My husband and I always bring a cooler full of meat on dry ice. All airlines don't have the same rules when it comes to dry ice, so check with your airline to be sure; I know that United allows around 4 lbs of dry ice per person, and they do sometimes open the cooler (this past summer they even weighed my dry ice to make sure I wasn't over the limit). We save quite a bit of money bringing meat with us. I also bring other things like a box of cereal, jar of peanut butter, spices, etc...just the things I know I'll want when I'm there. Once we're there, I buy stuff like eggs, milk, orange juice, and rum.

I've done it both ways packed a cooler with tec ice ane meat and checked it also have carried it on If I don't have alot I prefer to carry it on it gets to be quite a load

Another question...where do you get dry ice and how big was your cooler. How did you pack it up? With duct tape or something like that?

The first few years we took a soft-sided cooler with wheels...not huge, but not small. But this summer, we went with 3 other people, so I took a large cooler, also with wheels. I barely made it under the 50 lb. weight limit, but I weighed it before leaving home to be sure. Having it on wheels makes navigating at the airport much easier, just like having a wheeled suitcase is helpful.

It was great having the large cooler on wheels once we got there, because we took it with us to the beach (it was nicer than having to carry a cooler, say all the way from the parking lot to Cinnamon Bay, when we had drinks and lunch for 5 adults...a smaller cooler would have sufficed had it just been my husband and me).

It is also a good idea to stick some cooler packs in with the meat, just in case there is a baggage delay. That happened this past summer to us, but the cooler packs helped, even though they aren't designed to keep stuff frozen. Additionally, dry ice is so cold (-109 degrees F), that once your meat is on dry ice, it will take awhile to thaw. The cooler packs are also nice for taking to the beach, that way you won't have to make tons of ice just to fill your cooler each day.

As for how to get dry ice, I'm a meat scientist so I have it readily available at work...but you might be able to find a supplier under dry ice or ice in the phone book. Good luck 🙂

Hi Connie
I don't use dry ice I use aproduct thats called "Techni ice" and the cooler that we have is a polar bear cooler its soft sided and made for airline travel You can order then both from here www.polarbearcoolers.com have not ever had anything thawed when we have gotten there

Oh, I forgot to say...

My soft-sided cooler zips closed, so there really isn't a need for tape when I take it. However, the hard-sided cooler that I took this year could obviously come open, but I knew that if I taped it shut with duct tape, it would look shady and they'd open it at the airport anyway. So after the United people inspected it, I asked them for some tape, and they gave me white plastic tape with United printed on it. I did the same thing on the way home (the cooler was filled with dirty clothes), and they had the same tape available at the United counter in STT.

Many grocery stores in my area now carry dry ice. Call some grocery stores in your area to find out. You purchase it by the pound. I don't think taping the cooler shut would be advisable, as the airlines usually want to open them. Maybe after they open and check it, you can ask about taping it.

Hi. I see a note here about a 50lb weight limit for your flights to STT. Is this true? I trust it's per person and is focused on checked luggage!!

Its per person per bag each person is allowed 2 checked bags and one carry on

If you fly business or first class, the weight limit is usually higher.

I travel internationally for work and my company pays for me to sit in business class (not something I do when I'm the one paying)...so the limit is 75 lbs I think instead of 50, just FYI...but check with your airline, they aren' t all the same.

The weight limit is 50Lbs but TRLK is right - you should check with your airline. Regarding bringing food in coolers, we always do bring our meats. Everything else we buy locally. And, we don't pack with dry ice or any of those 'keep it cold' things. We DO leave our meat in the freezer until the last thing we do before we leave the house for the airport. Since everything is already frozen, we put it in the cooler, duct tape the cooler (yes, TSA has opened and looked in) and then put our cooler in a duffel bag to check as luggage. Our flight is from Tampa to San Juan to St. Thomas. The meat is never thawed when we get to the house on Water Island and put it into the freezer there. Every morning while sitting on the porch having a cup of coffee, we decide what we will have for dinner that night and remove it from the freezer. For the trip back, the cooler is great for putting either a garbage bag of dirty clothes in or our purchases we made during our trip.

I fly redeye from Seattle to St. Thomas, and then spend a night in St. Thomas before heading to St. John. So my meat stays in a soft sided cooler for 36 hours.

I pack the meat in large sizes. For steaks, I freeze them together in a big lump. For turkey, I freeze the entire breast.

By the time I get to St. John, some things are starting to defrost a little in the cooler. So I eat the stuff that's defrosting first.

I've never needed dry ice or cold thingees.

JFP

Where are the major grocery stores located in St. Croix?