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Is there freezers on board where breast milk can be stored?

allisonb22

By allisonb22,
in Royal Caribbean International

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allisonb22 "Live from...." Rare

allisonb22

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We are sailing on Wonder this January for 15 person family cruise. One of the people in our party is traveling with a 6 mo old and is breastfeeding. She needs somewhere to freeze the breastmilk on board. I know there's a refridgerator (i guess its more of a cooler than a fridge) in each cabin but we need a freezer. Does anyone know the best way to go about this?? Thanks in advance.  

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crzndeb

crzndeb

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The Wonder fridges are very cold. I never put anything on the top shelf, because I didn’t want anything to freeze. I’m not sure that they will freeze.

I did have experience with things freezing on the Ovation.

Edited by crzndeb
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jean87510 Great Review Rare

jean87510

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Can you use dry ice?  How many days?  We actually had this situation a few years ago and I remember my niece asking the room attendant and also calling pre cruise to special needs as indicated above.  I know she was successful.  I kind of remember her being overkill and using dry ice in a portable cooler for some reason as well as using the room attendant.

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brillohead "Live from...." Rare

brillohead

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28 minutes ago, BND said:

Women normally freeze for future use so she'd have to transport it home frozen which isn't easy at all.  


Exactly. I'm trying to figure out how and why this scenario needs to even happen if the child is traveling with the nursing mother....

 

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Maierkai

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7 hours ago, brillohead said:


Exactly. I'm trying to figure out how and why this scenario needs to even happen if the child is traveling with the nursing mother....

 


Some women exclusively pump and/or overproduce. 
 

Although I have not experienced this on the cruise ship, when staying in hotels I’ve cooled in bags on ice or ice packs and then once/day traded supplies for staff to put in a freezer used for guest medical supplies. The fridge on wonder wmshould work well enough as a “cooler.” Then just deposit milk once a day?

 

Flying with breast milk actually isn’t complicated, ESPECIALLY if you have the little one in tow. 
 

 

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BND

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1 hour ago, Maierkai said:


Some women exclusively pump and/or overproduce. 
 

Although I have not experienced this on the cruise ship, when staying in hotels I’ve cooled in bags on ice or ice packs and then once/day traded supplies for staff to put in a freezer used for guest medical supplies. The fridge on wonder wmshould work well enough as a “cooler.” Then just deposit milk once a day?

 

Flying with breast milk actually isn’t complicated, ESPECIALLY if you have the little one in tow. 
 

 

I understand why women freeze it, but when traveling most just dump if they have too much.  Those that freeze normally do it while at home for future use.  It's not about flying with it, it's the fact she wants to freeze it.  Traveling with anything frozen is more difficult than just keeping it cold.  

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brillohead "Live from...." Rare

brillohead

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15 hours ago, Maierkai said:

Some women exclusively pump and/or overproduce. 
 

Although I have not experienced this on the cruise ship, when staying in hotels I’ve cooled in bags on ice or ice packs and then once/day traded supplies for staff to put in a freezer used for guest medical supplies. The fridge on wonder wmshould work well enough as a “cooler.” Then just deposit milk once a day?

 

Flying with breast milk actually isn’t complicated, ESPECIALLY if you have the little one in tow. 


I am not aware of *any* facility for freezing passenger products, though. 

While a hotel might have such a facility, the rules are VERY different for cruise ships than they are for land-based properties (this is why kids in swim diapers are allowed in the pools on Coco Cay, but not on the ships unless it's a designated toddler/baby pool).  Breast milk needs to be handled as a bodily fluid, and as such can't be stored in a food storage area.  Perhaps @chengkp75 can give more information on the technical/legal side of this.  

Women who overproduce and donate their breast milk normally only do so at home, and just pump-and-dump when away from home.  And people who exclusively pump and bottle feed wouldn't need to actually freeze the milk for long-term storage purposes when the child is also on the cruise -- they can pump and put it in the fridge until needed, and carry a cooler with a cold pack on the plane.  

And while flying with breast milk isn't a problem, flying with FROZEN breast milk that you need to keep frozen *is* complicated -- you'd need to provide your own portable freezer unit or dry ice container to use in the airport and on the plane.... and if you had your own freezer unit, you wouldn't need the cruise ship to provide one.   

