Anybody cook in their room?

[SL6827]

This could start to be more common in the future with the rise in prices, regardless if its allowed or not. (as in a regular room, not a DVC unit)

 

[mjkacmom]

No, never occurred to me. I actually dislike eating in a hotel room, but sometimes it needs to be done. There are many tasty options that don’t need to be cooked. To me a hotel room is just a bedroom/bathroom, I don’t eat in my bedroom and a bottle of water would be the only thing id consume. Our annual vacation is a very large beach house with over a dozen people, I don’t mind cooking for all in my big kitchen.

 

[_19disnA]

In a hotel room .....never. There isn't any type of kitchen and most of the 'refrigerators' in the room are only good for beverages and not anything I would trust to keep perishable items cold. There aren't dishes or silverware in any hotel room we have ever stayed at. Bathroom sink would be the only place to wash the dishes. The hotels also discourage heating appliances since they can become a fire hazard. Do you really want to bring cooking appliances with you on vacation? In the past when we stayed at various timeshares that did have a kitchen, we mostly ate breakfast in the room. By the time you buy/prepare/cook things for a complete meal it just wasn't practical from a cost/timing standpoint. Buying the seasonings, side dishes, etc. and then only using them to make one meal was just too much of a hassle.

 

[DisneyOma]

We drive most of the time, so I bring my electric kettle. I bring my own bagels and run them through the toaster at the food court if it is close. I do have a little toaster, but I don't like the idea of using it in the room anymore, so it has stayed home the last two trips. But we eat oatmeal, poptarts, bagels, etc. for breakfast most of the time, and we've had leftovers be just fine in the fridge for one night. Now our fridge gets filled with water bottles for the most part, but we bring a cooler and there's plenty of ice available in the ice machines to keep stuff cold.

 

[jo-jo]

We have dvc, so even in a studio you can do some cooking. Not meal meals, but it's still food. We've gotten the chicken meal from P&J, and had leftover chicken . Shred chicken , add some BBQ, heat , put on a wrap, add cheese. Brought noodles and sauce packages. Cook noodles, add left over chicken. And of course breakfast, either frozen sandwiches or things to pop into toaster. Or make toast, while bread is still warm add slice ham and cheese, put in microwave for about 20 secs.

There are times, we come back to the room late afternoon and just don't feel like going out again even for food. I would never go to disney with nothing more in the room but sugar packets and coffeemate.

And we are no longer "spring out of bed, grab a poptart and head in out in 15 mins" type people. We are more, "take 20 mins just taking inventory of aches and pains, in case we gained more during the night" people.

 

[DVC Sue]

We buy frozen meals like family size lasagna and heat dinner up sometimes.

 

[Goldilocks07]

Anybody cook in their room? Do they still have that fridge swap deal? I haven’t been on the DIS board in years. Any new ways to cook in your room?

We do! FWIW, we stay in DVC rooms- clearly the one-bedrooms have a kitchen. BUT, we stay in studios- NO kitchen. There is a mini fridge, sink, toaster, coffee maker. Also, we drive, which makes a huge difference in prepping food.

I totally get maximizing park hours, but we roll on a different schedule, which works for us- we sleep in, and hit the parks between 10/11 am, and then come home late (for us) around 8/9pm, so we are WIPED OUT and zero interest in siting at a restaurant after a long day.
That being said, I actually make food the night before arriving at WDW. When back from the park, I heat in the microwave what I can, and bring fresh fruits/vegetables to add to the meal. (Fresh herbs, avocado, apples, grapes, etc). Also, I brought an electric griddle, knife from home, and a mixing bowl. For breakfast we had toast, I made eggs on the griddle, and also brought a plug in mini waffle maker (mickey shaped of course!).

Making food in the room, as annoying and complicated and "un-vacationy", it has saved me a fortune in spending, time, and honestly, disappointment. We normally eat out at WDW, but the food has been such a let down this past year (we've been 4 times already), we decided to just eat leftovers at night. We are tired after an all day park or two, and don't want an expensive crappy meal to finalize a wonderful Disney day.

 

[Goldilocks07]

We have dvc, so even in a studio you can do some cooking. Not meal meals, but it's still food. We've gotten the chicken meal from P&J, and had leftover chicken . Shred chicken , add some BBQ, heat , put on a wrap, add cheese. Brought noodles and sauce packages. Cook noodles, add left over chicken. And of course breakfast, either frozen sandwiches or things to pop into toaster. Or make toast, while bread is still warm add slice ham and cheese, put in microwave for about 20 secs.

There are times, we come back to the room late afternoon and just don't feel like going out again even for food. I would never go to disney with nothing more in the room but sugar packets and coffeemate.

And we are no longer "spring out of bed, grab a poptart and head in out in 15 mins" type people. We are more, "take 20 mins just taking inventory of aches and pains, in case we gained more during the night" people.

Exactly what I was saying. SAME.

 

[sdoll]

I do. I pack an electric skillet and make pancakes, eggs, etc. I have warmed up precooked bacon and sausage too. We love to travel and if we can save some money without stinking the place up we will. Doing this allows us to splurge on a dinner of choice.

