Tips for Grocery Delivery at Disney World
Want groceries for your Walt Disney World vacation? Using a delivery grocery service is a money-saving way to get snacks and foods brought to your hotel. This post offers tips, info, and a comparison of Instacart, Amazon Prime Now, Walmart+ or Ubering to Target, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, or Publix. (Updated March 17, 2024.)
There have been a lot of big changes on the grocery delivery front in the last few years as new services have popped up and others have faded. As a threshold matter, grocery delivery is still allowed at Walt Disney World. Other rules and policies have changed regarding ECVs and luggage handling with the end of Disney’s Magical Express. However, nothing has changed with grocery delivery.
Hotels still allow bell services and the front desk to accept groceries (depending upon how they’re ordered/shipped), with the same procedures as before. We’ll discuss the specifics of that here, but suffice to say, we still strongly recommend getting groceries at Walt Disney World for an easy way to save time and money, among other things…
Grocery delivery has become more popular among Walt Disney World guests during the current ‘era’ of inflation, which has disproportionately impacted food costs. Menu prices at Walt Disney World were high before, but they’ve gone up even more in the last year. This is on top of everything else at Walt Disney World– prices have increased significantly across the board in the last couple of years. Just look at How Much Does a Disney World Vacation Cost?
Naturally, many visitors want to trim their trip budget down a bit, and food costs are one of the easiest ways without compromising the quality of the experience. We cover how to this in Top 14 Ways to Save Money at Walt Disney World in 2024, one of which is doing grocery delivery specifically for breakfast and snacks.
For one thing, there’s almost no opportunity cost to this. If you do grocery delivery and order Coke or other packaged snacks, they’re going to taste the same as the ones you buy at Walt Disney World. The only difference is they’re significantly cheaper. Same goes for fruits and vegetables, which are incredibly expensive in the parks, and taste no different from what you’d get at Walmart or Publix.
As for breakfast, it’s the weakest meal at Walt Disney World. By skipping breakfast at the food courts, you aren’t missing much–unless you enjoy powdered eggs and rubber bacon–by eating breakfast in your room. Put that savings towards better lunches and dinners!
We’d actually take that a step further and argue that replacing a counter service breakfast with in-room groceries can actually improve your Walt Disney World vacation. It’s easier and more efficient to do breakfast in your room, and having nutrient dense groceries in your room can give you a healthy, energizing start to your day.
All of this means that grocery delivery will not just save you money, but also time and headaches. Even if you don’t want to prepare full meals, we’d strongly recommend some basic snacks and simple items to tide you over so you can avoid the dinner-time rush crowds. Beyond doing grocery delivery, our single biggest dining recommendation right now is eating at off-hours. If you can eat breakfast in-room, take a snack with to the park, and eat “lunch” at 2 or 3 pm and “dinner” after 7 pm, you’ll save a ton of time and frustration.
Turning to logistics, it’s worth starting by noting that standard resorts at Walt Disney World have moved from regular mini-fridges to glass front beverage coolers, like what’s pictured above. These do not have freezers, and display a sticker on the outside indicating that they cool to 41 degrees and above.
As you can see in the photos here, we always get yogurt and cottage cheese as part of our grocery delivery orders. That might be playing with fire and is not a “best practice” for dairy, but we’ve never had any issues. We wouldn’t store raw steaks or eggs in these beverage coolers…but there’s also no reason to purchase either of those things since you’d have no way to cook them.
The absolute easiest way to buy groceries (aside from bringing them yourself in checked luggage) is to go to the gift shop in your Walt Disney World resort hotel. Every hotel has a limited selection of groceries, including refrigerated stuff. While a banana isn’t actually $10, there is a substantial markup on everything in these shops.
These items are still cheaper than buying prepared items in the parks, and it’s a nice option to have in a pinch, but you really shouldn’t expect to go “grocery shopping” at your hotel. It’s impractical from both a cost and selection perspective.
With that out of the way, let’s take a look at some of the best options for getting groceries at Walt Disney World, including Amazon, Walmart Plus, Instacart, nearby convenience stores or grocery delivery for inexpensive breakfast, beer, fruit, vegetables, and other things typically sold for a large mark-up by Disney…
Grocery Delivery
For those unfamiliar with grocery delivery services, the gist of the service is that you go on their website, order from a preset selection of groceries (you can also make special requests that they typically fulfill) at prices that are slightly marked up meeting a minimum dollar requirement for the order, they go to Publix or Whole Foods and pick up the items, and drop them off at your hotel. It’s basically what it sounds like: a personal grocery shopper.
