You're on vacation. Why are you cooking in your room?

[AZMermaid]

We cook about half our dinners at Aulani for a few reasons. One- the food in Hawaii is extra expensive. Two- there’s not tons of options at the resort and they are mostly the same as lunch. We do like Monkeypod across the street and always do Ama Ama one night. Three- Hawaii shuts down after dark so there’s not much to do off property. We are almost always back by dinner time. We do cook/assemble 1-2 lunches as well.

But at the parks, we usually only do breakfasts. Like others have said- it saves time, money and calories.

 

[KPeterso]

We do most breakfasts in the room. It is not a big deal to make a few things for breakfast such as scrambled eggs, french toast, bacon, hard boiled eggs, toast. Plus yogurt or fruit. Everyone can have what they like with a good breakfast to start the day. I have also been known to make a grilled cheese or heat up leftovers in the room. And we always have ice cream for an evening snack!

 

[PollyannaMom]

I'm new to DVC and buying a contract that is currently in ROFR. I was reading about owner lockers and so many people seem to be using them for things like rice cookers, crock pots, mixers, spices, etc. Honest question. Why? You're on vacation, why are you making meals in your room?

I'm with you on this one, I cook 300+ days a year the last place I'm cooking is on vacation. At least for me a vacation is an escape from everyday life and cooking puts me right back into it. I actually enjoy cooking just not on vacation.
We do use the microwave a decent amount for any leftovers we might have taken back to the room.

Same here - I have no intention of cooking on vacation!!

 

[Anthony1971]

I love breakfast out on vacation. It is my favorite meal. I do not do a table service breakfast out everyday though.

I like one table service or character meal out, one meal home and one quick service meal or snack.

I agree. We enjoy breakfast the most something about a nice slow early morning start with few people around.... The best CS and very enjoyable are GF and SSR. We will go there early while waiting for other family in a different room to get ready and non-park days. Some resorts like the EPCOT ones pose a huge conundrum.... No way will ever spend another dime at the Beach club market place the food is bad on a good day so that leaves a going back to the room with BW deli which is not as enjoyable as a nice table. We end up with Bagels from the store a lot...
If we have a 1 or 2 BR we may cook eggs a morning or 2 which is very unlikely I think a twice in 21 year event. that is the best it gets.
On vacation we are NOT cooking there are plenty of great healthy options with a kudos to the plant based Gyro at SSR of recent.

 

[s.r.disney nut]

Check back with us after you've been a member for 15 or 20 years. If you're still regularly paying for 3 meals per day and rope dropping theme parks, you're probably in the minority.

This is my thought also!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I’m team not cooking on vacation. My kids are young adults now and I barely even cook at home anymore. After years of prepping and cooking I’m over it.

We don’t own DVC but have rented points. The most we do is use the microwave and toaster. I actually like having the microwave for leftovers!

A few trips we’ve done bagels and waffles with the toaster for breakfast but we end up throwing so much out. Since then I don’t even bother getting food or snacks and only order water for the room.

We actually do better by hitting rope drop, getting in 1-3 rides and then grabbing something to eat. We have our fave spots in each park. It works well for us. On our sleep/in late start days we grab something from the resort, eat leftovers (microwave comes in handy!! - one trip I had steak leftover from ESPN and had that one morning that DD slept until 11 am) or do a TS meal.

 

[tjkraz]

I sorta dislike topics of this nature because they imply that there's a right way and a wrong way to do it.

There's nothing wrong with eating 3 restaurant meals per day. Some DVC members even pay for the dining plan. But there are a variety of reasons why people choose not to do that: Dietary reasons, financial reasons, practical reasons, fitness reasons, food allergies. Heck some people even LIKE cooking (the horror!)

More than half of all DVC villas have full kitchens and the rest have kitchenettes. It really shouldn't come as any surprise that many people make use of those facilities.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

We make extensive use of the microwave (heating up leftovers, late night snacks, etc) but I have a “no stove on vacation” rule. I cook every day and I have a small baking business so on my vacation I refuse to go near the stove or oven. Eating out is automatically part of the vacation and the budget. One sit down and one counter service a day and however many snacks we want. We do one or two breakfast buffets a trip but the rest are in room, mostly cereal and fruit or bagels. Even if someone else cooked for me in room I still wouldn’t want it because the theming and atmosphere of the Disney restaurants is what interests me

 

[BeachClub2014]

I sorta dislike topics of this nature because they imply that there's a right way and a wrong way to do it.

There's nothing wrong with eating 3 restaurant meals per day. Some DVC members even pay for the dining plan. But there are a variety of reasons why people choose not to do that: Dietary reasons, financial reasons, practical reasons, fitness reasons, food allergies. Heck some people even LIKE cooking (the horror!)

More than half of all DVC villas have full kitchens and the rest have kitchenettes. It really shouldn't come as any surprise that many people make use of those facilities.

I get your point, but I take a different view. I think it's kinda fun to learn how other folks use their DVC and how different families "do" WDW. IMHO, this diversity of approach to vacation is one of the positives that DVC offers. There's something for everyone and every style of vacation.

