garden grocer or taxi/walk to nearest store?

[kbwatzka]

Hi -

My family will be at the Wilderness Lodge January 1st - 7th. Our flight gets in at 11:00 a.m. and we are planning on using Magical Express to get to the hotel. We are hoping to keep enough groceries in our room for quick breakfasts and snacks. I'll probably pack a few dry goods (cereal, instant oatmeal, granola bars, etc) but would like to pick up some fresh fruit, milk, yogurts, water/soda, etc. . .

I'm generally aware that intercot recommends garden grocer but I have some concerns about using their service. First, I know that our room will have a mini fridge - but I'm not sure how big they are. It seems as if it might be necessasry to see it/size it up before I order a bunch of groceries. Second, I know that grocery delivery services typically give you a range of a few hours when your groceries arrive. I don't want to have to wait at our room for them. I assume the front desk would take them for us - but then they won't be refridgerated as soon as necessary.

For these reasons, I'm considering just taking a taxi to the grocery store closest to the Wilderness Lodge shortly after we arrive. We are not planning on heading to a park that day - just enjoying the pool (weather permitting) or taking the monorail around to see the Christmas decorations at other resorts.

Does anyone have any advice regarding my concerns? Do you know how close the nearest grocery store is?

I appreciate any input. Although I've been to WDW as a kid - this is my first time as an adult. I will be traveling with my husband, and our kids: 7 yrs old, 5 yrs old and 2 yrs old.

Kelly

[DisneyWhirled]

I'm sorry I don't have any info regarding the surrounding stores, but I wanted to pipe in about GG.

In May, we arrived early and had GG deliver our groceries to bell services, because we knew that we would probably not have a room until the evening. Bell services was awesome and kept our refridgerated items refridgerated and when we got them that night around 10PM, everything was just fine.

We are doing the same thing again next month.

We stayed in a Studio and had a studio size fridge, which is about waist height. We have had refridgerators at All Stars before and they were the size of a dorm fridge, cube size.

For us, it is worth a little more $ for the convenience of not having to hit the grocery store, after all I am on vacation! :)

Hope this helps!

[CleveRocks]

I agree with DisneyWhirled (love that name!!!).

I never used Garden Grocer, but I did use Gooding's. With Garden Grocer, you can request to have your delivery sent directly to your resort's Bell Services, and they will store your stuff for you and keep the cold stuff cold. WIth Gooding's, this is the only way they do it (you don't even have the option of requesting to make a scheduled time and wait for the delivery).

To make a long story short, I am VERY persnickety when it comes to refrigerated stuff being cold enough. For example, even as a little kid, I could taste when milk was left out of the fridge for more than about 15 minutes, even if it happened the day before. At both CBR and POFQ, we had our deliveries in excellent shape.

I also believe Garden Grocer will do a great job. I spoke with the owner before our last vacation, and we were unable to use them because they were "sold out" for our arrival day. Brian, the owner, said he didn't want to spread his staff too thin and accept my order, as he didn;t want to risk providing sub-par service just to squeeze more orders in and make more money. I was very impressed by how conscientious he was. I will definitely use them for our next trip, if he's not sold out!

[playdead88]

garden grocer is awesome!

[DizneyRox]

Fort Wilderness is right around the corner and has much of what you are looking for. Maybe check there, you might even save some cash, I don't think the prices are all that unreasonable.

[faline]

At Wilderness Lodge, your refrigerator will be the small, dorm-sized one. If you are staying at Villas Wilderness Lodge in a studio, your refrigerator will be a little larger - under the counter size.