Grocery delivery services takes the items you order directly to your hotel at Walt Disney World, leaving them with bell services (which refrigerates perishable items). For every resort stays at Walt Disney World in the last two years, we’ve used Walmart+ for grocery delivery. Walmart+ is basically the superstore’s answer to Amazon Prime. A membership to Walmart+ costs $98 per year or $12.95 a month. However, you can currently do a free 30-day trial to Walmart+ via Sarah’s referral link.
Our experiences with Walmart+ at Walt Disney World (and beyond) have all been top-notch. We really like the ability to track order progress in the app and receive real-time updates, which has enabled us to meet the driver to receive the order rather than having them leave it with bell services. (That’s just a matter of personal preference–we’ve also had orders dropped off when we were in the parks.)
One big recommendation we have with Walmart+ is to order a few days in advance. Order time slots can fill up, and you might have to pay surge pricing or choose an inconvenient delivery time if you order last minute. We’ve also had to do same-day orders for items we needed in a pinch, and it worked out fine–but it wasn’t ideal. (It’s also not always possible–we’ve seen slots totally full during holidays or hurricane season.)
There are several Walmarts that are convenient to Walt Disney World, so the service is pretty efficient. If you don’t have a Walmart+ membership, you can also just order from the store’s website or app and pay a delivery fee. Walmart+ is our #1 choice for grocery delivery at Walt Disney World as of 2024.
We’ve also used Instacart and have had positive experiences with that. In case you’re unfamiliar with it, Instacart is essentially a personal shopper service. You essentially browse the aisles of local grocery stores right from your phone. After placing an order, an Instacart shopper goes to the store and purchases your items and delivers them to you.
You can place an order from Publix, CVS, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits, or Whole Foods. We’ve only ordered from Publix (which is the grocery store in Florida, so that’s probably what you’ll want to use unless you just want booze), but the experience was good. All of the same upsides as Walmart Plus, just slightly more expensive. For $10 off your first Instacart order, here’s Sarah’s referral link.
At this point, Instacart would be our #2 grocery delivery pick after Walmart Plus.
Another similar option is Amazon Prime Now. When ordering via the app or Amazon.com, you can have items delivered within 2 hours if you have a Prime membership–there’s now a $9.95 delivery fee for items sourced from Whole Foods, and Amazon Fresh orders now have a sliding scale for delivery fees based on the cost of the order.
We’ve found that selection is more limited via Amazon Prime Now than Walmart Plus, and prices are generally higher–especially if you’re shopping at Whole Foods (but it’s probably obvious that Walmart is cheaper than Whole Foods). With that said, Amazon offers tens of thousands of daily essentials including numerous dry foods and perishable items like deli meat, pizza, cheese, bread, juice, etc.
Still, it’s Amazon, which is efficient and has a huge selection. That makes it #3 behind Walmart+ and Instacart.
Finally, there are the locally-owned and operated options. The top of this category is Dizzy Dolphin Delivery and Vacation Grocery Delivery. The former was established by Disney Vacation Club members and the latter was created by former Cast Members.
We’ve heard great things about both Dizzy Dolphin and Vacation Grocery Delivery from readers, friends, and even (current) Bell Services Cast Members on the ground at Walt Disney World. If you want the most reliable options, more dedicated customer service, or to support local businesses, these are almost certainly your two best options.
However, we’ve yet to use Dizzy Dolphin or Vacation Grocery Delivery. The big impediments for us are the premium pricing and delivery fees. I don’t doubt that both are fantastic, and having local teams that are experienced with Walt Disney World and the ins and outs of grocery delivery at the resorts certainly helps. But we’ve yet to have any issues with Walmart, Instacart, or Amazon (knock on wood)–and the cost difference makes those choices obvious for us. To each their own, though.
Another option worth mentioning is Garden Grocer, which was our go-to for about a decade (maybe more). We really want to keep recommending them since they’re locally owned and operated. However, the prices have skyrocketed and are not even remotely competitive with Walmart+ or Amazon. Garden Grocer also has more limited selection, and requires ordering further in advance.
