Grocery question

[huzzah4]

I have seen several posts dealing with groceries. Some people buy them at different stores, and some people ship their own drygoods down (I can't imagine how that is not prohibitively expensive). My question is what exactly is it that everyone is buying? We don't have children, so perhaps there is something I'm missing there. I can definitely understand if you need diapers and stuff like that, or if you have special dietary needs, but I don't want to cook and clean while I am on vacation. That is kind of the whole point of going on vacation, to get away from all of that. Believe me, I understand just how expensive it can be to eat at WDW, so I am curious as to what exactly it is that everyone buys to save money.

[merlinmagic4]

It's probably mainly people with children who do the biggest shopping! It's a lot less expensive to do cereal at your hotel in the morning than to take a family of four or more out to breakfast everyday. Also, with kids it's nice to have some food readily available for snacks. I think people also like to bring their drinks and snacks into the parks to save money as well. At even 2.00 a pop, drinks three times a day for five people is 30.00 right there! A pack of 24 waters is probably 5.00. That's 25.00 for something a lot more fun

[jefmblrd]

We stop at a Publix supermarket before entering Disney World as part of our Town Car Service. We'll normally pick up some bottled water, snack, and breakfast items to have in our room-basically whatever we feel like eating during our stay. We'll generally eat something for breakfast before going to the parks (saves time and money) and since a bottle of water in Disney runs over $3, having bottled water in the room can really save some money.

Since we're DVC members, we have a full kitchen in our room, so that makes things a little more convenient as far as storing what we buy (we don't cook either) but we used to stock up even before we had that. I believe you can request a refrigerator in most rooms now, so you can keep things cold.

When the kids were little, it was a great way to save money, but it was also the convenience of having something to drink and snack on right in the room without having to go to a vending machine, resort shop, etc. to get something (especially at night after a long day in the parks).

Kind of a rambling answer, but I hope it answers your question.

[Maleficent's Dad]

I have 2 kids. We buy mainly breakfast foods. My kids actually prefer cereal to sitting down to a warm b'fast.

The bottled water is a huge, huge savings. At $2.50 a pop in the parks, and $2.00 from the resorts, a case could run you quite a bit of money. A case of water at Publix can be had for $5.00! (That's literally 10 x's cheaper than Disney.)

We're DVC members and as stated above, the huge kitchens really help out. When we return to the resorts in the afternoons, we have snacks and drinks there for us. If we go to the pool (at a place like OKW), we can bring cold beer or soda with us and not have to purchase it at much more expensive prices.

I'm certainly not cheap - especially in WDW! But you have to be somewhat practical!!! I would venture to guess that most people who buy groceries or food items are either DVC members of those travelling with kids.

[Seasonscraps]

We don't have kids and stop for things like bottled water & soda, beer, snacks, breakfast items and sometimes personal items. If we are going for a week or so we'll also pick up shampoo, conditioner, bath soap, laundry soap etc -- things we will need and most likely purchase for the trip but are also heavy.

We stop to both save a little money and for taste preferences.

[dolphinmickey9170]

DIET PEPSI...............#1

Other items are usually cereal, milk and oj. Disposable bowls and spoons, cups. My family would rather have a bowl of cereal than to go sit down for breakfast.
International Delight creamer for my coffee. Diet pepsi.
Sometimes we buy bread, lunch meat and squeeze mayo and mustard for those quick snacks. Diet pepsi.
Microwave popcorn. Bottled water, crystal light packets. Diet peps.
We go to the Super Walmart down 192. They have everything you will need and even those you don't. Did you forget your toothpaste, shampoo? whatever, they have it so much cheaper than your resort.

Oh yeah, did I mention, DIET PEPSI? Can't live without it.

[dmallan]

We don't usually stop at a grocery store, instead we pack breakfast items - little boxes of cereal, plastic spoons and bowls, poptarts.
Then we go to the food court and buy some milk each morning for our cereal. It's a good way to get an early start. Especially with a family - we take turns using the bathroom while the others are eating breakfast.
We also bring snacks for the parks - granola bars, individual packages of cookies or peanut butter crackers.

Several times we've picked up fresh fruit at the grocery store.

Bottled water is another option, although we used the Brita water bottles. A great little individually filtered water bottle - too bad I hear are no longer available. I think I still have a couple new filters hidden away somewhere.

[pook@wdw]

Milk, Milk, & more milk. We try to bring most everthing else from home.

[AuntLaura]

We will usually stay at either FW or BCV. We occasionally will go to Kona Cafe for breakfast, but we prefer having breakfast in our room. We will go to the Publix the first day and purchase breakfast foods, coffee etc. In the summer, if one of those famous daily rain downpours is occurring, it's really nice to have lunch food or dinner food so we can stay put in the room where it's dry. I personally find having TS reservations can be like a "straight jacket". The whole day has to be planned around them. Now with the DDE, if you want TS meals, you really have to plan all your meals far in advance. You cannot "play it by ear" because all the reservations will be booked up. Sometimes it's nice to be able to be flexible, kick back and eat when you want to eat and what you want.