Liberty of the Seas Feb 9-14, 2015 - Labadee & Ocho Rios - Photo Review

Hi everyone,

We took the Liberty of the Seas 5 day cruise a few weeks ago to Labadee, Haiti and Ocho Rios, Jamaica on Feb 9 thru 14, 2015. Before too much more time has passed I wanted to share our trip and review of our cruise with you all. I will have the "review" posts in dark green so you can scroll through and find them easily. Do to work & family life it had almost been 4 years since our last cruise and I was pretty excited when I received this cruise from my DH for Christmas!

We have previously only cruised twice, both times on the Explorer out of Cape Liberty (Bayonne, NJ). We had a wonderful time on both cruises and also a quick 3.5 hr. drive down to the port. This time we would also drive down to the cruise port but it would be a bit longer of a drive since we were to sail out of Ft Lauderdale, and would involve a stop in The Villages, FL to visit my DH’s mother & step father for a couple days before the cruise.

We choose to drive down in our Dodge 1500 crew cab/4x4 pickup for several reasons…and due to the way the weather ended up we are very glad we did. First we are used to long drives and used to own an OTR trucking company and love to see the country. Second, we are using this trip to see several family members who live in FL so it would give us more flexibility and actually be cheaper then flying down and having to rent a car before and after the cruise. It ended up being the best way to get down south when snowstorms and blizzards began heading up the coast and flights were being cancelled left & right. This held true for our trip home as well.

So we drove down from the south coast of Massachusetts, leaving a day early to beat a blizzard. It was a 21 hour drive to The Villages, Florida where my Mother in law has a home. We went south down I-95, over the GW Bridge to I-78W, then I-81S to I-77S, to I-26S to I-95S. By not running I-95S the whole way we only paid a .75 cent toll and didn’t have to deal with a lot of traffic. We left Friday afternoon and drove straight through except for stopping for gas, each of us driving half way and arrived at The Villages in central Florida at about 1pm.

Have you ever been to The Villages? We hadn’t and it was a very pleasant surprise. I have been asked about it by a number of people, including some here on cc so thought I’d add some pictures. It is like Disney for golfers or a giant land based cruise ship! Now we know why we don’t see DH’s mother up north very often since she moved down there 4 years ago, LOL!

My MIL house, complete with golf cart garage beside the 2 car garage (black truck covered in road salt not included)

Each “Village” of homes has a shopping and entertainment area, which reminded me of the Royal Promenades on the ships, and there is certainly no shortage of golf carts! There are golf cart roads, tunnels & bridges alongside the regular roads and it seemed like an almost 50/50 split of people in carts or cars.

Here are some more pictures of around The Villages…

The founder of The Villages

The Villages even has it’s own hospital

A few last pictures from The Villages…can’t forget the golf carts!

Security has their own golf carts, a bit more modern looking then I’d ever seen.

We stopped inside one of several golf cart stores and couldn’t believe some of the styles they had

I’ll take one of these please!

Next stop Ft Lauderdale and the Liberty of the Seas

We stayed at The Villages Sat & Sun night and we drove down to Fort Lauderdale the morning of the cruise, an easy 4 hr drive down the Florida turnpike, leaving at 6:15am. We had reserved a space to leave our truck at the Park & Go, right around the corner from the cruise port, online and I can't recommend them highly enough. They loaded our bags right onto a shuttle and away we went to be delivered at the door of the cruise port. It was just as easy to return to the parking lot at the end of the cruise too. It was 10:35am.

We had about a 30 minute wait in the Security line to get inside but once past that point we went right up to a counter to check in. Within minutes we had our Sea Passes and were on our way up the gangplank onto the ship. It was now just before 11:15am. We weren't hungry yet so we wandered around the ship a bit, taking a few pictures before many other folks had gotten onboard.

Pool Deck

Solarium Pool

Cantilevered Hot Tub in Solarium

H2O Zone

We are on this exact same cruise in a few weeks! Looking forward to seeing your review!

Any chance you have the Cruise Compass from all 5 days you can upload as well?

