Amy, if you buy your meets/chicken at home and you freeze them, they get to STT just fine. Everything was still frozen for us. We didn't use regular ice or dry ice. Our cooler was heavy enough that we didn't even want to put some ice in it.

Try techni-ice if you are concerned about keeping things cold/frozen. http://www.techniice.com/
Of course, the meat on STT is USDA approved - not like like makes a bit of difference given the recent outbreaks of e-coli and recalls.

amy,

The food here, including meat, is safe. If you think about it, the main "industry" here is tourism and most of the millions of tourists we see come from the U.S. and they all eat local food and almost none of them bring food from the states and the vast majority of them enjoy their visit and return again and again.

Amy, before we became land owners, we chartered sail out of Benner Bay/STT for more than a decade. We always bought frozen chicken breasts, burgers, steaks, shrimp, etc. - kept it in the freezer until the morning of our departure (did a trial run in the cooler the night before to make sure we complied with weight restrictions) - packed it in the cooler and checked it as luggage. From the Airport to pick up the boat, the taxi stopped at the pueblo en route where we purchased the dairy, produce, dry goods, liquor. The meat was still frozen when we threw it in the refrigeration bins in the galley. Then, got underway for first overnight in Christmas Cove. Works beatifully. Dry ice not required. Just keep the meat in your freezer until the morning of your flight. Get up a few minutes early and pack the cooler. Actually, we (and our guests) have the same drill today even though we're having dinner on the porch on Water Island.

Dnt...we saw alot of coolers the 2 times that we landed in St. Thomas. I think people who bring some of their own food just feel comfortable doing it that way. I was glad we did, even though it can be a hassle. Of course, we still bought alot of food products when we were down in St. Thomas, but at least we had food at the Villa and saved some money that way. Going out with 9 people for a dinner can be extremely expensive, so eating in and then going out for drinks was what we did.

It's still up in the air whether we'll bring food for just husband and myself next month. Maybe some breakfast things or somethings that we feel we just can't live without, but it will be on a much smaller scale.

Almost none bring food from the US, Hmm that's a stretch, I guess all those cooler's you see at the Airport are for spare body Parts.

I know many folks who bring coolers to the USVI but they contain snorkel gear inside and the coolers are filled here with ice, food and drink for trips to the beach. Snorkel gear is bulky and coolers are expensive here (and sometimes hard to find) so it makes sense to bring a cooler if you want to spend all day on the beach. I travel off island several times a year and after the thread a couple of years ago about bringing meat to the USVI I began asking folks about the contents of their coolers when I'm waiting for my luggage and the answer is usually trip gear.

OK, dnt...understand, but I've seen alot of posts about people bringing food with them in coolers. That's why the question is asked many times on this forum and on the other one.

Let's just leave it at that :o)

I'll have snorkel gear on ice "Stir don't Shake it" in a tall glass please.

If you should decide to have provisioning done, be sure to ask the provisioner for your actual reciepts!

AMY-

Dry Ice and Regular Ice are not at all equivalent when it comes to keeping foods frozen.

Water freezes at 32 degrees F, so ice is 32 degrees F. But meat is THAWED at 32 degrees F; the freezing temperature of meat is much lower than the freezing temperature of water. So regular ice will only keep meat cold, but not frozen.

Your freezer at home is around 0 degrees F.

I don't even know if airlines will let you bring regular ice in a cooler because it thaws so quickly and can make a mess...they don't allow refrigerated meat, just frozen meat because they don't want it making a mess.

I always use dry ice when I fly into STT (I’ve done it on United and Delta), but if that isn’t an option for you then ice packs (like blue ice, techni-ice, etc) are the way to go.

This is totally confusing to me.

When we brought our cooler down. Not a tiny one, but a larger one. Everything was frozen before we left and everything was frozen when we got there.

Unless you're coming from out West, I don't see any point in using ice, dry ice, or anything else. Everything stays frozen on its own.

Connie,
Good Point and I agree with you.
T,
Also good points and thanks for the info.

However how does dry ice effect the snorkel gear in the cooler. ROFL

Having just gotten back, we are already planning to take a cooler next time for several reasons. The villa did have two smaller coolers, but the larger of the two (which didn't really carry all our beers, rum punches, waters, etc) was hard to manuever back and forth to the beach. We decided that a rolling cooler would be better, which we would have to bring from home. Since we were bringing it anyhow and because we spent tons of money at Starfish last week, we thought it might make sense to put enough food for a few meals in there. Most of our flights were relatively short, so it shouldn't be a huge problem keeping things cold.

For us, it's not much hassle for quite a lot of convenience, less expense, sometimes better or "known" quality to have our meats come in with us on the flight. Then, we just shop dairy, produce, dry goods and liquor/beer.

We went to St Thomas last April, we provisioned all our drinks, fresh vegetables, breakable or crush-able items, breads.. but we purchased a collapsible cooler with a zipped top, wheels and a telescopic handle.

We took an evenings worth of main course meat and packed it into a zip lock baggie, then put that into another zip lock baggie - we did this for each night we were going to be there. We then froze all the packages. We filled the cooler just as we left for the airport, using the frozen meat to keep everything cold - no ice packs or dry ice needed. With it all being double bagged as things thawed the cooler kept clean & dry. Then we packed zip lock baggies with just enough coffee, sugar, energy bars etc. to fill the cooler and checked it in as luggage. We flew out of Boston, ended up with a 2 hour layover in Phili and when we arrived in St Thomas some things were still frozen & some were just about thawed enough to use. The frozen food kept everything very cold. The cooler we used cost about $40.00. The added benefit was on the way home we packed it full of Cruzan Rum wrapped in old newspaper. We did the math and it was definitely worth the effort.

Ramie wrote:
Someone who is travelling with us has come up with the suggestion of packing food (frozen meat, etc.) to bring along to a villa we rented in St. Thomas. We will be flying in from Philadelphia. Only staying a week, and don't know if purchasing food to make at our villa is truly that expensive in St. Thomas. Any suggestions? Have never done this before, so not sure really makes sense.

what we normally do when taking for a vacation or out of the country because of office meting or to attend seminars/convention. We just click and deliver online. I've done it for 4 years i think, and craving for foods is not a problem at all.

we live in NC and own a second home in STT...I take food all the time...I check a cooler w/frozen foods such as hot dogs,steaks..mostly meats...pack cereal and dry goods,pasta in reg luggage....it is easy to buy food on island...but who wants to shop for food when your on vacation...your food will still be frozen when you arrive! I pack the food the nite before and leave the cooler in the freezer ready to grab...or if you don't have room for cooler in your freezer...it will save time to pack in plastic gro bags ready to grab and throw in freezer....we also wrap tape around the cooler lid...lots of it...you will probably find yourself eating out..so don't take too much..have fun!!

I'm hazarding a guess that the OP got it figured out as this thread is three years old!