Medicine Fridge - photos

[HappyTexan44]

[smokeybandit]

48.9 degrees doesn't exactly sound too "refrigerated"

[HappyTexan44]

We requested the medicine fridge.    It wasn't what I expected, which was a small or tiny fridge with tight temperature control.   As you can see, it isn't that.   You might have something similar at home, I think we have two.   The cord kept unplugging so we put in under the counter.   The temp had been below 40F.   It had been 47F when I opened the lid, which was the highest I saw while it stayed plugged in.    A vial of medicine doesn't take that much space, so we used it for other stuff too.   I always wrap the vial in a washcloth or napkin to help even out the temp.   

This was on the Voyager on Feb 2024.    The regular fridge wasn't even claiming to be a fridge.   It had a sign on the front that it was a cooler.   The inside door was setup for a mini-bar where you were charged when you removed stuff.  Remember those?  Temp in there was 60's before I added a ziploc of ice.   

Edited February 26 by HappyTexan44

[BecciBoo]

Good enough for most meds.  BTW I put the whole ice bucket in our "cooler", that works pretty good to keep the ice from melting.  I get ice every day from our steward.

Edited February 26 by BecciBoo

[HappyTexan44]

Daughter's just has to stay below 50F.  So it was fine for that.   For anyone that needs tighter controls, I'd suggest bringing your own tiny fridge.   
Of course it wasn't in the room until late the first evening, and after I'd gone to guest services.    The ship hadn't heard anything from Special Needs about us.    Fortunately everything else fell into the normal requests.  

[Mum2Mercury]

That image isn't a refrigerator.  It's a cooler.  

 

We had a handicapped room on our recent Grandeur cruise, and we had a small cube fridge like you'd expect to see in a dorm room.  Grandeur doesn't have these in all its rooms, so I assumed it was a medicine refrigerator.  

 

If you need something kept cooler, here's a hack:  Put your item into your small ice bucket -- with ice /just a cup full will do, surround it with a wet hand towel, and put the whole thing in the fridge.  It'll stay significantly colder than one of these coolers.  

Edited February 26 by Mum2Mercury

[c-leg5]

1 hour ago, HappyTexan44 said:

Daughter's just has to stay below 50F.  So it was fine for that.   For anyone that needs tighter controls, I'd suggest bringing your own tiny fridge.   
Of course it wasn't in the room until late the first evening, and after I'd gone to guest services.    The ship hadn't heard anything from Special Needs about us.    Fortunately everything else fell into the normal requests.  

Glad it worked out after all your planning. 
 

I think it was probably indicated to you when you wanted to use dropping off medicines early to your cabin as a reason for accessing your cabin early that there was a distinct possibility that it wouldn’t be there until later. This is fairly typical.

 

Hope you had a good time overall.

[reallyitsmema]

1 hour ago, HappyTexan44 said:

We requested the medicine fridge.    It wasn't what I expected, which was a small or tiny fridge with tight temperature control.   As you can see, it isn't that.   You might have something similar at home, I think we have two.   The cord kept unplugging so we put in under the counter.   The temp had been below 40F.   It had been 47F when I opened the lid, which was the highest I saw while it stayed plugged in.    A vial of medicine doesn't take that much space, so we used it for other stuff too.   I always wrap the vial in a washcloth or napkin to help even out the temp.   

This was on the Voyager on Feb 2024.    The regular fridge wasn't even claiming to be a fridge.   It had a sign on the front that it was a cooler.   The inside door was setup for a mini-bar where you were charged when you removed stuff.  Remember those?  Temp in there was 60's before I added a ziploc of ice.   

 

You finally went on your cruise!!  I hope you enjoyed it. 

 

As far as your medicine refrigerator, what you received is what we have gotten on many ships when we put a request into the Special Needs department.  I must have missed when you asked about them prior to your cruise because I have posted similar pictures in the past.  We have never had issues with the plug falling out and have never checked the temperature, interesting to see what it actually was in the one you had.  The medicine we use it for is refrigerated but is okay at room temperature for 30 days, so we haven't been too concerned about the temp.  We end up unplugging it after the medicine is used because we found that thing to be loud.

[HappyTexan44]

This one was at least silent.  

[pcur]

After a disastrous experience with housekeeping freezing my husband's insulin, we started bringing our own: $99

 

 

I suggest bringing several external power banks.  I just bought one of these and I love it: $20

 

 

 

And a car-to-USB adaptor ($7), since the mini-fridge includes a car adapter.

 

 

 

 

All of the above is from Amazon, and $127 for peace of mind flying or driving to/from and on the ship, with no iffy fridges from the ship.

 

When my husband passed, I gave all of this to someone on the Disabled Cruisers board here on CC. Seems someone had just posted her brother was in the hospital with a diabetes crises, but was being released, and they didn't know what to do about his medication on their cruise.  Sometimes life includes serendipity...............

Edited February 26 by pcur

[Mum2Mercury]

PCUR, that looks like a worthwhile purchase.  

[teddie]

5 hours ago, BecciBoo said:

Good enough for most meds.  BTW I put the whole ice bucket in our "cooler", that works pretty good to keep the ice from melting.  I get ice every day from our steward.

The med fridge is fine. We also do the ice bucket in the "fridge".  Works great.

 

Teddie

 

[pcur]

2 hours ago, Mum2Mercury said:

PCUR, that looks like a worthwhile purchase.  

It really is.  With insulin, we didn't want to depend on a melting ice bucket. 

 

That's why we asked our cabin steward to put the supply in the housekeeping refrigerator, and he must have had an ESL problem, and delivered it back to us frozen!  The ship's doctor had a FIT, and told me he would add this incident to Housekeeping's training. He gave us two bottles he had in the medical center, and had a pharmacy in Cozumel deliver us 4 more literally minutes after the ship docked the next day.

 

We then had to pay full price for the rest in Key West and get reimbursed over $1,000 by our health insurance when we got home.  

[HappyTexan44]

One thing that didn't occur to me until just now.   We only got a few inches in the ice bucket every day.    It wasn't a problem since I just moved the stuff that really needed to stay cold to the medicine fridge.  But, without it, that would have been annoying.  

[HappyTexan44]

1 minute ago, pcur said:

It really is.  With insulin, we didn't want to depend on a melting ice bucket. 

 

That's why we asked our cabin steward to put the supply in the housekeeping refrigerator, and he must have had an ESL problem, and delivered it back to us frozen!  The ship's doctor had a FIT, and told me he would add this incident to Housekeeping's training. He gave us two bottles he had in the medical center, and had a pharmacy in Cozumel deliver us 4 more literally minutes after the ship docked the next day.

 

We then had to pay full price for the rest in Key West and get reimbursed over $1,000 by our health insurance when we got home.  

Wow

[pcur]

1 minute ago, HappyTexan44 said:

One thing that didn't occur to me until just now.   We only got a few inches in the ice bucket every day.    It wasn't a problem since I just moved the stuff that really needed to stay cold to the medicine fridge.  But, without it, that would have been annoying.  

Yes, the ship we were on at the time of the Frozen Insulin event, did not have medical fridges to provide.