If you are flying in the day of your cruise, then yes, the above method is what you'll have to do - check it for the flight, claim your bags, swap it to the carry-on, tag the checked bag and turn it in to
DCL. DH and I decided it was too much of a hassle!
We tacked on a day to the start of our vacation and stayed at the Hyatt in the Orlando airport. It felt like a LOT less hassle to move the alcohol from the checked to carry-on bag when we combined it with changing clothes and a nice swim in the rooftop pool!
Then, since we were using DCL transportation, we got to just leave our checked baggage in the room the next morning and had Hyatt/DCL worry about schlepping it around for us!
Not a
different solution, and definitely more expense than some people would want - but it's a thought we had, LOVED, and will most likely do again when we cruise out of PC!
Your other options, of course, are to 1)not bring the alcohol at all
(they don't even have our favorites on board!) or 2) use a private transportation option (town car, limo, rental) and stop on the way to the port. Other than those, I don't know of any way around it.
In regards to the breakage issue, I've used bubble wrap to great effect, and put the entire thing in a large ziplock bag (they make extra big ones!
) on a few occasions, and I've also used Wine Skin bottle bags. They work great!
Enjoy your trip!!!