New charge for Bell Service Delivery

[saskdw]

Before I traveled to WDW I had never heard hotel people ordering a week's worth of groceries and haveing them delivered to a hotel room. I still have a hard time picturing my family ordering groceries for any hotel stay. Now I do understand folks in a condo/villa type resort ordering that amount of food, but a hotel room? I do not think anyone in that industry foresaw the growing number of families using this as means to keep food costs down, and as lodging costs increase, I think that Disney resorts will not be the only ones reacting to the increased number of orders they are juggling. You may find your Universal resort hotels implementing the same kinds of fees in the future.

I think the alternative to this could be resorts refusing to accept grocery orders. You want to order, you best be there to receive the order. So far this is not occurring, but I could see that in the future.

Frankly, with the exception of DVC, I am surprised that any resort hotel would accept, store, and then deliver groceries so I consider a $5 or $6 reasonable.

I can't speak for others, but we are ordering breakfast foods for the most part. Not a weeks worth of groceries. We are talking cereal, protein bars, yogurt, milk, and bottled water. A quick breakfast in the room really speeds up the morning. We aren't sitting in our room making sandwiches or anything like that. Disney still getting an overpriced quick service meal and overpriced table service meal from us everyday. They just aren't getting a $20 per person breakfast out of us and we don't have to take extra time in the morning for breakfast. We eat while were getting ready.

I've said everything I want to say in this thread already. You guys are just going around in circles and new people are coming to the thread and repeating the same things so I'm on to the next DIS crisis.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Before I traveled to WDW I had never heard hotel people ordering a week's worth of groceries and haveing them delivered to a hotel room.
I think the alternative to this could be resorts refusing to accept grocery orders. You want to order, you best be there to receive the order. So far this is not occurring, but I could see that in the future.

Frankly, with the exception of DVC, I am surprised that any resort hotel would accept, store, and then deliver groceries so I consider a $5 or $6 reasonable.

I think lots of folks do grocery delivery (if offered) when they go to the beach for a week, or else they have a car and pick it up themselves.

The ME, as has been mentioned in this thread, is a big part of why they are choosing delivery at WDw (instead of picking up themselves).

LONG before ME was offered, the towncar services (from MCO) advertised that they would allow a grocery stop as a selling point.

It is common knowledge among folks with dietary restrictions, that ALWAYS bringing food when they travel is the safest way to travel. They might not eat every meal in the hotel room, but they know if they bring SOME food/have it delivered, then they at least have something they can eat every day AND bonus- it costs less then eating out every meal.

Alas, I don't see WDW refusing groceries for this reason. If someone has a medical reason for needing certain foods, then they kind of have to either do a delivery or get something delivered.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Before I traveled to WDW I had never heard hotel people ordering a week's worth of groceries and haveing them delivered to a hotel room. I still have a hard time picturing my family ordering groceries for any hotel stay. Now I do understand folks in a condo/villa type resort ordering that amount of food, but a hotel room?

I think it could be more common for WDW but I can see it for other places.

Some people order many meals worth for multiple days for groceries and that is probably what many people think of. That isn't necessarily the case for all.

So I wouldn't order groceries for Disney because frankly my husband and I are quite cost conscious and we would have the means to get to the store ourselves and would be ok with the time spent. That doesn't however mean that there haven't been times that have had some groceries of some type even in a hotel room.

For Disney the plan was for breakfast foods intially because it saves both time and money. Originally it was normal breakfast food we were thinking (cereal, sandwiches, juice or milk, etc) . Now we would have a rental car so the plan was to do a grocery run in that. Had my in-laws came I guarantee you they would have come out with a ton of food. I'm constantly surprised when we go to the Lake how much they get. It's way more than we need. That would carry over to a WDW trip too.

When it became clear Irma was coming we scratched that plan. Large part was not wanting to worry about what food and drink would be available to us when we got to Orlando. So we went to Costco and purchased a few things--applesauce, granola bars, and fruit cups. Non-perishable food was highly recommended so we opted out of taking bread that would likely get smushed (well we didn't want to worry about it at least). We also brought with us 2 qt container with Crystal Light packs (we actually brought the individual small water bottle size too though we never actually used those). We packed that stuff in a suitcase that we then checked. Still to this day my mom says "only you guys would go somewhere where you need to pack a suitcase of food to ride it out". Anyways the snacks were perfect to eat in the car on the way to the parks and held us over til lunch. The plan was however to always have breakfast with groceries bought. We just switched up the order of when the groceries were bought and exactly what type of groceries were bought.