Continuing around the ship

Mini Golf Course

Sports Deck & Rock Wall

Flow Rider

After looking around we went for a bite to eat at the Windjammer buffet and by the time we were finished the rooms were ready...at exactly 1pm. In the past on the 2 Explorer cruises we had difficult times finding a place to sit on embarkation day in the Windjammer. This was not the case on the Liberty and there was plenty of seating to be had if you had a party of 4 or less.

We went to our cabin (more on the cabin in a bit) and met our stateroom steward. I mentioned that we liked to have ice in the ice bucket in our room and he said it would be no problem (and it wasn't). I went out to our balcony and took a few pictures of the port...

After just a few minutes we decided it was time to get a drink and get this cruise started so went back up to the pool bar to see what was going on and wait for Sailaway

We are on this exact same cruise in a few weeks! Looking forward to seeing your review!

 

Any chance you have the Cruise Compass from all 5 days you can upload as well?

Yes I do, just have to get them scanned. I saved pretty much everything :)

There was a brief rain shower that passed through right before sail away. People went scurrying to all parts of the ship. When the rain stopped we had just pulled away from the pier and there was a beautiful double rainbow over Ft Lauderdale

With the other side of the rainbow going out into the water

and by the time we were sailing out of Port Everglades the sun was coming out and shining on the coastline

Still heading out to see out of Ft Lauderdale

Displaced water rushing back in to shore as the Liberty passes

We hung out on deck for a little while and then went to check to see if our luggage had arrived yet. No luggage so we relaxed and looked through the cruise compass and then took another stroll around noticing that the Liberty wasn't that much different then the Explorer, just bigger & glitzier. Luggage finally arrived at 6:30 and we quickly got ready for our 6:45 MTD time in the dining room.

Speaking of the main dining room, we were always quickly seated in the same table for 2 along the rail...and then just as quickly forgotten about it seemed. We had the slowest waitstaff ever! Our waiter barely spoke to us at all. The assistant waiter was in a permanent scowl and only ever had a couple of pretty stale rolls in the bread basket (other waitstaff presented large full baskets with a selection of rolls for guests to select from). No attempt to place a napkin or open the butter dish. It took well over 2 hours to eat dinner and that was without staying for desert. The food tasted like it would have been very good...if the hot food was even warm or the cool food cool. I do not blame the kitchen but the waitstaff. The food looked like it had been sitting out for awhile under a heat lamp but wasn't even warm in some cases. Shrimp cocktail should be cool, not warmer then the actual entree. We were disappointed as we had loved the food and service on the Explorer and so after 2 nights of this we ate elsewhere. I will say that the dining room service did not look to be the norm as other tables were quickly served by very pleasant staff members. Since there are plenty of places to eat aboard the Liberty it did not make a very big difference to us other then not tipping the waitstaff extra as we normally would do ;)

After dinner we wandered around some more and then DH decided he wanted to donate some $$ to the casino and I went to watch the Welcome Aboard parade.

Looking down towards the Royal Promenade on Deck 5 from the rear elevators

Several DreamWorks characters were part of the Parade which is held through the Royal Promenade on Deck 5. Here is Puss from Puss & Boots on a "bridge"

Shrek & Fiona

Alex from Madagascar

Po from Kung Fu Panda...hmmmm

When the parade was over I found that DH was having a good time at the casino and was ahead of the game. We decided to call it a night and headed up to our cabin. Tomorrow was an at sea day and we meant to just relax and hang out around the ship.

Be back in a bit with lots more, time to do a bit of work and start dinner.

I'll be boarding Liberty on Sunday. Sorry to hear about your service in the MDR.

Thanks for taking the time to post a review and pictures. Look forward to the rest of it. :)

Thanks for the review. I look forward to hearing more. We're on this same cruise in April. Sorry to hear about your dining experience in the MDR.

SEA DAY

We had beautiful weather for this cruise with clear blue skies and lots of warm sunshine each day. We went to the Windjammer for breakfast and then went up to sit by the pool about 11am. There weren't any chairs left down on the pool deck (11) so we went up to deck 12 along the rail and found a couple. We stayed for about an hour enjoying a few frozen drinks and the fact that we were out of all the snow, away from work, and had no worries at all.

