How often do you use the kitchens/kitchenettes when you stay? What meals do you do?

[Judique]

We use the kitchen for almost all breakfasts (eggs, bacon or sausage and grits). We will occasionally do a dinner or two and if my wife finds key limes, a key lime pie will appear. My wife will bring a crumble topping prepared ( minus the butter) and make a fruit crumble one night.

Love the fruit crumble idea! Seems so easy peasy but I've never thought of it.

 

[AnnaS]

When we first bought DVC, we thought we would cook and take advantage of the kitchen but it has not happened yet. Not much cooking. We will have breakfast most mornings in the room - we might purchase a muffin. We normally have two breakfast ADRS. If we go to Publix, we will buy some cold cuts, prepared salads, yogurt and some fruit. We do this because we like to spend a lot of time by the pool and will take a break and run up. We have also picked up lunch at the resort and will eat by the pool or up in the room. We have not cooked a breakfast in years!!!! I don't think we have ever cooked a meal either - maybe picked up a rotisserie chicken, salad or pizza.

Now the washer and dryer - that is a whole different story

 

[oufpat]

When DH and I go alone ,we always get a studio and do breakfast in room, but we are easy, just the basics, tea/cereal/juice. When the kids and grandkids come, we get a larger unit with full kitchen. They do breakfast and sometimes lunch or early simple dinner, get an order from garden grocer, saves a fortune on lunch time pool breaks. Of course we always do a few TS dinners, we are on vacation.

 

[quandrea]

We use the kitchen a lot. All breakfasts. Most snacks. Dd has a peanut allergy so I do a lot of baking. She can't have most baked goods out in the world. We eat out about once a day and I meal plan for the rest. Many dinners, some pool side picnics. I love having the kitchen. Planning my grocery list is as much fun as planning my ADRs and fast passes. I love that fruit crumble upthread. I'm going to do that!

 

[BLLB]

We use the kitchen every day for breakfast and, on our last 8 day stay, cooked dinner 6 nights. We had 6 in a 2 BR, DH, myself and 4 teenage boys. We had a Tiffany Towncar pick us up and had a grocery Stop at Publix. We spent $234 for the week. In terms of money, that saved a ton.

 

[jo-jo]

I think we are probably the exception, but we book exclusively studios so we can stay 2+ weeks. We also do some "cooking" in the room and have gotten pretty good at figuring what will work with a mini fridge, microwave and toaster. Some ideas: hotdogs/pre cooked sausages, easy mac (there are other versions that are the same concept), ramen for the teen boy, PB&J and cold cut sandwiches, microwave oatmeal, pop tarts, deli salads, etc. Plus snack items like chips and dip. The food is all bad for us, but it's vacation.

Just to add to your list. My DH and I fly from Phila and we always bring frozen precooked stuff like sausage, bacon,quiche, cheese, breakfast sandwiches in a casserole size cooler that is in the suitcase. The extra clothes around it adds extra insulation. We plan mostly on breakfast. At disney we buy creamer, oj, sometimes eggs. We find microwave scrambled eggs with cheese are ok, not super, but ok

We also bring a couple of cans of beef stew with us. Not so much to save money, but if it is raining something awful, we don't need to go out to get food. With DVC , we don't have have the drive of "on no, we MUST go on", if it means getting cold and wet just for a burger.

 

[Popouri DVC]

Its nice to read here how many people actually cook meals in the kitchens. We do also and there are only the two of us. It's great to have exactly what you want to eat and be able to do so in the space and comfort of the villas. I'd say we probably cook 1/2 the time and do table service for the rest. A good part of vacation for us is dining so we love our leisurely meals. Living in Florida and having annual passes means no commando style park going for us. Now if only I didn't have to do the dishes after the meal was over...

