Transporting bottles in luggage?

We're heading to CSS in 3 weeks (ahhh!!). We've been to CN twice before and always bought as many bottles of Jamaican rum cream at the airport to take home with us. In previous trips, we had direct flights home, so we just carried-on the bottles, no problem mon. This time we have a layover/stop once we get into the states. Ugh, that means we're going to have to take those carry-on bottles and pack them into our checked luggage once we get thru customs, right? My question is: How do you recommend we pack them so that they won't break?!!??? I'd be heart broken if there weren't any rum cream to enjoy once we get home [don't care about our clothing, really, just the liquor! :-) ] Any suggestions??

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Originally Posted by chrisnsterling

We're heading to CSS in 3 weeks (ahhh!!). We've been to CN twice before and always bought as many bottles of Jamaican rum cream at the airport to take home with us. In previous trips, we had direct flights home, so we just carried-on the bottles, no problem mon. This time we have a layover/stop once we get into the states. Ugh, that means we're going to have to take those carry-on bottles and pack them into our checked luggage once we get thru customs, right? My question is: How do you recommend we pack them so that they won't break?!!??? I'd be heart broken if there weren't any rum cream to enjoy once we get home [don't care about our clothing, really, just the liquor! :-) ] Any suggestions??

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We always take bubble wrap & two gallon plastic storage ziplock bags. Wrap bottles in bubble wrap & put into ziplock bags. Works great!

We usually take along a small roll of bubble pack and wrap the boxes that they provide you with at the airport liquor store. The only time we have had a problem was the first time we tried it without the bubble pack....lost two bottles out of six of Cocoa Mania!!! Best of luck:)

We just came back Tuesday and had a layover in Atlanta on the way back. We only bought one bottle of each of rum cream and rum... But it really wasn't bad at all packing them into the checked bags after picking them up to go through customs.

The liquor store will pack your bottles in a box for you - and we just packed that box in the center of the luggage and made sure it was well padded on all sides with clothing. No broken bottes when we got back! YAY!!!
I am interested in how other people do it as well, especially with more bottles....

Have a blast!!!

We take some bubble wrap on the way down to wrap the bottles on the way home. We then distribute the bottles among the clothing so that they are not touching each other. Haven't had a problem in 5 trips.

I brought bubble wrap, no damage done!

We bring rum cream home every year. Like the others say, bring bubble wrap. We buy it from the gift shop with our repeaters credits, and pack it right at the resort. We don't have to schlep it around the airports that way. It's a bit more expensive, but the repeater credits make it kinda free. Just make sure to distribute the weight so your checked bag isn't too heavy.

Beergirl

We brought home three bottles last visit. We get them at the airport because it is much cheaper than at the gift store. We have always carefully wrapped them up when we change planes in Atlanta. This time they broke! I was so sad!!! I think AA handled them too rough. They always made it before on Delta. They were packed in the boxes from the liquor store and in the middle of our clothes. We have heard they break enough to know to put them in plastic. So sad :(

We always use wineskins....no broken bottles so far. The WineSkin bottle transport bag is the best way to travel with wine in checked luggage

Great question ... Like many of you, we take bubble wrap. After about a dozen trips with about 1/2 were having to change planes. So on those flights we plan ahead by planning space in the baggage in addition to using bubble wrap. A couple of times we just inserted the boxes provided by the stores at the Airport - again, no problem. We try to bring back as much Cocoa Minia as possible -- wish we could get it in the states. Certainly if we are able to get a direct flight it makes it so much easier as we can carry on.

Deessweptaway- where did you find the wine skins? I've heard that they work great! Have to make sure that rum cream gets home safely!

Hi, the wine skin reference above is a hyperlink. In case it wasn't working for you, here are the details from the web site. (It is available in the UK and Europe also. These are US options, as the bulk of readers are US-based.) "Plus, WineSkin is available at select BevMo, Total Wine & More, and Cost Plus World Market locations. Ask your local store manager to carry WineSkin! Or, just go ecommerce - visit Magellan's Travel Supplies, Wally's, Uline, or Solutions now." The web site also had a scrolling message that said Walgreens was carrying the product. Magellans does ship to the UK. Personally, we wrap in bubblewrap (taped in place), then a big ziplock bag, then wrap in assorted t-shirts, socks, etc so never touching the outside wall of the luggage or another bottle. No casualties yet!

We wrap them good in newspaper we get from the gift shop at CN and plastic bags, and really surround them with clothing. They have newspaper for this very purpose. Been doing it that way for 20 years coming from all over the Caribbean and never had a broken bottle. One time, I did make the mistake of having a couple jerk seasoning bottles in the same ziploc bag as our bug spray, and the bug spray leaked, soaking the labels! Product was fine, though! Obviously, a lot of people use bubble wrap. I just try to stay the least bulky as possible.