Premade Thanksgiving Dinner

[Woodview]

We planned on going to Millers but we called and they said they were closed Thanksgiving day. It may have been a misinformed employee but he said Cracker Barrel is about all that is open. We actually pre-ordered the hot and ready Thanksgiving meal. It ended up being like $140 or so but it will feed our party of 12 and we get the comfort of eating (and drinking!) from our rental house. We are actually flying in at 6pm tomorrow, heading to pickup our meal, then going to the rental house. Heres to hoping for a hot dinner by 7:30 after 12 hours of traveling with 3 kids and 9 people.

Did you arrive in time .. & did you collect your meal ?

Was the meal good value for $ 140 ?

Did you go shopping afterwards ?

 

[linzjane88]

Did you arrive in time .. & did you collect your meal ?

Was the meal good value for $ 140 ?

Did you go shopping afterwards ?

It ended up being a bit chaotic getting in. Initially we were excited that we got in an hour early, 530pm, but soon we lost that half an hour and then some trying to get a rental car (lesson learned, continue using Alamo. Dollar stinks!). We went straight to Cracker Barrel to pick up our dinner which was already prepared and waiting. Parking was packed as was the deck surrounding the entrance with people waiting for a table. I was sooooo glad we were getting the food to go. The pickup process took maybe 15 minutes. The food was OK. If a homemade turkey dinner is rated at a 5 and a TV dinner a 1, then I would say maybe 3.5? I mean swinging in to grab an entire feast for 9 people after 12 hours of travel and eating from the comfort of our rental was worth it for sure. It was perfect for our particular situation. I must say though, the stuffing was not so good and there was a ton. Hardly anyone touched it. I'm not a fan of cornbread stuffing anyway but it was like gritty mush. The other sides were pretty good. All in all it worked well. Your options coming in on Thanksgiving are pretty limited especially for a large group. Although I do think I could have prepared a pretty good meal for just as many people with 140$...

After dinner we had some new energy within us to hit a few stores at the outlet, namely Victoria Secret and the Character warehouse. I4 traffic was no problem at 10pm when we were heading through but the parking, my goodness the parking. Every aisle had 2+ cars lurking like vultures ready to attack a spot. After 20 minutes we stalked someone through the parking lot who verbally gave us their spot and my cousin physically got out of the car and stood in it until I could get the car turned up the next aisle. It wasn't even a spot, just some prime real estate on the grassy median. I was thankful of my cousins inner New Jersey girl. I was initially shocked she did that but then thankful I got a stinking parking spot. Anyway, those particular stores offered no better sales than any other day so it wasn't worth the added chaos. I guess the Disney outlet has an extra 20%off a very limited few shirts and an extra 20% off a few Dooney bags which brought the Tinker bell satchel to $105 which was a good price.

It was an eventful night for sure!

 

[Woodview]

Thank you for the reply.

Good that it worked well .

It is a pity that other " posters" fail to give feed back on information given

 

[achang2001]

Thank you for the reply.

Good that it worked well .

It is a pity that other " posters" fail to give feed back on information given

Not sure if this was directed at me as the OP...
I ended up taking a day off from the parks and making a turkey (I bought the ingredients for my turkey brine and a brining bag), making a ham on the grill outside, and all sides—mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, rolls, gravy. Then I made Chinese porridge with the turkey carcass. Lots of work but I enjoyed preparing it and my family enjoyed eating it.

 

[Klayfish]

Thank you for the reply.

Good that it worked well .

It is a pity that other " posters" fail to give feed back on information given

Easy there, champ. Not everyone has had time. We were in WDW for the past 8 days and just got back last night. I checked in on the boards periodically, but didn't really have time to sit down and go through it.

We got our dinner from Publix. The package included the turkey, a large container of stuffing, large container of mashed potatoes, a container of gravy, container of marshmallow fluff, container of cranberry dressing. It's the third year in a row we've done this package, second year at the Publix near WDW (did it in '15 also).

I'd never say it was exactly as good as homemade, because it isn't. But for a quick and easy Thanksgiving meal while at WDW, it was spectacular. We spent Thanksgiving Day at HS and returned to the condo around 4:00pm. All we had to do was stick the stuff in the oven and let it heat up while we watched football. Ate dinner around 5pm and had a wonderful meal. We all sat around the TV, watched football, made jokes and just enjoyed relaxing together. I'm not a fan of the marshmallow "fluff" nor the cranberry, but the stuffing and mashed potatoes were very good...if a bit salty. Turkey was great.

This has become our "go to" Thanksgiving meal. Since it's just the 5 of us for Thanksgiving, we have no plans to cook a meal again...ever.

 

[linzjane88]

Easy there, champ. Not everyone has had time. We were in WDW for the past 8 days and just got back last night. I checked in on the boards periodically, but didn't really have time to sit down and go through it.

We got our dinner from Publix. The package included the turkey, a large container of stuffing, large container of mashed potatoes, a container of gravy, container of marshmallow fluff, container of cranberry dressing. It's the third year in a row we've done this package, second year at the Publix near WDW (did it in '15 also).

I'd never say it was exactly as good as homemade, because it isn't. But for a quick and easy Thanksgiving meal while at WDW, it was spectacular. We spent Thanksgiving Day at HS and returned to the condo around 4:00pm. All we had to do was stick the stuff in the oven and let it heat up while we watched football. Ate dinner around 5pm and had a wonderful meal. We all sat around the TV, watched football, made jokes and just enjoyed relaxing together. I'm not a fan of the marshmallow "fluff" nor the cranberry, but the stuffing and mashed potatoes were very good...if a bit salty. Turkey was great.

This has become our "go to" Thanksgiving meal. Since it's just the 5 of us for Thanksgiving, we have no plans to cook a meal again...ever.

We should do a taste test between Cracker Barrel and Publix
Edit :there was supposed to be a smiley. It seems creepy without it. Ha ha.

 

[Monykalyn]

I am now checking in hoping to help next years thanksgiving peeps. Agree with @Klayfish on his assessment of turkey dinner from Publix. We also got extra mashed potato sides (dinner came with tons of gravy) and picked up a green bean casserole. Lots of food and leftovers too. We actually picked it up Tuesday so we could do our meal that night-DD had to work next several days. Actual turkey day we did rope drop at MK ( parked so close we could have walked instead of tram). Got a lot done and left around noon. Pool in afternoon, resort Luau that night, with a gator land visit in afternoon (gatorland sent a rep with some creatures and short education on each-got to hold a baby gator!).

We had a great week.