Who cooks?

[murcor]

We use the kitchen facilities alot!
Sometimes it is relaxing to cook in the villa. After busy days at the parks or relaxing days at the pool you dont have the energy to drag everyone to a restaurant. Its much easier to whip something up at your leisure.

Also, when you are looking at 10-14 day trips, eating out can get costly not only with the $$ but also the lbs

We usually get a 200-250 dollars of beverages and food from wegoshop.com

Dont get me wrong I love to eat out and we still do our share of that!

 

[bub]

We eat most of our meals in the room. Nothing elaborate, but we find it relaxing to leave the heat and crowds behind and take a break. Also, I find that we all feel better and eat healthier this way (not that we are health nuts or anything like that). We drive down so a quick trip to Publix takes care of food for the week.

The kitchen facilities were a big selling point for me with DVC. I'm not a big fan of the quality or prices of Disney dining. There are only a few Disney restaurants that seem worth the cost and the hassle of the reservation system to me. We usually do eat out a few times at the places we really enjoy.

 

[HUFF590]

Normaly we dont cook, but we tried it last trip and had fun doing so, so I think well cook more often now.

 

[geffric]

we drive and ususally stay for 2 weeks, so I cook some of the time. A side from pasta and bagged salad, I ususally make a turkey breast for us. This gives us sandwich meat and well as a few dinners. I also do a beef roast on the same concept. I ususally bring my crock pot and make some meals that are ready when we come back.. l.

 

[Johnnie Fedora]

The full kitchen was the main reason we bought into DVC. It is a huge cost savings over buying restaurant meals at WDW. There are so many marginal food places at Disney, that I just don't like throwing my money away on meals that are so bland, boring and over-priced. The themeing doesn't make up for a poor quality meal, IMO. We save our restaurant money for the higher end WDW restauants where the food is actually good and the dining experience memorable.

For me, spending half your day waiting in line for priority seatings is not an idea of a relaxing vacation. I'd rather casually grill some filets or salmon by an OKW pool while drinking a glass of wine. Or make a "Sam's club meal" in the room.

 

[jpolak]

Does making coffee count?

 

[chiclet]

We have breakfast in the room most days. We always have some cheese & crackers and other snacks available to keep us going till dinnertime. I have cooked pasta or mac & cheese for the kids when they refused to eat anything the restaurant had to offer. That's the extent of my cooking when we're on vacation.

 

[DisFlan]

Does making coffee count?

It does to me!

We do coffee, juice and a cold breakfast in the villa. Maybe toast, if I feel like a stretch. We really enjoy an easy, leisurely breakfast in our room. After that, if it can't be re-heated in the microwave, it doesn't get done. I'm on vacation!

I'm also one of the group that's never used the stove.


DisFlan

 

[DrTomorrow]

We always eat breakfast in our room: a time saver and a $$$ saver.

We also always buy bread, mustard and lunch meats, so there's always sandwich fixins in the fridge. We rarely eat dinners at WDW (I'm 100% with Johnnie on this - we find most WDW restaurants overpriced and less-than-magical) so we mix off-site restaurants (usually not as busy) which SSR makes so convenient with in-villa cooking. Nothing fancy, but a nice pasta dinner with garlic toast and wine can be a nice way to end the day, particularly when it's in the chilly times of year.

We used to be "What? Cook on vacation? It's Un-American, I tell you!", but as DVC owners we've learned that cooking up dinner as a couple, with a glass of wine, can be pretty darned vacation-y


ETA: Also, last Dec we had DS25 with us for the holidays, and we picked up some frozen pizza / pizza rolls that he heated up when he wanted a snack.

 

[La2kw]

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"?

You are allowed to take picnics and coolers into the water parks as long as there is no alchohol or glass- and they do search your cooler. The food at the water parks is pretty bad, so that's why we bring our own food. I've never taken a picnic into the theme parks as that seems like a hassle.

 

[DVCconvert]

I/We usually stay in a 1 bedroom, and ;

Eat 90% + of breakfasts in room,
Eat 10% of lunches in room,
Eat 50% of dinners in room. Of the dinners their usually 60% on property and 40% off.

 

[justjudy]

We always eat breakfast in, and on this trip DH cooked about half the time and we ate out the other half. He loves to cook and I'm on vacation so it worked out fine for me!

