Please Weigh in on Your Go To Grocery Delivery Service/Recent Experiences

[Little E]

Hi Disfriends!

DH and I are headed back to WDW at the end of October for a stay at BWV for Food & Wine and RunDisney races. We have always used Shipt, and we've never had a problem with grocery and alcohol delivery (DH needs beer! ) until our stay at OKW in March of this year. I placed my order right after we arrived in our room and our order never got picked up that day. That's NEVER happened before! I placed the order again the next morning, and it took multiple phone calls to Sh for our order to be picked up and eventually delivered on our second day at Disney. I learned that Shipt requires a special shopper certification if there is alcohol in the order, and as of March 2024 there was only one Shipt shopper that has the right certification. If he's not on duty when you place your order, you're out of luck. I use Shipt at home without problems, which is why we've always used Shipt at Disney.

So, I'm looking for a new delivery service for our fall trip. We fly from the midwest, and we use Uber/Lyft to get to and from MCO. I've read several threads about grocery delivery services on the Disboards, but some of them seem a little old? I've also read the Touring Plans blog post about grocery delivery. I'm curious as to what folks' recent delivery experiences have been? Who do you use for a grocery with alcohol delivery to WDW resorts? I want it to be easy to place the order, and I don't mind paying delivery fees, etc as long as they aren't insane. I also always meet the delivery person in the lobby to get my delivery, because of the alcohol in our order, so I am fine with having to do that for this trip as well. Thanks so much for the input!

 

[tigerlilly]

So we have done amazon fresh. It was fine. For alcohol we only did champagne. This upcoming trip we are considering a different service to get alcohol besides wine and beer. I may be making my own tropical drinks in the room since I have four adult children coming with us! $20 a pop for a fun pool beverage per person is a lot. lol

 

[ShannyMcB]

I always use Instacart because that is what I use at home. Not sure of their alcohol delivery requirements but I have been generally happy with their services. Used them twice a few weeks ago…one delivery to UO (had to meet the delivery person by the lobby) and once to contemporary (they were able to leave with bell services). Good luck

 

[ChristopherFamily]

I had Walmart deliver to us at Port Orleans. They came within 3 hours of my ordering time (I do have walmart plus)

 

[Little E]

@tigerlilly Truth! Adult beverages for adult kids are expensive at WDW!!

@ShannyMcB I've never used Instacart. I'll have to look into this.

@ChristopherFamily I've ordered from Walmart online to be delivered to my home...is Walmart plus a separate membership?

 

[TJLogan]

When we were at Disney in January we had a terrible time trying to get a Walmart Plus delivery. They kept rejecting our order for possible fraud because we were in a different location. Despite trying multiple times and calling customer service we were unable to use Walmart plus. Instacart express delivered within 20-30 min. No problem at all.

 

[saraheliz]

I've done Dizzy Dolphin, Amazon Fresh and Instacart. Dizzy Dolphin was pricier and I had to know my order farther ahead of time, but they were super (plus I could add stuff from other local places, not just groceries). Amazon Fresh we did just for a small order of fruit later in that trip, they were fine. I used Instacart at home now so that's who I used in 2023 and 2024, worked fine but definitely more issues with missing items (maybe that has to do more with the store though, I went through Publix). This last trip I ordered mini muffins and they substituted with cookies, lol. To me now since I have an Instacart plus account, it's easiest, but they were all fine.

 

[gottalovepluto]

When we were at Disney in January we had a terrible time trying to get a Walmart Plus delivery. They kept rejecting our order for possible fraud because we were in a different location. Despite trying multiple times and calling customer service we were unable to use Walmart plus. Instacart express delivered within 20-30 min. No problem at all.

Crazy!

I’ve used WM+ multiple times in WDW and I’m from CA. Latest was June.

 

[gottalovepluto]

… I've ordered from Walmart online to be delivered to my home...is Walmart plus a separate membership?

Walmart Plus is their monthly or annual subscription services. Main feature is free delivery from your store and free shipping no minimum but it has some other benefits too.

(I ended up in their ecosystem due to having an Amex Plat which gets Walmart+ monthly free.)

