A park week in Orlando is wonderful and exhausting. By the time everyone is back at the vacation house, the children are melting down, the adults are starving, and the nearest restaurant has an hour's wait. This is how we plan a week of dinners for an Orlando park trip so that never happens.
Start with the park schedule
Before we write a single menu, we ask which days are park days, which are pool days and which nights you are staying for fireworks. Park days call for dinners that are ready the minute you walk in. Pool days get the slower, more festive meals: a grill night, a pasta night or a long brunch. Fireworks nights get a lighter, later supper.
Time dinner to the drive home
Most vacation homes in Kissimmee, Davenport and ChampionsGate are a short drive from the parks. We ask for a single text when you leave, and the chef finishes dinner to your arrival. Braises, roasts, casseroles and large pans of pasta hold beautifully, so nothing dries out if the parking lot takes longer than planned.
Two menus, one table
Children who have spent the day on rides want food they know, while adults want something that feels like a vacation. So we cook both: mac and cheese, buttered noodles, chicken and fruit for the children, and a proper dinner for the adults, served at the same time at the same table.
A sample park-week menu
- Arrival night: BBQ pulled pork, baked beans, pineapple coleslaw and soft rolls
- Park day: roast chicken, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, green beans and a large salad
- Park day: blackened grouper or shrimp, coconut rice and grilled vegetables
- Pool day: a late brunch, then burgers and hot dogs on the grill
- Fireworks night: a cold supper of sandwiches, fruit, pasta salad and cookies, ready whenever you return
- Last night: bacon-wrapped filet, truffle roasted asparagus and key lime pie on the pool deck
Breakfast before early entry
If you are aiming for early park entry, breakfast at 6:30 a.m. is a genuine gift. A chef can have eggs, fruit, yogurt parfaits and coffee out at the time you set, with snacks packed for the car. Alternatively, we can stock the refrigerator before you arrive so breakfast takes five minutes.
What it costs
Family-style dinners start at $57 a person plus food, with a $830 minimum per dinner. For the whole week, a vacation chef is $1,250 a day plus food. See the After-the-Parks Dinner, our Orlando page, or send us your dates.
Tell us about your table
Send us the date, your guest count and the occasion. We reply the same day with menu ideas and a quote.