 

[patsal]

My kids are getting older (11 and 14 almost 15) they do not often return to the resort during the day unless the swim thing is planned or the parks are exceptionally crazy crowded. That means I cook breakfast pretty much only. They usually have CS at the parks when they get hungry--going back to the room to eat lunch is a waste of time for them. We usually eat one TS per day, but occasionally I'd do something light like soup and sandwiches or chicken ceasar salads( which would still work if I chose signature dining). As far as cooking elaborate meals, well, I'm on vacation too! I still bring Easy Mac and Ragu express as well as snacks, freezie pops and beverages, cold cereal and sandwich fixin's are a must with a teeenaged boy who eats like mine does!
The meal plan seemed like the right choice for us since I cook breakfast, but we do a CS and a TS everyday. Especially with the change of the child ages for dining, we easily spend $50 per person per day.

 

[MiaSRN62]

We usually eat breakfast in---but love Olivia's at OKW for breakfast and other meals. We also enjoy Boma, O'hanas, Cape May Cafe among others
In light of all this talk about how crowded the restaurants are with the DDE and DDP, we may be eating more meals in our villa (as well as doing room service) because I just don't enjoy planning everything out to the exact day/time/place. I just can't see planning every B,L and D to the "T" for the entire week ???
We used to be the "wing it" type of family but that doesn't look so doable anymore

 

[stampinshauna]

We haven't stayed at a DVC resort yet, but I know we will plan to eat breakfast in the room and have snacks & stuff. We'll probably have a few easy things like mac & cheese, soup, etc that we can eat for dinner (sometimes we are so busy playing that we don't eat dinner until late).

 

[DonnaL]

Even if you fly you can still take a medium sized insulated bag (Thermos makes a great one, it looks like a small carryon) with frozen meals. We drive two hours to the airport, then have a two hour flight and about another hour to checkin and everything is still frozen when I get there. I usually precook and freeze some chicken (deboned) to make chicken cacciatore (just add a little dehydrated onion, garlic powder, salt, papper and a large can of tomatoes and frozen green/yellow peppers sliced) and serve over Minute Rice. I also usually take frozen chili (if we go in December or January) and either spaghetti sauce and meatballs or just meatballs for sandwiches. You can also make chicken salad from your frozen chicken. Then we make a quick grocery stop for any fresh ingredients and things like juice, milk, eggs, salad fixings, etc.
I also UPS a small box of things about five days before we go, addressed to me at the resort with our checkin date and ressie #. I put things like rice (take out of the box and premeasure into a Ziploc) any spices I need premeasured into a small Ziploc, some cereals (again take out of box and put in a Ziploc) small jar of mayo, coffee, sugar packets, pasta, some of the small bags of Betty Crocker muffin mixes (the kind you just add water)
and a foil muffin pan and while we're getting ready in the morning I just pop them in the oven and we have fresh muffins. We don't eat every meal in, usually just breakfast (except for one or two mornings when we go to Boma or we like Boatwrights at POR (mmm....banana stuffed french toast!!!) and then maybe two evenings we'll eat in and one or two lunches. So, I'd say we break it up pretty evenly on eating in/eating out. I don't know about anyone else, but, an entire week or eights days or eating out three meals a day just doesn't appeal to me at all. We prefer to mix it up a little.

 

[lts862]

I can't be bothered with cooking while at Disney World! We use the coffee pot and microwave (for popcorn) in the villa. We eat most breakfasts in but that is cereal, muffins, fruit, etc. We have had pizza and take out from AP once or twice for dinner, but that's about it! Snacks and beverages in the kitchen come in handy for the kids but they like to eat out, too! Works beautifully for us!!

 

[byoung]

Cook what does that mean. Not us.

 

[NMW]

I am thinking of bring microwave popcorn next time, does that count??

 

[mrsdon]

We feel one of the great benefits of owing DVC is the avility to use the kitchen,
Eating all meals out while at Disney can get to be very expensive,
So it allows us to vacation more often, becasue we save money on food.
I love to cook, so cooking while on vacation is not a big deal to me.
Sometimes its relaxing coming back to the room and watching a little TV.
We usually drive and bring the crock pot. SO we throw meat and taters in the am and when we get back to the room, most of the meal is ready.