Would you cook to save $400 on vacation?

[nrpofp]

No!!!!!!

 

[Colleen27]

Nope. Wouldn't do it. I'm of the mindset that if I can't have the vacation that I want, I won't go. Part of the vacation for me is experiencing the restaurants.

Same here. It isn't that I dislike cooking; I rather enjoy it at home and cook from scratch probably 28 nights in an average month. But part of vacation to me is not having the same meals we'd have at home, not to mention not having the same duties.

I'd rather save a little longer for our vacations than cook to save money unless the trip is one of our camping/cabin trips to somewhere so remote that the dining-out options are limited and/or uninteresting. At Disney especially there's no way I'd cook - we have signature restaurants booked for all but one night of our next trip!

 

[kayrosek]

I woulden't want to cook per say but we have done some terrific vacations eating in our room. The thing that makes it work for us is that we use alot of ingredients I don't usually spring for at home so it still feels special and still doesn't cost as much as eating out. Mostly we do simple appetizer esque "meals" using expensive cheeses, smoked salmon, cold shrimp rings and the best fruit and breads I can get my hands on.

 

[superme80]

Oh my yes! I LOVE cooking. If I don't get to cook for a few days I get a little antsy.

 

[Beezle2]

Thanks for all the replies folks, it's interesting to see the different opinions

I have decided to cut a couple dinners out and maybe even a Tusker House Christmas bfast (thats only a maybe) but that leaves us

Mama Melrose dinner
TRex dinner
Crystal Palace lunch
Olivias Christmas dinner
Sci-Fi lunch
50'sPrime dinner

for counter serve we will do
Cosmic Rays
Sunshine Seasons
Flametree
Yak and Yeti
Wolfgang Pucks
Starring Rolls
World Showcase eat around the world day
Also will be doing a Cupcakeapalooza Challenge as we want to try all the cupcakes that look interesting.

Things I am going to drop
Kona Cafe
Big River Brewery
Tusker House bfast Christmas morning. This one because if we hit AK in the morning early we will be out of there before it gets too crowded for the day and then we can swim and relax before we do Olivias for dinner followed by a Carraige ride at the Fort. I think a park, 2 big meals and the ride would just be too stressful.

I like it! I will cook dinner in room 5 nights out of 10 and thats a pretty good savings but more important more relaxing. I'm going to look over the food suggestions for everyone for ideas. Going to be going for the easy stuff. Spagetti, tacos,chicken strips, etc. We don't like any bagged meals I have ever tried so those are out. Also we have 2 people who don't eat pork or beef..guess those will be ground turky tacos, lol! We have a car and I know how to get to Publix and Walmart so it's good. We won't suffer Thanks again

edited to add: It might be relevant that we are also doing Universal for 3 days before we get to Disney and we will eat out then to. So we will be eating at Mytho's, The 3 Broomsticks, Confiscos, and our resort before we even get to OKW. Sure sounds like a lot of food!

 

[pigletto]

Thanks for all the replies folks, it's interesting to see the different opinions

I have decided to cut a couple dinners out and maybe even a Tusker House Christmas bfast (thats only a maybe) but that leaves us

Mama Melrose dinner
TRex dinner
Crystal Palace lunch
Olivias Christmas dinner
Sci-Fi lunch
50'sPrime dinner

for counter serve we will do
Cosmic Rays
Sunshine Seasons
Flametree
Yak and Yeti
Wolfgang Pucks
Starring Rolls
World Showcase eat around the world day
Also will be doing a Cupcakeapalooza Challenge as we want to try all the cupcakes that look interesting.

Things I am going to drop
Kona Cafe
Big River Brewery
Tusker House bfast Christmas morning. This one because if we hit AK in the morning early we will be out of there before it gets to crowded for the day and then we can swim and relax before we do Olivias for dinner followed by a Carraige ride at the Fort. I think a park, 2 big meals and the ride would just be too stressful.

