tips and tricks for cold drinks in room?

Hi, do you have any tips and tricks for keeping cold drinks in your hotel room in Vegas? I stayed at Aria last visit and I think that the front desk lady told me that if I tried to store something in the fridge that I'd get charged. So can you recommend any tips/tricks/workarounds for this?

 

Use the ice bucket

 

Actually, I was thinking about buying a foam ice chest from the Walgreens across from Hard Rock

 

Unless you have a bunch of stuff the ice bucket should work. I suppose you could use a sink if it's a double.

 

My sink always becomes a cooler.

 

I have a little collapsable soft foam cooler, I use it for picnics and sporting events, and hotels on occasion. It collapses to about the size of a box of a fat Ipad. It's really squishie and weighs next to nothing. It's that silvery stuff, with a zip top and it's waterproof from the inside.

The internal dimesnsion is about the size of a six pack of tall boys, or a regular sixer and a couple sandwiches. It fits under the ice dispenser in hotel ice machines, and the really nice thing is it doesn't sweat condensation.

I bought it at a Walgreens type place in Daytona for the 500 a few years back......assume they would be @ Amazon or online someplace. I think it was six bucks or so.

Must admit though....I am an ice in the sink sort of heathen for the most part.

 

For this most people want a solution where their ice will keep all day, so they can go out in the morning at 10AM and come back to the room at 8PM and still have lots of ice and their drinks are cold...

The best "trick" I have for this is: you don't really need to do that. If you come back to the room, fill the sink with ice, close the plug and then add water if you do that and then submerge your drinks in the ice water it will usually take less than 5 minutes for a canned drink to get icy cold and only a little longer for a bottle.
What we do for this is bring along a small plastic bag (we pack a couple in our luggage for trips) when we leave the hotel room, I will either shove it in a pocket or wife puts it in her purse, and then when we are coming back to the hotel room we just stop off at the ice machine, fill up the bag and then that way we don't have to go back to the room and get the ice bucket and then go to the ice machine (plus the bag usually carries more ice than the ice bucket).

Otherwise, for a few other ideas:

You can fill the sink with ice and put your drinks in that. If you do that and are going out all day you should put something over the sink/ice: a plastic bag would work best, but if you don't have one then using a wash cloth will be better than nothing.
NOTE: don't close the plug on the sink. It might seem like having the ice water is better, but ice melts faster in water than it does in air so it will stay frozen longer if you let the water drain out as it melts off the ice.

We used to bring along a collapsible cooler: the big advantage is you can get a pretty big cooler that when collapsed takes up no luggage space and they usually have waterproof pockets inside or on top for food, but the downside I found was that they don't always keep cold all day long so you could go out at 10AM and come back at 6PM to grab a cold drink and its nothing but a soft bag of water.

We now pack along a hard plastic insulated Coleman cooler. The one we have holds a six pack and then has a little extra room for ice. These things I find do hold the ice all day a lot better and when we are packing up to go to the airport we put some of our more fragile stuff in it to keep it safe from bumps and bangs, but the downside is: will it fit in your luggage? They don't collapse down and they look so small, but they can be deceivingly bulky that if your luggage, especially if you have a carry on suitcase, is on the small size you might have a hard time fitting it in your luggage.

 

I've got an insulated collapsible backpack. I just fill it up with ice when I get there, and leave it in the bathroom encase it sweats too much. It's good enough for a couple of larger Gateraids, and a pedialight. That's good enough for just me.

 

A collapsible cooler is your best bet. Even though you can use the sink or bucket, the cooler will keep the ice a little longer and you don't have to wait (even if it is only 7-10 minutes in cold sink-ice water to cool it down.) Sometimes you just need that ice cold water/soda as soon as you get back to the room, I get it. Of course I never plan that far ahead and end up drinking luke-warm water and advil before falling asleep (passing out.)

Good luck and let us know what you end up doing and how it worked out for you!

 

ice in the sink or in the ice bucket nowadays, I have used ice in the bathtub before but that was back in the hay days lol

 

I have a rolling cooler that looks and acts like a suitcase.

Take clothes out, put ice in. done.

 

If my room doesn't have a fridge I just go down to walgreens and pick up a Styrofoam cooler. Only costs 2 or 3 bucks for the smaller one and will hold a 6 pack along with condiments if needed. I fill it up regularly from the ice machine so my drinks are always cold. I don't care what happens when I leave so the maids might have a use for them.

 

My wife couldn't stand that I had our sinks full of beer and ice at the Aria last year. We are packing a collapsible cooler this time around..

 

A collapsible small cooler is the way to go. Taking a gallon ziploc in my purse this time so I can fill it with ice on the way to the room. I forgot last time. When you've walked ten miles a day, the trek to the ice machine seems longer and longer at night. We always have a room full of women so the sinks must stay clear!

 

i take a sams club thermal bag for hot or cold. folds almost flat in suitcase and holds alot!

 

the only issue I've had with some of the collapsible coolers is leaking on the counter as the ice melts, so if using one, I would put a towel under it.

cheap foam cooler from walgreens/walmart is also fine.

on one trip the room had a large plastic wastebasket, just filled it with ice and put a towel on top.

whatever you use- cans/bottles go in first, ice on top and the drinks will get cold much faster

 

trash can works good too

 

but that seems a bit ghetto

 

So hit up your favorite "off strip" Walgreens or CVS and buy a cooler? I'd suggest the local Walmart, but I'm guessing it's beneath you?

 

I've had a soft sided folding cooler that has been on several Vegas trips with us. I forgot one time and bought one of those foam coolers....which my husband left on the desk at Bally's and it leaked and destroyed the top of the desk...but they were very cool about it. Other times I've taken advantage of a 2nd sink if there is one to use as a cooler. But, a good soft sided folding cooler will never steer you wrong. I've had mine since about 2005 now and it's still in perfect shape. It shouldn't be as I'm quite a disaster but it is.