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 just to order a case of Coke from Amazon Prime. We are staying at the Boardwalk Villas, Is Disney going to charge me 10.00 to accept the delivery? it hardly seems worth it to order if they are going to charge and I am only ordering one itemCheryl
We used fairytale personal shopper for our trip in May no hidden fees no mark up just cost of groceries plus $20. Garden grocer I found out up charges milk yo $5.19 a gallon plus delivery!!!
Recommend get highly she smalso does gift baskets and personal shopping at the parks I believe!!
We are Amazon Prime members. It seems that Prime Now is adding more items every day. At this point would they become your number one choice? We are going in February and this will be our first time using grocery delivery. Staying at Kidani, if that matters. Thanks!
Last year when I tried to order on Amazon Pantry and have it delivered to the Polynesian, the website calculated my delivery date two weeks after we were to arrive. I had to call Amazon and cancel our order. It was a huge mess. Did I miss something? We are going again this year and staying at the Contemporary. I would love to use Amazon Prime, but I’m a little gun shy this time.
@Brook
You need to use Prime Now, which is a totally different service from Prime Pantry. Prime now is same or next day delivery (within a 2 hour window).
If you’re not actually staying at the resort, will bell services still be able to hold it? We stay at Shades of Green, which requires ID to get to and just generally makes life more difficult for those not staying there. We’re at the Poly at least twice a day though, so if it’s possible to have Bell services hold our deliveries that would be amazing. If not, I suppose I could time it to meet them in the lobby for Prime Now. Does anyone know?
Can I get a Prime Now delivery to the Swan/Dolphin? We won’t be arriving til 11:30 pm and I was hoping to get a late delivery that night. The only perishable items I was going to get would be yogurts and maybe some salami.
I can confirm that bell services at the Swan would NOT accept a Prime Now delivery (At least according to the delivery driver). Thankfully we were already at the hotel when the driver arrived and my husband was able to run down and meet him at the entrance. I loved being able to order a 4 pack of monsters, ready to drink protein shakes, bananas, yogurt, and a snack pack of salami and cheese. I didn’t end up needing the bottled water I ordered since the Swan provides 2 bottles per day.
So I’ve used Garden Grocer before and they were great. But I just tried them again and it seems like they have a LOT less items available. And their website isn’t user-friendly at all.
Strange, I really remember it being a positive experience.
Note that your WeGoShop link above is wrong. We’ve used them and had a great experience. It’s more flexible than the other options. You basically give someone your grocery list and specific instructions (if they don’t have this, get this, etc..).
Hi Tom! Can you tell me if you’ve ever had groceries delivered in Tokyo?
We’re looking at doing Tokyo Disney in January, and I’m also keen to do 50/50 with healthy / yummy foods … and being sensible with money! 🙂
Very true now a days its getting harder to go to the outlets which are available for the grocery shopping due to our very tight schedule. So, in this case online grocery shopping is the best option to have and with the same concept gmart.com.sg has came up and also enjoy the 10% discount for its first time customer’s with free shopping
Will Disney be able to receive a package that contains alcohol for me? Amazon Prime Now gave me a tag that said it will require ID upon delivery. I’m curious if the bell service would be able to receive the package or I would need to be present during the delivery time.
We used Amazon Pantry last year when we visited Disney. Please know that if you have groceries delivered to your resort, Disney will charge you for that convenience. I had to pay $10 for one box before I could get it.
It wasn’t left at Bell Services, either, so I had to wait for someone from Bell Services to get over there to pick it up and deliver it to my room.
