USVI-On-Line

Help! I need advice on bringing frozen meat on a plane for our trip. Have been to STJ several times, but this is our first attempt at packing a cooler to help save money. Any advice on the best way to do it? Am thinking of a styrofoam cooler that we can leave, wrapped well for the trip. Coming from Dallas. Any and all advice welcome. Thanks.

I just use a well packed polar bear cooler that I carry on. Everything is still frozen solid when we get to the villa, even after a long travel day.

I brought 7 lbs of meat in my back pack frozen vacum sealed then warpped in newspaper in one of those insulated bags you can buy at the store was still frozen 14 hr later.

We do it every year - made a believer out of my doubting brother! Packed a hard cooler full of stuff and taped it shut! Still frozen when we get to St. John after leaving Charlotte! It was great - cause then we had an additional cooler for beaches -- and I had my favorite bacon and steaks in my favorite place!

Thanks for the advice! So is it better to carry it on rather than check the cooler? Wasn't sure what airport security would think of that. Never thought about the insulated bags or a hard cooler for the beach- great ideas!

I'm sorry I thought you question was about carry on I usually check my polar bear cooler with techni ice if I'm going to have more to bring just that this time It was a short trip

augie wrote:I just use a well packed polar bear cooler that I carry on. Everything is still frozen solid when we get to the villa, even after a long travel day.

Like Augie and many others on the forum, I am a polar bear fan. We have checked a polar bear several times. Prior to that, we used a cheapy soft sided cooler that worked ok.

I would wonder how well a styrofoam cooler would hold up in transit.

Got this a few days ago from Polar bear coolers. They really are great!

Due to our limited selection during the holiday season, we have extended the 2 for 1 special through Valentines Day. We are re-stocked with all cooler sizes and colors. Polar Bear Coolers also make great personalized Valentines Day gifts! Take advantage of this offer by 2/14/2010.

Just use coupon code 2112 when checking out. Or, call 888-438-7924.

www.polarbearcoolers.com

Have a great Valentines Day!

I used to pack an entire 20" rolling duffle bag with food when travelling to Aruba with the kids every year. I'd just wrap the frozen meats (ribs, steaks, etc.) in foil, then newspaper and tape it up with masking tape. I'd also always write on it what it is. Its the same flying time as STT/STJ and everything was still frozen when we got there. Only once did I have a mishap! Folgers coffee in those new plastic red containers burst open all over everything else. Guess from the plane pressure. I now take the coffee out of that container and double zip lock it.

When we had 12 people with us, we had 2 coolers. We used a sealer and then froze everything. The coolers hand the handles on them, so that was easy. Everything was frozen when we got there. No problem at all.

We used duct tape to close them and put the duct tape in the cooler. They were checked, but whoever looked in them, taped them closed again with our duct tape.

If it's just 2 of you, you can certainly use a smaller cooler and bring it on as carry on. You really don't need that much for 2 of you. The cost of some things on islandjust isn't worth the hassle of carrying around something like the cooler.

Do you have special things you'd like to bring? In PA we have to have our Taylors porkroll and scrapple. I also like to bring chicken, because there's only one place near me that I buy it. Besides that we just eat out some and buy things as we need.

DELETED

We are Polar Bear fans too. We've checked it in our dive bag and carried it on. TSA wants to look in it when you carry it on. Since the response to Tecni-ice varies, we push it to the bottom and let them see the meat when they open it. We can then redistribute the Techni-ice once inside the secure area of the terminal.

JIM

Barb - good looking out on the Polar Bear coupon. They look like great bags and I just ordered two (for the price of one).

Cheers!

March 18-25, 2010 trip

Happy to help! I am sure you will be pleased with them. The techni-ice is also a great help and you can usually find a good deal on e-bay. Good luck and have a great trip!

Wow- thanks to everyone so much! I am definitely getting a Polar Bear cooler- I had not heard of those before and they look fantastic! There are 7 of us going so we'll definitely have enough need to bring some things. We usually do most of our shopping on island when there's just a few of us, but we all know that when you get to Starfish or Dolphin you're not guaranteed to see enough of the meat you want to grill out. Also, the guys from Texas like BIG steaks, so we'll bring them along, and my Mom (the cook of the group) has a particular spice she likes to use, so we'll bring that, too. Thanks again for the help- now I feel like I'll know what I'm doing. And thanks for the coupon!