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!
Just ordered from garden grocer. It seems as easy as you explain. I tried amazon fresh first, but as mentioned above, it said it couldn’t deliver to our resort’s zip code.
Thanks for the tips!
Hi Tom, I asked a question in your discount blog the other day. I couldn’t find this topic for groceries this year. Finally found it. We always use your tips, tricks and suggestions. Thank you very much. We have sent several to you guys blog and they love it too.
BTW, Happy Anniversary!
Thanks!
Tom
Used garden grocer on last trip. Arrived at hotel and went straight to park.got back in evening and found out grocery order had been placed in our room by bell services. They even put the cold items in the fridge
We just had Publix deliver grocieries and beer to our room in Caribbean Beach. It cost $7 and they delivered within one hour of ordering. Much more variety and a fraction of the cost of garden grocer. 5 stars for Publix!
Thank you! I will look into this. Were they able to deliver to the bell hop?
I think you mussed the most economicalnobe, Safeway. First time users spending at least 50 get free shipping and the pricing is barely (if at all)marked up.
Does Garden Grocer deliver to Disney’s Contemporary resort and Bay Lake Tower as well? I wasn’t sure since they’re also conference resorts as well.
I am cracking up! Synders totally makes the best stuff, and they make the honey mustard and onion flavor in Gluten Free too.
Has anyone every ordered from Garden Grocer and can attest to their Gluten Free selection? Poking about their website, I don’t immediately see a section with Gluten Free items?
I just placed my order there and we are a GF family. If you search for Gluten Free, all of their options will come up. Not a huge selection but it will get the job done. Have a great trip!
We just returned from Disney World and we used Grocery Stork. They were amazing. Even was able to add things on a couple of days before we got there with no additional delivery fee. Matt at Grocery Stork took very good care of me and went above and beyond to make sure we had everything we needed. I believe they even deliver to non Disney properties. Wouldn’t use anyone else!
We just spent a week at Disney and this is my opinion on your best option for supplies. When you arrive, get an Uber ride to the nearby Walgreens. They have a good selection of grocery items including produce, snacks, sandwich stuff, and microwavables. They also have a full liquor, beer and wine selection. Get plenty of water because a small bottle is $3 at every store in Disney. While your at Walgreens there is a ton of fast food and sit down restaurants in walking distance so you can save a lot if you want to get a meal while your out of the park. There are Uber cars everywhere around Disney and it literally took maybe three minutes from the time of ordering a ride to when they showed up. Total round trip with tips was about $23 which is much cheaper than a taxi and cheaper than buying Grocery items on Disney Property. Feel free to ask me any questions if this is your first time because I know I would have saved some money if I had known a few things! [email protected]
Hi,
I was wondering how you go about getting an uber from Disney to go grocery shopping?, my family and I are travelling from the UK in October and I would like to get some groceries for our rooms, the usual beer, water, snacks etc, will the UK uber app work in Disney? As this seems to be the best and cheapest way of getting groceries.
InstaCart will do your shopping for you at either Publix, Whole Foods, or Costco. The first time your order is free. They deliver within 2 hours and they do deliver to WDW resort hotels. I just used them, my order was $25-$30 & it was a good experience. They delivered to the bell desk at my Disney Resort (Pop Century) and from there I could pick up at bell desk or have bell desk deliver to my room. The selection from Publix (the local grocer) is best, very extensive. Hope it works out for you. Let me know if you need help. 🙂
Did you check out Garden Grocer
I have tried to order some items from Amazon Pantry/Fresh but I get a message saying they don’t deliver to that zip code – 32830. I had a “chat” with both Disney World and Amazon and neither could give me any solution. What address/zip code did you use to order?
I had the same issue with the resort address but had no problems with Amazon prime now although I was not able to get the bananas that I wanted on prime now.
Same issue, Amazon cannot deliver to resort! Took me two hours on the phone to figure it out!
I ordered my groceries from instacart & used zip code 32830. Fortunately, I did not have any problem at all. I wanted to tell you that when I went down to the bell desk (Pop Century) to collect my order I saw a delivery guy unloading a huge amount of groceries onto a massive cart. I waited for him to wheel the cart over to the bell services desk, thinking my order might be in the mix, but the entire load was amazon. It was a really huge amount of groceries for various guests of the hotel. I witnessed the amazon delivery. There has to be a way, did you call the hotel directly to ask?
