Food - Eat at home or eat out?

[Coastie]

Can anyone provide some advice on food? Do the DVC members all dine out when at Disney World? I have read some of these posting and people are spending an exorbitant amount of $$$$ on food. I did some reading and found out it would be about $200-$300/day for food if eating out every day for a family of 4. Do any DVC members do any cooking ( I know its a vacation )? Any food budget suggestions for a family of 4 from the DVC veterans? Any nearby grocery stores (VWL)?

 

[The4OfUs]

We tend to prefer to cook when we go down, saving restaurants for one or two nights out - but my DH is a chef, and a former resident of Orlando...(as well as a former WDW cast member! *grin*) he knows where some of the less pricey stores are, and we stock up on the basics when we arrive.

We find that simple but filling things like bagels or cereal for breakfast and spaghetti for dinner can save us lots of money we can then spend elsewhere....lucky I married a man who can make most meals seem fancy. (especially as I can't cook to save my life! LOL!)

 

[KNWVIKING]

We will stock up on bagels,OJ,milk for lite breakfast. But we figure it's vacation,spend the money. It's also not that expensive. Most of the time we eat lunch in a park.All the parks offer your basic burger,fries,drink trays for 6-8 $$ which is the going price at any resort in the country. And most moderate & upscale resorts have a medium price restraunt where the entree's range 10-20 $$ The is also an Orlando bid site I use to buy gift cert to local restraunts. Example: paid $12.50 for Sunday Brunch for two at Baskervilles at the Grovsenor(?) hotel on hotel row. Absolutely the best brunch we've ever had. Live piano music,man drawing free caricatures, champaign toast included. We buy the Orlando Entertainment book-great discounts. It doesn't have to cost a fortune to enjoy eating out.

 

[KCritter]

We usually eat breakfast in the room, but generally have one "big" breakfast out. (I love big breakfasts!)

We then plan on one big meal, preferably a buffet and then just snacks for the rest of the day.

We've found that the portions on most meals in the park are big enough for two people and share meals accordingly.

 

[sgtdisney]

We always buy groceries for the time we are at OKW. We shop in on of the larger grocery stores off property on our first day. We have breakfast in the room every morning. None of my family is big on having a huge breakfast anyway. Sometimes if we have a day where we aren't in the parks we will eat a lunch in the room as well. We also tend to eat off property on the nights when were aren't in a park or have left a park a little early. This saves money as well. We have never yet eaten a dinner in the room although one time when my son got sick during the trip, on the last night, we ordered a Pizza and stayed in the room...

 

[Lil]

We plan a combination of eating out and eating in. Sometimes a plain 'ole sandwich hits the spot. We like to eat breakfast in, and eat one really nice breakfast at a resort....we are partial to the breakfasts at Boatwrights and at WL.

We love eating at different places, and always go to one new place. This summer we will go over to AKL for dinner (already have reservations).

When we go into the parks we tend to share a meal or share several snacks. Again, we always eat a sit down meal at a restaurant we haven't tried. Also, we will leave MK and go to Grand Floridian and eat.....nice 2 - 3 hour break.

If we are pool hopping (a whole other subject) at SAB - we go early and leave around 11am to go eat in the restaurant - It has the nautical theme and great food.

We really enjoy a relaxing home made meal on the patio at our room. I enjoy cooking and love the variety available in the grocery stores.

We love to go to the food courts and try food there. Different atmosphere.....love the Cajun Fried Chicken at Riverside(formerly known as Dixie Landings). We like the Pepper Market at Cornado Springs.

Love the food at Pucks....and the DH is Cuban and we aways end up at Bongo's at least once.

Love to go get flavored coffee and sit on the beach at the Polynesian or at Disney Village people watching.

We don't eat off property except to go to Celebration to Columbia House, or to Tu Tu Tango's in Orlando. We try to eat something different.......I live in the midwest....in a small town.....we celebrated getting an Applebee's and Cracker Barrel.

 

[Peggy Sue]

We tend to eat breakfast in the room. Nothing fancy, cereal, bagels, toast, fruit, juice etc. Last month we made some egg mcmuffins...my niece was along and she wanted a breakfast sandwich in the morning...I must admit, it's the first time we've ever turned the stove on during our vacation! It was nice, and relaxing, to have a family breakfast out on the deck each morning.