Dh was starting to look a bit red (which was weird, he is 3/4 portuguese & never burns) so we decided to go take a walk around Deck 4. We started by heading aft

Ahhh, the calming motion of the wake...until someone tells us that there is usually at least 3 large sharks trailing the ships :eek: looking for food (smaller fish are attracted to ship and sharks eat smaller fish). Don't know if this is true or not but it had us looking for fins, LOL

A lot of people ask how to get to the bow of the ship. Go around Deck 4 towards the front of the ship until you come to this staircase and go up

At the top of the stairs you will be there

It's all behind me now

Looking up to the Bridge

Heading back to Deck 4 from the bow

As we continued along Deck 4 we came across some workers touching up & edging the paint on the deck

and yes people do play shuffleboard on the ship

We were getting a bit hungry from our walk around Deck 4 so we decided to go to the Royal Promenade to grab a couple pieces of pizza from Sorrentos. I will say that the pizza on the Liberty was much better then on the Explorer. When we started down towards Sorrentos Shrek was out and about visiting with passengers and posing for photos

Walked by Benn & Jerry's making a note to come back after pizza

Outside of Boleros

Tonight was formal night. I had sent out my DH's suit & white shirt to be dry cleaned & pressed and it had been returned on time and looked good. I do not like the dry cleaner in our town and so I have learned to just bring the wrinkled suit & shirt along with us and it gets freshened and perfectly pressed. The ship does a better job for a $2.00 less price then at home and I don't have to worry about the suit getting wrinkled while in the luggage. We have used the ship laundry for this service on each of our 3 cruises and have always been pleased.

I had a new sparkly dress, shoes & jewelry and couldn't wait to wear it all. I work from home so don't really get a chance to play dress up very often so I look forward to formal night...the hubby not so much, LOL. He goes along with me and lets me dress him up but could definitely think of more comfortable things to wear.

So we come back from our walk and snack and I go to take a shower. He goes to take a brief nap. Remember how I mentioned above that he was looking a bit red? Well he wasn't just red but had the first full sunburn of his life and it looked painful! He woke up from the nap and there was no way he could have put a suit, tie, etc on. I ordered room service for him and since I had already done my hair & makeup before he showed me how red he was (male pride, lol) I decided to at least go get a picture taken in my new dress.

I head out of the cabin and down to the Royal Promenade where I had seen photographers setting up and as I did waiters came by and handed out glasses of champagne - why thank you! It seems that I had stumbled upon the Captains Reception. He was going to take pictures with passengers and then give a speech and introduce some of the crew members. Ok, I'll get a picture of myself with the Captain, that will work. I asked and was told which photographer he would be at and since there was a line forming I got in it. A waiter came alongside of me and replaced my now empty champagne glass with a full one. I saw someone I had met earlier and they were also looking for where the Captain would take pictures but thought it was on the other side of the Royal Promenade so went that way but came back after awhile to say they had seen nothing. All of a sudden the Captain appeared on one of the "bridges"they have for entertainment staff to use during events and gave his talk. He didn't do any pictures after that and I later found out that they had been taken in a completely different area. Oh well, I was still having a good time, out making friends and drinking free champagne.

I then walked to the other side of the promenade and see that Shrek is there taking pictures with passengers - Perfect, I will get my formal picture taken with Shrek! Except when I went closer I see that this was only for if you had brought you own camera and for the first time I hadn't brought mine with me - rats! So I head back to the cabin to change into something more comfortable and check on the burnt to a crisp hubby. He was doing better but wanted to sleep so I decided to read my Kindle out on our balcony for a while and call it a night.

Sun setting over the Atlantic on our first full day at sea

and Sunrise over Labadee

The clouds looked threatening but quickly burned away as the sun rose

The dock at Labadee

Finally off the ship and ready to explore Labadee! It looks beautiful and I can't wait to get to the beach and also the Dragon Flight Zip Line we booked!

The Captain, Kjetil Gjerstad, was watching us all leave the ship

Love Love Loving the review and pictures!!! :D

At the end of the dock you will come to these buildings, basically the entrance to Labadee and also Security when leaving.

In the early morning light, as the boat was being tied to the dock, they came out to greet us all on jet skies & boats.

We were on Labadee just before 8am. Since we had signed up for the Dragon Flight Zip Line at 9am we decided to head towards Adrenaline beach exploring and watching the first Zip Liners go down.

