MIni fridge?

[happycrafter207]

Hey Everyone, I have cruised many times with carnival but never needed a fridge so I cant remember if the rooms have them. We just found out my husband is diabetic and has to have insulin daily. The insulin has to be put in the fridge for storage. Anyone have any ideas? We are staying in an interior room. It will also be our first time flyer with meds so that will be different

[Joe817]

Many, if not most Carnival ships have mini-fridge's....but not all. You booking should lead you to the amenities for that particular cabin. It might help if you stated the ship you will be on and your cabin number. 

[Purvis1231]

Call Carnival and they can arrange to have one in the room. (But are you sure the insulin has to be refrigerated since modern insulin does not have to be to for short times,) 

[shof515]

the mini fridge in the room is not very cold and it is not suppose to be used for medication. if you need medication cold, contact the special needs department or the onboard medical center

[Joe817]

6 minutes ago, shof515 said:

the mini fridge in the room is not very cold and it is not suppose to be used for medication. if you need medication cold, contact the special needs department or the onboard medical center

Good recommendation! 👍

[ObstructedView2]

1 hour ago, happycrafter207 said:

Hey Everyone, I have cruised many times with carnival but never needed a fridge so I cant remember if the rooms have them. We just found out my husband is diabetic and has to have insulin daily. The insulin has to be put in the fridge for storage. Anyone have any ideas? We are staying in an interior room. It will also be our first time flyer with meds so that will be different

 

Be certain to consult the insulin paperwork, your husband's doctor and/or his pharmacist; insulin can be stored at room temperature for 28 days. Away from sunlight & heat sources of course.

 

 

✌️

[airdale]

Look into FRIO insulin wallets for pens or bottles or filled syringes.  You merely soak them in water to swell the crystals inside and will keep your insulin cool when on the ship or on an excursion off the ship.  Soaking will last more than 24 hours each time.  They come in different shapes, styles, colors, etc..  I have two different colors for my duo pen wallets for my two different types of insulin that I use.  You can also while onboard, have your cabin steward put fresh ice in your cabin...he will check the ice bucket for you so you can add ice to a doubled zip locked baggie.  That baggie kept inside a small collapsible cooler, with your extra insulin kept in there also...separated with a piece of cardboard so that there isn't any direct contact between the bag of ice and the insulin.  I hope this helps.  Oh yeah, I always give that steward an additional tip right of the bat. 

[coevan]

4 hours ago, shof515 said:

the mini fridge in the room is not very cold and it is not suppose to be used for medication. if you need medication cold, contact the special needs department or the onboard medical center

 

 

The older ships had coolers, not refrigerators. Our last 3 cruises the fridges were brain freeze cold, real refrigerator

[deadmoney]

What we did for my wife's Forteo was bring a small collapsible cooler and a small dry box from the boat and just kept ice in it.

Just ask your room Stewart to check it every day.

[HeidiHo]

I just got off the Panorama and this was the worst refrigerator/coolerI have ever had. I didn't think it was working at all until I saw there was some condensation build up on the inside but the temp was barely lower than room temperature. Other ships I have been on had better refrigerator/coolers although still not super cold. Luckily I always bring a soft sided cooler and my cabin steward kept it full of ice for me. I just like to chill my sodas and water in the before putting them on ice so the ice doesn't melt so fast. This time that didn't help very much.

[Organized Chaos]

They put the fridges inside those small wooden cabinets without much extra space and very little venting on one side. The problem is, it gets really warm inside the cabinet and those little fridges struggle to keep up. If you find that it's not cooling down, try leaving the cabinet door open whenever you can. It helps with ventilation and the fridge usually stays cooler.

[groundloop]

18 hours ago, shof515 said:

the mini fridge in the room is not very cold and it is not suppose to be used for medication. if you need medication cold, contact the special needs department or the onboard medical center

 

What I found with the mini fridge in our cabin on the Elation (just got off the ship yesterday) is that it was inside a cabinet without adequate ventilation for getting out the heat that it generates (there's a single small vent near the rear but that's not nearly enough).  Propping open the cabinet door helped immensely.  Other ships may have different types of installations, but it's certainly worth a look.

 

OOPS, looks like I posted this before I noticed that Organized Chaos said the same thing.  In any case, this one simple fix makes a huge difference in how well the fridges can cool.  

Edited February 23, 2020 by groundloop

[Joe817]

3 hours ago, groundloop said:

 

What I found with the mini fridge in our cabin on the Elation (just got off the ship yesterday) is that it was inside a cabinet without adequate ventilation for getting out the heat that it generates (there's a single small vent near the rear but that's not nearly enough).  Propping open the cabinet door helped immensely.  Other ships may have different types of installations, but it's certainly worth a look.

 

OOPS, looks like I posted this before I noticed that Organized Chaos said the same thing.  In any case, this one simple fix makes a huge difference in how well the fridges can cool.  

I can attest to that being 100% true. We found that the fridge got, REALLY cold after opening the cabinet door. Of course it took several hours for it to cool down after we got to our cabin. 