We’ve also heard a growing number of mixed reviews for Garden Grocer in the last two years–something that never used to happen. As such, we no longer recommend Garden Grocer at all. We don’t not recommend them, we’re just indifferent to them. There’s no compelling reason not to use Walmart Plus, Instacart, or Amazon at this point.
In terms of what we order, carrots and grapefruit are go-tos for while we get ready, throwing a couple pieces of fruit in our bags to take to the park, and find this works really well. With a single banana, apple, or orange costing $2+ in the parks, this savings adds up quickly. It’s also probably better “natural” energy than the copious amounts of caffeine I consume on any given day at Walt Disney World, too. If you drink, another great money-saving use of grocery delivery is for beer; for less than the cost of a single beer in the parks, you can get a 6-pack!
Orders are delivered to bell services at your hotel within the delivery window selected. When we’ve used the service, I sign up to receive both an email notification and a text message (optional) when the goods arrived. Our delivery experiences have been flawless. Groceries are picked up from Publix, and cold items were separated out and refrigerated by bell services at the hotel (so be sure to tip them).
Walt Disney World is now charging a $6 per package handling fee for each package that is received through the front desk or delivered to your hotel room. Previously, this package fee only applied to resorts with convention centers, but it is being extended to all hotels.
The good news is two-fold. First, if you pick up your order from bell services, there’s still no fee (as that’s not the front desk); it only applies if the order is delivered to your room. Second, the fee is still far less than you can expect to pay on mark-up on groceries at Walt Disney World gift shops.
Other Ways to Get Groceries at WDW
Now, onto alternatives. There are some other grocery delivery services in Orlando, including Grocery Express, Kroger Grocery Delivery, and Shipt. If you have a membership to any of these, you probably already know how they work and have your favorite. If you don’t, there’s no point getting one for Walt Disney World.
If you have a rental car, you might just go to the grocery store yourself–unless you want to save time. Even if you don’t have a rental car, you might consider going yourself. Thanks to Uber, you can make a round-trip grocery run yourself for about $25-35 depending upon your Walt Disney World hotel, the store to which you go (see addresses below for closest location, and how long it takes you to shop.
For starters, use our Tips for Using Uber at Walt Disney World post as a primer if you’re unfamiliar with Uber. Next, when you request an Uber, make sure to contact the driver immediately and inform them that you’re doing a grocery run, to see if it’s okay with them. Drivers will more likely be okay with this if you tell them they can drive around the parking lot while they wait for you (drivers are paid in miles and minutes, so if they sit parked waiting, they won’t make much while you shop).
If you’re a Whole Foods enthusiast or move at the speed of Big Al in a grocery store, and plan to spend 60 minutes getting to intimately know the place, you might just have one driver drop you off and then request another to pick you up. Most drivers don’t mind passengers with groceries but, again, you might want to contact them to confirm (it doesn’t take a detective to deduce that a pick-up at a grocery store is going to have…groceries, though).
If you’re going to get groceries yourself, hit up Whole Foods (8003 Turkey Lake Road, Orlando, FL 32819), Publix (Regency Village Shopping Center, Vineland Avenue, Orlando, FL), SuperTarget (4795 W Irlo Bronson Memorial Hwy, Kissimmee, FL 34746) Target at Flamingo Crossings (204 Ruby Red Place, Winter Garden, FL 34787) or Trader Joe’s (8323 West Sand Lake Road, Orlando, FL 32819).
The Target at Flamingo Crossings is one of many stores in that new development that has recently debuted. This is a smaller store, but has a robust selection of groceries and booze (it primarily services College Program housing and area hotels). This is about 10 minutes from Coronado Springs, Animal Kingdom, or the All Stars. Although beyond the scope of this post, Flamingo Crossings is also an up-and-coming hotel district that we’d highly recommend. See our Guide to Flamingo Crossings: Walt Disney World’s Second Springs for more info & advice.
Another option if you don’t have a rental car and don’t want to pay for Uber or a taxi is to hit up the Speedway gas station that’s located within walking distance of the Swan & Dolphin, Disney’s BoardWalk Inn (just outside the parking lot), and Yacht & Beach Club. If you’re staying at the Swan & Dolphin without a car, this might be your best option as those two hotels no longer allow grocery delivery.