When we went to Jamaica this past August staying in a hotel my husband walked to a small convenience/grocery store and bought some alcohol and a few things to make rum punch as well as peanut butter and bread. While nowhere near an actual meal both purchasing stuff for rum punch and having the peanut butter and bread were great for cost savings and a snack without needing to go to a restaurant.

 

[goofynut41]

Is this fee for delivering your luggage to your room?

 

[snappy]

No. For packages, groceries, water, drinks delivered to the room. $6 per delivery.

 

[TheInvernessie]

After reading all 16 pages of this thread, I haven't seen (or so I believe) anyone else pose the question of Disney Floral and Gifts. I placed an order with them for my upcoming trip, and I'm curious if the $6 fee will be applicable to that, considering the $10.00 delivery fee that was charged at the time of order. Is Disney Floral and Gifts considered a package delivery?

 

[smadath]

I’m glad some folks have mentioned they never heard of ordering groceries to ones hotel while on vacation. I didn’t either. Personally I find it odd. Why Is this needed and it seems to be exclusive to WDW. Imho. Disney should just ban it. 6.00 gets so many in a hissy fit. Then it’s not worth it. Ban it. Plenty of free water and plenty of food options. It’s not needed anyways. It’s a Disney vacation not doomsday prepping.

There aren't plenty of food options for everyone. My DH is allergic to milk, eggs, gluten, corn, and peanuts. Needless to say, it's a royal pain in the you-know-what to feed him. My options would be bring food with me for him to eat, which isn't very convenient if flying, or get food there. My doomsday prepping self would absolutely utilize grocery delivery since it's offered. If it were banned? I'd have to uber over to a grocery store. Not as convenient, but still doable. Point being, not everyone fits into the same neat little box. It's great that you can find plenty to eat in the parks. Not everyone can.

 

[sponica]

There aren't plenty of food options for everyone. My DH is allergic to milk, eggs, gluten, corn, and peanuts. Needless to say, it's a royal pain in the you-know-what to feed him. My options would be bring food with me for him to eat, which isn't very convenient if flying, or get food there. My doomsday prepping self would absolutely utilize grocery delivery since it's offered. If it were banned? I'd have to uber over to a grocery store. Not as convenient, but still doable. Point being, not everyone fits into the same neat little box. It's great that you can find plenty to eat in the parks. Not everyone can.

Also diapers. I'm not wasting valuable luggage space with DIAPERS.

 

[MainMom]

I can't speak for others, but we are ordering breakfast foods for the most part. Not a weeks worth of groceries. We are talking cereal, protein bars, yogurt, milk, and bottled water. A quick breakfast in the room really speeds up the morning. We aren't sitting in our room making sandwiches or anything like that. Disney still getting an overpriced quick service meal and overpriced table service meal from us everyday. They just aren't getting a $20 per person breakfast out of us and we don't have to take extra time in the morning for breakfast. We eat while were getting ready.

I've said everything I want to say in this thread already. You guys are just going around in circles and new people are coming to the thread and repeating the same things so I'm on to the next DIS crisis.

We do the same with breakfast food and snacks. However, these days the kids still usually get a pastry and drink from Starbucks in the morning because, you know, second breakfast.

 

[snappy]

Ok so if you pick your order up at bell service there is no charge? We leave in 3 weeks and planning on using amazon prime now. Thanks for the help on this one. This is huge if we order more then once. Kids eat a lot lol

Yes, if you pick it up your amazon prime now grocery order at bell services, no fee will be charged.

If you have boxes shipped from amazon to the resort and it is received by the front desk, you will be charged for each box received.

 

[Sentimensonges]

I may be the minority, but this absolutely the right move. I know as a front office manager at a full-service hotel that people completely abuse the ability to send packages to hotels. But at Disney it's completely outrageous. Bellmen moving 1, 2, even 3 carts of Amazon groceries (saw it in CR this February) from one end of the resort to another. The fees for porterage have to come from somewhere, and if you are going to do that, you should pay for it. It isn't built into the room rate, and it isn't fair to charge everyone an increase because of it. It isn't really about taking advantage because of people who you know will come "because it's Disney." $6 is not outrageous either. The last property I worked at charged $5 for the smallest parcel. And while I don't really agree with charging for parking, I do with this.