[happycrafter207]

On 2/22/2020 at 1:24 PM, Joe817 said:

Many, if not most Carnival ships have mini-fridge's....but not all. You booking should lead you to the amenities for that particular cabin. It might help if you stated the ship you will be on and your cabin number. 

Valid point LOL -we are on the Fascination, we are cruising out of San Juan PR-we have an interior cabin

[happycrafter207]

On 2/22/2020 at 3:20 PM, airdale said:

Look into FRIO insulin wallets for pens or bottles or filled syringes.  You merely soak them in water to swell the crystals inside and will keep your insulin cool when on the ship or on an excursion off the ship.  Soaking will last more than 24 hours each time.  They come in different shapes, styles, colors, etc..  I have two different colors for my duo pen wallets for my two different types of insulin that I use.  You can also while onboard, have your cabin steward put fresh ice in your cabin...he will check the ice bucket for you so you can add ice to a doubled zip locked baggie.  That baggie kept inside a small collapsible cooler, with your extra insulin kept in there also...separated with a piece of cardboard so that there isn't any direct contact between the bag of ice and the insulin.  I hope this helps.  Oh yeah, I always give that steward an additional tip right of the bat. 

Thanks I will check it out. We just found out all of this Thursday so we haven't had a chance to education ourselves very much. He skipped the step of just needing meds unfortunately and went directly to insulin 

[airdale]

Happycrafter207, diabetes is a ongoing learning challenge.  But doable!  Don  

[kenb]

On 2/23/2020 at 4:56 PM, happycrafter207 said:

Thanks I will check it out. We just found out all of this Thursday so we haven't had a chance to education ourselves very much. He skipped the step of just needing meds unfortunately and went directly to insulin 

My wife loves her Frio  insulin wallets. If you are fliying, make sure you tell TSA that you have medically needed cooling system for the insulin. They still may want to exam them but they are legal. If the agent says they are not legal, ask for a supervisor. 

There is great information on the web about travelling with diabetes.

[mz-s]

I will say I just got off the Sunshine. According to Carnival's deck plans, my room was not supposed to have a fridge. But it did indeed have one. And no insulin/medication needs - but drinks were ice cold. It was a real fridge.

 

So even if your room doesn't have a fridge by the deck plan, it might by the time you board. It seems that Carnival is going in and adding fridges to rooms as they can, only updating deck plans after the fact.

Edited February 29, 2020 by mz-s

[rvsullivan]

As already noted, insulin does not need to be refrigerated for as long as 28 days. Take the required number of pens for your cruise and no refrigerator is needed. Your husbands doctor can reassure him about all the facts for traveling with insulin. 

[scpirate]

4 minutes ago, rvsullivan said:

As already noted, insulin does not need to be refrigerated for as long as 28 days. Take the required number of pens for your cruise and no refrigerator is needed. Your husbands doctor can reassure him about all the facts for traveling with insulin. 

My brother in law still uses the one in  bottle. he has to draw a syringe from.that has to refrigerated.he doesn't like the pens for some reason.

[rvsullivan]

1 minute ago, scpirate said:

My brother in law still uses the one in  bottle. he has to draw a syringe from.that has to refrigerated.he doesn't like the pens for some reason.

My insulin bottles say the same thing, no refrigeration for up to 28 days and keep out of direct sunlight and excessive heat!

[Floriduh]

My wife has MS and we had two issues. Her injections needed to be refrigerated and she has a vest that carries 12 ice packets to keep her body temp cool while out and about. The front desk has both freezers and fridges for medical purposes. Just put the cabin number on the package and give it to them. Between them and the room fridge we are always fine.

[pacruise804]

18 hours ago, Floriduh said:

My wife has MS and we had two issues. Her injections needed to be refrigerated and she has a vest that carries 12 ice packets to keep her body temp cool while out and about. The front desk has both freezers and fridges for medical purposes. Just put the cabin number on the package and give it to them. Between them and the room fridge we are always fine.

Sorry for the thread drift, but your post stood out as I remember my mother having trouble with heat/humidity due to MS when she was alive.  Did you need a prescription for the vest?

[Floriduh]

36 minutes ago, pacruise804 said:

Sorry for the thread drift, but your post stood out as I remember my mother having trouble with heat/humidity due to MS when she was alive.  Did you need a prescription for the vest?

We didn't have a prescription. National MS society paid for it. Just need to get a letter from the doctor. We paid for a set of the "Phase Change" ice packs. They only need a refrigerator to get to temp but don't last as long. So those go in the room fridge and the frozen packs go to the front desk.

 

I did buy a vest for myself. We live in Florida and it makes the days at Disney more comfy as well as the cruise trips.

 

Polar Products dot com.

[mexicobob]

On 2/22/2020 at 11:31 PM, Organized Chaos said:

They put the fridges inside those small wooden cabinets without much extra space and very little venting on one side. The problem is, it gets really warm inside the cabinet and those little fridges struggle to keep up. If you find that it's not cooling down, try leaving the cabinet door open whenever you can. It helps with ventilation and the fridge usually stays cooler.

This is a great suggestion. Not just for a ships refrigerator but for a hotel also. Keep the cabinet door propped open with a towel or something. Makes a major difference.