Ramie,
Alot of people do it. Pack it in a soft cooler, with ice packs, put in your checked baggage. Remember the airlines only allow 50lbs per bag now, and no dry ice. That's one less thing you have to do when you get down there. The food also stays cooler in cargo. Good Luck Have Fun!

I actually checked the TSA and AA websites and both said you can bring dry ice. Different limits for checked-vs-carry on. You must declare it and the container must be vented. Has anyone done this recently? We are coming from the West Coast and arrive late Sat. night. We don't want to shop or eat out on Sunday, so this seemed like a good option.

I'd appreciate any feedback from those who have done this. We are really looking forward to our trip.

Food may be a bit more depending on the area you are from. We have found it much easier to provision and upon arrival our refrig and cupboards are packed. You might want to just order for one or two days rather than the whole week but, despite it costing a bit more, it sure is a lot nicer. It is a vacation, after all!

I agree with the provisioning suggestion. It's less stressful and you don't have to worry about encountering someone along the route who "didn't get the memo" on the dry ice - I often suggest putting in enough for the first night's simple dinner and continental breakfast and coffee the next day so that you can collapse on arrival - hopefully with a rum punch in hand! My tuppence...

I always take a cooler along with frozen meat it isn't the cost savings as much as I know what quality I will be getting STT has alot bigger markets then STJ so that may not be a problem. I pack mine in my polar bear soft side with tehecni ice and it arrives frozen.
tom

Californiagirl,
Go Back to the AA web site and under General information you will see a statement, American Airline(AmericanConnection flights do not accept dangerous good shipments including dry ice). You will also see Outside packaging must be marked, if you miss one item it will be refused by the Airline. TSA has a weight restriction and a declaration required for Dangerous Goods which you will be screened a little bit more. Ice packs are so much easier.
If the TSA inspector determines that your shipping package doesn't meet the specified venting requirements "they will and have confiscated the package and all it's contents". So Have a great trip ( been there, done that and lost my food).

I suggest you skip the frozen packing and bring along dry goods such as cereal, chips, salsa etc. This will save you more $ and then you can concentrate on buying just what you need.

Bill

I have to agree with waterguy. Here we have Colonial Meat Markets and I just prefer to shop there.

When we went (we had 9) we froze everything ahead of time. Chicken, bacon, a ham, porkroll, etc. We packed it in a hard side cooler, with wheels, duct taped it and checked it in. Everything was still frozen when we got there. Believe me, with 5-20somethings, we needed that food. They're always eating and at the end of the week we had nothing left. We did go out and buy canned goods, butter, mayo, must and things like that.

It worked out great for us. We had so much luggage between the 9 of us, that the cooler was no big deal at all.

When we came back, we packed all of our rum we bought, and it got through fine.

This time it will only be the 2 of us, so we'll carry on board one small soft sided cooler with just a few things. Friends down there want some porkroll and scrapple from Philly brought down.

We pack a cooler of frozen meats every time we come to St. Croix. It saves us money. We pack in styrofoam cooler and have never had any problems. And when we unpack, the meat is still cold.

We also travel from the west coast, Los Angeles area and always arrive late at night.

Forget the dry ice. Not needed.

We use a soft sided cooler on wheels. Freeze all food that is freezable. We have an extra refrigerator and put the cooler in the refrigerator the night before leaving. Get two bottles of water, draw a bit of water out of them and freeze them. You now have bottled water when you arrive. Put the frozen bottles on bottom of the cooler, pack the cooler tight with even none frozen items. I put one of those blue frozen deals on top and a towel on top of that and close it up. Put a TSA lock on the thing and check it through.

It's always still frozen when we arrive a bunch of hours later.

Thank you for all your responses! (I love this board.) It was especially good to hear from another West Coaster and know that you were successful. I will use your suggestions and forget the dry ice. As far as "provisioning", are there services on St. Thomas that will shop for you and deliver the food? We have used them at other timeshares. We are at the new Marriott timeshare. I called the resort and they did not know of any service. I would appreciate more info with names/websites. I did a search on this board and google using the keywords: "grocery shopping services St. Thomas". I came up empty handed.

Thank you again.

Lisa

Try Grocery Goddesses, http://www.grocerygoddesses.com. I don't think anyone ever talked about provisioning since I began visiting this forum... a lot of do-it-yourselfers!

We bring frozen food all the time. Freeze it in a marinade or not as you choose and put it in the freezer in a plastic bag. A day or so before you leave wrap the food in a layer or two of newspaper, and pack it in an insulated bag the morning you are flying.

From Philly to STT is not a very long flight so you can do as others have suggested with the water bottles etc, but you will not have any problems. We have brought shrimp, steak, turkey, chicken, meatballs, and just about anything else you can think of. We also bring packets of tuna, and a few baking potatoes stuck here and there in the luggage.

The grocery goddesses were great. We knew we were bringing alot of our own things, but we did ask them to stock the Villa with beer. We didn't want to stop on the way...just wanted to get there and wanted cold beer when we "investigated" the villa and before we got the chance to go out again.

It worked great. There prices are fair and I would use them again.

Fine Food Afloat (Phone # 340-776-2067) is a boat provisioning service on STT and maybe they do houses/villas too. It is has been awhile since I've used them and I am not even sure if they are still in business but they happen to be on my list of phone numbers.

Seems like a lot of work for a couple dollars savings. I've found the prices on STT and STJ to be darn close to Philly prices. The selection is less than you'll find at your local Acme - but it's perfectly adequate for most. I second the post that said to pack some dry goods to save a little $$$. Pringles - they travel well:-), crackers, creamer, sugar, coffee etc.

This is very much a matter of preference. When traveling, I always pack light things that I will use in small quantities - tea bags, sweet'n'low, powdered drink mixes, spices. I can't be bothered with the freezing-cooler route.

But different strokes for different folks. You won't starve in any case.

It's not the savings, it's the nice steaks and nice marinated chicken breasts that you can get at Costco.

I was reading through all of your suggestions, and it sounds as though you all have some good ideas. Here is my situation....we are renting a sailboat for a week, and will not have the ability to go to stores at will. we are looking into provisioning, and were worried about the quality of food. we also looked at Omaha Steak house, and different delivery options, however they ended up being costly.

Is there really a difference in packing in dry ice or regular ice. I have been told by the airlines, that they will accept dry ice but only in limited quantities, the maximum amount allotted on the plane is usually brought on by one person. There seems to be a huge risk in bringing dry ice, is cold ice just as good?

Also does anyone know what the quality of meat is in St. Thomas???? Do they have to pass US FDA regulations????