Styrafoam cooler with ice question

[Disney Forever]

My family and I are going to WDW in about three weeks, but before we go, I have a question that I hope the people on these boards can help me with.

I decided (after reading all the posts on this subject) that I would not rent a fridge this time at WDW but instead use a styrafoam cooler. My main question is, I read somewhere that instead of putting the ice directly in the cooler, you should get Large ziplock bags, and put the ice in a bunch of them, and use them like ice packs, this way the food doesnt get soggy, and at the end of theday, when you need to replace the ice, its easier than dumping water out of the whole cooler, you can dump each bag seperatly.

Can someone please tell me if they have ever done this, and if it will work the same as putting the ice directly in the cooler?

Thanks in advance for everyones input.

Nathan

 

[Dodie]

Yes. This is exactly what we did. We also sat the cooler on the floor on a bath towel, just in case there might be leaks.

No leaks. Much easier to dig around in the cooler without freezing one's hands. Easy to dump and refill bags.

 

[MEM]

We have done it both ways and both ways seem to have the same cooling effect. I also put the juice boxes in baggies because when they soak directly in the ice water they swell up something fierce. Also the milk cartons will get soggy and start to collapse and float unless the ice is in baggies. Generic or store-brand baggies seem to work just as well for this purpose as the name brands. We did not use styrofoam -- we brought a collapsible lined nylon one in our luggage. Worked great and saved much money.

 

[eeyore0062]

Yep, we do that just about every time we go! It is so much more economical than those fridges!

 

[stephaniebatesjones]

The cooler idea is a great one. My DH works for the sharper image, and they sell small portable fridges there. We have a couple of those and plan on using them on our next disney trip. You can also buy a car adapter to the fridges. This works out great for us because my dd has medications that need to be refrigerated. So this way we can keep them cold in the car without having to worry about ice melting during the drive (which is what we did previously). We will utilize both methods on our next trip.

Now I have a question:

Does anyone have any good ideas about freezing things. We like to freeze juice boxes so that by the time we need them they wil be unthawed and still cold. We did this last time, but that was when we had to rent a fridge anyway.

Thanks,

steph

 

[jewelray]

I bought one of those styrofoam coolers but didn't have too much luck. The ziplock bags somehow got a leak and I had to empty water anyway and then walking to get the ice was a little bit of a hassel since I had to hold the ziplock under the machine & it got caught in the grooves On our second to last day a refigerator was placed in our room and it was much nicer however who wants to pay $10 a day for it. You can't win but whatever works for you is what you go with right??