I was recently given a 17 inch MacBook Pro by an acquaintance. A very DEAD MacBook Pro. His son had spilled a drink into the keyboard. Its' demise soon followed. I had the opportunity to tear it down completely, looking for usable parts.
If you own a unibody MacBook Pro, the most extensive repair I can imagine would be to replace the keyboard. Everything must be removed from the unibody to access the keyboard, which is held down by about 20 very small screws. There is an interesting variety of cable latches (standardization, anyone?) that must be undone. Some cables are connected via a friction fit.
So, if you own one of these Macbooks, and insist on keeping a drink close by, I suggest you invest in a good quality no-spill cup and use it (I personally like the Contigo, available at Target). The Contigo remains sealed unless the flow button is pressed.
If you do have a spill and mess up the keyboard, I would buy an external Bluetooth keyboard before I would do a keyboard replacement repair.
