In May I got a delivery from Gooding's (
www.goodings.com), a small private grocery store in the area. $10 flat fee, $50 minimum. Their website has lists of items, but they will sell and deliver anything they have on their shelves whether or not it's on the website (except they don't deliver alcohol).
The thing I found superior about Gooding's is that you don't have to schedule your delivery. They deliver to your resort's Bell Services, and then Bell Services delivers to you. BS calls your room, and if you're not in, they store your groceries for you and leave you a message. But what about your refrigerated items? NO PROBLEM, Gooding's separately bags and labels them, and BS keeps them cold for you. When you get back to your room, you respond to the message and tell BS you can take your delivery now.
I LOVED that aspect of Gooding's delivery. My flight arrived around 9:00 a.m., obviously well before check-in time. I knew I wanted us to start having fun, but I also wanted my grocery delivery. I was trying to balance those two and figure out when I would need to be at my room to accept a delivery. Do I hope I get an early check-in and get an early delivery (so I'd have time to start having FUN on my vacation and not make the kids wait around), but then risk my milk and yogurt and cream cheese going bad because I can't check-in early? Or do I plan an after-3:00 p.m. delivery but then waste a lot of my first day staying near the room? Gooding's eliminated those questions for me -- I didn't have to be at my room at any certain time!
You order online, but you call them with your credit card info. Your card won't be charged until that day, because there's no way they can know the exact amount of your purchase (something could be sold out, and deli and produce are sold by the pound, etc.). When you get your delivery, you get the cash register receipt, CC receipt, and your shopping list with each item crossed off. They were great with my special requests. For example, I ordered I think 3 pounds of bananas, and I asked that some be ripe and some be green so that they would last the week -- no problem!
I guess I'm such a cheerleader
for them because I loved the convenience of their setup, as well as their excellent follow-through. They really helped us have a great vacation. Bagels and cream cheese and fresh fruit and O.J. for breakfast every morning (rather than the expense and time of buying breakfast each morning), deli meats/cheeses and bread for a couple packed lunches, yogurt and cheese sticks and fresh fruit and junk food for the kids (and us!) to snack on, bottled water to take to the parks, and of course milk and other stuff.
Have a great vacation!
-- Eric
