Do you take a cooler with you to hotels?

[The Mystery Machine]

Also I have to admit that we try to avoid vending machines.

They tend to be pretty nasty. Esp. after learning how rats and mice like to hang out there...bleech, yuck, ick.

 

[pilesoflaundry]

We usually book somewhere with a fridge so we don't have to bring a cooler but I always pack food. The kids joke it loks like I just did a huge shopping trip in the back of the van before we leave. I take a case or two of water, powerades, juice boxes and snacks.

If we stay at a hotel with free breakfast I pack a little less food but if we don't, I bring breakfast food too.

I bring a soft side cooler if we go on a day trip with some cold drinks and a fw snakcs or some sandwiches. With a family of 5 food on the run adds up! Sometimes we do eat out but we save a lot by not always eating out.

 

[robinb]

You didn't have a "sometimes" option.

* If we fly and know we're going to have a refrigerator (like on our next WDW/Tampa trip) then we'll leave the cooler at home.

* If we fly and we're not sure or we know we won't have a refrigerator, I will usually bring a collapsible cooler and pack it in our suitcase. We have also been known to buy a Styrofoam cooler from the local grocery store (Publix in Orlando!) before we had a collapsible one.

* If we drive we will take a hard-sided cooler with us so we can keep things cold in the car. It also works better at the hotel than the collapsible one if we need it.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

No, we don't take a cooler. We consider buying food and drinks part of the vacation.

 

[nutterbutter2010]

We will be bringing a small soft cooler (or just a cooler bag) to the parks with us for the kids. just a quick PB&J or something like that in there with some water and maybe some breakfast bars. If it were just us adults, No.

 

[TnTsParty]

Most of our trips are road trip anyway so yes we do bring a cooler. It doesn't matter if we are staying at a cottage on the beach in the Keys or checking into hotels such as The Swan/Dolphin or Boardwalk Villas we bring the cooler with us ven if the room has a refrigerator. Its much easier to unload the stuff from the cooler straight into the refrigerator. The bell services don't seem to have any problem putting the cooler on their cart and bringing to our room.

 

[dislal]

Unless we are flying we always bring a cooler or two with us.

Since we are going to WDW next year, the kids knew the only way we could go on vacation this summer is if we did it very budget, we packed two coolers and we still had a great time.

 

[PghLybrt]

No cooler here. One less thing for me to pack!!