when it comes to eating while staying at dvc

[kristinebarboza]

does everyone just go out to eat
or does anyone use the kitchen in the room & cook some meals
if you go out to eat what types of places do you go to besides what is in the hotels & parks

 

[Brian Noble]

I generally have breakfast in for any day I'm headed to the theme parks. Having a full kitchen is really nice to be able to do something a little better than cereal with milk---at the very least, we get real bowls and real spoons. If I have a sleep in/off morning, I might have a late breakfast/brunch somewhere out and about.

I almost always have lunch in or near a park.

Most dinners are also "out", though over the course of a week we might have one or two "in"---but that might be Giordano's delivery for the convenience of not having to "go somewhere". At most, even if I "make dinner", it is more "assembly" than "cooking".

 

[DVCconvert]

I'd say we eat 95% of our breakfasts in the villa, and 80% of our dinners.
Lunch is if and when we catch it, the rest of the time meals are out.

 

[2binak]

We have breakfast in the room, usually cereal or toast and sometimes we'll have a late night snack. For all other meals we eat in the parks or at the resorts.

 

[kristinebarboza]

We have a car

We plan on going to mk one day
Seaworld one day
Maybe a water park
We are there from July 1 to July 8
This is our first time at a vacation club resort
So any suggestions on places we can eat at that r not in the park

 

[Havana]

We take snack foods, breakfast items and lots of drinks.
We eat out every day and then bring back the leftovers to eat throughout the rest of the trip. Love having the microwave and refrigerator!

 

[dianeschlicht]

We do both. We make a grocery run and plan to cook all breakfasts and several other main meals in the villa. The rest of the time we go to some of our favorite WDW establishments, or some of our favorite off site establishments. If you don't have a car, you will have to stick to Disney, but there are some decent table service places in the resorts yet. Our favs are Artist Point at WL and Jiko at AKL. Citricos, Koussina (sp?), Turf Club, are others, and our favorite in park places are Teppan Edo and Flame Tree BBQ.

 

[bobbiwoz]

Most breakfasts are in the room, but we like the Cape May breakfast as well as the one with Stitch at the Poly, so we do each about once a year. On Sunday when we go to church we are likely to have breakfast at IHOP, we don't have any around here and I really enjoy their pancakes with butter pecan syrup!

We generally do 2 table service restaurants in a 3 day span. If there are leftovers, DH augments his with something from the counter service restaurant at the hotel.

Off site, I also like Giordanos for Pizza.

When we have a full kitchen, usually we have store made rotisserie chicken and then leftovers as a salad meal. Sometimes local friends have brought chili. DH isn't interested in eating in, and when I'm with friends, they don't seem to be interested in cooking either. I would like to do more.


The extended family liked the cafeteria, Picabo at the Dolphin. The DGC thought the mac and cheese was fabulous!

I always have fruit that's in season, lots of it, and I buy yogurt.

Bobbi

 

[BEASLYBOO]

We eat breakfast in the villa every morning (cereal, bagels, croissant)!

Due to school we vacation mostly in summer so we like to return to the villa around 1pm and have lunch, swim & cool off before we either head back out for dinner or to the parks.

We do have daily cocktail/hors doeuvres hour on our OKW balcony, the kids particularly love this, sans alcohol of course! We sometimes have it by the quiet pool!

I'm not real happy with Disney dining nor the the DDP so we do a few CS lunches usually at Epcot, our new favorite restaurant is Todd English Blue Zoo so we'll do that one night, I'll cook a couple of nights (I love to cook so for me it's not a chore)and then we'll also eat at a few of our favorite Orlando restaurants like Timpanos' Italian Chop House!

In other words we mix it up but we use the kitchen!

 

[LeahA]

We do all our breakfast's in our room. We have done eggs and bacon and pancakes and sausage, as well as bagels, cereal and doughnuts.

I usually bring some mac and cheese for the kids or pb&j. I also bring alot of snacks and drinks.

One night we were wiped and just got some frozen pizzas from the store in the lobby, it was great not have to go out and the kids just loved having the pizza and watching a movie!

 

[com_op_2000]

We usually stay in a studio, DW will make a one pot meal (IE: soup, stew, lasanga, etc), which we will normally have for either lunch or dinner depending on if that is a park day or not. We will also, have breakfast in unless we are trying for a RD in the parks.
The times we have a one bedroom, have been special occassions and DW will cook a full meal, including a turkey and dressing for 8 for Thanksgiving.
When we eat out we have done it all, inside the parks, DTD, resorts, or outside of Disney. Family members and friends give us resturant gift cards as gifts, which we sometimes will use for these meals outside of Disney.

 

[csharpwv]

We have been DVC members since 2008 and we have yet to turn the oven on, or actually 'cook' anything in our villa.

I really enjoy cooking, but the menus at Disney Restaurants, and the overall experiences we have had dining at Disney far outweigh cost savings for us.

The best thing about a villa is the fridge!

We just bought points at Hilton Head Island - and are planning to make a reservation for there next year for July 4th week - so we will definitely be cooking, grilling, and eating in for that trip! We are hoping to get a grand villa, but if not we will at least do a two bedroom!

But, as far as cooking goes, we haven't done it yet! Not to say we won't, because we will - we just haven't yet!