I like it! I will cook dinner in room 5 nights out of 10 and thats a pretty good savings but more important more relaxing. I'm going to look over the food suggestions for everyone for ideas. Going to be going for the easy stuff. Spagetti, tacos,chicken strips, etc. We don't like any bagged meals I have ever tried so those are out. Also we have 2 people who don't eat pork or beef..guess those will be ground turky tacos, lol! We have a car and I know how to get to Publics and Walmart so it's good. We won't suffer Thanks again

I think it sounds like a great plan. I don't see the horror of cooking on vacation. If it stretches the fun money I think it's great.
I do get tired of trying to make it to every single reservation and of all the heavy food.
I think your plan is especially smart during Christmas week to give you breaks from crowds

 

[DisneyCher]

I wouldn't cook on a Disney vacation, simply beacuse we don't usually come back to the room until after the parks close. I actually enjoy cooking, but not just the "heat and eat" type of cooking; that kind of prep is dull to me and not something I'd elect to do on vacation. If I had to eat in the room for budgetary reasons, I'd opt for sandwich fixins and let everyone make their own, personally.

We usually do breakfast int he room at Disney, because I do not care much for big breakfasts, and sweets in the morning upset my stomach. I am good to go after a granola or protein bar, a piece of fruit and a very large cup of coffee. That is the extent of my cooking on Disney vacations thus far.

 

[Lucky4me]

Yes, I'd do it.
We are light eaters and after a few days of restaurant meals we get tired of it.

A few dinners in the condo is a refreshing change of pace.
If everyone helps with the prep and clean up, it's no problem.

We also have days where no meals are planned and we just wing it.
Main St bakery for breakfast, Mickey bar for lunch, pizza back at the condo for dinner.

 

[dyna]

Yes!!! But when I've cooked I been offsite either in condo or house an could leave crockpot going all day. Also took cooked frozen ground beef and cooked frozen choped chicken etc so it was ready to go. Froze the meats on cookie sheet then put in plastic bag in meal size portions for us. When ready to travel loaded the frozen stuff in it's own little cooler that was not opened till we got there. Same could be done with frozen meals.

 

[Beezle2]

I think it sounds like a great plan. I don't see the horror of cooking on vacation. If it stretches the fun money I think it's great.
I do get tired of trying to make it to every single reservation and of all the heavy food.
I think your plan is especially smart during Christmas week to give you breaks from crowds

Thanks I think our best bet is hitting the parks early and then getting out after lunch. At least if we go back out we will be the rested cheerful type of Mouseketeers

 

[cinmell]

Nope. I don't cook or do laundry on vacation.

 

[GatorMama]

Yep. I'm absolutely planning to cook on our vacation. We're staying off-site. I'm taking a crock pot. I'll do all the prep the night before. Toss in everything before we head to the parks. We get home at night and voila- dinner is almost completely finished. I'm making: chicken tortilla soup, beef stroganoff and chicken tacos. Maybe one more... can't decide. I'll also be making a full hot breakfast on our days off of the parks. We'll have easy breakfasts the mornins we are headed to parks (english muffins with PB and a banana? oatmeal?) It will save us a fortune. We only have 4 TS meals scheduled right now, but DH wants me to cut one more... I really don't want to trim 'Ohana off though!

 

[Mom2apirate&princess]

No! I don't enjoy cooking though...

 

[monorailsilver]

It all depends on where I go on vacation & when.

If I was in Disney & the parks all close at 7, then I'd cook. But if the parks are open until 10 (or later) then no I wouldn't cook. But I also don't stay at a place with a kitchen. So that might change my whole outlook but most likely in Disney I wouldn't cook or I wouldn't cook a time consuming meal-aka a chicken. Maybe I'd throw in a 15 minute pizza or boil water for pasta & (gag) eat sauce from a jar to go with it.

On the flip side, well not really the flip side, we are going to Ocean City, MD in August & I will have a kitchen so I will cook all our meals to save money.

 

[jodifla]

Cooking at "home" DOES save you a ton of money and its super easy. We have done the following:

Pizza
Chili Dogs
Grilled steak on the grill with a salad and rolls
Cold Cut Sandwiches
Breakfast foods
Stouffers Lasagna and cheese toast (it was actually walmart brand and was GREAT)
Burgers on the grill
Betty Crocker meals in a box (hashbrown, ham and cheese bake - yum)
Chicken Salad on toast with sliced cucumbers and tomatoes on the side
Chicken Fingers and french fries (we fed our group of 4 on less than what one meal would have cost at Disney and it was the Tyson Chicken fingers which were already cooked)

You could easily save $400 by fixing a few meals at home. And some meals (like the cold cuts or chicken salad) dont even require cooking.

