Bringing bottles of liquor back from the Caribbean

Until relatively recently, you could go to St Thomas or Nassau on a cruise or vacation package and bring back a few bottles of liquor duty free with no problem.

Well, that was before the airlines imposed a "no liquids in your carry on bags" rule. Our very close friends just got off a cruise ship in Fort Lauderdale this weekend and were heading back to JFK with 6 bottles of a rum that they can't find domestically. When they were in St Thomas, they were told that the store would package it up in heavy duty cardboard boxes so that it could be checked as luggage. That was not what Delta had in mind. So, my friends asked, how could they take this liquor on the flight with them if they couldn't check it as is- in the cardboard box and they couldn't bring it on the plane with them. Delta's answer----- pack it in your luggage.

That's fine- except that Delta charges $50 for each suitcase that is over 50 lbs. They weighed each suitcase individually and if one suitcase was over 50 lbs, you needed to take some clothes out of 1 and put in in the other. Ok, now how do you manage to add 6 heavy bottles of liquor.

A couple of suggestions
1. As ridiculous as this sounds, take 2 pieces of luggage each, instead of 1. Make sure they are packed very loosely so there will be room for your purchases.
2. Pack the liquor bottles in one of these suitcases, mixed with clothes that you don't care much about if one of the bottles breaks and spills.
3. Take an extra carry on with you to put clothes, shoes, etc to then make room for your liquor.
4. If there is ever a good reason to bring towels from home or to "borrow" towels from the hotel or cruise ship, this is it. Wrap the bottles in towels before packing them in your suitcase.
5. If you are only packing a couple of bottles in your luggage, wrap them very well in clothes or towels and put shoes all around them as a hard base.

The only options you have is not to buy the liquor or ask to have it shipped home. That probably will defeat the purposes of buying it in the islands.

What do you think the airline personnel does with all of the liquor that passengers decide not to try to pack????? I would never imply that the airline personnel would do this simply to get the free liquor that passengers leave behind but it does lead to some interesting question.