TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands how long can i keep frozen food in soft sided cooler

packed an AO sofft sided cooler full this afternoon at 6pm - airport hotel said we could use their freezer for i but on arrival they said it was too big for walk in and no outside food could be brought in.

So - i don’t expect we’ll be at the charter boat until 6pm tomorrow (24 hours later) I can probably put some ice in it at the layover airport. most everything had been frozen including a restaurant pan of lasagna…frozen solidfor 3 weeks - all vacuum sealed

If any of you have been in my shoes I will happily take guidance or input…. . i think i am good but having recalled posts like this in the past I would appreciate tips or
any boots on the ground type of input

The longest comparison from our experience is 15 hours, everything stayed frozen in our polar bear soft cooler. I remember the top layer of items started to barely start thawing. My guess is that at 24 hours there will be thawing, but if packed tight I think you’ll find some items still frozen solid. I’d be curious to hear how this goes after your arrival, good luck!

Polar bear cooler will be solidly frozen at 24 hours. I have had flights delayed and still adequately frozen at 36 hours. Not sure about your cooler.

We have gone 36 hours with solidly frozen food with minimal thawing.

Man - you all are the best of best - this has given me some serious piece of
mind - one more flight to go and a ferry ride after that! I’ll provide an update! Truly appreciative and thankful for you fine folks!

The food should be safe even if it has slightly thawed, as long as it remains below 40 F. See for example:

https://extension.umn.edu/preserving-and-preparing/refreezing-food

I hope you have a good freezer on the boat. Our experiences with this have not been good.

Dan

The first 2 times to the BVI we flew through SJU (never again). Both times they lost one bag on the way down and that was the cooler o' frozen meat. It wasn't even a high quality soft cooler and the food was still frozen in the middles when AA delivered the coolers the next day.

Ice cold boys and girls! total elapsed time was 22 hours and still solidly frozen. Ready to get out of the marina and go check out all the spots!

Good deal! Enjoy your trip!

Used an RTI cooler this past May. Used dry ice and everything stayed frozen for 40 hours.