Fixing meals at home doesn't mean you are "slaving over a hot stove" or "stuck doing dishes" I mean really, whats it take? 5 minutes to load a dishwasher? 10 minutes to fix an easy meal? I understand some folks preferring to not cook and thats their vacation to do so but to make it look like those who do fix small meals at home are somehow slaving or spending all their time washing dishes while on vacation is just a little...well....stupid in my opinion. For me, I actually enjoy cooking because on vacation I actually make things I don't normally make at home. I always make a presentation with my food (colorful bowls, appetizers, etc) so it feels more "exotic". We all love it. Im not standing there stirring a pot of pinto beans for 4 hours or slicing potatos for fried potato sandwiches. I do whats quick, easy, and fun. We're eating at a kitchen thats not our own so it has a different feel to it. We do eat at Disney as well, but for my family its really hard to find something that we even know what it is. We are simple eaters so unless we want to risk $20-$30 pp on a meal that we may not like then we stick to what we are familiar with and in Disney its pretty much burgers, pizza, or chicken. I was looking at the food pics thread last night and the allears.net menus and on so many things I was like "WHAT is that?". We don't eat lamb, not much on seafood, I've never had couscous or gnocchi (sp?) in my life. I don't even know what it is. While we do venture out and try some new things while at Disney, it has to have a description that I can understand what it is before I will spend that kind of money on it. Its just how our family works.

You people who make it sound like its a 40 hour a week job to cook at your home/condo are just clueless. And honestly, why even comment on it? No one is knocking you for eating out all the time so why would you even post in a thread like this is you couldn't contribute to what the OP asked in a way that doesn't make it sound like those who cook are somehow in a Chinese slave labor camp??

Great post! ITA.

I wanted DVC because of the kitchen. I don't get the whole horror of cooking on vacation, either. To me, it gets exhausting to eat at a restaurant for 3 meals a day, and it's a terrible time sink. It's also hard on kids, who have to wait and wait and wait for their meals at busy times.

We do all our breaksfasts in the villa...bagels, bacon, eggs, pancakes, grits, cereal, breakfast sandwiches, juice, coffee.

I get some sandwich meat, cheese, and bread for lunchtime sandwiches, and a small deli potato salad.

For snacks I get chips and dips and a veggie tray. The veggie tray can also be used to cook for dinner, like braised carrots.

For dinner, we normally get some fresh Florida seafood (which I miss terribly up North) or grill some steaks or pasta and sauce.

We pair that with a bagged salad, garlic bread, a great bottle of wine and sit back on our porch and enjoy the evening.

Even with all that cooking, we still eat out 7 times a trip, for lunch or dinner, so that's plenty.

 

[bettymae1121]

I don't mind breakfast in the room, it saves time in the mornings and we're not big breakfast eaters anyway. If the trip was a longer one, I also wouldn't mind a few easy meals in the room either (if I had a kitchenette or full kitchen anyway). But when on vacation I'd rather eat most meals out.

 

[smitch425]

Cooking at "home" DOES save you a ton of money and its super easy. We have done the following:

Pizza
Chili Dogs
Grilled steak on the grill with a salad and rolls
Cold Cut Sandwiches
Breakfast foods
Stouffers Lasagna and cheese toast (it was actually walmart brand and was GREAT)
Burgers on the grill
Betty Crocker meals in a box (hashbrown, ham and cheese bake - yum)
Chicken Salad on toast with sliced cucumbers and tomatoes on the side
Chicken Fingers and french fries (we fed our group of 4 on less than what one meal would have cost at Disney and it was the Tyson Chicken fingers which were already cooked)

You could easily save $400 by fixing a few meals at home. And some meals (like the cold cuts or chicken salad) dont even require cooking.