Selection is limited (…it’s a gas station), but if you need to stock up on air fresheners and Rockstar energy drink, this is the place for you. The selection isn’t quite that limited, and it’s actually a good, low-budget option. I would strongly not recommend doing this unless you’re staying at one of these hotels. You might look a little crazy carrying a bag of groceries on two separate buses en route back to your hotel, and frankly, you wouldn’t just look a little crazy doing that, you’d be a little crazy going through all that hassle.
Shipping things to ourselves from Amazon or Amazon Pantry has been another option that has worked for us, too. Amazon is great if you’re only looking for pre-packaged items. We’ve found beef jerky, energy bars, Starbucks VIA, and Gatorade mix packets to be some of the best things to get from Amazon. You might also want to check out what other snack items currently have coupons via Amazon. We have other suggestions in our What to Pack for Walt Disney World post.
In terms of the logical options, I think that about covers it. I say logical because there are likely some “out there” solutions like buying different snack items at each gift shop in World Showcase and spending $593 in the process, but that would defy logic. If you don’t want to spend your limited time going on grocery runs, Amazon, Walmart Plus, and Instacart are all good options. Alternatively, those with a rental car or willingness to use Uber and an extra hour or so to spare might consider going to one of the many grocery stores located about 10 miles off-site.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? If you’re interested in learning more about hotels, our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page is a good place to start. For where to eat, try out our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews page. If you want to save money on tickets or determine which type you should get, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at unconventional things you should take on your trip. Once you arrive at the parks, our Walt Disney World “Ride Guides” are great for determining what to do and when to do it. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
How do you get groceries at Walt Disney World? What are your favorite items to order when you have groceries delivered to you? Have you had any positive or negative experiences with the grocery delivery services? We love to hear from readers, so if you have any thoughts or questions, post them in the comments!
I have used Grocery Express at previous stays. I have a little one so I rent a stroller and get a coupon to Grocery Express. I find prices to be comparable however some items they didn’t carry. They delivered directly to Saratoga Springs and the hotel delivered to our villa and even offer to unpack for us. Another option is Amazon for those that have prime membership. The thing with Amazon is that I can’t never get quality fruits from them and the juice and snacks my kids like is limited. Delivery is free so that is a plus.
Wondering if it is good value when doing a small order just above $40. Only looking to get water, wine, beer and milk. How does garden grocer compare to the store on-site at Polynesian when you include 14 dollar delivery charge?
Or can you pick up these items easily off the highway?
Do you know if deliveries can be made to Fort Wilderness?
Yes! They even unpacked our cold items and put them in the fridge in our cabin. We’ve used them for four stays at the cabins now. I think they’re excellent!
Do you know if there is a service to deliver goods to a private villa in davenport?
After examining Google Maps of the area extensively, there appears to be a way by walking out past the tennis courts and bbqs between Jambo House and Kidani Village to cut through a series of parking lots on foot to get to a Publix. Now obviously it’s still not that close and carrying too many groceries on foot that far probably WOULD count as insane, but it looks like a possibility for a thrifty tourist staying at AKL who took Magic Express to pick up some things. No idea of the true feasibility of this idea since I’m still in the planning stages and may be grasping at straws, but I’m thinking it’s not a bad option if one arrived at the hotel before check-in time, but late enough to not bother with the parks on arrival day.
Hi,
Do you know if Amazon fresh delivers at Disney in Florida?
thanks!
Amazon Now has some fresh food options but are limited. Might be an option. I think I looked up the fresh last fall and it did not but may be an option now.
Can you book garden grocer 60 days in advanced if you don’t have a room number?
Do they take Travel Money cards or Foreign Credit Cards as i’m from Australia?
Thanks
Yes, you just give them your resort and they leave it with guest services. Not sure about the foreign credit card.
Hi,
I have used both garden grocer and grocery express and had equal service from both. If you are staying off property, garden grocer may not deliver to that area but grocery express does. Both had fabulous service and will be using garden grocer for our up coming trip and to send groceries to our daughter while she’s in the Disney college program.
I use the app Shipt.com. With the membership referral code QUIKEAT I get $10 off. It’s awesome!
Hey! Quick question about grocery delivery (Garden Grocer etc.)