We tend to eat lunch/dinner out. We enjoy trying all the various dining options in and around WDW. We find the resorts have some wonderful dining options!

However, it's nice to know we have the kitchen available to us should we choose to spend an evening in sometime!

 

[mikesmom]

We do breakfast in the room each day. We stock in a lot of fruit and sometimes it's that and a bagel. Many mornings I cook a big breakfast = eggs, sausage, toast, fruit. Yeah, it's vacation, but I enjoy cooking, and it feels like a Sunday morning type of breakfast.

We usually schedule 2 dinners while we're there (6 days) . The rest of the time we have supper in. Could be pizza or leftovers from those 2 meals out (goes a long way). I also get sub rolls, deli fixings like turkey, beef, swiss, lettuce, and tomatoes. I make a big sandwiches, wrap 'em tight and put them in the refrigerator. The teenagers just grab one with some fruit when they are hungry - healthier fast food!

Of course we keep juice, ice cream, popsicles and iced tea on hand.

We spend very little more than we would at home.

 

[Jeanne]

Part of the planning or our trips home, is where are we eating. If you eat your biggest meal at lunchtime it is much cheaper. You can eat out without breaking the bank. Our family of 4 probably spends about $150 per day on days that we eat 3 meals out, and we rarely do the food courts. Also neither of my children eat of the children' s menu anymore. If they are young enough for the children's menu, it is usually about $5-6 per child. we tend to eat in the nicer restaurants for the more relaxed atmosphere, more unique meals, and air conditioning. Our fridge usually contains soda, beer, wine, cheese tray and snacks. We always make one trip to Einstein Bagels for a dozen and that gets us through several days of breakfast.

 

[dianeschlicht]

When it is just our family, we tend to do things differently than if we have guests staying with us.

For our family, we always grocery shop at the begining of the trip and buy Pop, snacks, breakfast items (we like oatmeal and pancakes since they are filling), fruit and maybe the fixings for one large meal in the villa. We usually eat our breakfast in the villa and have a main meal in one of our favorite restaurants in the parks or at the resorts. We like to do this around 2 pm so we can get by with one major meal. Then we either go to Beaches and Cream for a snack at night, or have something like that in the villa. By doing it this way, we save even on the priciest WDW restaurants since mid-day meals are less expensive.

 

[Dennis the WDW Menace]

We eat breakfast in the room and eat a a good WDW restaurant in the afternoon because most places serve the same food but it costs less. We have snacks and something small for dinner. When we get back to OKW we have soup and sand. and relax around the TV in the evening, by this time it is usually 9:00pm. We save money and get to eat at some good WDW places for less. This is one of the reasons we bought into DVC.

 

[Peter Johnson]

On the way to check in, we stop and get breakfast, snacks, soda and water. We eat breakfast at "home" on the patio, and other meals at the parks and resorts. Usually we just stop at Goodings for our food... even though it's the world's most expensive grocery store, it's a gigantic savings over WDW prices.

In all our DVC visits, we've not eaten breakfast on the porch only a few times... last month's smoky days and the day Hurricane Floyd hit are the most memorable.

The best thing we do is buy our own water. We have a water bottle with an insulated holder, and buy a 2.5 gallon jug of water. Every time we get back "home", we refill the water bottle. Saves a fortune in water and soda at the parks!

 

[slimplaw]

We were at VWL last week for one night and I noticed that Miss Jenny's Provisions has some family size portions which were actually reasonable. This is the room service at VWL. Ribs and fried chicken were both available for around $20 for family portions. This did not include any side dishes. The pizza also was fairly reasonable. We have stayed in a condo near WDW and we microwaved items like Stouffer's chicken and rice family meals. I also had bagged salad. This was enough for our family after a day in the parks. Dessert was usually fruit.

 

[Bennet]

We do both but more eating at home.

Typically we get up early quick breakfast and hit the parks as they open, after the crowds show up we go back to BWV for lunch and some pool time. We hit another park in the afternoon/evening. Sometimes we eat dinner out sometime at home.

We do one or two character meals per trip and the fantasmic dinner show & Mom and Dad have a night out at the Flying Fish.