The sun was staring to chase the clouds away. This is Adrenaline Beach looking back towards the entrance to Labadee & the ship.

The bed "cabanas" on Adrenaline Beach

We watched as the first group went down the zip line. Why were they all stretched out, lying down and not kind of sitting up? Hmm, guess we would find out since it was just about 9am and so we headed over to the Dragon Flight booth. We heard part of a conversation the man behind the desk was having with the couple in front of us...windy...160 lbs...refund... and we watched as they refunded the $$ to the woman but not the man with her. Another couple was next to them at the counter and I notice she was asked her weight and then the same thing is happening over there.

I walked up to the counter and they never asked my weight so I never mentioned it and we were checked in. I am fairly tall at 5'9" and the 2 previous women were maybe 5'-5'2" each so maybe they thought I weighed more? I didn't care why, I was thrilled not to have been asked! Wasn't even really sure at that point why they hadn't been allowed to go down. I have wanted to do this zip line for years! Anyway we were told to go into the little building to be fitted for harnesses for our zip lining adventure and then around back, outside to watch a short video of instructions. See some of the sunburn?

We then walked across the street and up a little hill to the Little Dragon zip line where we would all get a practice run. We had been told that due to wind we would not be able to sit up but would need to go down with our feet crossed and more or less lying down like a torpedo. Ah, that is why the people we had seen go down had been like that! Ok, time for a practice run

Zoomed in on the top of the Dragon Flight zip line

Our chariot awaits...err make that our big blue truck shuttle awaits to take us to the top of the zip line hill. It was not a long ride but it was bumpy and on a narrow dirt/rock road.

Everyone piled out of the blue truck and headed up the walkway to the zip line

The view from the top was incredible!

We were on this same cruise and just love reliving it through your review.

Looking down onto Adrenaline Beach

Looking west

While we were waiting for our turn we watched people go down the Dragon Tail Coaster below us.

People before us just before they were released to head down

We had arrived at the top of the zip line platform and before anyone was allowed to go down the instructor told us all once again that we would have to go down like a torpedo. The wind kept picking up and they had put a restriction of over 160lbs. If you were lighter then 160 you might not be able to make it all the way down due to the wind. Oops, I weigh 135! I hadn't been asked and I guess the worker behind the desk had thought I weighed more because I am taller, I have no idea (I have never been told I was under weight for anything so I kinda liked that, LOL) I mention my weight to the instructor and another woman also speaks up that she is under weight. He says we can take our chance and just go down last so we don't hold anyone in our group up if we don't make it. We then watch as they let everyone go down in groups of 4 or 5 and in each group at least one person wouldn't make it to the end, usually because they did not stay like a torpedo and so the wind would stop them or spin them around when they sat up.

My turn next

I didn't take a video since we had to make sure to lie back and act like a torpedo in order to make it to the end due to the wind so here is a shot just before they released my zip line trolley.

Hubby was right alongside of me and when they released us I watched as he went whooshing away down the line. I was trying to lie flat but also sneak a peak sideways. It was AWESOME!!! About halfway a large gust of wind came and turned both myself and the other woman. I fought the ropes and was able to straighten back out. As I'm getting to the end I notice that the loud whir whir whir I had been hearing as the trolley rode the cable was not so loud anymore and more like a w--h--i--r. I came to a stop about 50' from the landing area and the other woman came to a stop alongside me. Hey at least I had company and a beautiful view if I had to hang around, LOL! So how do they get you down? The beach alongside the zip line has a berm along the top that they will walk while holding a long rope tied to a pole on the other side and basically bring you the rope that you then hold onto and they drag you back in.

It was a great time and one I would recommend to anyone. I want to do it again and hope there isn't as much wind so I can sit up more. Next time I will book the zip line first thing as this is when they say the wind is the least and it grows stronger throughout the day, sometimes necessitating them to cancel due to high winds.

I'll continue the review with the rest of our day in Labadee and answer any questions when I get back...it is dinner time and the dogs are making sure I know it!

Thank you for this review! I'm on this cruise next week, and can't wait to see more!

I love the picture from the top of the zip line. It's a LOT longer ride than zip lining on the Allure...:)