 

[Sleepy425]

We just stayed a night in a 2BR suite in Boston. For dinner we made burritos - one pot we put black beans and Rotel, the other we made Spanish rice with corn in it (all things we could pack in our suitcase, along with the wraps). Since we drove we had a cooler with cheese and sour cream - both things you could buy at the resort stores in Disney I'm pretty sure. Nice, easy meal that took only ten minutes to prepare. We used to do quesadillas, but preparing them took longer, and you can't cook more than a couple at once - so that took a long time to make them all for a family of 6. The burritos are done so quickly with very little mess.
We also will pack the kind of mac and cheese that has the sauce packet instead of powder mix. Ziti is also easy.
We like homemade pancakes, so we put the dry ingredients in a ziplock bag and buy the other ingredients when we get there.

 

[Sleepy425]

Just to add to your list. My DH and I fly from Phila and we always bring frozen precooked stuff like sausage, bacon,quiche, cheese, breakfast sandwiches in a casserole size cooler that is in the suitcase. The extra clothes around it adds extra insulation. We plan mostly on breakfast. At disney we buy creamer, oj, sometimes eggs. We find microwave scrambled eggs with cheese are ok, not super, but ok

We also bring a couple of cans of beef stew with us. Not so much to save money, but if it is raining something awful, we don't need to go out to get food. With DVC , we don't have have the drive of "on no, we MUST go on", if it means getting cold and wet just for a burger.

I don't know if it is officially allowed in the studios, but we bring the Hamilton Beach Sandwich maker. It makes mornings so much better than the times we tried to microwave eggs the first trip!

 

[jo-jo]

We had done a sandwich maker a few times, but frankly I got lazy. I'd rather just toss a paper bowl than deal with cleaning up a sandwich maker.

 

[TexasChick123]

We did breakfast there every morning except one when we did a character breakfast. I'd make cinnamon rolls, pigs in a blanket, eggs and bacon, etc. Nothing over the top, but breakfast nonetheless. It is so nice to have breakfast and coffee in your room in your PJs before you head to the parks. It's a nice time to get to wake up and eat at a normal pace and not have to deal with eating out. We ate out lunch and dinner most meals, but I also brought sandwiches every day for the kids. Having a kitchen is the reason we bought into DVC. The laundry is nice too because we came home with almost all of our clothes clean except one or two outfits. Bottom line, we love the kitchen, and it is super convenient especially in the morning for breakfast.

 

[DaisyNY]

We always do breakfast...cereal, eggs, toast, etc. and use Garden Grocer. The price we save buying water bottles with our groceries covers more than the cost of our food. Also, have a few snacks on hand. I agree that's it's easier to get everyone going and out the door. We typically stay in one or two bedrooms. When we stayed at VB we also made sandwiches for lunch on the beach.

 

[lorenni]

As with a lot of the PPs, we do breakfast in the room every day, except for our one character breakfast per trip. We also bring lunch to the parks maybe half of the time, and eat dinner at "home" once or twice.

One thing I do every trip is order a lot of fresh veggies, and I make a veggie dip on day one. We pack veggies and dip in our lunch bag to snack on in the parks, and we snack on it in the room all week. I pretend it balances out the 37 popcorn refills .

My next trip is just me and DS at ASMu for a long weekend, which will be a change for us. I'm trying to figure out how we'll work out food as it's been a long time since we've been to Disney without a kitchen!

 

[Kim&Chris]

We've started cooking breakfast every morning, and we love it. It's a great, inexpensive, relaxing start to the busy day.

 

[wbl2745]

It varies with us. When we had our whole family in a Grand Villa we made dinners, albeit quick ones that were easy to make, but everyone got together for the meals and then went back to the parks. (By the way, this was at the Grand Californian at the Disneyland Resort so getting back to the parks was real quick.) Generally we use the kitchen for breakfasts, which can vary from a full cooked breakfast to just some fruit and yogurt. We also keep snacks and sodas in the refrigerator. If just my wife and I go, we usually stay in a studio, but if we're in a one-bedroom I still like having the full kitchen so that I can make a larger meal if I want.

