Cruiser Formerly Known As Cheapo Dad's Trip Report on Odyssey of the Seas Sailing to A Minus B Plus C Plus H Islands

[harryfat1]

8 hours ago, loug1601 said:

Hello again Harry

We are home from our cruise, and want to answer your Bayonne NJ sail away question…

If you are truly lucky, the Captain will sail the Hudson to the Statue of Liberty, then turn around and sail out to the ocean. We sail out of Bayonne very frequently as we live only 1 hour from the port. We have been very lucky about 4 times, and less lucky about 25 times, so please don’t count on it. It depends on the captain, the weather, the port traffic, clearance, and I’m sure a host of other factors. But, if you ARE lucky, the view is spectacular!

Once you are onboard, you can still see the NY skyline and Statue of Liberty in the distance. Still nice 😊. 

 

Welcome back from your cruise.  How was it?  What ports did you visit?

 

Thanks for reporting back.  So the take-home lesson is don’t expect the ship to sail near the Statue of Liberty. The safer bet is to try to get on the Northstar right after lunch and see NYC from high above.

[harryfat1]

17 hours ago, perfect match said:

Glad I was able to help out with the pricing information. I thought that slide in my picture looked larger than life! 😂

 

We will be doing the zip lines while we are there. We are thrill seekers and think the ziplines are fun. 
I love the views of the ship from the nature trail Harry marked in black. 
 

We walked out to the dragon’s 🐉 breath rock formation once. It was not long after I had both knees replaced so I was not very steady on my feet on those stairs and uneven surfaces. I was too busy trying to remain upright so I didn’t notice much. I’ve done a lot of rehab work since then so maybe I’ll give it another try after our zipline rides. Either that, or I’ll stay in my comfort zone and go for a swim instead. 😃🐠

I think if you walk the trail earlier in the morning, you get a better sunlight angle to take a picture of the ship.  The sun was over on the port side of the ship when we took the pictures at 3:30 so it was darker than I would have liked.

 

How much is the zip line?  Like $130?

[harryfat1]

The reason we were up at the Solarium area was there's supposed to be a "not so secret" balcony overhang for sailaways.

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

 

We were here an hour ago

 

 

 

[Coralc]

10 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

We were here an hour ago

Is that one of the "secret" cabanas? <jk> 😄

[harryfat1]

29 minutes ago, Coralc said:

Is that one of the "secret" cabanas? <jk> 😄

Sure.  Since it's my type of price - nada.

 

Just need to string a hammock there and you will have a great spot and hardly anyone near you

[harryfat1]

Not much privacy in these balconies if that’s important to you as you have people looking down into your area regularly from the side

 

 

Looking back at the Labadee cruise port area.  Since it’s 4:42, past the all-board time, there shouldn’t be anyone still there other than the local workers.

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Looks like no pier runners today as Labadee pretty much **** down before the All Aboard time so there's no reason you would be late coming back unless you got lost on the trail

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Few more pictures of the Solarium before leaving as we went down to deck 5 promenade outside deck instead as that area is closer to the water I like that perspective more for sail away

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

By the time we made it down to deck 5 at 4:55, the ship had already cast off and we pulled away from the pier earlier than the official 5 PM as everyone must have come back onboard on time.  No straggler pier runners for people to hackle

 

 

The other beach that we didn't see this time

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

We weren’t the only people who appreciated the Deck 5 scenery area.  I like it since it’s wide open with no dang glass to get in the way of taking pictures. I definitely would recommend this deck for all the Alaska cruisers sailing on the other Q-class ships

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Coralc]

BBQ at the secret cabana. 😄

[harryfat1]

After a while, the fam went back up but I stayed so I could show where our balcony is relative to the lower deck

 

 

There are our cabins

 

 

A different perspective from the balcony.  There's hardly anyone walking this far Aft.  I think I saw less than 10 passengers walking the entire cruise.  More workers walking than guests down on deck 5 near the Aft section

 

 

[harryfat1]

OK.  A few more pictures of the Promenade walkway and we are done here

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

After a beach day, the hardest working staff is Little Henry from the clean-up crew as everyone inevitably drags back some sort of sand from the beach.

 

 

Speaking of the beach, time to go up to the pool deck upstairs to return the beach towels as I didn’t see any return tent walking up the pier similar to the two previous ports.  RCI will charge you like $20/towel if you don’t return the beach towels

 

[harryfat1]

Quiet pool area at 5:25 as people are either already at the early seating dinner or showering for the late seating dinner.  Especially after a beach day, the pool area isn’t very popular

 

 

Here’s the other pool with slightly more people.

 

 

 

[tamom]

We cruised out of Bayonne in November and it was already dark when we left.  I believe the captain said he had to get permission from the harbor master to go closer to the Statue of Liberty. It was breathtaking!

