This always seems to be a problem for me. Any and every time that I have ever provisioned, they end up showing up late or not at all. So I have decided this time around that I would go ahead an shop for the food items in person at the Rite-Way near Fat Hogs and provision just the booze. Has anyone had any luck with having the alcohol provisions dropped off with the Charter Company several days before the charter in order to make sure that everything is there on time? We are scheduled to arrive/take off on the 26th of December and I don't want any hang-ups. Any advice?

Prepay your order including delivery ( and tip for delivery) and make sure your charter company will accept the delivery in your stead, and hold it for you securely.

Acknowledge that you will not be there to reconcile the delivery with what you ordered. Don't expect a third party to do that for you, and be extremely grateful ( tip) if they actually do so, and show you their verification.

Sorry, you are going into a foreign country. Dec 26 is as much of a holiday there as Christmas Day in the US. You are one of how many charters across all companies who have chosen Dec 26 as your start date ? All ordering provisions from the same companies?

Do what you can and go with the flow.

OK, will the Rite Way be OPEN on December 26? As I gather that was when he was planning on shopping in person for the food..

His charter company can help him with these things. That's part of what he pays them for.

Well, yes, but he said that he wanted to do the food provisioning himself, and it sounds like he wants to do it on December 26. IF the grocery stores will not be open that day, then he needs to totally re-think his plan. Are you saying he should ask the charter company whether the grocery stores will be open?

Didn't even consider that. E-mailing them now. And good advice on the booze delivery. I'll work with the charter company to make sure i get it.

I've done this in the BVI's a half dozen times already. Still a cake walk compared to Thailand and Croatia.

They were open in 2014 according to our local sources on TTOL.

Or you could email rtwinfo@rtwbvi.com or call 284-340-2263 just to be sure.

He should ask folks not local to the BVI what his options are going to be on a holiday in a foreign country ? Neither you nor I, nor too many other online voices outside Tortola ( the local community) are going to be able to tell him with certainty what hours a store local to Fat Hogs Bay will keep on a holiday in that country.

Kinda behooves him to be asking questions of the folks who live and do business there. He may have to rethink his plan.

Uhm Breeze, I'm right here. You can speak to me directly and not refer to me as some kind of fool. I am a fairly intelligent and accomplished traveler that has sailed out of many different ports around the world and know how to handle shopping for food and booze in a "foreign country". I was simply looking for some helpful advice, which you are clearly not in a position to give. I think I am better off figuring things out on my own than relying on someone like you that would rather preach than help. Not sure what the point of this forum is if your advice is to only rely on the local community in the BVI's for tips and opinions.

I replied to you directly. I replied to Carol directly. I cannot reply to both you, and Carol, directly, at the same time, because that is not the way this forum works. I can only reply to ONE person, one post at a time.

Now you know the possible downside of beginning a charter on a BVI holiday. Has anyone from the BVI community stepped up to assist with your dilemma? No, but you choose to excoriate someone from the Mainland USA. Have you checked with your charter company, checked with your provision providers and come back to say, It's OK, I'm all good ? No. You have not.

You chose to attack someone else . Your choice Not mine.

I'm going to throw in my two cents here and say that if you are arriving on December 26? I don't know that I'd want my booze order sitting around the charter company for a few days -- since they will more than likely deliver it before Christmas Eve as I am sure they are not open on Christmas Day. 12/26 is Boxing Day but stores may well still be open. That said....I am fairly certain the charter company would not take out your beer and refrigerate it for you - I love BVI Yacht Charters but I highly doubt they would offer to unpack and refrigerate my booze order and hold it until I got there to load it onto my boat a few days later. So...you might be dealing with beer that's been sitting around warm for a while -- or downright hot, depending on where they store it for you. Riteway was great about delivering everything on time for us and we shopped for whatever else we needed ourselves. Just my two cents. I wouldn't try it at that time of year but that's just me....

You know, I have typed several responses to you and deleted them all.

I hope the original poster is able to able to have a wonderful charter and is able to work out all these issues.

I can not answer re: Dec 26th... HOWEVER, I did use Riteway for the first time this past October, and provisioned for a 2 week trip (minus produce and most meats). I was highly impressed as they arrived about 0830 to Sea Tiger at TMM base (As scheduled). We closely verified the delivery and 99.9% accurate (! fruit juice was different brand than ordered). This included beer, wine and some booze).

If I were going to be needing on a holiday, I would definitely provision to avoid potential "store closed". I believe the reputable outfits would not take orders for the delivery date if they did not feel they could fulfill order (Yes, I know, Island Time)... I would also call and inquire.

I've learned just to go to store myself. There is nothing worse then waiting for provisions when you want to leave.

Thanks folks. I'm gonna call everyone and work off their suggestions.

Just a little update in case anyone was curious. TICO is closed on the 25th, 26th and 27th but they can deliver on the 24th. Rite-Way is open on the 26th.

I spoke with the Charter Company and they are willing to accept delivery on the 24th for us. They will have our boat in dock by then and will simply load the beer into the boat and keep it there for us. So we are going to order from TICO and have them deliver on the 24th. If something happens and the delivery doesn't go through, we can always just buy at Rite-Way on the day of. TICO's appears to be half as expensive though so I am hoping that works out for us. I'll update on the 26th and let you all know how it went. I'm hoping for a little Christmas miracle!!

Just fyi - for future reference, check out Caribbean Cellars too, we've used them many times and always had success. TICOs and CC are significantly less expensive provisioning options.

Loading booze onto the boat is an added bonus....we've spent a little time waiting on charter company folks locating our orders. (pro tip: if you end up with an extra case or two, bottle, etc., I recommend setting that aside knowing someone will be back in the morning for it...)

PS - What did you decide about car rental VG? Curious...

I have gone through Caribbean Charters in the past and had a bad experience. They never delivered and ended up crediting me the amount that I prepaid them but it took a lot of follow up. So I'll pass on them for now.

As for the car rental, we are finalizing that right now and should have something setup in the next day or two. I'll let you know.