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.

I used Polar Bear Cooler Soft Cooler in the past but lost it in a flood last year. So I want to get something new for 2026 adventure. Most likely we fly to STT then ferry over to BVI. So total travel about 12 hours or so. We go directly to the boat for sleep over.

As I need to buy new I have some questions:

Is soft cooler the better choice or can you use a hard shell? My main concern is the airplane travel. Any travel issues with the hard shell types?

With the hard shell types I wonder about the rubber locks and if they would get damaged during transport. Maybe cover with tape?

I would guess coolers with wheels do not travel well, as more chance for damage.

Michael G. is your RTI one of the "ultra light" or "ultra tough". How has it worked out for you?

On line I only see at "24 Pack Polar Bear", which seems kind of small. I think we had about a 32 qt or 48 qt size in the past.

For dry ice this may be a bit of weird question but: Any issue when the dry ice melts to a gas? Especially on the hard shell that are tightly sealed?

Thanks for any inputs

Dave

Dave’s - we have a garage full of different coolers (vendor swag) and not that makes me an expert but my thoughts:

Our smallest hard sided Yeti is heavy empty. It also doesn’t hold much. One large enough for our trips would likely trigger an overweight baggage fee.

When I went to replace our beloved 48 can Polar Bag, the 48s were out of stock on their website.

Our other soft sides work good enough for travel. When properly packed, stuffed stayed frozen 36+ hours. I never messed with dry ice.

I like the soft coolers because they collapse flat for storage.

We use a 24 can Polar Bear, and it holds approximately 20 pounds of meat, cheese, etc. We obviously freeze the meat and then throw the refrigerated items on top. We typically spend the night in Miami on the way down - so 20 hours of travel time - and the meat is mostly solid when we get there (no dry ice). Good luck!

The RTIC coller we used this past May is very light and fit in a checked bag. I used dry ice to ensure everything stayed frozen for 36 hours as we spent the night in St. Thomas before going to Anegada. It is a good idea to put the dry ice on both top and bottom . The dry ice holds up best if placed in a gallon freezer bag. Whatever cooler one chooses, it saves 100's of dollars on food costs.