Who cooks on vacation?

[nydizfan]

besides me since I am a chef. I was just wondering how many of you guys cook in your rooms to save the money. we have saved hundreds of dollars cooking just breakfast alone ... but thats just us.. I know many of you don't cook because you are on 'vacation' .thats cool....just asking.....dave

 

[dianeschlicht]

We always cook breakfast in the room and an occational main meal particularily when we have guests. If it is just the 2 of us, we will have light suppers there sometimes, but tend to eat out more than when we have others staying with us.

 

[Lisa F]

Dave,

Since you are a chef, you are more than welcome to come cook for us!

We don't cook while on vacation (and even generally stay in a studio) but we do use the fridge/microwave to have cereal, oatmeal, and sometimes leftovers from the night before (that before DVC would have gone to waste without the facilities to store and heat them!). We rarely go out to breakfast but we do have lunch and dinner in the parks.

Lisa

 

[jx3smom]

We eat most breakfasts in but I can't say they are cooked. We mostly eat cereal, instant oatmeal, toast, etc. Sometimes we'll have leftovers for lunch (from the restaurant we ate dinner at). Dinner is always at a sit down restaurant.

When we go to New Hampshire I don't mind cooking since I don't ski and the rest are out skiing all day. We only eat out once our twice up there. But, no way will I cook in Florida!

 

[vernon]

Mostly breakfast and occassionally a pizza and rent a movie if no one feels like going out in the evening. We have cooked a full (ish) Xmas lunch at Hilton Head, which was fun although it was pretty much all bought prepared and just banged in the oven.

 

[Regina]

If toasting a bagel counts as cooking, then yes, I guess that I do cook.

Other than that monumental effort, no, I don't cook when I'm on vacation.

 

[d-r]

There are a lot of places we like to eat at wdw, between the resorts and epcot especially. Some of them are really nice place to eat, others are fast food places that we like to visit out of nostalgia or whatever. There are never enough "meals" to eat at all the places we want to. For us, the time that we are at wdw is the biggest cost. We just don't have a enough meal "slots" to spend them in the room eating something we could eat at home - but then we aren't very big breakfast eaters anyway either. We do use the fridge and microwave to store doggy bags or deserts or stuff like that, plus bottled water or beer or whatever like that. But no way am I missing a meal-

DR

 

[mikesmom]

We definitely cook (I enjoy it). But except for full breakfasts (eggs, omelets, sausage, toast, fruit) it's never very elaborate because none of us are big on heavy meals in the Florida heat.

I do make lots of deli style sandwiches - meat, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and wrap tightly so the teens can grab them whenever hungry. We also stock in lots of fruit, ice cream and drinks.

Suppers could be pizza and a salad, leftovers from a dinner ressie or just wine, French bread and cheese.

 

[yasuern]

Yes we do - breakfast - and we also cook off pasta for salads and the kids - and cook off a chicken - its good for a meal, in salads, on sandwiches.

 

[anniet]

Previous to purchasing DVC we've always stayed in a cottage with a full kitchen. I always make tea and a bagel or english muffin in the morning. We are never around for lunch, usually we get a sandwich or salad or fruit in the parks. Occasionally we eat dinner out, and often get doggy bags and reheat leftovers. But other times I usually throw one of those frozen packaged meals like Chicken Voila! in a pan and add a bagged salad and it's a GREAT inexpensive meal.
Or I'll cook veggie burgers.

We spend two weeks in Florida and I just CAN'T eat out every single night, not just because of the cost, but because I just can't eat that much food!

 

[Pa@okw95]

We joined OKW in 95 and have never turned the stove on. I always claim they don't work and just are props. We will eat breakfast in once or twice but that is about it, usually a bagel. We enjoy eating out and it is very much part of the trip. The eating tab for 2 of us for 5 days usually runs over $1000.

 

[CLASSICPOOH2002]

I cook alot when we go. The last time we went we had 16 people and we did breakfast and supper most of the time in the room. We had a 2-bedroom and 4 studios. The only problem we had was cramming everyone into the 2-bedroom to eat. I did waffles and all out breakfasts most of the mornings. And for supper we had spaghetti, chicken cordon bleu, pork tenderloin, and subs. We did eat out a few times though. I just enjoy cooking and it does save money. I made up my menu before we went and took as much as I could from home. I went ahead and measured out what I would need for the waffles and took some vegetables and my spices. I did take some of my own cooking utensils and such too.

