using cooler instead of fridge at asmo?

[mommy2paris]

Morning! I remember seeing a post awhile back about some people buying coolers during their grocery stop, using them in their rooms, instead of renting a fridge, and then leaving them for another family. I have been trying to tell dh that maybe we should try it when we are staying at ASMo in september for 8 days. But he really isn't buying it. I have seen picks of the fridges, and they look really small. We need to get at least 2 gallons of milk, plus other bigger things for our little ones, and I would like to get it all at once.
Anyone have experience with this? Are there plenty of ice machines around? How often did you have to dump out water and refill cooler? What did you transport ice in or did you actually take cooler to machine each time? Where did you keep cooler at in the room?
Tons of questions, sorry! TIA for any help!

 

[eeyoregon]

Yes, you can certainly buy a cooler. It works great...just keep refreshing the ice.

The fridge's that Disney rents would not hold a gallon of milk as they are quite small.

 

[tink_n_pooh]

We've used a cooler a few times. I only refilled the ice once a day and didn't have any problems. I just left the cooler right on the floor near the table and dumped the water in the bathtub.

I would carry the cooler to the ice machine (leaving the contents of the cooler in the room for a few minutes) with the ice bucket and fill it up at the ice machine. It only takes a minute to fill it up and carry it back to the room.

And the fridges are way to small if you are going to have 2 gallons of milk!

 

[mommy2paris]

Thanks! It sounds like a good idea to me,and much cheaper!

 

[Jeanne B]

We've used the styrofoam coolers before, cheap and disposable.

 

[tar heel]

We've used a cooler many times, but we've not tried to keep several days of milk in there. We buy only the first milk at the grocery store, then we buy some at the resort store as needed. I buy 1/2 gallons instead of gallons b/c it's easier to keep them cold. I'm not sure what the resort store is charging now, but you may want to consider that.

We kept the cooler in different places depending on the resort. In All Stars, I believe we put it in the "closet" area since we don't hang up clothes at WDW.

 

[bamor]

Yup, the styrofoam cooler is great. I think it was $6.00 at the Super Target.
Buy or pack gallon size Ziploc bags to hold the ice. Use the melted ice to fill your mister spray fan and just bring the bags to the ice machine once in the am and once in the pm. By the way, Parmalat milk works great as it does not need to be refrigerated until it's opened, same goes for those organic horizon milks.

 

[eeyoregon]

P.S.

In case anyone is staying at the All Star MOVIES resort we have a fridge swap going.

These dates are available to use a mini-fridge at no cost:

July 7-31
August 1-20
September 1-4
October 8-17
October 24-29
November 9-30
December 1-7
December 21-31
January 1-7
January 17-31
and the rest of 2008 is open!!

If interested send me a private message or email me at eeyoregon@aol.com

gina

 

[toesmom]

We have used styrofoam coolers in the past at the value resorts. Ice was easy to get at anytime, and we kept the cooler in the tub. It was a great way to keep our food costs low. If your dates would work out, read below for a fridge swap which is actually free and would save you the trouble of the cooler/ice altogether.


FREE FRIDGE, COFFEEMAKER and electric kettle for All Star Resort guests

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1395455


We have an ongoing fridge swap available for any families staying at All Star Resorts. Fridge (& coffeemaker, electric kettle, toaster) are free to use for entire length of stay, just need to return to guest services at All Star Movies and make sure it's clean when returned.

Disney charges $10 plus tax per night for use of fridge.

Available dates include July 15 to 30, Nov 8 to Nov 20, Jan 4- Feb 2, Feb 18- March 6 2008, March 9 - May 25

Here is the thread if interested

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1395455

 

[toesmom]

Yup, the styrofoam cooler is great. I think it was $6.00 at the Super Target.
Buy or pack gallon size Ziploc bags to hold the ice. Use the melted ice to fill your mister spray fan and just bring the bags to the ice machine once in the am and once in the pm. By the way, Parmalat milk works great as it does not need to be refrigerated until it's opened, same goes for those organic horizon milks.

These ideas are great, thank you

 

[goin2disneyagain]

We take a cooler and do use it. It's much better than the fridges at the resorts, they are too small and really didn't work very well. A cooler worked much better for us.

