Who cooks?

[bcpage]

I was wondering how many of you actually "eat-in" vs. eating at the parks? I'm trying to decide on whether or not the Disney Dining Plan would be a good idea. This will be our first stay as DVC owners and wonder how many people utilize the full kitchens? We will be eating breakfasts at the room, but what about the other meals?

Thanks,
Bill

 

[cobbler]

We have eaten breakfast in the room but no other cooked meals. Hubby cooks the breakfasts in our family. We did eat in our room one night but it was to-go from Artist Pallate.

I guess the most we would cook in our rooms is breakfast.

 

[Laurabearz]

We do a good breakfast mostly... we use the fridge and the microwave a lot....

 

[swich2mac]

Breakfast, maybe but nothing else. This is VACATION!

 

[allshookup]

We just do pastries, donuts, fruit, etc. for breakfast before we head out to the parks or pool. I am not a big breakfast eater & it's a waste of money to go have a big breakfast if I'm not going to eat much of it. The rest of our meals we eat out. We usually grab something light for lunch & then to a TS for dinner..or vice versa. I like the DDE card because I think DDP is just way too much for us. We never eat a big counter service meal & then a big meal on top of that w/ app. entree & dessert. Usually just an entree each & sometimes DH & I will split a dessert. That is more than enough food & boy do I love to eat! We did the DDP & I've mentioned this before but I was literally sick to my stomach.

 

[WOW]

We do breakfast....cereal, muffins---nothing fancy....it saves us time....Also we have snacks (late afternoon) to tie us over until we get to the restaurant.

 

[atlfalcons28fan]

Stupid question, I know what DDP is whats DDE

Thanks

 

[shantay1008]

Interesting question.... On our last trip (in Feb.), I stated loudly and for all to hear that I was not going to cook dinner because I was on vacation, etc. We ate a good breakfast every morning in the room, and then ate lunch and dinner out. Sometimes dinner was in a restaurant, other times we brought it back to the room from Artist's Palette or the Marketplace at
BCV (we did a split stay).

But by the end of the trip I was thinking that maybe cooking a few dinners wouldn't have been so bad. The problem we had was that the kids (1.5, 3.5, 5.5 and 7.5) didn't have the energy late in the day to hop on a bus or two and head over to Artists' Point or 'Ohana or even DDT for dinner in a fun place. We did take a boat over to Olivia's one night, but the chef missed our ticket and we ended up sitting in the restaurant forever, and two kids fell asleep. They packed our food to go and threw in free desserts to apologize, but still. At the Yachtsman's Galley, we had a new waitress who, while a lovely person, took forever as she was trying to figure things out. Our kids were good sports, but I think it was too much to ask of them.

If it had been just DH and I, we would have just kept ordering drinks and wouldn't have cared , but with little ones it was a bit much. I don't know if you have kids or not, but if so, you might need to be prepared for them to be too tired to venture out to a restaurant at night. If it's just you and another adult, I guess it really depends on your budget and whether or not you enjoy cooking.

Good luck!

 

[Sherri]

We use the fridge and microwave to heat up what we have left over from going out, if anything is left worth taking. Other then that we don't cook. We may have a quick breakfast at best. It's nice to have the option though.

 

[carol1231]

I make breakfast most mornings. And other than that, the only things we have on hand to cook is hot dogs and mac n cheese. That is mostly used when we are planning a pool day and it is a quick lunch or snack if we are planning a late dinner out.

 

[Machta]

We had a lovely time "cooking" in the villa. We had groceries delivered, and I planned very easy meals, such as fresh tortellini with sauce, "bag" salad, and fruit. One night we had stir fry with rice, pre-marinated chicken, baby carrots, sugar snap peas, and pre-shredded cabbage. We found that overall it took too much time, cost too much money, and was too caloric to eat out every night. This way the kids could pick over their meals as much as they wanted, without worrying that they would still have the energy to walk back from the restuarant. I highly recommend Marge at wegoshop.com--she was very prompt, kept in touch with us, and did a great job shopping for us!

 

[La2kw]

We eat breakfast in every day. We also cook 2 or 3 simple dinners as well as take picnic lunches to the water parks. We are usually there for two weeks, so eating out does get tiring after a while. It's nice to take a break and enjoy a meal in our spacious 1br.