Regardless, I fully support breastfeeding and breast milk donation -- I've been called a "lactivist" on more than one occasion.  I'm just not understanding the reasoning behind this because it's not a standard situation, and maybe if we had more information, we could provide more assistance to the OP. 

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Merion_Mom

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13 minutes ago, brillohead said:


I am not aware of *any* facility for freezing passenger products, though. 

While a hotel might have such a facility, the rules are VERY different for cruise ships than they are for land-based properties (this is why kids in swim diapers are allowed in the pools on Coco Cay, but not on the ships unless it's a designated toddler/baby pool).  Breast milk needs to be handled as a bodily fluid, and as such can't be stored in a food storage area.  Perhaps @chengkp75 can give more information on the technical/legal side of this.  

Women who overproduce and donate their breast milk normally only do so at home, and just pump-and-dump when away from home.  And people who exclusively pump and bottle feed wouldn't need to actually freeze the milk for long-term storage purposes when the child is also on the cruise -- they can pump and put it in the fridge until needed, and carry a cooler with a cold pack on the plane.  

And while flying with breast milk isn't a problem, flying with FROZEN breast milk that you need to keep frozen *is* complicated -- you'd need to provide your own portable freezer unit or dry ice container to use in the airport and on the plane.... and if you had your own freezer unit, you wouldn't need the cruise ship to provide one.   

Regardless, I fully support breastfeeding and breast milk donation -- I've been called a "lactivist" on more than one occasion.  I'm just not understanding the reasoning behind this because it's not a standard situation, and maybe if we had more information, we could provide more assistance to the OP. 

 

I was going to write something like this.   I recall some past discussions - not about breastmilk - about people who wanted the ship to store some of their personal (necessary) foods in the ship's refrigerators or freezers, and the answer was absolutely NOT.

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BND

BND

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18 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

I was going to write something like this.   I recall some past discussions - not about breastmilk - about people who wanted the ship to store some of their personal (necessary) foods in the ship's refrigerators or freezers, and the answer was absolutely NOT.

This.  Freezing breast milk as I said is something some do when at home.  I "overproduced" with my sons (1983 and 1986) and just dumped lol.  Those that I follow who freeze do so at home and freeze in home freezers.  It's not something women do when traveling.   Trying to freeze and them travel just isn't the norm.

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death_star "Live from...." Rare

death_star

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So we faced this on Enchantment earlier this year and they eventually found us a real dorm style fridge with one of those tiny freezer sections. We turned it as low as we could and I made a cocoon of ice packed in zipper sandwich bags to help lower the temperature. It all stayed frozen. Would probably not be cold enough to freeze freshly pumped stuff but did keep our already frozen. 

 

We had to really keep after them to find us the real fridge instead of the glove box sized medical ones they give these days. They can certainly note it on your reservation but I've often found that it still takes telling the steward what you need when you get onboard. 

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Jasukkie

Jasukkie

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1 hour ago, Stede Bonnet said:

Looking forward to hearing how it works out.

 

The family member may be planning to use the babysitting on port days, may prefer to pump and store before drinking alcohol, may have inconsistent supply...

 

The why doesn't matter too much

It's the freezing that's the issue. The above scenarios only require refrigeration, not freezing. Expressed breast milk can be stored up to 4 days in the refrigerator. Not in a drink chiller but in a medical fridge.

 

As for oversupply, it's usually suggested to pump less so your breasts aren't being given the message to keep making more milk. Obviously that's individual but if things are still that prolific this baby likely has a freezer full of extra milk at home and dumping the extra for one week is not a big deal.

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allisonb22 "Live from...." Rare

allisonb22

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On 12/16/2022 at 3:41 PM, flamingos said:

How many does she anticipate needing to store?

Good question- I am not sure, she simply asked me if I knew how we could go about this since I'm the most frequent cruiser going on our family trip. I figured since I didn't know I'd ask on here if this was even possible!

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allisonb22 "Live from...." Rare

allisonb22

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On 12/16/2022 at 11:15 PM, brillohead said:


Exactly. I'm trying to figure out how and why this scenario needs to even happen if the child is traveling with the nursing mother....

 

As stated above- this was a request of another member that I was simply asking on her behalf. What she is choosing to do is not for anyone else to debate, I was simply asking if this was possible. 

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