[tjkraz]

We often do breakfast and lunch in the room.

Last trip $100 at the grocery store got us enough for every breakfast, lunch and snack for a week for 5 people. That included bottled water, soda, adult beverages, ice cream, etc. We must have saved hundreds over what we would have spent just using the food courts and WDW vendors for these same items--not to mention the time you DON'T spend waiting in line to purchase.

 

[jaysue]

We usually use the kitchen for breakfast almost all the time and dinners about half of the time. Lunch we typically take with us and buy supplement food in the parks (we pack in a mini-cooler which we carry in a backpack)

One thing we noticed is when we stayed at BCV, we did not cook dinner since we were spoiled by having all the dining options at World Showcase in Epcot so close and we took advantage of them

Need to watch that potential budget buster on our next BWV or BCV stay

thanks
jaysue

 

[Mom B]

Hmm, it is a vacation, after all, so I just do really quick stuff...pizza, hot dogs, mac and cheese...toast, cereal, poptarts...that's generally about it, other than just putting together sandwiches (I suppose I might do grilled cheese if I were in the right mood...) Actually not that much different than what I do at home a lot of the time, as I generally don't have much time to cook there, either, and we do a lot of fast food/takeout at home, so it's not that different when we come to WDW, either.

 

[sandieb]

Ditto for eating breakfast in the room...always have coffee and tea. We keep ice cream and a few snacks, juice and sodas, fruit, and sandwich stuff. I have made dinner a couple times, but generally my money savings means eating off site...TGIFridays, Orlando Ale House, etc. I too like to eat out at dinner, and about 3/4 of the time we eat at a Disney restaurant. Sandie

 

[dcfromva]

We do both. We love to have the option which DVC gives us with having a full kitchen.


-DC

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

I probably eat in about 50% of my meals. When at DVC I use the microwave to heat things up for a fast meal. When offsite we cook at least one full meal in...because its fun and because it leaves you with leftovers to nosh on. You've got a semi-complete kitchen and a relaxing environment to enjoy a full meal complete with appetizers and dessert and fancy glassware.


Another option is to do a late afternoon appetizer before you go out in the evening. That way you order a little lighter when you go to dinner.

 

[crisi]

I didn't think we would cook (unless you count the coffee maker as cooking)....but we traveled with my husbands aunt who was on Atkins. She wanted to start each day with a two egg omelet. So we bought eggs and milk and juice and bagles (for the kids and us, not her). And I was shocked by how much we all enjoyed having breakfast in the room. Six in a handicapped two bedroom had us eating in shifts - but getting ready had us ready for breakfast in shifts and you weren't going to cook eggs for six in the DVC pan anyway.

We popped popcorn one night, and made a few peanut butter sandwiches.

 

[joepoe]

Unless we have a character breaky, we always eat breakfast in. Our 3 DD's love their cereal and it is easier (not to mention way cheaper) for us to just eat in.

We also plan to have two dinners in during a typical 7 night trip. One is usually just frozen pizza with some salad, and the other is spaghetti or some other pasta with a salad. Inexpensive and a nice break from the hustle and bustle. Those are usually the nights when we just hang out at DD or just crash after a long day.

That beef stew in a slow cooker idea sounds great.

 

[Johnnie Fedora]

We would like to eat out a little more than we do, but we eat most meals in with the exception of a CRT breakfast and a few other dinners. It is much faster and generally more enjoyable than waiting with 3 small kids for a table 3x a day. Also, I'm not crazy about the counter service at Disney. The kitchen and meal savings were a BIG selling feature of DVC for us. We made the decision that we would rather own more points than spend $1000/trip on Disney meals.

Sam's Club has a good selection of higher end frozen food that is quick to prepare and rivals the quality of many (but not all) of the in-park restaurants.

Since the loss of any kind of park admission discount for frequent guests, we have really cut back on our "in park spending".

 

[bub]

We're like you, Johnnie - we don't mind eating in, and in fact often prefer it. The cooking facilities were a big selling point for us, since we are not big fans of Disney food's quality or price. We eat well in the room, and find it much more relaxing than waiting in line or sharing a crowded restaurant. We don't do elaborate meals - we eat things like Publix chicken, big salads, fruit salad, sandwiches, frozen burritos, etc. I find that we not only save money, we also feel better when we eat in on vacation, because we eat better quality food.

We usually do one character breakfast, because we do enjoy the buffets. Also, we frequently eat a variety of take-out food at Epcot (sort of our own personal Wine and Food festival - the adults get what they want, then we get the kids their chicken fingers at the American Pavillion, and eat in the big room there). We've even made a week's worth of meals in a studio on several trips - I figure it's the closest I want to come to camping!

 

[rocketriter]

Each time we toast a few bagles and brown a few sausages, we save about $50 in outrageous fast-food in-the-park breakfast expenses.