Our trip report has a link to a map to Super Wal*Mart

 

[Alysa]

On our first trip as a married couple before we signed up as members, one of the things we disliked the most about the trip was always having to go out for meals. We must have spent about $1500 US on food and there were lots of days we would have just liked to have had some tea and a muffin and some fruit for breakfast - especially as we are early risers and would have prefered to go straight to the parks instead of spending the first hour or more eating in a resturant. Plus, the servings in American resturants are huge - always way too big for us. I often looked with longing at the kid size versions. So when we became mebmbers we were so excited about having a kitchen in our room! We knew how much money it would save us. Now we can go to the special resturants we are excited about not because we have to eat somewhere, and it is only two or three per trip at the most. We usually do one character breakfast and one or two romantic dinners. It makes the resturant meals that much more special to us!
P.S. Two musts to bring with you or buy for your kitchen - bottled water and a kettle, you can't make a good cup of tea there without these items. And trust me, my husband does not want to spend time with me in the morning if I have not had a good cup of tea. Have you ever tried to make tea with water heated in the coffee maker? I'll have a little less rat with mine, thanks.

 

[wdwnut]

hi: our youngest is still a teen, you know- the "hollow" stage of life. we usually will pick up breakfast type items like cereal, pop tarts, and oj. also, some lunch type goodies- bread, peanut butter and jelly, cold cuts, and TONS of fruit. we'll also get some snacks like pretzels, popcorn, etc. we save a ton of money just by having breakfast, snacks and drinks in the room with an occasional lunch.

 

[chris1gill]

If you have a family of 4 that actually eats (our kids are little & don't eat much) you can very easily eat 200.00 a day if you do the sit down dinners... if you do 1 sit down & 2 takeouts, you'll still spend 150.00 a day for 4 people that actually eat (little kids again don't eat much)

As for us, we cook a LOT of our own meals... we eat lunch in the parks most days, but that's it... we have groceries delivered & we eat breakfast & all but 1 or 2 dinners in the room.... we go for 2 weeks at a time & only spend about 300.00 total on eating out. 2 adults & 2 children that don't eat much....

 

[JT40]

The first day we load up the fridge with lots of drinks, light breakfast fare, snacks, etc. Each day, we eat in once, fastfood once, and one nice meal out. We spend a little over $100 a day and no one has to slave over a hot stove! (2 adults & 2 teenage boys)
As a vacation club member you can eat in as much or as little as you want. I love choices.

 

[shelbyjosh]

We prefer to eat in the room as much as possible. DH gets extremely tired of Disney food. We usually have a good breakfast (not just cereal!!) before we go out for the day. We try to get back for dinner, but if not no big deal. When we went in March, we spent $95 at Publix and ate good. I think we ate out maybe 5-6 meals that week. Our dinners down there are not as "fancy" as home, but we get a better variety than what WDW offers. It kills me to pay $2 for a 2 liter of Diet Coke at OKW when I can pay $1 (and no bottle deposit ) at Publix.

 

[Mic]

We do a combination of eating out and eating "in". We always do breakfast in the room(cereal, oatmeal, bagels, and fruit are our favorites)except for an occassional special breakfast(Cinderella's or the BW bakery). We always do at least 1 meal out a day, usually lunch at our favorite restaurants(Tony's, Teppanyaki)and a quick dinner in the room. My kids really like not having a dinner reservation to get to, especially if they don't want to get out of the pool, turn the tv off, etc. I used to make priority seating arrangements for lunch and dinner (before DVC) and we cancelled dinner a lot. If my husband does not go to WDW with us, we rent a studio to save points, and we can still do dinner in the room. We order pizza and salad from the takeout window at BW one night, we have spaghetti and Ragu sauce with a salad and fruit one night, we fix soup and sandwiches one night...nothing fancy that requires a lot of preparation but just enough after a busy day in the parks and a big lunch. My kids are 7-12 years old, and 2 meals out a day would be a waste of $$ and time. I take all non-perishables with me(we usually drive), and a small cooler with cream cheese and cold cuts in it, then I only have to purchase milk at OKW or BWV. I have found packing the food in a box instead of bags travels better, and for shorter trips(3-4 days)I pack it all in a big collapsible cooler that zips up, and still take the smaller one for cold items. I keep saying that I will pack my crock pot and use it, but I never do. I do take a small rectangular slow cooker, a collander that fits inside it perfectly(tupperware is a wonderful thing), and a small microwaveable dish and a cheap set of real silverware to use for the spaghetti and soup, and that is usually enough.