what do you do your 1st day dinner staying in the villas?

[gopherit]

Guess we're in the minority -- we usually cook (especially on the first night!) Don't get me wrong -- we enjoy meals out as well, but when all is said and done, I'd say for a 12 night trip, we eat about 1/3rd of our dinners in, and 3/4 of the b'fast and lunches.

For a first-night dinner, we seem to have made a habit of spaghetti, good bread, a salad, and a nice bottle of wine. It's easy stuff to pick up, easy to make, and lets the kids unwind in the room for the night after a long day on the road. I recall making our dinner last trip and while the spaghetti boiled, I was sipping chianti on the balcony overlooking the quiet pool at VWL where my family was all swimming!

We also enjoyed an awesome dinner one night after a full day at AK. I had thrown 2 eye of rounds, a bottle of beer, a can of onion soup, and a can of beef broth into a crock pot and left it to simmer on low all the doo dah day. We got back to a heavenly aroma (others were lingering in the hall, trying to figure out where the aroma was coming from!) We sliced / shredded the meat, sort of, and served it on warm crusty french rolls with thin slices of cheese. Seved along with a cold fruit salad and a bottle of your libation of choice, and yum! We had enough meat for sandwiches the next day, too!

Big salads are easy and fun too -- but word of caution -- don't eat those, drink a beer, and then go to MK for EMH with your teenage nieces. 3 trips on Space Mountain later, you WILL regret it.

 

[mtheiss]

Most trips, the middle days are cooking days, plus majority of breakfasts. We occaisionally eat a lunch in the room, usually a light cheese and cracker/fruit and other snacks one or two days of the trip. It means we don't feel guilty splurging on a bigger meal.
First day, after arriving (shopping at supermarket), getting settled, etc... we usually do a meal a the resort or one of the other close by ones (stay at BCV and eat at BW).

 

[pearljim]

We generally take a late morning direct flight and after a grocery stop, check in after 4:00 pm. We're all usually tired so our habit has been to order pizza from Sassagoola's - it's very good, always arrives hot and by staying in the first night are ready to go the next morning.

 

[pat-rick]

6:00am Coffee and Bun in Airport waiting to board plane

10:30 - 11:00 arrive BCV

11:30 - 12:00 lunch in EPCOT

Dinner at CAPE MAY CAFE,
There's no place like HOME, Jersey or WDW !!!!

 

[dianeschlicht]

We usually have a PS at Teppanyaki Dining rooms for the first night and then go see Illuminations. Once on a GV stay, we made a dinner of lasagne and salad for our 10 guests who didn't arrive until late on the first evening. We usually only make dinner once or twice in a trip. We always cook breakfast at the villa, and usually have our main meal out, but sometimes plan an in villa meal for a change. This last trip, our only in villa meals were breakfasts. We had our casual meals at Olivias. BTW, that place has really improved!

 

[brandip22]

Well, it's been four years since my last trip- my Honeymoon. We were so exhausted from the wedding and travel that we ate at the resort hotel. We stayed at Dixie Landings back then. From now on, though we'll be at a DVC resort and I haven't decided yet what we'll do. Probably depends on whether we drive or fly and how we feel when we get there. I definitely plan on being open about the first night.

 

[Vero Beach Bum]

Chef Mickey's is my family's first night tradition!

 

[Dreamfinder2]

Another "cooker" here. Actually, I sorta enjoy it; it gives DW a break from the routine at home, and DD is the kind of 17-year-old that if she doesn't get breakfast pretty doggone quick after waking up, she's out of sorts the rest of the day. So, I'll do bacon, eggs, pancakes, muffins, etc. for breakfast. I like to have it ready when the girls get up. I also do a breakfast casserole that's the stuff of legends, and I get big-time brownie points for that. So, for me, cooking is part of the vacation experience, 'cause it's something I don't always do at home.

Most of our other meals are out, altho we keep snacks and soft drinks handy round the clock.

First night there, we typically head for Downtown Disney and grab a bite there.

 

[Denmage]

After traveling most of the day our first day we try to do something fun and relaxing for our first night. We usually do the Luau or the Hoop-Dee-Doo, but for our last trip we went to the Garden Grill Restaurant in Epcot the first night. It was a lot of fun.