 

[lovin'fl]

Not sure this is a help but I live local to WDW and sometimes do Aldi delivery on door dash. They sometimes offer a $20 off deal so it makes it worth it. They have some wine and beer you can get.

The Fresh Market is also on door dash and has alcohol.

 

[WDW Traveler]

My daughter and I used Instacart from Publix during our September trip. The ordering and delivery were seamless.

Now mind you, I had never used Instacart before and signed up only for this trip (and maybe future trips). Only problem I had was after I was home. About 2 -3 weeks after our trip, I got a notification on my phone that my Instacart order had been received and delivery time set up. Someone had hacked my account, ordered pretty much the same order I made, scheduled delivery to the same resort (GF) AND signed up for the Instacart + or whatever it was called. I immediately called Instacart, and the women was very kind and cancelled the order and cancelled the Instacart + subscription and told me to go on to the account to make sure my credit card was no longer saved. In the end, it was fine, and it hasn't happened again. But imagine my surprise and confusion when I got the notification of an order when I wasn't there! lol

 

[Little E]

@gottalovepluto Thanks for clarifying on the MW+.

@WDW Traveler thanks for sharing your experience. I'm glad your experience was seamless, but it's a little weird that you got hacked! I'm glad everything turned out ok.

So, based on the feedback so far, I have to weigh out the merits of getting a new membership somewhere (Instacart, WM+ etc.) or trying out a local delivery service like Dizzy Dolphin. Hhhhmmm...you've given me much to think about. Thank you so much!

 

[leebee]

DD and I used Kroger when we went to Disney in early August. We put in the order on Thursday night and it was at bell services at the Poly when we checked in. There was no minimum purchase required, deliver was $6.99, and when we did this Kroger was offering $25 off your first two deliveries. I don't believe you can order alcohol through them, or maybe you have to be present when the groceries are delivered so they can confirm your ID (not sure about either of these). We don't drink in the room when at Disney (too many tempting cocktails in the lounges and bars) so don't care about alcohol delivery.

 

[Simba's Mom]

I've been following this since we've only ordered Groceries once, and I'm already considering changing next time! We used Instacart, and although everything went just fine, I was personally kind of surprised that the price seemed high. But I don't grocery shop at home (mobility issues and we're both retired, so DH shops) so maybe the prices seemed high because of my lack of experience/knowledge. The service was great, but the added problem is that I'd probably have to pay for delivery now! Looking at some others, I wonder if the reason there are fewer votes for them is because fewer people use some others, not that they're not as good.

 

[kylenne]

I've been following this since we've only ordered Groceries once, and I'm already considering changing next time! We used Instacart, and although everything went just fine, I was personally kind of surprised that the price seemed high. But I don't grocery shop at home (mobility issues and we're both retired, so DH shops) so maybe the prices seemed high because of my lack of experience/knowledge. The service was great, but the added problem is that I'd probably have to pay for delivery now! Looking at some others, I wonder if the reason there are fewer votes for them is because fewer people use some others, not that they're not as good.

I’ve been using Instacart regularly at home for years just for my regular shopping as well as on our Disney trips since I get a membership free though my credit card and the pricing policies really vary depending on the store you’re shopping at. Pay close attention to the store that you select and it will tell you whether or not they charge “in store prices” or “higher than in store” on the app. If you don’t see it on the main screen for the store it will have a link for “pricing policy” that you can click for it. For instance at home, my Key Food charges the same as they do in store but other local store are higher. Check out the circles for what I mean:



From experience most stores charge higher prices on the app and Publix is one of them IIRC, so you kinda have to do the math on it. Even with the markup though it can still be worth it compared to what you’d pay at the resort gift shops for similar items.

One thing you can do to cut down on fees if you’re already using one of those car services that includes a grocery stop for airport transportation is to use the stop to get a curbside pickup Instacart order. We did that last year when we used Tiffany Towncar, just made sure to select the Publix store they do their stop at, and the guy came out with our stuff just as the driver pulled in. We definitely plan to do our grocery orders that way whenever we use them.

 

[Little E]

@kylenne Thanks so much for the concrete info on Instacart. I've always been a Shipt gal at home, so I have no frame of reference for Instacart.

