soft side cooler?

[willproph]

I read an earlier thread re cooler or fridge and it got me thinking.

What do you recommend? We are flying for 4 nights and staying on site. We have reserved a fridge with the CBR. Bass pro shops has a 48 can soft cooler for sale for $15.00(shipping and tax included). Should we cancel the fridge and buy the cooler? Should we buy a cheap cooler at the grocery and throw it away at the end of the trip?

We have a 30 minute grocery stop and were going to buy milk, water, gatorade, lunchmeat, cheese etc. that need to stay cold.

Another issue. If we do get a fridge in the room, is there any issue of the food going bad between check in and when we get the bags sent to our room? How long does that take to get to the room?

Thanks for all of your help.

 

[ccotis]

I have done both. If you get to your hotel before your room is ready,a cooler would come in handy. The only problem I had when using the cooler is that the cold cuts were soggy even though I double zip-locked them. When you stop for food, buy a cheepo cooler anyway, iced down beer and coke seem to taste better!

 

[swilphil]

Originally posted by ccotis
I have done both. If you get to your hotel before your room is ready,a cooler would come in handy. The only problem I had when using the cooler is that the cold cuts were soggy even though I double zip-locked them. When you stop for food, buy a cheepo cooler anyway, iced down beer and coke seem to taste better!

I bought the styro cooler last year, and it worked well. If you put the ice in large ziplock bags, you should be able to avoid soggy items. This year I'm bringing a small (6 pack) soft cooler so we can take into the parks under the stroller. If you would use the $15 cooler again it might be worth it. That's a pretty good price.

 

[hookedup]

I bought and brought a soft sided one a couple of years ago - it worked great except it did get a little soggy even with zip locks - we ended up keeping it in the bathtub so to minimize the mess.
We got a decent one at Wal-Mart fairly cheap.
I think it's fine for soda, juices but I would probably be a little leery about keeping yogurt or milk or lunch meats in it for several days - even with adding ice often.
If I was going to do that I would probably try it out at home first with a thermometer and make sure it's keeping it below 40 degrees - but that's just me - I am paranoid!