No more loose ice starting May 1

[MrPromey]

You better buy LOTS and LOTS of that first stock -- and be prepared to re-order often.

In other words, I expect this will happen.

Taking the original idea seriously, if they handle it like the chargers, it'll work out just fine. Those chargers sell in-park for $30 each. You can get one for about $12 with much more capacity on Amazon. For about $15, the same applies for Walmart (brick and mortar).

Using that logic, they would take ice pack materials that sell as a rectangular blue pack at Walmart for under $1 and configure them in the shape of Mickey ears and sell the "starters" at $5 or more, each.

Remember, these were profit at $1.

For $5+, just like any other retail merchandise they sell there (those chargers, included), they're happy for you to not return to swap out and just buy new again.

 

[JWG]

Seriously, pack a ziploc bag. And dump the ice out of the bag into your cooler if you want once you're in the park. This is such a non-event. You can bring all the loose ice in you want as long as it's in a sealable bag unitl you're in the park. If you don't want to pay for the ziploc, then grab a few at the TSA line that they have for your liquids when flying.

This is a fair thing to do for the security guards tasked with checking coolers who shouldn't have to dig through 5 lbs of ice.

 

[HiJe]

So how does an onsite guest with an in-room fridge freeze the ice packs? They don’t have freezer compartments any more.

This is what I did 20 years ago. So carrying insulin from your room, whether offsite or onsite, to the first aid station without an ice pack or ice is do-able. Insulin doesn't need to be in a constant cold state. Insulin pumps carry insulin for 3-4 days without being refrigerated.

 

[dgauthier]

People with insulin need ice, and studio rooms have no freezers for ice packs to work. Disney should really clarify. Is bagged ice ok??

I use a Frio bag for mine and it keeps it safe all day without ice

 

[HiJe]

I use a Frio bag for mine and it keeps it safe all day without ice

Oh yeah, those things are awesome too.

 

[beertiki]

Hydro flask makes a food container. Fill it with ice in your room and let it sit for 5 minutes, dump out the ice, put your insulin inside, and it will stay cold for hours. I can fill mine with cold beer at 2pm, and 3 hours later, open it up on the people mover. Still cold, still carbonated, best happy hour on property.

 

[skyphotographer]

I wonder what kind of havoc a hailstorm at the parks will cause?

 

[MisterPenguin]

ice​

 

[gdrj]

I do think it is important Disney provide some basic reasonably priced meal options to go along with this policy. But Disney is right to not allow ice chests etc.

You're funny, reasonable priced meal options.

 

[gdrj]

Not a big deal, people need something to complain about. Does it alter the behavior of a very small % of people visiting parks, yes. People will need to adjust. There are options for people with meds.

 

[donsullivan]

I’m wondering if the driver on this one is issues of security contaminating a food item (the ice) in the bag when doing the necessary digging through the ice to confirm no banned items are contained in the cooler. Many who bring these in may plan on the ice being something kids can suck on, cools a drink etc. these same people likely got upset that a security guard was putting their hands all over the ice.

 

[Gitson Shiggles]

How are we to smuggle Walt’s head in now?

 

[DisneyDreamerxyz]

I used to work the Squeeze Breeze carts that go out in the morning/afternoon and we fill the top with ice to keep the waters/water in the fans cold. But we could get in trouble if any ice falls on the ground because it's a safety hazard. Which is hard when you're trying to maneuver those carts all around the park.

 

[Ismael Flores]

So what I have done is bring ice to keep formula / milk cold for our son (10 mos for first trip, 21 mos for second). Now, I filled up a quart size ziptop bag full of ice from the ice machine. I had no way of bringing in the formula otherwise as I can't freeze it in the hotel. How would I go about doing this now? Getting ice in the park isn't an option because the formula or milk would be bad by the time we got there.

Not sure they thought this through for parents of infants...

never thought about that either but i know that they do sell some pretty nice bags now that keep
stufff cold for several hours. amazon sells some that keep stuff cold for three to four hours.
once inside the park i believe the baby care center has facilities that will store stuff like that for you.

Disney can be tuff on some policies but they are very helpful with stuff like that

 

[mikejs78]

Seems like ziplock bags are ok, so I'm good...

 

[Jon81uk]

View attachment 359754
So this exists. No need for ice. Just need a room with a freezer.

A majority of rooms at WDW don't have freezers...

 

[ImperfectPixie]

A majority of rooms at WDW don't have freezers...

Which seems sort of ridiculous since they're recommending that people bring reusable ice packs...

 

[Jon81uk]

Which seems sort of ridiculous since they're recommending that people bring reusable ice packs...

A lot of people do still stay off-site in villas etc. so its not a bad recommendation in general.

and they are recommending that ice can be put into smaller bags so it can be removed for security checking so there are ways round it.

 

[Lensman]

As people have said, "small" ziploc bags of ice are fine.

The one observation I'll add is that sometimes, there's a period of time after you dump a bunch of ice into a cooler where the ice cubes self-refreeze into large chunks of ice cubes stuck together. Sometimes these chunks of ice cubes are so stuck together that you need an ice pick to break them apart to get to the food or cans. After a while, though, enough melting has occurred and the cubes break up naturally again.

I don't think this happens a lot with hotel ice-machine ice, which is less cold than bags of ice that you buy from a supermarket. Maybe the supermarket ice is subzero while the hotel ice-machine ice is intentionally held at a higher temperature so you don't have the frozen mass of stuck-together cubes in your hotel room ice bucket?

So I'm voting for the security explanation.

I also think this thread is thankfully shorter than the smoking thread (and has more useful information too!), which I am still working my way through. I had to take a break after reading the first 20 pages!

 

[matt9112]

Because they are cheap and rude.
They are trying to beat the system and save some money by turning a visit into a virtual camping trip.
I'm so glad WDW is cracking down on this nonsense.
Giant wagons, ice chests... Ridiculous.

you sound absurd.