 

[DVCDAVE]

17 Year DVC veteran here.......that being said, My wife and I have seen the price of food at WDW go through the roof, and the quality at most (not all) places go through the floor. So, we do a lot of cooking nowadays. We stay at everything from a studio to at Grand villa depending on who comes with us. Obviously, it you are staying in a 1 bedroom or larger, its easy, Stop at Walmart or Winn Dixie and buy so groceries and you are set. I little bit of menu and grocery list planning can go a long way though in saving you time and money. Along with what items you can either bring from home or pre cook and bring along.

Try pre cooking your bacon about 75% of the way at home and freeze it in a tuperware container. Then, just zap whatever you are going to use for breakfast at full power for 30 seconds.

Another idea we use is buying a Smithfield spiral cut ham and warming it up the first night of the stay. Great meal, and the leftovers are terrific for sandwiches. Certainly beats paying the high prices for cold cuts at the deli counter. And it tastes better.

Staying in a studio takes a little bit more thinking. So, we invested in a hotplate at Walmart for $19.99, bought a portable, compact, Teflon coated camping cookware set at Cabela's for $39.99 and a GE multi-outlet power adapter for $7.99 for use on the power outlet in the kitchenette. That way we have enough outlets so we can plug in the hotplate, toaster and coffee maker. Easy to pack in a suitcase with some utensils from home, and you are pretty well set. Coleman makes a camping salt and pepper shaker for $5 that you can buy at Walmart, fill and at home, and it has a snapping lid for easy travel. We actually have a little travel bag full of what to bring while staying in a studio full of these items. Investing in a drying matte at any Walmart Kitchen isle is a good ideas for saving paper towels after cleaning the cookware.

On our last trip we stayed in a studio and were able to make a variety of eggs, bacon, sausage, corned beef hash, breakfast sandwiches and cereal with little effort for breakfast. And for dinner, we were able to make salads, hotdogs with chili, re-heated some homemade crab cakes that we had frozen, spaghetti and meatballs, homemade clam chowder that we froze with freshly made corned beef Rueben sandwiches.

As far as condiments, if staying in a studio, a few weeks before our trip, we scavenge during our lunch breaks at work at fast food joints and pick up a few extra envelops of ketchup, mustard and mayo. Things like saurkraute, Thousnad Island dressing can be portioned and easily be packed in a tiny tuperware or zip lock bag and frozen. I guess we are lucky as a flight from New England to WDW is about 4 to 4 1/2 hours by the time we get to our room. Everything remains frozen. If your trip is longer, a soft cooler packed in your suitcase for the frozen items would make sense.

 

[Chuck S]

I always use it for coffee, fruit, toast/English muffins and cereal for breakfast. If I have a full kitchen, I may add eggs. If I have a car, I may get enough stuff to make a pasta dinner mid-stay.

 

[mel&me]

Use it all the time for mainly breakfast,

 

[LCoulter]

When we first joined in 2008, we cooked quite a few meals in the room but that has slowly dwindled down over the years because I just hate cooking on vacation. Now we usually do frozen pizza at least once or twice on our Piazza which we keep in Owners Locker. We have cereal, fruit, breakfast bars and breakfast sausage sandwiches and eat out for the rest of the meals. We usually go off property for a few meals too....gotta have Chik-fil-A a couple times per trip.

Our next trip is with another family who will be on the dining plan while we pay out of pocket so we actually have more meals than usual booked at TS restaurants because of the other family.

I still like having the full kitchen though with a big frig for all the water, soda, milk, fruit, frozen pizza and breakfast sausage.

 

[Fenland girl]

We use the kitchen a lot (on average two meals a day) but don't cook anything extravagant or that takes too much effort - we are on holiday after all Breakfast is just cereal, bagels, cinnamon rolls - that kind of thing. Lunch is sandwiches, grilled cheese, salad. Dinner is typically steak with salad, marinated chicken with baked potatoes or a if we are really tired a frozen pizza. As someone else recommended, we have an Onwers Locker and keep some bits in it to make things even easier (George Foreman grill, zip lock bags for marinating meat, small baking tray).