Would you cook to save $400 on vacation?

[cam&phoebsmom]

I think I would plan one or two cooked meals to do, but they would be easy like the bagged salads and frozen lasagne, or tacos. Nothing too strenuous and things that were easily cleaned up as well.

 

[Judique]

I wouldn't do it to save $400. We pick up enough fruits and veggies to supplement what we eat at Disney restaurants. We usually go off site for things, as well. The villas are probably properly vented, but the idea of cooking anything in my regular hotel room other than brewing tea or coffee makes me queasy. The residual odors and vapors on our clothes... ugh.

OP was talking about a villa at OKW. I agree with you about cooking anything more than a cup of coffee in a regular hotel room....

I used to plan $100-200 a day for food depending on whether it was 2 or 5. Eating out was fun and the restaurants were not so old hat as they are to me now.

Now....it doesn't matter to me anymore. I rarely make ADR's and will only do a day or two of dining plan.

The money I don't spend on meals usually gets spent anyway - somewhere, so it's not so much to save.

We've cooked in our villa kitchen and we've used it to eat leftovers and carryout pizza. Our most recent trip, while staying at BLT, we picked up a lot of carryout from the Contemporary....they had an excellent mahi mahi sandwich. We didn't cook, so much as 'pick up' stuff to eat here and there. We dined out at Narcoossee's and several Epcot restaurants.

If I needed to budget our trip to save, eating in and cooking would be a definite option.

 

[nsmith]

On almost every vacation we go on I "cook" breakfast, if breakfast is not provided at the hotel for free. I have a travel tea pot, bring sugar and parmalat milk, then bring along a box of granola bars, breakfast cake and some fruit. We can eat that fast, get out the door and then eat an early lunch when the crowds are low.
Going out for breakfast takes time away from the fun and I have to admit my kids are not big breakfast eaters.

 

[Beezle2]

I noticed you are staying 9 nights and have 8 TS meals planned. Have you considered doing the DDP?

GACK!!!! The cost of the dining plan nearly gave me a heart attack this time! We have used it before but all the "kids" are "adults" now so thats $45 X 5 X10= yeah, not happening

We have used it before and liked it but not this time!

 

[gigi1313]

NO WAY!! in addition to not wanting to cook, i also do not want to have to plan a meal that everyone would like, order or shop for the food, and clean up!

i would, however, consider either pizzas delivered, or if we have a car sending someone for KFC to eat poolside, etc...

 

[Beezle2]

Yup. Did it in March, and will be doing it again. We go for 2 weeks each summer, so we need to eat at least 1 TS meal per day, so we can rest from the heat.

For this summer trip, we are eating almost all breakfasts in villa, except for 2 late breakfasts/brunches at Cape May and Tusker, and the rest are spread between lunch and dinner.

We also take a midday break each and everyday, and we find this fits our schedule well. It also saves a ton of money! We love OKW - the full kitchen is awesome, as is eating on the enclosed balcony!

Happy cooking, Tiger

Our schedule sounds like it will be a lot like yours. We will eat all bfasts in room except for Christmas morning at Tusker. Most lunches will be counter serve but then most days we will leave the parks to rest. It would be easy to fix something before we return in the evenings. I love OKW too and can't wait to see the updates!

 

[Cindy B]

I have.

We have done french bread pizzas, Bertoli Italian dishes (those one pot items), tacos, salad, grilled cheese, soup..

As for breakfast, eggs, french toast, bagels, etc, cereal.

To me this is easy. I figure hey at least I'm looking at palm trees while I'm cooking instead of my own backyard.

 

[mombrontrent]

Yes I would, and have. In May we had a time-share with two full kitchens. We ate our leftovers from restarants sometimes, we cooked breakfest daily and made a few lunches here and there. Honestly it's drag sometimes having to eat TS everyday, the kids would rather play at the pool while I cooked up a quick meal and I like me food better then most restaurants anyways, I've come to realize restaurant food usually isn't all that good.

 

[shortbun]

Just did it. We went to the beach for two weeks and we cooked in about 5 nights to save money. We ate well, steaks, burgers, seafood but at 1/3 the cost of a restaurant. We ate all breakfasts in and most lunches-sometimes breakfast WAS lunch.

 

[Beezle2]

The Disney table service restaurant dance gets really old after 4 or 5 days. When the vacation is over a week - it gets torturous.

