As far as luggage not showing up for hours: For me this didn't matter. No matter where I travel, since I've been traveling as an adult I've always packed for the first 24 hours in my carry-on. Airlines have been known to delay or lose luggage, so better safe than sorry. It took 4 hours between check-in time and luggage arrival for me.
No one should stress about finding the DME counter. There should be Disney CMs wearing one oversized Mickey-hand glove and carrying a clipboard, pointing you in the right direction. Even if there are none, you can surely ask many airport employees. I think DME handles 5,000 or 6,000 people each day, so it's not an obscure little service.
OK, grocery delivery. I was very, very happy with mine. On this board or another I learned about
Gooding's (www.goodings.com), which is reportedly a smallish upscale (more expensive than most) grocery store not far from Downtown Disney. There is a $50 minimum order and a flat $10 delivery fee. You order via their website at least a few days in advance, then they call you to take your credit card information live on the telephone rather than doing it online. Your card does not get charged until the day of delivery, just in case an item is out of stock, or if the exact cost isn't known in advance (if, for example, you order produce by the pound, they can't know exactly how much it will weigh, etc.). On the day of your delivery, a Gooding's employee actually uses your list and physically shops for your groceries, then uses your credit card information to make the purchase at the cash register, then it gets delivered to you. I live in a resort area and there's a similar-type small grocery around me, and I see this done all the time during high season.
Anyway, their website lists a "greatest hits" of what's available; you can e-mail special requests, and as long as the items are in stock they'll deliver them to you -- about half of my order was stuff they had on their actual store shelves but were not listed on the website.
I got all kinds of stuff to help save money but more importantly to keep my 2 kids happy. We got things like bagels (you can pick from all different kinds), cream cheese, fresh-sliced deli cheese, bologna, cheese sticks, yogurt, milk, bananas, grapes, bread, peanut butter, jelly, orange juice, bottled water, some junk food snacks, you get the idea. For 6 people I had no trouble breaking the $50 minimum. Along with the delivery comes your credit card receipt, your computer-generated shopping list, and the actual store cash register receipt.
The best part was the delivery process. It was about 2 days before my trip when I started stressing about when to schedule the delivery. Do I risk scheduling it before check-in time, which would allow me to get to a park early but if my room's not ready I'm screwed because of all the perishables? Or do I schedule it after check-in time but then feel very frustrated that I can't get to a park and I'm wasting my time waiting inside my hotel room for my groceries? NEITHER!!! Gooding's delivers to your WDW resort's Bell Services, and then Bell Services delivers it to your room. They call your room, and if you're not in they store your grocery order. But what about the perishables? Gooding's separately bags AND labels items that need to be in the fridge and items that need to be in the freezer, and your resort's Bell Services takes care of that, too! WHAT A GREAT SYSTEM!
Also: Gooding's messed up my order and left out one vital item, an 18 oz. jar of peanut butter. I called at the end of the day, and the next day they delivered two 12 oz. jars.
I used DME for my May 8 arrival, the 4th day of operation. In the weeks and months leading up to it, no one had used DME, and lots of WDW veterans kept telling me to just use a towncar service and make a "free" grocery stop, instead of paying a $10 delivery fee. I kept telling them I'm saving about $120 by using DME instead of a towncar, which to me makes it well worth paying a $10 delivery fee. I also argued that it saved time, and I think I was right there, also. I didn't have to wait for my luggage at baggage claim like those who use towncar services. I didn't have to take the time to actually make a grocery stop. I arrived at Caribbean Beach Resort exactly 53 minutes after I got into the DME Welcome Center line (on a busy Sunday morning). I don't think that people who had to wait for their luggage AND made a grocery stop got to CBR in under one hour. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
There, I bored you with most of the details. You asked for it.
-- Eric