 

[Mic]

When our kids were younger, our first-night ritual included dinner at Chef Mickey's. Now that they are older, if we eat out the first night, it is at 'Ohana's. Usually, though, I go to the Winn Dixie near Disney on arrival day, and pick up a big salad from Olive Garden and a pizza from the Pizza Hut right beside of it on the way back to the Boardwalk. It usually takes an hour for me to get the groceries and the pizza and salads, and we are set for the rest of the week. I agree with another poster that it is easier to fix dinner in the room than to argue about where you will eat dinner, then get out of the pool and get dressed to do so. Our kids are 9-15, and THEY would prefer to eat in the room most evenings. Sometimes I like going to Epcot in the evening and having a few things from the counter service restaurants in different countries, but my kids and DH would prefer to stay at the pool, so having food in the room is nice.

 

[DSNY FN]

We usually make spaghetti and have an icecream cone

 

[DeDixie]

For our first dinner we always make spaghetti. While we unpack I make a pan of brownies, and we have dinner. It's funny, cause this is what makes me feel like DVC is Home. We are all nesting and cooking (if you call brownie mix and spaghetti cooking). Then I feel like we have made a good attept to save money and we are free to eat out as we wish. We usually don't have dinner in more than twice, but we eat a lot of breakfast/lunches in.

 

[Disney's Walt]

One Word...SPOODLES!!!

 

[DSNY FN]

We find we tend to eat all but a few meals in the room more lunches in the parks but breakfast and dinner are almost always in the room. We do a character breakfast and a dinner then have 1 or 2 other dinners out in a 2 week period we found it more conveniant that way even if we get back late from the park we just bring snacks for after lunch to tide us over. It is not uncommon for us to be eating dinner at 9PM

 

[BillPA]

It depends on when we arrive, and when the room is ready. If it is near dinner time and the room is ready, we eat at Romano's Macaroni Grill on 535, then do our grocery shopping at Winn-Dixie just down the street. Other wise we will be in a park and eat there, then shop later in the evening.

 

[garylpn]

we just eat on the fly, we usually take 1110 flight out of long island, get in around 1330, for some reason this flight usually seems to arrive 10-15 minutes early, we bring lunch for on board plane, use tiffany towncar so we are usually checked in by 3pm since we use carryons avoiding checked luggage
this is usually at mk since railroad around mk is our traditional first activity
usually just breakfast in studio, kitchenette kind of limits cooking experience, and with just 2 adults no sense using points for larger room, and even with 5th wheel camper did very little eating at camper other than breakfast all 3 trips to fw
polynesian 89,96
fw campground, 98,99,02
cs,03
okw,03
75 days and counting until bcv, 1st at home resort
dvc since 4/03

 

[Ms. WDW]

We began this tradition a few years ago and continue it now. We love the room service menu at the Boardwalk Villa's and it's a nice relaxing way to begin our Magical Vacation!

 

[stc1223]

It's our Disney Law. We leave our house around 4am and head to Atlantic City Airport for 7am flight. Check into Boardwalk Villas around 11am, hit the Boardwalk and are usually at the door at ESPN for lunch (I've got a craving for Sideline Fries right now). Then we head to the Magic Kingdom and always have dinner at Tony's (we're usually falling asleep before dinner is done). The rest of the trip we try something new all the time but first day is tradition.

November 1974 - Fort Wilderness
April 1978 - Contemporary Tower
December 1986 - Contemporary Garden Wing
December 1989 - Grand Floridian
December 1994 - Beach Club Villas
April 2000 - Old Key West & Boardwalk (fell in love with our BW)
November 2000 - Boardwalk Inn (bought our DVC Membership)
August 2001 - Boardwalk
June 2002 - Boardwalk
December/January 2003/4 - Boardwalk
July 2004 - Boardwalk (I'm so homesick)

 

[Disney50]

Usually we take the kids to a character meal, normally Chef Mickey's. This helps to get them in the Disney frame of mind for the next day's park visit.

 

[garylpn]

it has to be mk for us since we too have first day disney law/tradition
train completely around mk, get off second time around at fronteirland, dw has to ride btmr, i have to do splash
then after that anything/anywhere is legal
CANNOT mess with tradition, 7 trips to the world since first in 89, longest was 12 days at fw campground in 98, longest rain was 3 hours one afternoon on may 96 trip during day at universal
never in all those days have we had an all day rain
NEVER JINX IT BY MESSING WITH TRADITION
gary
poly89.96
fw98.99.02
cs, 03
okw,03
bcv, may 04, dec 04