 

[Nancyg56]

I may be the minority, but this absolutely the right move. I know as a front office manager at a full-service hotel that people completely abuse the ability to send packages to hotels. But at Disney it's completely outrageous. Bellmen moving 1, 2, even 3 carts of Amazon groceries (saw it in CR this February) from one end of the resort to another. The fees for porterage have to come from somewhere, and if you are going to do that, you should pay for it. It isn't built into the room rate, and it isn't fair to charge everyone an increase because of it. It isn't really about taking advantage because of people who you know will come "because it's Disney." $6 is not outrageous either. The last property I worked at charged $5 for the smallest parcel. And while I don't really agree with charging for parking, I do with this.

I am in total agreement. I understand why people want food in their rooms, however in preparation for our OKW stay I was interested in how the grocery delivery worked, and YIKES! The orders some fols were placing, and not even to be used in a villa. Food storage in the rooms to replace meals. I am not opposed to anyoen saving money in the way that makes sense to them, but I do not believe that any hotel or resort ever planned on their luggage area and refrigerators be turned into a grocery mart. If I want my order to be deleivered to the room, I would be willing to pay a fee. I am not in favor of room rates for everyone being raised to pay for a service that is not a normal part of lodging.

I believe that guests are fortunate that Disney has not chosen to stop the grocey delivery, acceptance and storage in their facilities. For just about every other destination that I knwo of you need to either get your groceries yourself, or be there to accept the delivery. It is a lovely perk to have a resort use their freezers to keep your ice cream cold, and give you the option of picking your stuff up for free, or paying a nominal fee to have bell services haul it to your room.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I can't speak for others, but we are ordering breakfast foods for the most part. Not a weeks worth of groceries. We are talking cereal, protein bars, yogurt, milk, and bottled water

Some of these items can be packed in one's luggage, and the rest purchased in the gift shop if the goal is to avoid this controversial charge.

I think lots of folks do grocery delivery (if offered) when they go to the beach for a week, or else they have a car and pick it up themselves

Yeah. Any destinwtion where the only choice is to transport oneself to a more or less freestanding vacation unit with a kitchen, groceries make sense.

After reading all 16 pages of this thread, I haven't seen (or so I believe) anyone else pose the question of Disney Floral and Gifts. I placed an order with them for my upcoming trip, and I'm curious if the $6 fee will be applicable to that considering the $10.00 delivery fee that was charged at the time of order. Is Disney Floral and Gifts considered a package delivery?

No, because Disney Floral orders are not delivered by a grocery delivery service to Bell Services and then on to your room by Bell Services.

 

[Iowamomof4]

Have we had any firsthand reports of this charge yet? I've been trying to keep up, but most of the discussion has been about the rightness or wrongness of it vs. the actual experience of it (which is fine, btw).

 

[EdnaMarieMode]

Have we had any firsthand reports of this charge yet? I've been trying to keep up, but most of the discussion has been about the rightness or wrongness of it vs. the actual experience of it (which is fine, btw).

I'm guessing the guests who have been charged may still be on their vacation (or getting back into the swing of "real life" post-vacation. They may not even realize yet that they've been charged (if they haven't seen their folio yet) and/ or they may not be checking in here yet. I expect to see some more info as people get back home and provide updates. There was a current bell services CM who weighed in with some real-time advice but so far that's all I've seen (and I could have totally missed something as well- it's a lot to keep up with).

 

[sponica]

Have we had any firsthand reports of this charge yet? I've been trying to keep up, but most of the discussion has been about the rightness or wrongness of it vs. the actual experience of it (which is fine, btw).

I haven't seen any.

I'm really interested in the possible check in day iterations. For example, I had a Prime Now delivery left with bell services and a garden grocer delivery. When I got to my room and called for everything, it was on ONE luggage cart. Would that be a 6 or a 12 dollar charge?

 

[kaytieeldr]

I would expect $6 each, and be pleasntly surprised with just a single charge.

 

[snappy]

I haven't seen any.

I'm really interested in the possible check in day iterations. For example, I had a Prime Now delivery left with bell services and a garden grocer delivery. When I got to my room and called for everything, it was on ONE luggage cart. Would that be a 6 or a 12 dollar charge?

Please keep us posted!

Have a great vacation!

 

[LilyWDW]

If you don't want to pay it, go pick it up yourself instead of having bell service deliver it.

People act like they are being forced to use this service and pay. You're not. Many ways to get around it.

 

[snappy]

I believe you will be charged the $6 for shipments of boxes regardless. That’s a separate process.