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Re: taking frozen food to St. Martin
[Re: TANDP]
#78330
12/14/2015 06:34 PM
12/14/2015 06:34 PM
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 13,143 Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
islandgem
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 13,143
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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Freeze hard, put in a soft sided cooler in your carry-on and they will still be frozen when you arrive. Don't put them in your checked luggage as they may go on a trip of their own and arrive smelling very bad!
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Re: taking frozen food to St. Martin
[Re: TANDP]
#78333
12/14/2015 07:18 PM
12/14/2015 07:18 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 82,914 Central Florida!
Carol_Hill
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Traveler
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 82,914
Central Florida!
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I note you are from Washington state. What is your airline routing?? From the East Coast, taking frozen food is extremely practical, with a non-stop, or a one stop situation, that gets you there in 6 hours or less. Coming from the west coast could be another situation. IF you trust the airlines to get your checked bags there in good shape, you could do dry ice, but I don't think you can do that with carry-on bags.
With regard to buying steaks in particular on island, we have had good experiences with beef from Cost U Less and from Super U, a relatively new supermarket on the French side. Also, last Christmas, we got a lovely standing beef roast from Grand Marche, which was very tasty, although pretty darn expensive..
Carol Hill
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Re: taking frozen food to St. Martin
[Re: CanadianCutie]
#78344
12/14/2015 10:41 PM
12/14/2015 10:41 PM
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Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 18,842 Auburn, WA
SXMScubaman
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Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 18,842
Auburn, WA
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CanadianCutie said: Is there a section on the custom entry form to declare that you are bringing food into Sxm? Do people even declare that they have food with them, especially meat? No. There is not a box to declare food brought in. We do it every year. We stay for four weeks and enjoy bringing Alaska wild salmon, steaks and home made specialty wild game sausages to share with our guests and island friends. Some times quality steaks are a crap shoot to find in SXM. Found some good ones and a few not so good. If you want to make sure you have it covered bring some.
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Re: taking frozen food to St. Martin
[Re: jeepers]
#78349
12/15/2015 08:43 AM
12/15/2015 08:43 AM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 82,914 Central Florida!
Carol_Hill
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 82,914
Central Florida!
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Is the customs area staffed when a Canadian flight comes in? As I don't think I have ever seen anyone from customs in arrivals in SXM, coming in on flights from the US.
Carol Hill
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Re: taking frozen food to St. Martin
[Re: Tom]
#78351
12/15/2015 08:49 AM
12/15/2015 08:49 AM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 82,914 Central Florida!
Carol_Hill
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Traveler
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 82,914
Central Florida!
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Customs? As I said, I have never seen the customs area staffed in SXM on a US flight. And regarding security, never had a problem with meat. A time or two, they have wanted to open it, but the delay was maybe a minute. The only time we ever had a real problem with security was when we screwed up and left a knife in our carry on cooler bag! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" />
Carol Hill
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Re: taking frozen food to St. Martin
[Re: TANDP]
#78354
12/15/2015 10:12 AM
12/15/2015 10:12 AM
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Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 14,653 Brookfield, CT.
pat
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Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 14,653
Brookfield, CT.
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TandP,
Over the years, when the family was younger and bringing friends along on the trip, we used to ship full coolers of frozen food, everything from turkey breasts and hams, steaks, frozen meatballs and sauce, homemade chicken cordon blue.....you name it, we brought it. But that was back in the day and the groceries were verrrry limited and items available weren't always that great. And some days, after a busy day in the sun doing whatever, it was nice to come home and just toss an already prepared meal into the oven or on the stove without having to find it first! I do truly hate shopping......
Today we don't bother, but the groceries are excellent and there are only two of us. There isn't much if anything I can think of that can't be gotten on the island, but that said, sometimes you might have to really look around for exactly what you want.
As already stated, there is no restriction regarding bringing food to St. Maarten, and I agree with the idea of freezing it solid first but I would personally hesitate before putting frozen meat inside your regular luggage regardless of how well packaged it was.
We once met a woman there who had done just that but unfortunately, while her flight went straight to SXM, her luggage took a more circuitous route and four days after she got there, the suitcase with the food arrived. We met her while shopping - she had to replace a lot of her clothes because everything had defrosted and leaked out of the cooler bag. The likelihood of this happening is not great and I would still bring my frozen steaks if so inclined, but I would definitely freeze and put them in a cooler bag that I was carrying with me as opposed to putting them in my shipped luggage. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />
Respectfully,
pat
"Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them."
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Re: taking frozen food to St. Martin
[Re: pat]
#78355
12/15/2015 10:39 AM
12/15/2015 10:39 AM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 82,914 Central Florida!
Carol_Hill
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 82,914
Central Florida!
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I'm for sure with you on the 'taking it with you in carry-on'. Probably 15 years ago, and for about two years, there actually was a non-stop flight on US Air from Baltimore to SXM. Don't you know that is the ONE time that we put frozen meat in our checked luggage, and the ONE time that our luggage has gone walkabout on us and didn't show up for a couple of days! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" /> We didn't have to replace any clothes---EXCEPT for the fact that, stupid us, we had thought "oh, we have a nonstop flight. We don't need to bring a change of clothes in carry-on". So we had to go buy some warm weather clothes on the island. These days it wouldn't be such a big deal, since we live in Florida now, versus coming from snow and ice, but we now always bring a change of clothes in carry-on.
Carol Hill
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Re: taking frozen food to St. Martin
[Re: SXMScubaman]
#78357
12/15/2015 11:43 AM
12/15/2015 11:43 AM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 82,914 Central Florida!
Carol_Hill
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 82,914
Central Florida!
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'visa' versa??? So you don't bring another change of clothes in carry-on at all? And you always put meat in a checked bag? Especially coming from the west coast, there is such an increased chance for a screw-up, I'm surprised you haven't had any issues so far. Of course, it only took ONE time for it to happen to me, and now I do things differently.
Carol Hill
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Re: taking frozen food to St. Martin
[Re: SXMScubaman]
#78359
12/15/2015 12:22 PM
12/15/2015 12:22 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 82,914 Central Florida!
Carol_Hill
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 82,914
Central Florida!
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I just got the impression from what you said, that you didn't bring any clothes in carry-on, is all.
Carol Hill
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