 

[808blessing]

Ummmm so I can buy more points, take more trips or pay for longer tickets!!! #priorities

 

[OSUBucksfan9]

We usually cook breakfast and then do a dinner to grill out during the trip. We do one sit down meal a day. Usually reheat leftovers also

 

[Brian Noble]

I think it's kinda fun to learn how other folks use their DVC and how different families "do" WDW.

There is a version of that question, and it goes something like: "How many of you use the kitchen? What do you use it for?"

That's not quite what the OP did.

 

[BeachClub2014]

There is a version of that question, and it goes something like: "How many of you use the kitchen? What do you use it for?"

That's not quite what the OP did.

Yes, I know what the OP originally asked, and commented on that earlier in the thread.

This

I get your point, but I take a different view. I think it's kinda fun to learn how other folks use their DVC and how different families "do" WDW. IMHO, this diversity of approach to vacation is one of the positives that DVC offers. There's something for everyone and every style of vacation.

was in response to this

I sorta dislike topics of this nature because they imply that there's a right way and a wrong way to do it.

 

[Bearval]

I'm new to DVC and buying a contract that is currently in ROFR. I was reading about owner lockers and so many people seem to be using them for things like rice cookers, crock pots, mixers, spices, etc. Honest question. Why? You're on vacation, why are you making meals in your room?

I like to eat breakfast naked. Disney seemed to have a problem with this when I was at Cinderella’s castle.

 

[Brian Noble]

was in response to this

I read Tim’s comment in the context of the OP’s question which was very much in the “there is a wrong way to do this” vein. Maybe I misinterpreted it.

 

[Bearval]

I'm new to DVC and buying a contract that is currently in ROFR. I was reading about owner lockers and so many people seem to be using them for things like rice cookers, crock pots, mixers, spices, etc. Honest question. Why? You're on vacation, why are you making meals in your room?

We are a family of 4 and sometimes now that my children are older they each bring a friend so we travel as 6. Breakfast is main meal we use the kitchen for so that we can go straight to the parks after we eat in the morning. We do stock other stuff for lunch and dinner but don’t make any that takes a lot of prep time to make. Lunch is usually done when we are out and we schedule a couple of dinner reservations.

 

[Monykalyn]

$20 for ONE hamburger or 6 MEALS with all ingredients from HelloFresh for $20? Easy to do in villas. Plus hubs grew up with timeshares and we started dating I got hooked as well. Own bedroom/bathroom with extra space for living area, balconies etc. & it’s super convenient to stumble to kitchen in PJs for coffee/muffing etc without having to get dressed. Invited bunch of friends/family to do HHN with us last month as we had a huge 3 bedroom villa at MVC Grande Vista and ate in one night with drinks. Would have cost easy $300/ couple if we’d gone out.

 

[crisi]

I'm new to DVC and buying a contract that is currently in ROFR. I was reading about owner lockers and so many people seem to be using them for things like rice cookers, crock pots, mixers, spices, etc. Honest question. Why? You're on vacation, why are you making meals in your room?

For us, its been about breakfast - we are up long before rope drop and find breakfast in the room to be a more efficient use of time. Eggs and toast are easy to make and the protein hit keeps us moving to lunch - whereas cereal in the room is the quick carb hit that requires a mid-morning stop.

 

[Dina]

After 20 years being DVC… I hate running around. Sometimes I don’t want to leave the pool get dressed up to go somewhere out to eat. I spend way less time in the parks than I used to….. we don’t love the beach so Disney is our annual family vacation . Cooking dinner in the villa to me is so much easier , less time consuming than going out to restaurants (which with two sons in their early 20s sometimes costs over $400 for a meal.) I do my grocery delivery and we’re good . I’ll buy some Mickey bars at the artist pallet and keep them stocked in the freezer for late night snacks . While I love chef Art smith and The Boathouse … haven’t been blown away by the restaurants like I used to be. No one in my family wants to do character meals. I feel like looking for food can take time and energy while cooking it myself is so much easier, relaxing and more enjoyable . Love just pouring a glass of wine in the villa and making an easy meal . We are from Philadelphia…. Honestly we have better restaurants at home (hope I don’t get hate for saying that ). I still love my shrimp and grits at chef Art smith though and lobster roll at Boathouse .

 

[Leight19]

Skimmed through but didn’t see anyone post something similar so I’ll add my two cents. I mainly stay studios so those trips we buy some easy to microwave stuff for kids but don’t really cook. However, when we do the bigger rooms it’s normally part of a bigger group with extended family and we always cook a big breakfast.

For us it’s nice to save the money but really the reason we do it is we enjoy it. Growing up we’d always go on big family vacation to place in West Virginia. I always remember every morning grandparents getting up and starting a big breakfast for everyone as a big family event to kick off the day. During day to day life we would usually be in rush so would have cereal or oatmeal for breakfast so a big family breakfast with bacon, eggs, sausage, pancakes was a treat and my mind nostalgically associates that heavily with a family vacation. Therefore we sometimes will get 2br, bring the parents along, and have a big family meal a few times a week mimicking this.