This was our second cruise on The Liberty. In April of 2007, we had done the 6-day Western Caribbean itinerary (Freeport, Grand Cayman, and Costa Maya) and we had a great time and booked the 8-day Eastern Caribbean cruise that left Fort Lauderdale on April 26, 2008. We got in a day early and stayed at an airport hotel that we booked on priceline. It was the Sheraton and wasn't cheap. But it's a very good business hotel with a nice gym, pool, etc with parking right out in front. We visited family near Fort Lauderdale and didn't spend much time at all in the hotel.
We did rent a car and I will say that there is an added benefit in doing that. There are free shuttles from the central car rental agency at the terminal that go to the cruise port. I guess this advice is less than timely for you future Liberty passengers since the Liberty is moving to Miami.
We arrived at the cruise terminal by 12:15 and the whole process of going through lines to finally getting aboard was a little less than an hour. That's not bad, all considering.