I'd do it just to relax and not have the hassle of Disney restaurants a couple of nights.

This is where I'm coming from we are there 10 days and I bet we will get tired of eating out. I don't mind cooking something simple if I can have a glass of wine or a cold beer while I putter. The kids could go swim and we could all just get some down time. We do have a few TS places that are must do's so it's not like we wouldn't get to go out at all.

 

[DisneyScraps]

I love to cook so yes I would happily do that.

 

[Minniemouse07]

We opt for the dining plan and do breakfast in our regular (ie non villa) room. Pop Tarts, cereal, cereal bars, bagels, etc...

No way am I cooking on vacation and to be honest, we come out WAAAAY ahead by using the dining plan over paying for meals OOP. Even w/ dd being classified as an adult this year, the dining plan is a much better deal for us than OOP.

 

[dzorn]

We do cook a bit. Sometimes a healthy simple meal is hard to come by at disney.

Denise in MI

 

[HeatherC]

I would definitely cook a few nights. We don't like to eat out every single night...especially if the kids are hungry and we are tired. Sometimes it is nice to have a glass of wine and relax at "home" instead of waiting for a table in a restaurant.

But...I only do real simple things...like a rotisserie chicken and some cheese, fench bread and a ceasear salad.

Have an awesome time!

 

[swilshire]

We always do simple things like chili, baked chicken, various types of potatoes, bagged salads, frozen garlic bread. If we have most of the family along, we might buy frozen Stouffers lasagna or the like. We cook once or twice and then reheat and eat dining out leftovers for the rest of the week. We also do a hot breakfast two or three days.

Sheila

 

[disykat]

I wouldn't "cook" per se, but I'm all for a few easy convenient meals to save a few dollars and get a break from restaurants. We often cook on vacation, or at least carry a cooler with stuff for some breakfasts in the room or lunch on the road.

WDW is one of the few places I HAVEN'T cooked on vacation, but we fly there and stay on property so we really don't have the facility. I'm not a big fan of carrying toasters in my lugguge, etc. When we travel by car, picking up something to manage in the room or car is easy.

 

[21hearts]

Yes. We are also staying at a 1 bedroom at OKW this December and we are planning to eat one meal in the room each day. We were planning on eating breakfast every day but we made ADRs for character breakfasts so those days we'll eat dinner in the room. Nothing fancy most likely will do pasta, meat balls and garlic bread one night and chicken fingers & french fries the other night. But we figure it'll cost $20 to buy what we need at Publix over paying $30-$50 each night out of pocket for dinner.

 

[monkey30]

I am all for cooking your own, just save yourself some more money and dont plan on when and what your cooking go with the flow if you have a vehicle, and can run to the store on your way back to the resort.
We spent a bunch on food, and only ate 1/2 of it. found we were tired at the end of the day and would graba CS or hit a quicker resturant!

Enjoy!

 

[Disneyfreak616]

IMO, it's worth the $$$ to enjoy Disney Dining!

Try breakfast in the room, and save the money for a nice TS dinner every other night! This way you're still saving money, and you can find great CS places for the nights you don't do TS!

 

[blanq]

Sorry, I'm going the opposite way. No way would I cook on vacation. To me, it's not a vacation for me if I have to work. I'd rather save up a little bit longer so that we can go on a vacation where everyone can enjoy themselves. But if I'm stuck making meals or doing dishes and then we head to the parks, it's going to feel like we're home only w/ different scenery..... I love being able to go out to eat when we're on vacation. It's a lovely break from the norm.

This is how I feel. Exactly. Well, I don't mind schleping a protein bar to the parks for my breakfast, or a bagel with cream cheese, but I don't want to do the pots and pans thing on a Disney vacation.

But, OP, I do understand your reasoning that you feel eating in at OKW would be more relaxing for your family. I think you have a very good reason to not eat out and you should do what works for your family. When DS was young he was so hard to handle in restaurants and it was not relaxing to eat out with him at all. He is all grown up now, at almost 18, and that is no longer an issue. Eating out is relaxing for our family, and very much a part of our vacation experience that we would miss if we did not do it.

This fall, DH and I are going to Hawaii for two weeks, staying in a condo for a good portion of it, and we do have plans to eat one meal a day in the condo. I feel that I would get sick eating 3 meals a day out for two whole weeks and know there are times we will just want to chill in the condo, or grill something by the pool.