A lot of excellent advice, and one that I will be in need of on my next trip in September(I just got back from an overnight in Orlando two weeks ago). I will be staying at a Fort Wilderness campsite this time, so barring the fire ban still being active, I will be cooking a couple of my own meals(maybe a Moroccan seasoned steak with fire roasted vegetables and grilled naan, or something like that) and will need to order groceries. I thought about bringing them from home with me, but truth be told, it is probably more hassle than it is worth. I am a prime member, but getting my proteins and adult beverages will require Garden Grocer.
Trying to decide about stopping at a grocery store on our way in from the airport, or getting groceries from Garden Grocer. If I was to stop at a store, which is the most convenient?
Publix is just in kississimmee which is 1-92 or irlo Bronson it’s only 10 minutes from French quarter. They have a good selection and alcohol also.
You can also look at InstaCart. They do your shopping for you at either Publix, Whole Foods, or Costco. The first time your order it’s free. They deliver normally within 2 hours and they do deliver to WDW resort hotels. I have used them here in TX and plan on using them when we go on our trip in December to get groceries.
We are from Canada and will be staying at the cabins in fort wilderness. We are looking into getting groceries for our family and are wondering how it will work? How far in advance do we order our groceries? Where do they get delivered to? Just wondering how it all works?
Thanks
We’ve used the Prime Pantry option twice now. It’s nice for us as our kids are both picky and light eaters. We’ve gotten Goldfish crackers, granola bars, etc which are perfect for between meals and we’re not wanting to spend a fortune on snacks in the parks, that are likely to go half eaten anyway. Plus ordering a pack of bottled waters and some Mio (or like brands) flavor enhancers makes it super easy to refill in the park for free.
What did you use for delivery address? Amazon Pantry won’t recognize 32830 (Lake Bueno Vista) as being in their delivery area.
“While a banana isn’t actually quite $5, there is a substantial markup on everything in these shops.”
“I mean, it’s one banana, Michael… What could it cost, ten dollars?” (sorry, couldn’t resist…)
Forget Mickey Mouse, Disney needs to acquire the rights (including theme park AND animation) to Mr. Bananagrabber! 😉
We used Dizzy Dolphin Delivery for our trip in January of 2017. They are a great CUSTOM delivery service to Central Florida and Disney Vacationers. They will get whatever you want and DDD specializes in Organic, Gluten Free, Beer/Wine/Alcohol. Special occasion cakes, Welcome Gift Baskets or Personalized Gift Baskets. They do it all. You can find them on Facebook. We are planning on using them again on our next trip!
Thanks for the heads up on this service. I had never even heard of them until yesterday. Now I guess we have something new to test on our next trip! 🙂
I used Instacart for during our December trip and it worked great. They can get stuff for you from Publix, Costco and ABC. I did Publix and had zero issues. Texted me once they started shopping, once they were done and once they got to the hotel. Best part is that i found a bunch of discount codes online and got $70 worth of groceries for $35!!
Oh by the way, there was no delivery charge as such, regardless of if I had the discount codes or not.
Hi Tom and Comment-ers: Thanks for the practical, healthy and money-saving information. Now, I am the kind of person who will get creative and prepare meals while on vacation (oh, the things I could make with one of those electric tea-kettles in my college dorm!), but I am wondering if the mini-fridges in Disney hotel rooms are adequate for refrigerating perishable items over the course of a week. I have elsewhere seen them referred to as just “beverage coolers”. In your experience, is it safe to keep milk or even meat in these over several days? Thanks for any guidance you can offer!
My hubby and I just got back this week from WDW and were able to store jam and cream cheese in the mini fridge in the hotel for a week without incident. They both stayed nice and cold. The door of the mini fridge was large enough to hold a full bottle of wine as well, if that gives you an idea of the height capacity of things that can be stored. Hope that helps!
Thanks!
Unfortunately Garden Grocer now only delivers to the official Disney Resorts. They will not deliver to Disney Dolphin & Swan or any of the other “non-Disney area” hotels. Disney Dolphin & Swan will not accept or hold grocery deliveries from any of the delivery services available but as far as I know most of the delivery services (not including Garden Grocer) will deliver to all the resorts and hotels in the area.