You being a chef I would like some ideas from you for my next trip coming up in January. I think it is fun to go and cook. I would like to take everything I need to make cookies for some of the staff there at our home.

Thanks for your posting and I hope to hear from you soon!!!


98' - Dixie Landings
99' - All star music
00' - Boardwalk
01' - June and October - Boardwalk
03' - Boardwalk

 

[Dreamfinder2]

Even though we've only been "home" twice, I'm afraid we've laid down the foundation of a DVC tradition. While there, I got up each morning and had breakfast ready for everyone else - sometimes just cereal and/or sweet rolls or bagels, but once or twice the full gig with bacon, eggs, pancakes, grits, all that stuff.

We had enough for another simple meal, like sandwich fixin's, but that was optional - if we decided to stay in one of the parks, that was fine. And one day I'd made some spaghetti sauce at home, froze it, and brought it along. All we had to do was make the pasta, warm up some garlic bread, and bust open a bagged salad. Not too bad.

Definitive husband that I am , I don't expect my wife to do squat if she doesn't want to on vacation (altho she did keep some towels washed.)

'Course, if we hadn't wanted to lift a finger, that would've been fine, too. I like having the option.

 

[perdidobay]

I cook 6 days a week at home....so vacation to me means ....no cooking! The most I ever do is pack pastries or poptarts for breakfast and coffee for that first cup in the morning. That's why a studio is fine for DH and I. Anything more is a waste of points to us.

 

[bub]

I know we are in the minority, but we do eat most of our meals in the room. Nothing too elaborate (chicken, sandwiches, the occasional pancakes and eggs) but we do enjoy relaxing in the room, away from the crowds and heat (we go in the summer). Also, we save lots of money and often feel better, too, by not eating too much fast or rich food on vacation. We do plan several meals out, and we treat ourselves to some fun food to eat in. The kitchen facilities were a big part of joining DVC for us.

 

[SheriB]

We're going home for the first time in June, and I'm hoping that we can eat breakfast and a few dinners in the room to save some money. I can whip up dinner at home in less than a half hour when necessary, with kids' sport schedules and school activities, so I can't see it being a problem at Disney. I get burned out from take-out and even sit-down dinners, even though it is vacation (not to mention what it does to your sodium and cholesterol counts!). It will be interesting to see how this works, since we have primarily in the past eaten all 3 meals out(and that's because we didn't have DVC-just hotel rooms).
We'll probably have full breakfasts (eggs, bacon or sausage,etc) to get us going. We find that having a full breakfast will usually carry us over into late afternoon(with a snack somewhere in late morning or early afternoon), then we can have an early dinner and go back into the parks if we want. Dinners will be basically homestyle fast-food (turkey tacos, spaghetti & salad, grilled chicken salad and garlic bread, etc.), but without all the salt and fat. I'm not a chef, but I don't mind cooking on vacation (we do it at the Jersey shore every summer anyway).

Sheri

 

[TIdoublegaER]

We eat most of our meals in the room. We go out for a least one nice dinner and if we are out and about, we will buy lunch. Otherwise we just make simple meals in the room. It's not just the cost savings. I personally get tired of eating out day after day.

 

[WDWLVR]

We cook when we are in our DVC digs, but it is easy cooking. We do breakfast just about every day and 1-2 dinners as well but they are things like OnCor that we can put in the oven and forget about it. I don't do lots of things with multiple pots etc.

 

[Johnnie Fedora]

Preparing our own food was a major factor in our decision to purchase.

We always eat breakfast in. Love that corned beef hash We also eat about 80% of our other meals in. We occasionally do character meals, or a special dinner out. For the most part, I have found that the quality of many WDW restaurants rivals that of the prepackaged frozen entrees available at Sam's Club. This is especially true for the kids meals.

The last thing I want is to be sitting in a WDW restaurant eating a meal I payed $$$ for and thinking...I could have opened a jar of Prego myself!!!

Inexpensive meals at the parks are almost always a dissapointment. Some of the better inexpensive meals I've had at WDW came from the food court at the All Stars. The Prime rib or Flank steak dinners were delicious and a bargain at $11.95.

I know we would not be able to afford these WDW trips if we were eating out all the time. Dining out with the family can cost more than your accomodations. It also wastes a lot of the day sitting.

 

[joepoe]

How about a quick easy tasty recipe good for a family hungry after a grueling day at the parks?