Just returned from Disney and stayed at Pop Century. I never would have thought to have groceries delivered had I not read this site! We compared prices and Amazon Prime was WAY WAY cheaper than Garden Grocer which seemed so expensive and much cheaper than buying at the resort, so we went with Prime. Prior to leaving on our trip, I made a list of must haves for our room. ( I brought the non-perishable snacks in my carry-on luggage.) I then went on the site and placed all the items I wanted in my cart. When we landed at the airport, I ordered it! Have your resort address and phone number handy! Because we landed in the morning and we were not going to be able to check in until 3 pm, we were still able to order it. It is automatically delivered to the front desk and they store it. (So, unlike your luggage which is delivered to your room if you’re using Disney Express, you must pick up your groceries at the main desk of your resort.) All refrigerated items are delivered in a cold pac! We ordered a gallon of milk, fresh fruits, breakfast bars and yogurts for breakfasts in our room (saves time and lots of money). We added in some cheeses and soft drinks as well as bottled waters. We received a text message when the items were delivered! On a side note, if you want alcohol you must be present upon delivery to show ID. The refrigerators are small, so we simply put a few drinks in and every time we took some out, we replaced with new. We had room for everything. I would use Prime again for sure! Easy, convenient, reliable and reasonable!
Hi Mary Jo,
We’ll be staying at Pop Century in January and it was great to hear that you had a good experience with your grocery delivery. We’re coming from Australia and I’m looking at using Instacart. Did Disney charge you to have the groceries delivered to and held by the front desk?
Thanks! Deni
Hey Deni, just be aware that you may have a problem with Instacart. I just tried to place an order from them but couldn’t because the billing address for my credit card is outside the US. And they don’t take PayPal or any other form of payment. I ended up going with the pricier Garden Grocer because that was my only option.
We can confirm that Walmart delivery is the worst experience ever.
We’re from Canada and the difficulty we had dealing with Walmart for just the ordering side of things was terrible! They cancelled our order twice because it appeared to be fraudulent. Even after talking to security and tech teams, the third time we were promised our order would go thru, sure, it went thru, but then the store declined to do the delivery to Pop Century.
Ya, ordering Pringles and orange juice delivered to a value motel in Orlando is a big fraudster move… And clearly asking too much.
Talked to the customer service team more time than we can count, we never received groceries.
We were staying for 10 days, wanted water and snacks, thought we’d try Walmart or target, being large companies, surely they can handle a couple of Canadians. Nope.
It was day 5 before someone actually said, you know what, it’s probably not going to work.
Most frustrating experience ever.
Wish we had just used garden grocer like the last time. Garden grocer may be more expensive, but they make sure you get your groceries.
If you’re an international guest, be prepared to be called a fraudster by the big chain stores. Stick with a company who can guarantee a hotel delivery.
Does Disney charge a fee to have groceries or packages delivered to the resort? Thank you!
What is the experience with Publix they also deliver to Disney
We are going to Disney in May & I kept hearing about garden grocers but I find their prices really high, Walmart has free pick up (no delivery) but prices were almost half. I will probably go the Walmart route.
I see today Wal-mart will deliver to Pop Century’s address. We arrive Monday and I’m going to try. $9.95 delivery fee but still good value.
What Walmart did you contact and to you know what disney resorts they deliver to?
Thanks for the useful information of online shopping, give more innovative updates.
I love Dizzy Dolphin Delivery, the best I have ever used over the years, More personal too
I keep having people recommend Garden Grocers, and say that the prices are not marked up a lot, but I am finding most items to be double what I see on other sites like instacart. Am I missing something? I realize their prices are a lot cheaper than what is at Disney, but $200 at Garden Grocers versus $100 at Instacart seems extreme.
Agreed!!! I live in the NYC metro area. Groceries are so cheap here. I find their items to be double of what I pay. I have used them twice, and they are extremely reliable, but the yogurt pricing is starting to rival the quick service at the resorts (coupled with the delivery fee and tip). I may try Amazon Now for out next tip.
an example…. Fresh Express Salad is $1.79 here (2 for $3). One bag was $5.79!!!
I used Garden Grocers in the past for Disney World (Orlando) grocery deliveries and their prices were obviously marked up for the service provided but not unreasonably. Their service has always been good. But recently I have gone online for an upcoming Disney World trip and found that their selection has gotten more limited (many items ordered before no longer available with no alternate similar option available) and their prices have gone through the roof (most items, over half of the items I am ordering, have gone up $1-$1.50 from a less than 2 years ago). I have read reviews on many sites and everyone recommends Garden Grocers but I am not sure that people are paying attention to what has happened to their prices. Compare prices from old orders to current prices and see.