bringing alcohol from home

We will be going to Grand Cayman in a few weeks. I know each adult can bring 5-750mi bottles of wine. Would it be ok if I put 10 bottles of wine in a styrofoamed lined box and checked it at the airport as one of my checked bags? If I do this I would wrap each bottle in bubble wrap. I haven't seen this option mentioned before so maybe this doesn't work.

That would be fine, assuming there are 2 of you.

Yes, there are six adults traveling together.

You COULD do it, yes. I would be more concerned about the gorillas handling the luggage than anything. If you do decide to do it, for goodness sake, don't take expensive wine. I would give it maybe a 50% chance of coming through unscathed. If it were ME, personally, what I would do is to bubble wrap 1 or 2 bottles of wine per suitcase, and then put them inside something leakproof and center them in each suitcase. You would have a MUCH higher chance of nothing getting broken. Oh, and pretty much no one but me has hard sided suitcases anymore, but that would help too.

Actually, I was remiss in not advising you that the cost of wine on Grand Cayman, as compared to hard liquor and beer, is not as dramatic a hit to your wallet. The duty tariff is a straight $3.30 CI per liter on wine (except Champagne which is $10.50 CI per liter), no matter the value. So the more expansive the bottle, the less the relative hit to your wallet. Beer duty tariff is $1.65 CI per liter(~$17 USD for a case) and spirits range from $11.50 - $15.68 CI per liter.

Check out the pricing (just add 25% for US or CA dollars cost equivalents) to see if it is worthwhile bringing your own.

http://www.jacquesscottonline.com/

If you ended up paying an extra baggage fee for the box, it would probably really be negligible savings.

We'll usually buy Rum, Vodka, etc.. at the Duty Free store on the way there and purchase Wine on island. Many places also offer a 10% discount when buying 12 or more bottles.

Cheers!

I know most people bring liquor but we are mainly wine drinkers. The wine that is listed on the web page you listed that is $13.99 (I assume the prices are in CI dollars) I can get in my local liquor store on sale for $3.97 a bottle. So big savings. My husband and I are both allowed to check two bags free and we only plan on checking one other one.

Thanks Testudo. I didn't think about these prices being in CI. So a case of Red Stripe would cost $37 + 9.25 (25%) = US$46.25..!
I thought I saw the exchange rate at 20% but it's closer to 25 huh?

Thanks!

Not cheap! The cash exchange rate is pegged at 25% premium for CI$ vs US$.

$1 CI= $1.25 US
or
$1 US = $.80 CI