 

[bcpage]

Thanks for all the input! We will have a large party---19 total (11 adults/5 kids/3 infants) in two 2-bedroom villas for 6 nights. My first thought is that we will be too tired to cook and clean up in the evening and it seems like it would take too long to travel back to VWL just to eat early-say around 5PM or so--and then head back to the parks. So, I am leaning toward talking the group into the dining plan. Although, as someone mentioned, the DDE may be a better way to go, if we don't want to have 6 TS meals.

DDE-Disney Dining Experience (20% off at most restaurants)
DDP-Disney Dining Plan

 

[ericamanda01]

We plan on doing both. With the Dining plan we want to use a couple of the nights on signature dinners. And breakfast will be in room, that way we can take our time and don't feel rushed to beat the crowds.

 

[lsutigger2]

Don't know where you are from, but if you are driving, you might consider bring a few "home made" frozen things from home. Spaghetti, chili, etc etc. then you can microwave or heat them up quickly for a home cooked meal. I get tired of park food (we don't do lots of table service meals) and if we drive this is what I do. As I cook at home I make extras and freeze for an upcoming trip. It's almost like packing !! For us the DDE is a much better plan.

 

[Pa@okw95]

I was wondering how many of you actually "eat-in" vs. eating at the parks? I'm trying to decide on whether or not the Disney Dining Plan would be a good idea. This will be our first stay as DVC owners and wonder how many people utilize the full kitchens? We will be eating breakfasts at the room, but what about the other meals?

Thanks,
Bill

I have been a member at OKW since 95, always stay in a one bedroom or larger, and have never used the stove. We do eat breakfast in since Olivas went down hill a few years after we bought. Eating out for us is the way we always go no matter where we visit. It is just the way to vacation. The problem now at WDW is so many people are using these dinning plans that all the restaurants are so crowded.

 

[nezy]

The dining plan would never work for us. With 19 people and several rooms couldn't you have one room sign up for the dining plan and then you won't need to have each person get a meal each time. I am not sure how it all works- other have more experience with the DDE.

We do not go to the parks every day or even every other. We were just in
WDW for 9 days. we went to parks 2 days. Days when we are at the parks we definately WOULD NOT leave to go back to the room for a meal.
Typical park day: Breakfast in-room, pack a sandwhich lunch, dinner in the parks. This saves alot of $$ w/ 5 of us.

Days I cook are simple meals: sandwich lunches, tacos, pasta, fajitas.
If we drive, I have in the past made meals and froze them. For us, going out every night w/ the kids would get to be too much-kids get restless and it is costly and how many times can kids eat chicken fingers?

We do make a point to go out. We went to Raglan Road last trip-very good, well worth it. Kids actually had something other than chicken fingers to eat!

We also order in. I definately like having the healthy options in the room-lots of fruit. We also have alot of appetizer type foods-nachos and salsa, cheese and crackers, shrimp.

 

[mommym]

We are new to DVC and have not yet stayed at "home" but I do anticipate cooking-especially breakfast and the evening meal. Our kids are young and one of the things I love about staying on property is the ease of coming and going from the parks so we can go back and take a break. I don't mind cooking at all on vacation-it's actually less work than eating out in a lot of ways. I have a question though for those of you who take "picnics" into the parks. Does security look the other way when they see your food? I'd hate to pack some sandwiches and drinks and then be made to dispose of them. More the embarassment than anything...Have any of you been "busted"?

 

[nezy]

I just got back. I carried in a soft pack cooler to MK. The security checked and saw juice boxes, apples, grapes, sandwiches, yogurts. They didn't bat an eye-neither did I! Actually the only comment I got was regarding APPLES-one very funny security guard said, " I hope you are not going to poison Snow White w/ these?"

We figure we will be there all day! We are bringing in one meal and some snacks. During the day we usually get some type of ice cream or treat plus another full meal for the family. We have done this for years-without a problem.

 

[NMW]

I have been a member at OKW since 95, always stay in a one bedroom or larger, and have never used the stove. We do eat breakfast in since Olivas went down hill a few years after we bought. Eating out for us is the way we always go no matter where we visit. It is just the way to vacation. The problem now at WDW is so many people are using these dinning plans that all the restaurants are so crowded.

I agree with the restaurants being really crowded. I have never seen so many people without ADR's being turned away at TS places. We saw this everywhere, not just the more popular places. This was in early Dec and the parks were not crowded, but the restaurants sure were. You really need ADR's now, no more winging it!

To answer the OP's question, we do not cook at all. Zero. None. We stay in 1 bdrs and in 2 years will switch to 2 bdrs. We use the fridge for beverages though!