Factoring in the delivery fee and tips, how much would you say you’ve generally saved? A banana at WDW is $1.99 vs. $0.49 on GG… but after delivery and tip averaged out on the remainder of your order, I wonder how much you’d actually save in the end. I’m interested to know if it’s worth it (we’re coming next month from Canada and our dollar has a poor exchange rate of $0.70 on the dollar– that’s an expensive banana!) Thanks 🙂
Hi JLC,
We used Garden Grocer for the first time last November. For my husband, myself and eight year old it was well worth the exchange rate and delivery fee. Cereal, milk, juice, snacks for the parks and of course some beer and wine coolers for the big kids. Saved us time in the mornings and we had snacks for the better part of the day. A nice sit down meal (late lunch/early dinner) once a day…it worked out really well for us.
Great info!! Your posts are so great! Even my hubby likes them Thank you for all your insight. It’s been really helpful as we head to WDW for our FIRST TIME EVER next month….
What is a fair tip for bell services when you pick up your grocery order?
Amazon Prime Now has recently started delivering to the hotels within the resort. This service is available to Prime members and delivers within 2 hours for free. If you want your order quicker than that you can pay 7 or 8 bucks to get it within 1 hour. They have a much wider offering of grocery items than the regular Amazon website, including milk, eggs, bread, etc.
Soo funny!
What about things like bowls for cereal, and utensils? Are they available at hotels? Do you have to order them with your groceries?
I suppose you could order these if you want, but you can get free disposable bowls and utensils from the hotel, if it’s a Walt Disney World resort hotel. I’m not sure about off-site hotels.
I did t know this! We’ll be staying at the Poly and are planning to do breakfast and some lunches in our room. Where do you get the paper bowls/plates and plastic utensils at the resort?
Thanks for a prompt reply! We’re staying at Beach Club so hopefully they’ll have them.
We used Garden Grocer in early April and were pleased. I liked that I could fine-tune the items in my cart over several days. We ordered chips, bread and pb&j for easy lunches, cereal and milk for breakfast, coffee cream, and some snackage. The prices were much inflated from where we live, but this more than made up for itself in about a meal at Disney.
The only thing I would add is that we also stayed at the Carribean Beach Resort, and just asked the bell hop to deliver the groceries, which they happily did for a small tip. I would normally not pay $14 for delivery plus another $15 in tips for groceries, but this really makes sense in Disney. It was wonderful to have nuts and apple slices available for healthy snacks between ice cream stops, and excellent to have cereal on hand instead of eating an overpriced carb-bomb muffin for breakfast. I would 100% use GG again.
was the refrigerator in the hotel strong enough and big enough to handle the milk
We use a service in our hometown called Shipt. The cool thing about it is that your membership travels with you. So any city that Shipt is currently active in you can use their grocery delivery service. They have been in Orlando since Sept ’15 and we plan on using them on our WDW trip this coming Fall. I verified with Ship that they deliver to Walt Disney World (they are extremely reactive to messages and have a live chat function on their website if anyone wants to reach out to them).
The way the service works is that you get an initial free two week trial and any order over $35 has no delivery fee. The markup on products is not bad at all-for every $30 spent you can expect to spend about $5 more dollars than you would if you had shopped yourself. They primarily shop through Publix (this is where they shop in Orlando) and have an app you can download to your phone where you shop via categories and they even have a sale page. You can shop in advance and add on to the order prior to it actually being shopped. You can request special items you don’t find on the site as well (the shoppers try very hard to accomodate these). You pick an hour time window where you would like your groceries to arrive (if you are staying on property you may want to ask a Shipt rep about grocery delivery to Bell Services where you don’t have to be present or arranging special delivery requests).
We tried another company called The Grocery Stork. We liked the look of their website better and their prices were lower when we compared orders. They would even add things to the website on request so we were able to get our kids’ favorite granola bars added for us. The only down side was that they don’t offer beer and wine, but we just made one quick stop to the gas station and got what we needed. All in all, we really enjoyed the service. And the goodie bag of chocolates didn’t hurt either. 🙂
Anyone tried Walmart Grocery yet? The website for this service reports that it delivers to the 32830 zip code for a variable fee depending on the time you want your stuff delivered.
You can use SHIPT now. It’s a grocery delivery service that will go to the local store (usually Publix), get what you’ve selected or put in your special request section, and deliver to you wherever you tell them (hotel, trunk of your car before you head home, outside a park). There is an annual fee so it makes more sense if you have it at home too but there is a $10 off your first order code (DISNEYWORLD).