 

[jekjones1558]

We always rent a car and get breakfast and light lunch/snack items at a grocery store. We always stay in 1 bedroom or larger but I do not want to cook. We usually eat one big meal a day in a restaurant and often it is off site. I think Disney's table service menus are much less appealing since the Dining Plans have been instituted. We are happy with the many chain restaurants near Crossroads, some of which (like Sweet Tomatoes and Bahama Breeze) we do not have in MN. We find the food in the chain places to have more variety, better quality and a lower price than most of the Disney table service places. There are exceptions, of course. JMHO. YMMV.

 

[laura-k]

I like most of the others stock up on breakfast sandwiches ,cereal ,snacks ,lots of drinks and a few sandwich items -
maybe a pot of soup ,so anyone wants they can grab a quick breakfast and later a sandwich or a Quesadilla ,quick stuff if they are not in the parks or feel like going out -
Most of the time we plan to do 2 or three table service meals wing 1 or 2 more
and do counter service I also like to hit Earl of sandwich and puck express at DTD -(very affordable and pretty tasty) -
I have been going to Disney every year for about 14 years and have only went off property 2 times but I would have to agree since the big push with the dining plan ,the food quality has really suffered at many places (some of my old favorites I don't even bother with anymore)
I would be much more open to off property dining in the future -

 

[mattyg]

Not a member but can you guys add the dining plan and if so how much does that run. I know some people are anti DDP I have noticied that points are reasonable in a studio and it does not have a kitchen. Just curious

 

[disneyfreak2127]

My family is into bacon/egg/cheese sandwiches, so most mornings I can whip them up pretty quickly. The exeception is we will do one or two breakfast meals out at either Cape May (convenient and it is good), Chef Mickey's(nostaligia sets in here) and Cindy's Castle(for the stuffed French Toast).

Lunch at least once at Liberty Tree Tavern. Most other lunches are counter service.

A must for dinner is Tepan Edo! The Clambake at Cape May is also good. Can't wait to see my DS11 pile on the mussels! He is addicted!

We also take advantage of the Market Place at BCV for frozen pizza and gelato.

We have cooked lasagna, garlic bread and salad. We always have plenty of drinks in the fridge and PBJ uncrustables for emergency hunger pangs. Other than that, we will sample whatever we come upon when we get hungry.

We rarely have a car, so off-site is not usually an option. Got spoiled by ME and love having the luggage taken care of by Disney!

 

[mopee3]

We have been DVC members since 2008 and we have yet to turn the oven on, or actually 'cook' anything in our villa.

The best thing about a villa is the fridge!

But, as far as cooking goes, we haven't done it yet! Not to say we won't, because we will - we just haven't yet!

Oh we are so there. We have yet in 5 years and 7 trips to eat a meal in the room. I have made popcorn and kept the beer and wine cool, we grind and make fresh coffee each morning. That thing that holds the dirty dishes gets used once when we leave the room for the next resort.

We eat breakfast at a buffet in am and dinner at about 5:30 pm. This year for the first time we will hit the parks early, then eat a late breakfast and go back to our usual dinner time.

But cook in the room??? That’s for the people who have been around a long time!!

Moe

 

[jrtoastyman]

Part of the draw to DVC for us was the fact that we could have food delivered to our room and cook some of our meals. We were pretty underwhelmed by a lot of the food at Disney, to put it charitably, and decided we could eat better and enjoy it more doing it ourselves. Our plan now is to try to eat breakfast and one other meal a day at the room during our break, and pick out a couple of the nicer places to make the eating out more of a special occasion when we aren't just grabbing something quick to keep us going.

The fact that it was often a hassle to get ADRs at places we wanted to go and then physically get to the restaurant -- and the cost -- just added insult to injury. The straw that broke the camel's back was when we moved around our whole touring schedule to be at Tutto Italia in the back side of EPCOT for a 2:45 lunch reservation because, you know, who doesn't want an enormous bowl of pasta at the absolute apex of the heat of the day in a location as far from our resort (Poly) as earthly possible. It was awful, and my wife and I were just like, "OK, no more allowing DDP to dictate our schedule."

Here's the thing, though: we both really enjoy cooking, so whipping up a nice meal is a joy for us, not a chore. I totally understand that for plenty of people, cooking is the last thing they want to mess with on vacation.

 

[dianeschlicht]

We always rent a car and get breakfast and light lunch/snack items at a grocery store. We always stay in 1 bedroom or larger but I do not want to cook. We usually eat one big meal a day in a restaurant and often it is off site. I think Disney's table service menus are much less appealing since the Dining Plans have been instituted. We are happy with the many chain restaurants near Crossroads, some of which (like Sweet Tomatoes and Bahama Breeze) we do not have in MN. We find the food in the chain places to have more variety, better quality and a lower price than most of the Disney table service places. There are exceptions, of course. JMHO. YMMV.

Bahama Breeze is our favorite off site place too!

 

[MinnieVanMom]

We went last with DSS and he is a teenager. Needless to say we really liked Cici's that trip and saw a lot of CM's there. I told the family to remember they are not at work and they don't have to be nice. Guess what? They smiled at our stupid shirts and were beyond nice.

DSS ate at least 2 pizzas and salad and dessert. There value when having a teenage boy is well worth driving off site.

One nite at BCV DH used the grill to cook up steaks and potato packs for us. We got so many comments that they didn't know there were grills. It was a very good meal.