Do you eat at your resort?

[trixie21]

We are visiting May 23-30 offsite. Our resort has full kitchen in our unit. Would you eat at the resort, eat out or at the parks? I know a lot of the dining in the parks is pricey but what are your opinions?
We are not getting park hoppers (trying to save a bit $) and will have a car.
Any feedback is appreciated

 

[fireworkz]

I usually do a mix of all three. Often the off-sites I stay in has to have at least microwave and fridge. This usually works out something like this:

Breakfast
Usually we eat just about all of our breakfasts in the hotel room. Picking up bread, cereal, juice, milk, fruit at the supermarket. Occasionally we change this up by eating breakfast at IHOP or Perkins (usually we go for this on days we're not going to the parks and the last morning on the way to the airport). Of course we allow for at least one character breakfast during the trip. Doing breakfasts in your hotel room works great as WDW doesn't have a lot of in-park breakfast options (other than the bakeries or expensive character breakfasts). It's also very convenient, and a time saver letting you sleep in a bit more and still get to the parks early.

Lunch
We will usually have lunch in the parks just because of timing. However you can save a lot of money by finding meals you (the adults) can share. If you have young children with you eating Disney's kids meals this will work out even better! The kids meals often have two sides and a desert, more than enough for them, with a bit extra leftover for the adults if sharing the meal didn't quite satisfy you. A tip, don't try to make sandwiches with deli meats and bring them to the park. Sure it saves money, but you're playing with giving your party food poising by carting around unrefrigerated meats in the Florida Sun.

Supper
My family usually takes a midday break from the parks starting around 2 or 3 pm with plans to return to the parks just before or after having supper (usually around 6 or so). On these days we will usually eat out at an offsite restaurant, unless we have made reservations at a WDW resort or park restaurant. When eating offsite again we (the two parents) will sometimes save by ordering one starter and one entree, sharing both, or by ordering one of the larger entree meals on the menu. I notice you're from Ontario. If sharing at first sounds cheap too you and would make the meals too small, keep in mind you're in the US, restaurants usually serve huge portions compared to most Canadian restaurants. When we eat in WDW through we order full meals each. We will eat in the hotel room some nights as well (especially the day we arrive), but seeing our room usually only has a microwave and fridge we usually will pick up something easy like a cooked rotisserie or BBQ chicken and salads at the supermarket or order a pizza.

The idea of our plan is we save some money, plus stop from gaining a few extra pounds of weight, but still enjoy ourselves. After all I'm on vacation and that means getting out of the kitchen as much as I can and enjoying some different food.

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

OK - so you're after saving $$ so the last thing you want to be doing is spending money on fuel to get from the park to your resort several times a day.

My advice - hit the supermarket on day 1 and stock up that fridge/freezer.

Have a large breakfast each day at your resort before going to the park. Take some fruit and snacks to have at lunch time. Make some ADRs now for your evening meal - ok so it means planning which park to spend which day at - big deal !!! Its worked for us when we stay offsite and it saves money

 

[sueuk]

When we stay offsite we stock up with breakfast stuff, snacks and drinks. We eat breakfast at our villa and take drinks / snacks with us when we go out. Lunch is eaten in the parks and dinner is either in the parks or at a restaurant on the way back depending on what time we leave. That way you can have a mix of meals / prices etc. We also sometimes get stuff in for a barbie one night.

 

[DecWDW]

We mainly do the breakfast thing at the resort. My one friend LOVES to cook breakfast when we're on vacation! Lucky me, right? It's also nice to have snacks, cold water or soda on hand too. Most of the time we eat in the park or DTD, but it's nice to have something in the room just in case we're too tired to go out or the weather gets bad.

 

[rsoxguy]

I have stayed at places with kitchenettes, but we have only used them to store non-cooking breakfast items, and late-night snacks. We generally prefer to relax on vacation and allow someone else to cook and serve.

 

[slappy magoo]

We are visiting May 23-30 offsite. Our resort has full kitchen in our unit. Would you eat at the resort, eat out or at the parks? I know a lot of the dining in the parks is pricey but what are your opinions?
We are not getting park hoppers (trying to save a bit $) and will have a car.
Any feedback is appreciated

Is your group the type of group that prefers taking breaks from the parks in the middle of the day, going back to your resort for a swim and/or a nap?

If not, one suggestion would be to consider making reservations for lunch at WDW, either in the parks or in one of the resorts. For instance, a day you're going to MK, consider taking the boat to Wilderness Lodge and have lunch at Whispering Canyon Cafe. A day you're going to Epcot, aside from all the great restaurants there, you could opt to walk out "the back door" to a restaurant at one of the Epcot resorts (Yacht Club, Beach Club, Boardwalk, Swan or Dolphin). Lunch is almost always cheaper than dinner, and most people staying onsite who are on the dining plan usually opt to use their table service credit for dinner because it represents more of a value. Not saying that getting lunch reservations will be easy, but it will probably be comparatively EASIER than dinner reservations.

So, have breakfast fixings in your room, cereal and toast or bagels and such. Bring fruit or snack bars with you to the park du jour. Have lunch at the parks or a nearby resort. Maybe a late afternoon snack. Then go have dinner offsite. Other days, you can mix it up by going back to your hotel for lunch and a nap, then head back to the parks, with a dinner there, be it table service or counter service.

The one thing I'd definitely recommend is, on days you go to MK, to try to stay there as long as possible. Getting from the car and the TTC to the MK and back again may be an enjoyable trip, but time consuming. You probably don't want to do it twice in one day. So whether you have lunch at the park, or take a bus/monorail/boat/walk to a resort and have lunch there, this will probably be a better use of your time.