Back in the old days, we would use the Magical Express to get from MCO to and from our resort. Once ME went away, we used the Sunshine Flyer a few times and found it to take FOREVER to get to our resort. So, now we use Uber/Lyft and find it easiest, cheapest and most direct. I've never toyed with a grocery stop with ride share; I'm not even sure how to order this on the Uber app? Also, I am not familiar with Tiffany Towncar? Are they on par with Uber prices from MCO to the resorts? It would be nice to arrange for a stop at a store so that we are "one and done" with everything we need when we get to our resort.

 

[kylenne]

@kylenne Thanks so much for the concrete info on Instacart. I've always been a Shipt gal at home, so I have no frame of reference for Instacart.

Back in the old days, we would use the Magical Express to get from MCO to and from our resort. Once ME went away, we used the Sunshine Flyer a few times and found it to take FOREVER to get to our resort. So, now we use Uber/Lyft and find it easiest, cheapest and most direct. I've never toyed with a grocery stop with ride share; I'm not even sure how to order this on the Uber app? Also, I am not familiar with Tiffany Towncar? Are they on par with Uber prices from MCO to the resorts? It would be nice to arrange for a stop at a store so that we are "one and done" with everything we need when we get to our resort.

Last year was our first experience with using a car service. We are two adults with no kids who always check bags so we generally just use Lyft since DME went away but we opted for Tiffany last year because we were flying in on Memorial Day weekend and wanted to avoid surge pricing (I’ve seen it hit $90 from MCO to WDW property 1 way on busy holiday weekends before) and Tiffany basically worked out to the same price for a driver who met us at baggage claim and helped with everything. It worked out well for us but it was an edge case type of situation where I don’t think we’d do it every time because of the cost. Car services are pretty much always going to be a lot more expensive to property than non-surge priced rideshares, and in our situation it doesn’t really make sense except in a scenario like the one I described. Next year we’ll have a third adult with us and I think we’ll look into it again.

Theoretically you can set an Uber ride up to do multiple stops when you book it, but I’ve never used that function tbh.

For next month’s trip we are trying out an ex-CM recommended by our TA who drives for the rideshare services but has her own side hustle doing private transportation. Booking directly with her is cheaper than it would cost to use the apps so we’ll see how it goes. She charges extra for a grocery stop but we don’t really plan on getting a ton of groceries this time since our resort stay is shorter than our usual ones, being a pre-cruise stay. Mainly just bottled water for the room and a couple of snacks. So we’ll just stick to regular IC delivery.

 

[JBRB828]

We used Walmart and ordered the day before we arrived at CR, just to make sure it was there on arrival day. We arrived at CR at 10AM and it was there. Everything went smoothly until we opened the order and found out we had somebody's order too. Called Walmart and they said to keep it, we gave it to a Mousekeeper, but Im not sure if she would have been able to keep it. There were 2 six packs of energy drinks and a few orders of snacks.
We ordered 2 cases of water and snacks for my GD. Even though we were club level, we drink a lot of water and it's so much easier having the water in our room.

 

[Little E]

@JBRB828 Wow! You were really nice to give the extras to mousekeeping! Good for you!

@kylenne When you used Tiffany Towncar and did the curbside order at Publix, did you order through Instacart, or through the curbside service at Publix? I'm still trying to figure out all these services. I apologize for all the questions; you've given me something different to think about with the car service over Ubering to the resort and then trying to figure out grocery delivery. Thank you!

 

[Mle8308]

DD and I used Kroger when we went to Disney in early August. We put in the order on Thursday night and it was at bell services at the Poly when we checked in. There was no minimum purchase required, deliver was $6.99, and when we did this Kroger was offering $25 off your first two deliveries. I don't believe you can order alcohol through them, or maybe you have to be present when the groceries are delivered so they can confirm your ID (not sure about either of these). We don't drink in the room when at Disney (too many tempting cocktails in the lounges and bars) so don't care about alcohol delivery.

I have also heard good things about Kroger delivery, too! I've used Amazon Fresh, no issues but sometimes limited in having exactly what I wanted.