Groceries at resorts vs. taxi to grocery store?

[Eden]

Hi All ~ Is it worth hiring a taxi for grocery shopping or is using the resort stores ok for bread, milk, wine beer? Thanks, Eden

 

[Justsyd2]

Resort store prices are less than hiring a cab to go to an off site store.

 

[deva]

Garden Grocer has a great selection and will deliver to your resort. I'd recommend them over both cab to store and resort shopping.

 

[Justsyd2]

Garden Grocer does charge a delivery fee, and has a minimum, so you're out $12.00 for delivery before the minimum and tip. The resort food isn't cost prohibitive at all.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

It depends a lot on which Resort you are at.

 

[Marleen2]

We're usually staying at OKW, and what we do is take a trolley bag, take the Disney bus to Downtown Disney (Marketplace), and then walk down the Hotel Plaza Boulevard to Crossroads, and buy our groceries there at Gooding's. Then take a taxi back to Marketplace, and take the Disney bus to OKW. From Crossroads to Marketplace is about a mile drive, so it doesn't cost much. We do this once or twice a week. It's a bit of a hassle, but it saves us a lot of money.

 

[kaytieeldr]

There's a good chance Goodings is closed.

Some people take the bus to the Pleasure Island/West Side stop and walk to the Hess station across the street and shop there. Some take a bus to the Boardwalk and walk over to that Hess station.

Others use Garden Grocer (which doesn't actually "have" a selection, but shops at an unidentified store and will also purchase items not indicated on its site, by request) or We Go Shop (which will shop at one store of the customer's choice) at a slightly higher fee than above but no minimum.

Still others use, yes, the resort gift shop. Others bring from home. Those with cars drive to supermarkets; those without cars but who connect with someone (e.g. here on the DIS) willing to do a little extra shopping can be lucky. A few do use taxis, but that's pretty expensive overall.

 

[cmrules]

Just wanted to add WegoShop.com to the mix since no one has mentioned them. I like them better than garden grocer. THey will go to the store of your choice and then charge a delivery fee, but not paying $1 an apple because I can send them to Walmart saves money. And they are really nice. And since they will shop at walmart or Target you can get groceries, sunscreen, a coffee maker, whatever you need and regular prices.

 

[Colleen27]

We use WeGoShop as well. The don't have a minimum purchase and they shop normal stores and charge customers the receipt total plus the delivery fee, so the item prices aren't inflated like Garden Grocer's. The trade off is a slightly higher delivery fee ($17 instead of $12) but we've found them to come in as the cheaper option every time.

As far as whether a taxi is worth it, it really depends on what and how much you're buying. We took a cab to Hess (from WL to the Car Care Center Hess) on the one and only trip we made the mistake of not placing an order with WeGoShop, and the cost of a 12 pack of beer plus cab fare was still less than the cost of a 6 pack at the resort!

 

[dzorn]

It really depends on how much groceries you are buying. For just a few things I would just use the gift shop. Medium order then garden grocer. If we are not doing the dining plan for a longer trip we rent a car for the first weekend. This allows us to hit the disney outlets and grocery shop, then we just drop it off at the CCC. We alsp plan any resort dining reservation when we have a car to make them easier to get to.

You can place an order on the DVC site and the resort will deliver it right to your room, but again prices are not the best.

Denise in MI

 

[Marleen2]

There's a good chance Goodings is closed.

Does anyone know if Gooding's is closed? It's been since August 2009 we've been there. I just checked their site but it doesn't state anything about it. I do see now they also deliver groceries to the WDW resorts as well with a minimum order amount of $50 and a $25 delivery fee. Would that be a "minimum $25 delivery fee" or a fixed $25? Does anyone know? If you buy about $100 or more it might be worth considering, as it would probably turn out cheaper than buying on property anyway AND you get the groceries delivered to your resort!

 

[Marleen2]

I just read now about other options as WeGoShop and Garden Grocer's. As I'm from outside the US I'm not familiar with these, but it seems like an interesting option to order groceries online and have them delivered to the resort. Would save us the hassle AND the time!