[NHProud]

Sailing to  Brooklyn on Cunard Queen Mary 2 . I don’t know why I deleted the Statue of Liberty. 

[perfect match]

4 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

I think if you walk the trail earlier in the morning, you get a better sunlight angle to take a picture of the ship.  The sun was over on the port side of the ship when we took the pictures at 3:30 so it was darker than I would have liked.

 

How much is the zip line?  Like $130?

we paid about $50 per person for the zipline at Black Friday prices. I don’t remember the ‘regular” price, but I think you’re pretty close. I’d have to think long and hard about paying that “regular” price.

 

2 hours ago, Coralc said:

BBQ at the secret cabana. 😄

 

@Coralc, you’re giving me way too many ideas that would get me in trouble! 😂🤣😱 I’m getting the hammock ready to pack! 😎

[perfect match]

On 3/3/2024 at 5:53 PM, harryfat1 said:

See my black line on the map on the left side of Labadee

 

 

 

I think that instead of trying to walk the whole trail I’m going to find the end of the black line closest to the pier and just walk out that way. I’ll get my exercise swimming and ziplining. Do you have any pictures of that end of the trail, or of landmarks to help find the entrance. 
 

I know, it’s probably obvious but I haven’t been to Labadee in a while and I just can’t picture the area in my mind.

Edited March 5 by perfect match

[harryfat1]

22 hours ago, tamom said:

We cruised out of Bayonne in November and it was already dark when we left.  I believe the captain said he had to get permission from the harbor master to go closer to the Statue of Liberty. It was breathtaking!

Wow.  Very nice.  Thanks for sharing.

 

I think you have better photo opt by sailing in the Fall/Winter timeframe when they change out of daylight savings and the sun sets early by 5 PM.

 

The nighttime photo of the Statue of Liberty looks better than in bright sunlight during the daytime.

 

I need to do a nighttime harbor cruise around NYC when we visit in August to see the skyline.  Hopefully, the water isn’t too rough as I’m pretty sensitive to ship movements.

 

[harryfat1]

21 hours ago, NHProud said:

Sailing to  Brooklyn on Cunard Queen Mary 2 . I don’t know why I deleted the Statue of Liberty. 

Thanks for posting this.  NYC has a unique photo opt that very few ports can compete with.

 

We live near SF where we could take a Princess cruise and sail under the Golden Gate Bridge to get that perspective but NYC with its high rises is special.

[harryfat1]

19 hours ago, perfect match said:

I think that instead of trying to walk the whole trail I’m going to find the end of the black line closest to the pier and just walk out that way. I’ll get my exercise swimming and ziplining. Do you have any pictures of that end of the trail, or of landmarks to help find the entrance. 
 

I know, it’s probably obvious but I haven’t been to Labadee in a while and I just can’t picture the area in my mind.

I think you just need to find the first opening on the left after you walk off the pier and into the plaza area of Labadee.

 

If all else fails, ask one of the workers nearby at the entrance to the trail.  Just walk up and take a picture and walk back down the same way and it will save you a little time if you don't want to walk the entire loop

[harryfat1]

In my haste to upload the Labadee pictures last night, I forgot to give my impressions of Labadee.  We are slightly jaded in this being our third visit to the place.  If it’s your first time visiting, be sure to check out the other parts of the port that we didn’t cover here.

 

I like Labadee in that you can spend nothing and still have a great day.  Unlike a typical Caribbean island stop where you have to pay for a taxi to take you to/from a beach, pay for the beach loungers/umbrellas, and then drinks and a meal.  The entire day could have cost us $200 when adding up the various items I listed but for Labadee, it cost us nothing. 

 

Besides, you have the convenience of getting off the ship whenever and coming back to the ship on our schedule (as long as it's before the All Aboard deadline).

 

So even though you don’t see any Mayan ruins (Costa Maya) or historical forts (San Juan) at Labadee, you will still have a fun time and not have to pay additional money for the experience.

 

We have never been to CocoCay so the next RCI Caribbean cruise, I hope that future sailing is on the itinerary for a new beach day experience.

 

 

[harryfat1]

More trip reporting:

 

++++++++++

 

OK, returned the towels.  Back to the cabin for a shower and back to the Royal Esplanade at 7 PM to see a big group of people visiting the uncle in prison. This is typical of Holiday season travels with large groups.  

 

 

Speaking of visiting uncle in prison, that was where we went as we needed to select all our pictures by the next day as the cruise was coming to an end.

 

 

Looking at the crowd at the photo gallery, you can see a lot of people have the same thought as this was the biggest crowd I have seen in the area since the cruise started.  By the next day, there will be even more people visiting their uncle in prison