 

[tink2dw]

We took a Collapable Cooler on wheels with a Handle we packed it with clothes in 2 gallon zip lock bags going to WDW, then used ziplocks for Ice for cooler. It was big enough to hold 4 gallons of milk. We iced cokes, sandwich meat and fixings, cottage cheese, cheese, bottled water. We were there 10 days in All Star Music. Their refigerators held 4 soda cans and 3 bottled waters, Only,thats it!!!! Myth Busters proved the quickest, best way to cool canned beverages was 1 styro foam cooler, ice, water, and lots of table salt and It took 1 hour to cool cans down to 37 degree's!!!! That ought to impress your Dh!!lol!!

 

[ticktock]

We always use our cooler when we stay at the Poly because they have their fridge in a cabinet that isn't properly vented and the fridge doesn't get cold enough. We've had this problem at AKL and the CR too. So don't think your missing out on something staying at a value.

 

[MickeyManiac]

We used the collapsible rolling cooler as well. It folded small enough to fit in our luggage so no big deal on the plane. It was also nice because you could roll it to the ice machine and back once a day and not have to take several trips to and from the room with the little hotel ice bucket. Quite handy and I plan to use it again next time.

 

[jessica52877]

We use a cooler every time we go. We only fill with ice about every day and a half, we keep under the sink, covered with a towel (or next to it if we don't want to pull it out each time). It stays very cold and frozen for a long time. We put all kinds of items inside, just be sure if it is a bag (like pepperoni) that it is sealed well or the water will get inside. Ice machines on every floor by the elevators.

 

[MickeyP]

We used the collapsible rolling cooler as well. It folded small enough to fit in our luggage so no big deal on the plane. It was also nice because you could roll it to the ice machine and back once a day and not have to take several trips to and from the room with the little hotel ice bucket. Quite handy and I plan to use it again next time.

Are these from Walmart? and what was the price? I saw an interesting bag there. It had what looked like bubble wrap on it, and the bubbles had water in them. I assume you freeze the entire bag and it keeps things cool.

 

[sameyeyam]

Because we were flying in and couldn't really bring a cooler, I bought a couple of those plastic beach bag/purse things from the Dollar Store. Get the kind that are NOT mesh on the side. Punch holes in the bottom to let the water drain out and keep them in the bathtub or sink. We filled them with ice to keep our drinks & milk cold and the ice was still there in the afternoons when we came back from parks. Refilled them in the afternoon with ice from the ice machines, then again before we went to bed. Worked like a charm!! It was a good $2 investment.

 

[dancin Disney style]

You should aways leave your cooler in the bathtub. If the carpet becomes wet there is a chance that you could be billed for damages.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

We took a Collapable Cooler on wheels with a Handle we packed it with clothes in 2 gallon zip lock bags going to WDW, then used ziplocks for Ice for cooler. It was big enough to hold 4 gallons of milk. We iced cokes, sandwich meat and fixings, cottage cheese, cheese, bottled water. We were there 10 days in All Star Music. Their refigerators held 4 soda cans and 3 bottled waters, Only,thats it!!!! Myth Busters proved the quickest, best way to cool canned beverages was 1 styro foam cooler, ice, water, and lots of table salt and It took 1 hour to cool cans down to 37 degree's!!!! That ought to impress your Dh!!lol!!

We have one similar to this, but it leaks really bad. We used it once, then put it away. Do you leave the ice in the zip loc bags? If so, does it keep everything cold? We may try that.

 

[MousekaMaddi]

had a cooler delivered from garden grocer(who we loved using) and it was $6 for cooler(we gave it to another family when we left)
Along with dry groceries, we had a gallon OJ and 2 quarts of milk delivered and they were in a cold bag(a silver foldable sack-like-purse=like bag that keeps things cold....)each morning we took this empty silver cooler like bag to ice machines and filled it and dumped it in our cooler, Worked great! We kept cooler in tub and drained it alot. The huge oj was tricky to repack each day but was great to have. Definately get smaller containers so they can be unopened until u need them,buy extra milk as needed. We would definately do this EVERY trip,