We bring frozen food (meat and maybe large bag frozen veges) in our soft side cooler every time we go to the Virgin Islands. We go to STT/Water Island at least 3 times a year and stay for a couple months each time. No questions, no trouble, still frozen when we get to the house and put it in the freezer. We do a "trial run" the night before the flight to check the weight and put the meat back in the freezer. The LAST thing we do before we head to the airport is remove the meat from the freezer, put it into the soft side cooler which we put into our luggage which we check as baggage. We bring frozen food/meatfor convenience as it might be a few weeks before we make it out to CostuLess where they do have nice quality meat and food for good prices. Guests (family and friends) travelling from far and wide (some with flights that take over 6 hours to reach STT from their origin) also bring frozen food in their checked luggage - kind of a "gift" to the hostess. We've tested this over and over again, experienced delay in flights, different times of the year, for about 20 years..........even before we bought the house and were sailing out of East End STT. Always still frozen when we reach the house on Water Island and no one (e.g., TSA, airline personnel, etc.) says nuthin. We do also bring coffee (again, for convenience of having it and we like a particular kind) and sometimes TSA does open the luggage that holds the coffee (and leave us a little form letter/note that they looked inside) but the coffee always arrives with us at our destination. We wake up each morning, drink our coffee, ease on into the morning watching the sunrise and decide what we're going to have for dinner that night. Then, we take the item out of the freezer to thaw and it's ready to go on the grill in the evening. I would recommend bringing it in a soft side cooler (one of those oversize cooler bags you can buy at Sam's Club is what we use). But, if you bring it in a "hard" cooler, you may consider Duct taping around the top to keep the lid secure (and TSA, if they do look inside, will put the Duct tape back on when they're done) and putting the "hard" cooler in a duffel bag for transport. But, again, we've never had an issue bringing frozen food into the United States Virgin Islands.

The boss does it all the time when he and the wife come down. Just pack all in soft sided cooler. If everything is frozen good then you should have no problem with it being frozen when you get it. He has brought it both as checked and carryons. Seems to work both ways.

You might also want to check into what veggies are in the week before you are coming. We've experienced some real lettuce shortages here lately and with the weather in FL I fear out fruit and veggie future.

I provision for several charter yachts so PM me with questions on available produce,etc. before you come down if you like.

Pamela
S/Y Catatonic

We have taken frozen meat and it was still frozen after 16 hrs.( airplane delays) We checked it in as a pc. of luggage. We got the cooler,soft sided recommended from someone on this site.
www.Polarbear coolers.com
Good luck and enjoy

We used to do it. However with the cost of baggage being checked it isn't much of a savings. Baggage being checked charges just went up again!

Tippi,

good point, I am thinking of carrying the cooler on this time and see how that goes.

Not as easy as that. You are limited in carry on so if you end up having to check a bag to allow you to carry on the food you are still paying. Since you should carry on the food rather than risk them losing it and then delivering a smelly mess several days later, you need to make sure you use a collapsible soft sided cooler and get tough on packing. Then you can fold it up in your regular bag going home or leave it at the villa for others to use as day carry.
While prices on island are more expensive, they are not outlandish and buying on island is still much cheaper than eating out all of the time. What we find is some variety we like is not available (spices, cuts, etc.). We like to try local dishes but certainly can't cook local so we cook familiar and buy out local.
If you are really trying to tow the budget line and need any savings or have 'special' needs not found on island than bring your own makes sense whether you have to pay the freight or not.