Storing food in coolers at a resort

[Alliekat79]

In order to save some money while traveling this August, I was thinking of bringing some food in a soft-sided cooler to keep in the hotel room (CSR specifically). I will be flying down for 6 days.
Has anyone had any experience doing this?
Do the resorts have Ice Machines throughout?
Are there any restrictions by the resorts on coolers so you have to rent the fridge?
Any tips you can give me would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Allison

 

[turls401]

We just returned from a 7-night stay (1 night POR, 6 nights CR) and had no problems with a styrofoam cooler - bell services even kept it for us when we checked in to the CR early Sunday morning.

Have a great trip - we did!

 

[DancingBear]

We drive down and so we always have a big cooler. Plenty of ice machines around, I try to fill up the cooler at odd times so I dont use up the ice machine ice for other guests.

 

[4crusinransiers]

We are going in Aug and doing the same thing. We have a softside cooler and plan on using the ice machines to fill it.
We will be doing all but two breakfasts in room, begals, cereal ect...we will do a few lunches in our room when we don't have PS.
We even plan to bring our own coffee maker. We are staying at AKL and the one they give you at request is a small 4 cup.
Being from seattle we love our coffee! We purchaced a 12 cup at bi-mart for 9.99!
Have fun on your trip!

 

[sheilap]

We used a soft sided cooler and filled up with ice from the vending machines with no problems. We filled to cooler with snacks (fruit roll-ups, mini boxes of goldfish crackers, juice boxes, etc...) and checked it as baggage. Then when we got to WDW we emptied that stuff out and put food and beverages in the cooler. When we left to come home, we packed our souvies in the cooler and checked it as baggage again. It worked out great - a cooler and an extra bag all in one!

 

[eeyore0062]

Yep, do it every time...sure saves that extra $10 per night on a fridge!

 

[Dallas_Lady]

I have been thinking about doing a soft-sided cooler vs. a styrofoam cooler. About how big do they come? Has anyone used both and have opinions/comparisons?

 

[rojoe]

Our last trip we picked up a styrofoam cooler at a drug store en route from the airport to WDW (we rented a car). We only paid 4 or 5 dollars for it so when we left we just left it there. We stored soda, milk, beer, OJ etc. in it. It was a pretty large cooler but we only iced down what we would be using on that particular day. We're doing the same thing when we arrive in June.

Rojoe

 

[LucyStorm]

I bought one of the new soft sided coolers that folds down to a very small size, and packed it in my suitcase. The only problem that I had with it the entire time was that sometimes the ice machine would be out of ice. I left the cooler full of food/ice in the room, and would use a plastic grocery bag to get more ice. We saved a ton of money doing this. I also am a Pepsi fan, don't like Coke, so we had Pepsi and Mountain Dew waiting for us when we got back to the room along with our milk and juice.

The cooler that I bought was a full size cooler.

 

[Disneydenise]

My cooler tip of the day is: take ziplock bags and fill them wiht ice. Take several and then if you get a hole just throw it out. The ziplocks are easy to fill from the machines and they keep the things from getting soggy. We take a large soft side coller and then we pack it with souvineers on the way home.

 

[Alliekat79]

Thank you so much for all your answers!
I suppose I still have 3 months to plan, but I'm getting anxious!
I'll have to look for a full size, soft sided cooler. I think I remember seeing one at Target.
Allison

 

[KaraJade]

It was our first time driving this year so I was all about having lots of snacks and sodas in our room. Right before we left, Krogers had a huge sale on 12 packs of cokes, so we bought lots of soda to take and a cooler to put it all in. While the cooler and ice worked really well, and kept everything cold enough, the ice seemed to melt a lot faster than we were ready to fool with filling it up with new ice again lol. We did buy the resort mugs and definately got our use out of them, but it was ALSO nice to have cans of cold cokes ready in the room when we got home for the day. The dry snacks I bought went pretty much unused, and I won't fool so much with them next time. Probably will take a coffee cake or some donuts for mornings and thats about it. For the drive down, I did pack sandwiches and chips for both of us which came in handy since we drove overnight. I know I probably wouldn't fool with a cooler if flying, but the convenience was really nice for driving down.

 

[2boys'mom]

We took a soft sided cooler that folds and holds 48 cans this April.
I filled up ziploc bags of ice and put it in there. We had no problem with finding ice. It worked fine for cooling juice boxes, and water and coke. But it did not do so well at keeping milk, cheese, yogurt or ham. By the end of the day when I refilled the ice in the 3 gallon ziplocs, the interior would be warming up. So I didn't feel comfortable with the things that would spoil. If I used a 4th bag for ice, I wouldn't have too much room for stuff. If I tried to fill the bags twice a day, the ice wouldn't have melted much, but by 24hours, it had completely melted. I have 2 small kids to keep up with so I couldn't monitor it minute by minute. Moral of the story, I can deal with it for the things that need cooling, but that won't spoil. I'd get a fridge for meats, milk, etc.

 

[Meagansmom]

We picked a styrofoam cooler at a Winn Dixie's for $1.59 a couple weeks ago. Worked great!!! We changed the ice once a day. BTW Winn Dixie's is 3 stop lights left from Crossroads Shopping Center. Very convenient!!

 

[Laura's Dad]

We use a heavy-duty cooler with wheels. We pack a lot of our breakfast food and soft drinks in our cooler. It doesn't take up too much room, it is easy to fill uo because you don't have to carry it, and you can save substantial money on drinks. we have even taken the cooler to Blizzard Beach and packed a picnic lunch.

 

[wdwnutze]

We used a soft sided and a styrofoam on our last trip. The ziplocs for ice are the way to go so that your stuff isn't floating in water at the end of the day. We saved a bundle having drinks, b-fast foods and snacks in our room. We were even able to get to Walmart and buy cold cuts for dinner in our room 1 night. We had a lagoon view at the Poly so we sat on our patio with our dinner and watched the fireworks! It was the best dinner we had.

 

[cindyfan]

We fly down to WDW, so we have used a soft sided cooler that we packed in our luggage. It has worked out okay. But once we just put the ice in without any zip-locks and it leaked all over. The carpet was wet and everything was soggy.
So last time, we were staying just for 4 days, and we just used the sink. Filled it with ice in evening for our cold drinks to take to the park in the morning. Then again in the morning so we would have a few cold drinks (juice mostly) for the afternoon. We were at All star Movies and they even cleaned it out and refilled it a couple of days.
But this time we plan to stop at Crossroads and pick up a styrofoam cooler for our 10 day stay.
And we will have ziplocks for the ice.
We never had trouble finding enough ice, machines have always been full.
We have always taken dry snacks like crackers, poptarts, etc. and just put them on the shelf. We also take a small jar of peanut butter, and plastic flatware, and paper plates.
It really saves time and money to be able to have a quick breakfast and snack in the room.

 

[Bobrow]

This wouldn't work for air travelers,but for those traveling by car. We bought one of those coolers that you plug in and its great. No hassle with ice a nd meltage. It was about $99,but since we go on alot of weekend trips for our kids sports it was a great investment. It is just like having a refrigerator in the room.We pack it with cold cuts, milk juice etc.Its worth it if you travel alot.

 

[jmarie]

Stop at the 7-11 on the way in from the airport. Much better than renting a fridge!

 

[Kallison]

For milk we buy the parmalat that does not need refrigeration. I just ice one container down for the AM, we usually use it all in one sitting.