 

[OppR2nist]

Probably not the best thread to watch while I'm binging Breaking Bad.

 

[maxiesmom]

Hopefully those who cook in their rooms have great insurance, or don't care if Disney decides to take their cooking appliances if they happen to do a room check.

 

[kathy884]

I'm one who gets tired of eating out all the time very quickly and usually don't feel like eating out after a busy park day. You don't get early entry, but there are great deals on offsite condos and apartment hotels in Orlando. When I want cooking facilities for a short stay and just have two or three people, I love love love the Marriott Residence Inn SeaWorld. If I am staying for a full week and have more people, I often stay in timeshare condos -- Cypress Pointe and the Sheraton Vistana resort come to mind as two I stay in quite often.

Given Disney hotel prices even throwing in a rental car or uber/lyft transportation costs, condo or apartment hotel are very often less per night than a Disney value.

I hear you though OP, eating out at Disney when staying in a Disney hotel gets really pricey, really fast and these days too, I really prefer not to eat more than one meal out per day (preference and much more budget friendly and much healthier).

The nice thing about the Marriott Residence Inn is that a buffet breakfast is included and they have a nice (moderately priced) bar area where you can order food too and have a nice balance between cooking and doing take out food (It's my go to place in Orlando for short stays).

I'm not a huge fan of cooking in a hotel room due to limited table space, finding a place for trash, etc. I like the frig and microwave for left overs and snacks though and have heated those up and eaten them in the room. Again a condo or apartment hotel is a big step up and so much more comfortable.

I'm going to Paris before Disneyland Paris next year with DS who is a really picky eater. In Paris proper I'm spending the extra dollars for an apartment hotel. It will just be a studio, but have a little table and chairs, microwave, frig (bigger than mini), cook top, dishwasher, sink, and counter space. Looking at restaurant prices in Paris it looks to me like I will actually come out ahead splurging on the apartment hotel as we'll do most dinners in and breakfasts in. I expect to have most lunches out, being out and about. We're doing four nights in Paris, followed by three nights Disneyland Paris and then we head for Belfast for a few nights (rare European trip for us).

 

[NOLA_Tink]

Nope. Lingering food scents in a room are yucky and Mickey Waffles bring me too much joy to skip. My kids love yogurt tubes, Lunchables, and fruit, but those aren't stinky.

 

[WalkingintheFog]

I always travel with a kettle w/ auto shut off, so I can have my hot cup of tea morning and night, have on occasion used it for porridge or insta-noodles. …

I always bring down my tea, several portions of cereal/insta-noodles/Quaker oatmeal, as well as some Becel & PB or PB2.

I will do grocery run for bagged salad, milk, yogurt, a few hard boiled eggs, deli sliced cheese & meat, apples & grapes, bread or crackers or naan …..oh, and beer….. Never forget the beer!

Not hot meals, but pretty satisfying… and I have sometimes let a hard boiled egg sit in hot boiled water to reheat!

Renting points for a DVC studio, comes with toaster and microwave as well, which opens more possibilities, Bacon/egg in micro on toast, Rice with veggies & some store bought rotisserie chicken. Pasta & Spaghetti sauce & veggies can all be prepped in the microwave.

I like to control what I eat when I can, it’s just too easy to grab food of low nutritional value the whole day.
… and face it, I know darn well every MK day includes a mickey icecream sandwich and every EP day during F&W means eat from one end of the park to the next.

 

[hsmamato2]

most hotel rooms have a coffeemaker which=hot water which (to me at least) = oatmeal for breakfast,hot coffee or tea whenever,could even do ramen noodles for the kiddos at night with hot water....

 

[kevtlas]

We’ve cooked in our 1 or 2 bedroom villas a couple times, but other than that, not really. We do normally have some convenience items for breakfasts in the room or maybe throw some sandwiches together for a quick meal or two.

 

[Micca]

ALSO... there are no regular coffee pots in the values and moderate resorts, just single-cup brewers, so there's no way to heat up a coffeepot of water and make hot dogs!

I had forgotten about the hot dogs leebee!
What a tempest in a teapo...er coffeepot that was!

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

Yogurt , fruit , lunch meat are good quick options.

 

[snikki]

I wouldn’t bank on using your beverage cooler to keep anything perishable cold and safe. The beverages coolers barely keep anything cold. Well the one I had at CSR anyway. I put protein shakes and juice in there and they were not cold. At all. Luckily we drink our water room temp so that was fine.

If you want to cook in your room get a one bedroom villa. We really liked having a studio two trips ago. The toaster and microwave really came through for us for breakfast and leftovers. This trip I bought a few things for breakfast and I had to toss the milk, OJ and butter since it was barely cool. We ended up only eating breakfast in the room once. It worked for us since we preferred Starbucks sandwiches, sleepy hollow fruit waffle and Mickey waffles. Not crazy expensive for two people and a nice break from RD craziness (on the days we did RD).

 

[kanerf]

You could easily bring in an air fryer and use that for cooking.