Buying Groceries at Walt Disney World

If you’re visiting Walt Disney World, and want to save money on food, or your children or family members like having familiar foods, or someone in your party has special dietary needs, what are your options? Well, Walt Disney World resorts and parks have a wide variety of foods available in their restaurants, food courts, and counter service areas, and there’s more focus on healthy options, and alternatives to high allergy ingredients than ever before.  But, if you have a youngster…or even a fellow adult…who will only eat a particular brand of hot dogs or chicken nuggets, or who genuinely prefers a peanut butter sandwich to most other lunch offerings, there are ways to meet those needs, without necessarily breaking the bank.

• Bring Groceries With You – If you’re driving to Orlando, and have the car space, you can bring along your favorite groceries, or at least pick them up at a grocery store close by. (WalMart, Super Target, Publix, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s are all in the area). This option does mean a delay in reaching your resort, but may be worth it.
• Buy On Disney Property – If you’re only looking for snacks, and maybe some sandwich fixin’s, you’ll be able to find these (including fruit) in the resort gift shops or food courts, or if you’re staying at the Swan & Dolphin, or Disney’s Boardwalk Inn, or Yacht or Beach Club, you can reasonably walk to a Hess gas station that will also have some snack and small grocery items. The downside to this is that if you don’t have your own car or a rental car, you’ll be walking and carrying groceries back.
• Rent a Car or Call Uber – If you flew in, and took advantage of Disney’s Magical Express, you can rent a car or you can call a cab (information will be at the resort front desk), or call Uber car service. In the case of a taxi or Uber, you’ll be paying by the mile and the minute, and remember that you’ll want the drivers to wait for you while you’re in the store, so it would be best to have a plan of attack. This can be hard to do at an unfamiliar store, or one simply away from home which may have an unfamiliar layout.
• Order Groceries for Delivery – There are several services in the Orlando area from which you can order grocery items to be delivered to your resort. Generally speaking, these groceries are delivered to the front desk, who will store them (refrigerating necessary items) until you are in your room and ready to receive them, and will even deliver them to your room on request (be sure to tip cast members who deliver to your room!).  The best known of these services is Garden Grocer. It is recommended that you go to the Garden Grocer website 60 days prior to your trip (this will save you 10%, and ensure that you can get a delivery day and time that will work with your trip). There’s a $40 minimum requirement, and delivery charges are $14 for orders from $40 t0 $199, or $2 for orders $200 or more.

Have you ever bought groceries for your stay at Walt Disney World? What are your favorite tips and tricks? If you’d like more information about staying at Walt Disney World on a budget, I’d be happy to talk to you about that, and help you find the very best value for your magical vacation.

I’m Jeri and I’m a Disney Addict!  I’m also an Independent Travel Magician with World of Magic Travel Services, the preferred agency of Chip and Co. and Disney Addicts! Contact me for a free quote, and 100% free-to-you travel planning services – jeri@worldofmagictravel.com.

Let our friends at Destinations to Travel help you book your next Disney Vacation. They are the preferred Travel Agency of Chip and Company and Disney Addicts, and who we use ourselves.

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