Using Coolers in lieu of Fridges

[kjs1976]

Just a dumb question about using a collapsable or styrofoam cooler...I assume you just fill it with ice like two or three times a day to keep things cool? I was thinking about using it for milk and maybe fruit...seems to be the thing to do??????

Let me know your experiences!

kjs

 

[Disney Talker]

We generally drive down and have brought a cooler many times from home. In the mornings DH fills it with ice and we put in drinks for later on, such as Cokes, Ice Teas in cans, Lemonaides in cans and it works well.without renting a fridge.

My folks do this every trip as my Mom is on a special diet and has to eat two meals out of three in the room, they keep milk and other persishables such as luncheon meat with no problem. Can save you a heap of money eating in your room and using a cooler.

 

[LKS]

We always travel with a large cooler. Each morning, my husband picks it up and drains off the excess water in the tub and I make a couple of trips for fresh ice. Everything stays nice and cold. It also helps if you leave room for one or two half-gallon milk jugs with water frozen solid before you leave home. By adding fresh ice, those milk jugs usually don't thaw for 4-5 or more days. You could probably also freeze milk or OJ, but we haven't tried that since it stays frozen so long and we would want access to our milk and OJ before that. We may try it on this trip though, since we will be there 10 days.

 

[ByJiminy]

We used a collapsible cooler on our last trip and it was wonderful. You do need to refresh the ice twice a day. Easiest thing is to bring some large ziptop bags and put ice in them, that makes it simple to dump the old and fill them up, and minimizes water inside the cooler. We would put it on a towel either on the bathroom floor or in the tub, just in case it leaked. We kept small containers of milk & OJ, and some beer, wine, and water in it. It was so handy, such a time and money saver! The cooler was reasonably compact when folded, and we just packed it in our luggage, although I've heard of others who actually pack the cooler (with snacks or clothes) and check it as luggage.

 

[skuttle]

We used a collapsible cooler in December. We kept coke, milk, water, sandwhich meat, and cheese in it. We filled it with ice in the morning and at night. Itworked out great for us.

 

[seashoreCM]

Some reminders when using coolers:

You don't have to dump the old ice ever, just drain off water. Old unmelted ice has just as much cooling power as new ice, pound for pound.

There should be a good amount of unmelted ice in the cooler at all times.

If there is a lot of empty air space in the cooler, better results are had if a quantity of ice is in a bag above the items.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[carmaneddie]

We've picked up the styrofoam cooler when we get there, and
just leave it in the room when we leave. last time when on site the charge for a fridge was not worth it. It works great. we keep milk,fruit and drinks. About twice a day we drain it and add more ice. The kids love running for the ice. three days to go!!!!!!

 

[Lanshark]

I bring a coleman and we just fill once a day. It keeps the cokes and water extremely cold.

 

[nascarfan]

On trips by car, I like to bring a hardside cooler to store our perishable food in. Block ice or frozen milk jugs of water work wonderful. We leave this at the motel and will drain off the water and add hotel ice as needed. When we venture out, we carry soft side coolers. One for food & one for drinks. Hotel ice is good for these. No problems so far!

 

[nwdisgal]

Keep your cooler in an air conditioned room. We let our cooler with ice sit without air conditioning on overnight while we slept, and work up the next morning - the ice was all melted. We had a soft sided cooler. We left the air conditioning on the next day and didn't have any problems.

 

[justjulie]

We just used the standard old styrofoam cooler and it was great. We too, when checking out, left it by the ice machine with a note "free to a good home" - I'm sure it wasn't there very long!

 

[Laura's Dad]

A few years ago, we bought a Coleman cooler on wheels. It has a drain on the end. We have taken it to WDW a couple of times, and it worked like a charm. We ice down milk for our daughter's cereal, cokes, and beer. We do have one refillable mug, but the cooler in the room is MUCH more convenient. The wheels and hanle make it easy to transport back and forth to the ice machine and at check-in. We even used it at Blizzard Beach once. We packed a picnic lunch that was much better than the Blizzard Beach fast food. I don't think that it was real expensive, and it has been very handy.

 

[crusin'minnie]

We haven't tried this yet, but my aunt says that if you sprinkle salt on your ice it will stay frozen much longer. Has anyone heard anything about this??

 

[LKS]

Well, I thought salt-water just froze at a lower temp than fresh water. In other words, the reason you add salt to the ice cream freezer is that it allows the water to remain at freezing even with the ice loose and able to move around. If it helped ice stay frozen longer, why would they sprinkle it on roads?

 

[SueM in MN]

I think you have to have rock salt and water, not just ice.
Here's a link to a science project about ice and salt.
I'm not sure I would bother with trying salt. It sounds like you need the right proportions of ice, water and salt. Even if it works, it would be pretty messy and I think you would have to have quite a bit of salt.

 

[robinb]

We have used a collapsable cooler the last couple of times and a styrofoam cooler the times before that. If you buy a styrofoam cooler make sure the sides are straight |_| and not angled \_/. You can fit more things in the straight ones because you can put your milk or juice right up against the walls. One trick we have about ice is that we use the plastic grocery bags from our grocery stop to haul ice back to the room. A couple grocery bags hold enough ice for the cooler and the ice bucket and they come with convenient handles . We ice up in the morning before we go to the parks and in the evening before we go to bed.

 

[KerriL]

We also use a styrofoam cooler everytime we are at WDW. Works great. And saves a lot of $$$$. We also use the plastic grocery bags, although I bring extras from home too. I triple bag them, fill them with ice and usually they don't leak and I can empty the bag right in the tub without getting the food soaked.
I also found it helpful not to buy a carton of juice as it takes up the same amount of space as it empties. Rather, I purchase Minute Maid 100% juice in juice boxes,they can be kept at room temperature, then added to the cooler as needed.

Thanks for the tip of leaving the cooler at the ice machine for someone else...I just left ours in the room, which I'm sure housekeeping tosses.

Kerri