My parents (in their 60s), my husband and I (40s), and my teenagers are sailing voyager in april. We've booked all of our excursions for every port except Labadee.
We are non drinkers, definitely not into the party scene, and are practically Amish! lol Makes you wonder why we bother cruising, huh? ;-) RCCL website offers 6 excursion options in labadee. Some are too expensive or too vigorous. I was thinking of just hanging out on the beach and renting the $10 float.
What's the difference between Sea Trek beach ($10 mat rental) and Malfini Beach ($60 boat ride, snorkel mask, & booze)? What about the food/drinks, lounge chairs, bathrooms, and other conveniences? What's it like? What is there to do?
Labadee is a very nice beach stop but is just that.....a beach stop. You and your teens may enjoy the waverunner excursion. My husband (47 at the time) and son (18) did that and loved it. There are a few different beaches to go to at Labadee. The one I went to was a nice sandy beach with lots of beach chairs and bathrooms nearby. They will serve you a BBQ beach lunch, which is fun. There are vendors set up in 2 sections with arts and crafts and souvenirs available for purchase. One section is fine, with non-pushy vendors. The other is quite another matter, as you will see. They are very aggressive, even physically and they try to grab you and push you into their stalls and don't like taking no for an answer. In my opinion you should just avoid this section altogether (the pushy one, not the other one) as you leave feeling violated and frightened. Labadee is fun to explore too, lots of trails and different beaches, although it's not a big area. Just don't wander too far afield close to departure time, as staff have told us that folks get left behind in Labadee on every cruise. They wander off and don't realize the time and off goes the ship without them. Yikes. Overall, Labadee is an enjoyable beach port and very picturesque with lots of great photo-opps. RCCL passengers are the only people there other than staff and some locals permitted to work and sell crafts there.
Labadee is a very nice beach. Walk to the far side away from where you first dock and you will find a much less crowded cleaner beach. The map they give you makes it look far to the other side but it really is an easy walk of about 100 yards or so. Be sure to check out the rock formations called "dragons breath" kinda a fun walk. I would NOT recommend the shopping area, the shop keepers can be agressive, and there is NOTHING there you cant find in the other island ports. Jimbo
The live dancing and haitian music was awesome! The snorkeling was O.K. We parasailed and loved it. This was our favorite beach on the cruise in October.
The Haitian dancing was nice. I would be sure to catch this as it is one of the few free activities on the beach. HKH, where did you snorkel? You're the first I've heard that thought it was ok. I've never had any luck there. One of my favorite comments on the board was that any fish large enough to see there has already wound up on someone's dinner plate.
we snorkeled on the far side of the little peninsula, just down from the show pavilion. There is a a fairly large reef area, I dont know if its rocks covered with sea weed or reef ,out a little from shore. There were some fair sized and colorful fish swimming around.
I did Malfini beach this past summer and loved it. Kinda on the expensive side but if you really want to get away from crowds it is a great idea. It is run by a family, literally, mom runs the show, the daughter is your tour director and the son is the captain. They were really nice and told us all about the Island. (Turns out Labadee is the small village to the right of the beach and not really where the ship stops at all)
They take 10 - 15 people to a small secluded beach in a really nice cove. Everone gets a floating mat, snorkel gear and a beach chair to relax in. They have a makeshift bar out of an old shipwrecked boat where they make drinks in coconuts.
Overall it was really really nice and a great way to get away from the 3400 people on the other beaches. There were only two downfalls; the bathroom, since it's secluded they have no buildings, just a makeshift outhouse. and the second being the time. If you choose afternoon then you can't really get all setup and enjoy the morning in Labadee because you have to be ready to get on the tour boat. I recommend the morning.
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What's the Beach Like in Labadee?
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