TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Cooler question

Heading down the end of April and bringing a cooler of frozen meat and other frozen items. The meat will be vaccum sealed. We will need it to remain frozen, cold for about 12 hours. What is the best method? Anything other than dry ice?

We use "Horizon" freezer bags. They work very well!!!! Have had to Overnight in SJU and they were fine.

Polar bear soft coolers are very good. No dry ice, no ice. Freeze filled cooler in chest freezer about a week prior to trip.

1) PolarBear cooler (24 can size).
2) Vac pack(after seasoning meat).
3)Fully fill cooler (Freezing bag 24hours or more is beneficial too). Have "extra" small amounts of sausage or other "extra" frozen stuff to pack every bit of bag.
4) Do Not open "to check" enroute
5) After 12 hours door to boat, still frozen even without prefreezing cooler.
6) If more than 12 hours , insert small amount of dry ice (5 pounds allowed per bag...maybe per passenger). I have travelled with 2 bags, but only 1 per passenger and no problems. Using Dry Ice of 3 pounds, we went 24 hours door to boat and arrived frozen solid.

Last year, we combined frozen vacuum sealed meat with some cold (non-frozen) items like bagged green beans and cheese. We have a Polar Bear 24 and flew through SJU, so it was about 14 hours from home to boat. We did not use dry ice and our meats were still frozen solid when we arrived and the veggies and cheese were fine. With this said, we didn't have a lot of non-frozen items.

Polar Bear without a doubt!

Thanks for the info. I'm sensing a trend with the responses. Guess it's time to purchase a polar bear.

No, just a regular cooler and dry ice is fine. Tape the top of the cooler shut. It will hold for days. I always bring an old cooler that I can just leave. Last year I actually just used an old rolling bag I didnt want anymore. Dry ice and everything was still frozen solid 14 hours later. Don't buy anything expensive to take. You dont need it.

Like many things, you will hear varying opinions on this. We use our Polar Bear 24 on the trip every day. We enjoy buying drinks in the beach bars, but we also pack our cooler and leave it in the dinghy to save some money on food and drinks. Having a nice "mobile" cooler can benefit you on the trip as well as for transporting meat on the way down.

Definitely go with a Polar Bear and NO need for dry ice as frozen vacuum sealed food will not even begin to thaw for well over 12 hours based on our experience. You can also take the Polar Bear on as a carryon so no concerns over it becoming "lost". You can then use it to carry other non perishable items on your return trip home.

Thanks everyone! The polar bear has been ordered

You'll be very pleased.

We bring a polar bear cooler down every trip and never have any problems. We then use it to store ice while on the boat and it keep for a long time.

Another vote for the Polar Bear 24. Use ours on every trip. After you've emptied things into your fridge/freezer onboard, it makes a great place to store liquor bottles while you're underway. :-)

We went with the H2O model, 24 can.

I used the eclipse backpack (by Polar Bear) as carry-on last year to bring down 4 meals worth of frozen meats for 8 people. No room for extra ice!
Pulled everything out of the freezer at 4 am and packed on the morning we left.
Pulled everything out of the cooler at 6 am the request of TSA ... repacked....
Pulled everything out of cooler on board at CYOA at 2 pm. Everything still frozen solid.

Another vote for the Polar Bear 24. We didn't need any dry ice, and used it all week long for beer on the beach. There is a thread here somewhere that you will find a code to get half off the cooler. Money you save on expensive beers will pay for it easily.

I bought the 24 for Christmas last year and the 12 pack for Christmas this year. Both on a two for one deal so I got one free and gave one for a present. Sign up to get your own account and you will get emails like this one I recently received. Good thru 31March2018

10% OFF YOUR ENTIRE ORDER
Coupon Code: SPRINGBREAK2018

Polar Bear with dry ice. I travel from Portland Oregon with 5 lb. cans of frozen Dungeness Crab, and when I finally get there, it’s still frozen solid.

If your less than a 12 - 14 hour travel time from the BVI's there's no need for dry ice. I've never used dry ice but I believe there are some airline restrictions on it??

For 5 trips now we've used the cooler Omaha Steaks send stuff in . packed it just before leaving no dry ice and no problem .

I didn't realize there was another Oregonian on these forums! Taking Dungeness to the Caribbean is absolutely decadent - bravo!

Polar Bear - btw TSA agent recently told me that have been instructed to inspect ALL food.

What is the process for tsa to inspect the food?

Knowing them, they'll probably empty the cooler.

They were 'kind' enough to make me un zip the cooler and they rummaged around briefly, They then swiped the handles for residue.