 

[JohnsonsLoveDisney]

We used garden grocer. and it was the best. We had milk, bread,juice boxes, chips etc all waiting for us when we checked into our room. Made our travel day go much smoother. My only issue was that the milk was left on the counter with the other groceries, it was still cold since i had the delivery time set for about an hour after our flight arrived, but still. I don't know if that was garden grocer or the hotel staff. It was a little pricey but so worth it.

 

[Pixieflip]

We've been happy shopping at the resort store the past few trips. We were at AKV, SSR and OKW. We were only there for a week or so on each of these trips and it just didn't seem worth the effort/time to take a taxi to a grocery store. I'm sure the grocery delivery services mentioned above would be nice, I hear people recommend them both all the time, but we just didn't need that much.

Things we've been happy to purchase at the resort store:

bagels and cream cheese
frozen pizza
ice cream
microwave popcorn
drinks of all sorts
milk
cereal
eggs
bacon (for my bagel, egg and bacon sandwiches!)
lots of fresh fruit
desserts of all sorts
pasta
butter
breakfast burritos

We've never done full meals in our room (we stay DVC), we just end up too tired after full days in the parks. It was more than enough food for my family of 6.

 

[enchantingodin]

Depends on what you're getting. But for the most part I find shopping at the Hess station your best bet. I'd take my resort bus to DTD and see the sights there. Then on my way back to the resort walk over to the Hess station to get my needed supplies. Then walk back to the bus stop and head back. Now this being said - please be VERY careful crossing the street. I think it's 8 lanes. Not something I personally would try and do with little ones under the age of 5. Although I've seen it done.

 

[Marleen2]

Does anyone know if Gooding's is closed? It's been since August 2009 we've been there. I just checked their site but it doesn't state anything about it. I do see now they also deliver groceries to the WDW resorts as well with a minimum order amount of $50 and a $25 delivery fee. Would that be a "minimum $25 delivery fee" or a fixed $25? Does anyone know? If you buy about $100 or more it might be worth considering, as it would probably turn out cheaper than buying on property anyway AND you get the groceries delivered to your resort!

Would still like to know if Gooding's is closed. Does anyone know?

 

[enchantingodin]

Would still like to know if Gooding's is closed. Does anyone know?

They still have a website up, and has todays date on it. It also says they are open 24 hours, something I didn't know. And it looks like they deliver to WDW resorts. $50 minimum and a $25 fee.

http://www.goodings.com/

 

[pampam]

I've found Goodings is almost as expensive as the resorts.

We take the Lynx bus from the TTC ($2.00 each) to the Publix grocery store on #192. We don't buy water or soda, but we buy about 4 cloth bags packed full of groceries. Back to the bus stop ($2.00) to the TTC, ferry or monorail and bus back to our resort. There are 2 of us to do the lugging.

 

[chelebele]

I just had what I think is a really good idea. If you are staying at a disney resort and don't have a car, parking is included, you've already paid for it, but you won't be using it if you don't rent a car. I am staying offsite, I will have a rental car, but will have to pay $14 day for parking. Why couldn't the resort person get a parking pass when they check in as if they have a car, the offsite person with the rental car takes you to the grocery store and back, saving you money, and you give me the parking pass you already paid for but won't be using so I can park at the parks without paying $14 a day? People would have to coordinate visit times, but I think that could be a win win for a lot of folks. The only thing I can think of that wouldn't work is if they had you show your room key before parking. I've never stayed at a disney property, so I don't know. What do you guys think?

 

[Disneycrazymom]

I like wegoshop. They are really good about trying to keep the cost down. Even used coupons!

Even if Goodings is open they are really expensive and at least last June not a store I would shop at. We rented a car for the day to move resorts and stopped at Goodings looked inside and left. We went a little further down to Publix. Much nicer, cleaner, and cheaper!

Renting a car for the day can be pretty inexpensive too. We called the car care center. They picked us up, took us to get the car, and then brought us back to the hotel when we dropped it off.