Groceries into the resort

[jerzgrl]

I've seen a lot on the boards regarding sending food to the resort ahead of time before checkin with snacks, etc from home.

I have also seen that transfer service will take you to a grocery store before going to the resort. Is this allowed? Can you really bring food into the resort from the outside?

Has anyone done this and is it a problem?

 

[Terk-1]

Yes you can bring groceries into the resorts. We do this all the time. Since we are not big breakfast eaters, we usually bring Pop-Tarts or Nutragrain Bars or cereal. We also bring snack stuff and things to make sandwiches, like PB&J. When I go with family, we usually stop at a grocery store or a Target and pick up things like above, as well as juice boxes, milk & spring water. We have never had a problem with bringing food into the resorts and we make sure that we keep things pretty neat in the room. We save alot of money this way, but still eat out once a day for lunch or dinner.

 

[jerzgrl]

Thanks so much, it will be a big food saver. Kids love PB&J's and we are requesting a refrig. Plus I heard that buying you own water will save lots of $. The goal is to not spend on every meal . Like you said, we want to eat at least a character breakfast or dinner out but not every meal out every night.

Small yogurt cups are a hit too!

Thanks again.

 

[dahess]

One of the on-line grocers is Netgrocer.com. Have a great trip!

 

[lizzie64]

Netgrocer was great. Used them for anything non-perishable and all the baby stuff.

Just make sure you include a line in the ship to address that shows your reservation number and arrival date. Try to time it so the package gets there a day or so before your arrival.

 

[ducklite]

Just an FYI, those fridges are small! You wo'nt be able to fit more than a half gallon of milk, a couple bottles of water, a few yogurt cups and a jar of jelly into them, so be careful hoe much perishable food you bring.

Anne

 

[lizzie64]

What we also did was bring a collapsible cooler that we filled with ice and kept in the bathtub (heaven forbid it should leak onto a disney carpet .

You can put soda cans, juice containers and milk containers in there and they stay really cold. For the yogurt cups - you can put several into a ziploc bag and then put the ziplocs in the cooler to stay cold. You can also do juice boxes that way so they boxes don't get soggy.This worked so well we wound up returning the fridge.

You can barely get a quart of milk or juice in there. Then, on the way home, the cooler became our souvenir holder.

 

[Trekker]

The last time there we bought a nice hard plastic cooler at Wal-Mrt for $14.00 - used it the whole time - then packed if full of dirty clothes and taped it shut at the airport and shipped it home!

 

[lizzie64]

Trekker,

You mean you didn't do laundry on your vacation?

 

[dbail2]

We bring a collapsible cooler and stop at the grocery store (Publix )on the way from the airport. I use to bring snacks from home but the kids would always want something different than I brought. We get a gallon of milk in case they want cereal or milk and cookies. A case of water and soda, Fruit ,candy and what ever they want. I have even picked up a bottle of wine.....

 

[CarrieAP]

Love that the grocery stores in Florida have wine! We always take advantage of Tiffany's grocery stop and stock up on juice boxes, a few munchies and a couple of bottles of wine for mom and dad! We take a small collapsable cooler to the parks with the juice boxes and save a ton of money when it is hot out and the kids get quite thirsty!

 

[jerzgrl]

Explain to me what a collapsable cooler looks like and what is the approximate size. Maybe I can find one up north at a walmart or something before I go down. Does the resorts have ice boxes to grab ice from?

 

[lizzie64]

hi jerzgirl

Wal-mart has them. they are large square bags that are insulated. I think California cooler is the brand name. They have shoulder straps too.

 

[Betsyt82]

Jerzgrl, I know you have seen them at your local Walmart. they are the coolers that are soft sided.....sometimes they have a hard removable plastic liner in them. I do the reverse with the plastic ziplock bags.....I put the ice in them and then it tends to keep the cooler drier then putting the ice diectly into it. Sometimes you will have a leaker...........double bag it. The other thing I wanted to mention is that it is better to get the 1/2 gallons of milk......They will last longer are more manageable in the cooler. IMO the baby refridgerators are not worth 10 a day............not when the ice is free and the styro coolers are 5 buck at the local grocery store. We just changed the ice in the morning and at night.

Bets

 

[TRAPPED-PARENT]

Collapsable coolers come in all sizes. You can find ones designed for a TV dinner to take to work, as well as lunch box size. Then you have the 6-pack size all the way up to the "large" size. The smaller ones can be found in most houseware sections of the "super" type stores ... look for the larger ones in the sporting goods/camping areas.

 

[welovedis]

Here a link to a regular collapsible cooler:
http://www.coleman.com/coleman/Cole..._MAIN.ASP&SubmittingPage=Prod_subcategory.asp

I'm sure you have seen them, some people call them soft-sided coolers,etc...

We just bought a styrofoam cooler at Publix for something like 2.99 and filled it with ice each evening or morning. I was doubtful that it would keep things like milk and yogurt really cold but I was wrong and would do this again when we need to save money on meals.

 

[Disneymaddness]

What is netgrocer and how does it work?

 

[lizzie64]

I used Netgrocer.com on our last trip in 2001. I will use them again this May.

I ordered diapers, wipes, baby cereal, baby food, fruit snacks, granola bars, cereal boxes, cookies, basically anything that is non-perishable.

When you place your order, use the hotel address as the ship to address. Just include an extra line that has your reservation number and date of arrival. I tried to time it so it would get there the day before we checked in. Bell services will hold it for you and you can claim it when you check in.

 

[woody5]

We used netgrocer.com for our last trip. I ordered all types of snacks, drinks, water ect and had it delivered to our room. The only draw back is that you can't send perishable items. It was great to have these already at the hotel. We did stop and get milk and juice. We used the styrofoam coolers as well. We gave them to another family when we were checking out.

 

[Disneymaddness]

Thanks! Maybe we will try that when we go in May. We are flying and won't have a car.