Fixing meals at home doesn't mean you are "slaving over a hot stove" or "stuck doing dishes" I mean really, whats it take? 5 minutes to load a dishwasher? 10 minutes to fix an easy meal? I understand some folks preferring to not cook and thats their vacation to do so but to make it look like those who do fix small meals at home are somehow slaving or spending all their time washing dishes while on vacation is just a little...well....stupid in my opinion. For me, I actually enjoy cooking because on vacation I actually make things I don't normally make at home. I always make a presentation with my food (colorful bowls, appetizers, etc) so it feels more "exotic". We all love it. Im not standing there stirring a pot of pinto beans for 4 hours or slicing potatos for fried potato sandwiches. I do whats quick, easy, and fun. We're eating at a kitchen thats not our own so it has a different feel to it. We do eat at Disney as well, but for my family its really hard to find something that we even know what it is. We are simple eaters so unless we want to risk $20-$30 pp on a meal that we may not like then we stick to what we are familiar with and in Disney its pretty much burgers, pizza, or chicken. I was looking at the food pics thread last night and the allears.net menus and on so many things I was like "WHAT is that?". We don't eat lamb, not much on seafood, I've never had couscous or gnocchi (sp?) in my life. I don't even know what it is. While we do venture out and try some new things while at Disney, it has to have a description that I can understand what it is before I will spend that kind of money on it. Its just how our family works.

You people who make it sound like its a 40 hour a week job to cook at your home/condo are just clueless. And honestly, why even comment on it? No one is knocking you for eating out all the time so why would you even post in a thread like this is you couldn't contribute to what the OP asked in a way that doesn't make it sound like those who cook are somehow in a Chinese slave labor camp??

I find this post to be judgemental and downright rude. No one was knocking or questioning the OP about why she would cook on her vacation. As a matter of fact, this thread was completely civil until your post. I'm sorry, but calling people "clueless" for offering THEIR opinion of how they prefer THEIR OWN vacation is rude and uncalled for. As to why people who don't cook on vacation would comment, the OP specifially asked them to. Her original post has 2 questions in it

1. Would you cook to save $400 on vacation? (title of the thread)
2. If you would cook, what would you cook?

No good reason that I can think of for you to post such hateful words when all we were doing was politely answering the OP's questions. Very sad that you felt the need to go off on a bunch of nice people that way.

 

[jsmla]

Yep. I'm absolutely planning to cook on our vacation. We're staying off-site. I'm taking a crock pot. I'll do all the prep the night before. Toss in everything before we head to the parks. We get home at night and voila- dinner is almost completely finished. I'm making: chicken tortilla soup, beef stroganoff and chicken tacos. Maybe one more... can't decide. I'll also be making a full hot breakfast on our days off of the parks. We'll have easy breakfasts the mornins we are headed to parks (english muffins with PB and a banana? oatmeal?) It will save us a fortune. We only have 4 TS meals scheduled right now, but DH wants me to cut one more... I really don't want to trim 'Ohana off though!

This is how we've done it too

I started off cooking in the early 90s when the kids were small. We were definitely on a budget but I was also unhappy with the choices in the parks. We camped at Ft. Wilderness and ate probably 80% of our meals from "home". Loved, loved, loved having the crockpot. Since we drove I prepared and froze meals like gumbo, spaghetti, jambalaya, etc. We'd usually barbeque a few times. We also brought water, sandwiches and snacks into the parks. The 20% of Disney dining we did was most often at character meals. I liked to book a late breakfast which we had after a couple of hours enjoying the parks. That took care of breakfast and lunch

Later on the Dining Plan was introduced and financially we were able to splash out a bit more. We did several trips where we ate out every meal and found out that it's just not for us. I don't like to have dinner while still all grubby from the parks. I want to shower first and many times after returning to the hotel we just didn't feel like heading back out again to sit around in a restaurant.

We have the Deluxe Plan for two of our four nights in October. We're going to do a combo of dining out (Can't wait to try Narcoossees!) and eating in.

 

[2girls4me]

No. To me, part of vacation is a break from the routines. We get snacks and stuff for the rooms, but we don't get a room with a kitchen. But we also do the ddp when we go, which I know most people on here don't.

 

[Minnesota!]

I think I would. Not every night, but maybe 2 - 3. I would just do easy stuff - tacos, spaghetti, etc. It might be kind of nice - especially in that crazy crowd time of year - to go back to the room, have a nice dinner, chill at the pool or hit DTD after. Just a nice quiet evening!