How to Use Aldi and Instacart to Save Money at Disney World

If there is one trip that has been in the bucket lists of many families over the last several decades, it’s Disney World. “I’m going to Disney World!” has been a catchphrase of commercials and Super Bowl MVPs going back to the 1980s. A Disney trip is a big deal.

It’s also an expensive deal. Even a basic Disney World vacation can cost several thousand dollars, and a longer stay and / or a more deluxe resort can bring that total higher. There are a number of other potential costs, including photo packages, souvenirs, and paid options for shortening line waits. Another cost is transportation: while Disney does have resort transit, travelers have to furnish their own transportation to get to Disney World and may also have to pay for parking if they have a car of their own on property.

Food costs are no small part of the Disney expense, either. Even a simple quick service meal can run $60-$80 for a family of four, and table service can run much, much higher. That adds up over the span of a five- to seven-day Disney visit.

One way to chip at the margins is to bring in your own food. There are some qualifications to this, which I’ll explain below, but here’s how we used Aldi to save a little money during a Disney World stay.

Our Case Study:

Our family of four traveled to Disney World during the summer of 2024. It was the first time my children had been to Disney World. It was a long stay, lasting 10 days and 9 nights at the Pop Century Resort on Disney World property. Two days were for arrival and departure from the resort, four days were spent in Disney parks, two days were spent at Universal Studios Florida, and two days were rest days built into our schedule.

Our options for grocery foods were limited. Our room did not have a microwave or true refrigerator, only a small beverage cooler that was not quite as cold as a fridge. That ruled out both foods that had to be kept refrigerated or foods that needed to be heated. (The resort food court did have a microwave and a toaster but we didn’t want to fuss with that, although we could have.) What’s more, we flew into Orlando and used Uber and Lyft to get to and from Disney, so we did not have a vehicle of our own.

We did have a few items — granola bars and the like — that we’d packed in Ziploc-style bags in our luggage on the trip down. We thought that we could augment those with some additional breakfast items. That would let us eat a quick meal in the room first thing each morning before jetting off to the parks and help keep us going before a midday meal. We also thought we could have some things on hand for evening snacks. In addition, we could have brought some snacks with us into the parks if we’d wanted to.

The good news is that there are several Aldi stores within a 10-mile radius of Disney World. Even better, they have Instacart delivery if, like us, you can’t easily get to the store.

Our Order:

I pre-assembled a list of groceries while I was still at home and also added the resort’s address to Instacart. That way, I had fewer things to do once I got on resort property.

We kept things pretty conservative on our order. While we had a long stay, we still wanted to avoid throwing away leftover food at the end of our trip if possible. I figured it was probably better to order too little than too much, but I also ordered enough to get us to free delivery.

I purchased the following:

• One 3-pound bag of Fuji apples, $3.85
• One 3-pound bag of Mandarin oranges, $3.95
• Two 8-packs of Nature’s Nectar 100% Apple Juice boxes, $6.18
• One Bake Shop Strawberry Strip Danish, $3.85 (more on this in a moment)
• One pack of Bake Shop Cinnamon Sweet Rolls, $3.85
• One pack of Bake Shop Blueberry Muffins, $4.35
• One pack of Bake Shop Chocolate Chip Muffins, $4.35
• One bag of Southern Grove Mountain Trail Mix, $6.49

Again, keep in mind that we had several types of granola bars in our luggage. If we hadn’t, I would have added some to this order.

In the order, I made sure to add a note specifying what I looked like and where I would be. While you may be able to have groceries delivered to the resort staff, some resorts may charge a handling fee for that service. I wanted to collect the order myself, so in my Instacart order notes I told the driver I would be in the lobby and I described the shirt I was wearing. After I placed the order, though, I decided it would be better to come out to the loading area outside my hotel to meet the car directly.

After carefully reviewing it to make sure everything was right, I placed my order around 4:20 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon. The email I got after my order gave me a window of 5:20 p.m. to 8:25 p.m. I could have expedited the order for a fee or scheduled it more precisely for the next day, but since we had time to spare that evening — as we planned to hang around the resort and take in its amenities — I let the order play out as is.

About an hour or so later, I got an update saying that our shopper was getting our order. The shopper had to swap one item, replacing a strawberry Danish with a raspberry one, but otherwise the order remained unchanged.

As is the case anywhere, Instacart kept me updated throughout the process. Perhaps because it’s Disney World, I was one of several deliveries my shopper was making. I got a notification that the shopper was making other nearby deliveries but was keeping my items temperature controlled.

Around 7 p.m., I got an update that my shopper was headed to my resort and would be there by 7:17.

 

I made my way over to the lobby, then out to the drop-off area just outside the lobby to wait for the shopper. Because the app gives a real-time location for the driver, it wasn’t hard to spot my driver when he arrived. He and I made eye contact, exchanged names, and he handed me my order from the trunk of his sedan. He arrived right on time.

My item subtotal that day came out to $36.87. He bought a single reusable Aldi bag for $0.12, tax came out to $0.49, and the service fee was $3. I also tipped $9. Our total, then, came out to $49.48. Instacart prices are often a little higher than in-store prices, but it was still a bargain compared to any food purchases we made on Disney property.

My Aldi bag was full and more than a little heavy, but I hauled it back to our room without incident.

We placed the juice boxes in our beverage cooler and left everything else out at room temperature. We later added the oranges to the beverage cooler after a few molded, and that helped prolong their life.

We ate just about all of the food we bought, except for two oranges and the trail mix, which somehow never got opened. I encouraged our family to prioritize eating the things that would not travel easily, and we were able to pack the trail mix in our checked bags for the flight home. I could easily have made another order if need be, but we didn’t really need to.

Closing Thoughts:

Disney World is no small trip, and food is no small consideration while staying at Disney. If you’re looking to supplement Disney fare with grocery food, you can purchase Aldi items through Instacart. Our family used Aldi and Instacart for our Disney vacation, and it was a helpful change of pace from the pricey resort food. I was able to make the purchase through Instacart as usual, and meet the Instacart shopper right outside my resort lobby. It was the cheapest food purchase we made on Disney property, giving us some helpful snacks, breakfast items, and treats for our Disney vacation.

If you find yourself at Disney World, including at a Disney resort, Aldi — and Instacart, if you can’t get to Aldi — is a viable option for some extra groceries.